Sugar Cravings

Summary

In this episode of the Ginger Chocolate Podcast, hosts Mike and Lindsay delve into the complexities of sugar addiction, discussing personal experiences, cravings, and emotional connections to sugar. They explore strategies for reducing sugar intake, the impact of caffeine, and the importance of rewarding progress without relying on sugary treats. The conversation also touches on Halloween traditions and the challenges of managing sugar consumption during festive times.

Takeaways

• Sugar addiction is a complex issue and controversial topic.
• Excessive sugar consumption can lead to compulsive behaviors.
• Cravings for sugary foods can occur even when not hungry.
• Withdrawal symptoms can arise when trying to reduce sugar intake.
• Emotional eating often leads to sugar consumption during stress or fatigue.
• Caffeine can exacerbate sugar cravings and disrupt sleep.
• Substituting healthier options can help manage sugar intake.
• Tracking food intake can provide insights into eating habits.
• It's important to acknowledge progress without using food as a reward.
• Halloween can present challenges for managing sugar consumption.

Sound Bites

• "Sugar can be very addicting."
• "It's the same receptors as cocaine."
• "Crowd your plate out with healthier things."

Chapters

00:00

Introduction and Personal Insights

03:00

Sugar Addiction: A Complex Issue

06:08

Understanding Cravings and Compulsive Behaviors

Keywords

sugar addiction, emotional eating, cravings, health, nutrition, coping mechanisms, sugar intake, self-care, Halloween, food addiction

Thanks for listening to the Ginger and Chocolate Podcast. Check out our website at gingerandchocolate.com to get in touch with us. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram @ginger_and_chocolate_podcast; and please subscribe to the show and select automatic downloads on your podcast app.

Transcript

Lindsay (00:02.08)
Wonder when they take that picture.

Mike (00:04.941)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Ginger Chocolate Podcast. I'm your co-host Mike and I'm here with Lindsay. Lindsay, how are you?

Lindsay (00:12.619)
Hello, I am, I'm doing fine. Feeling chipper this morning, which is nice. Doesn't always happen for me.

Mike (00:16.088)
Good.

Mike (00:20.533)
And continuing with the tradition of this show, what's one thing about yourself that the listeners might not know?

Lindsay (00:30.047)
Mm-hmm. Okay, I like to do paint by numbers when I have time. Mm-hmm. Well, on and off, I don't have that much time to be honest, but on and off for a few years, I got one that was like a goat, this cute little goat eating some hay, and I did it, and now it's hanging up in our bathroom. It's cute, yeah. It's very meditative.

Mike (00:35.372)
Really? How long you been doing that?

Mike (00:52.204)
Mm, that's cool.

Mike (00:56.94)
bet yeah I've seen my kids do it but I've never done one they look pretty fun I just never tried it out yeah

Lindsay (01:02.057)
Mm-hmm. They have adult ones that come out like big paintings. Yeah, yeah. mean, kids could do them, but they're pretty intricate. Yeah, that's fun. How about you? Something about you.

Mike (01:09.666)
Yeah.

Mike (01:13.688)
Something about me, this just popped up. I really like the buttered popcorn jelly belly flavor.

Lindsay (01:24.75)
my God. Are you a murderer? That's the worst.

Mike (01:26.179)
I

Mike (01:29.676)
I also like black liquor. these are signs of a psychopath.

Lindsay (01:33.621)
Okay, well, I'm with you on the black licorice, but the popcorn flavored jelly bellies are you've to be straight up psycho.

Mike (01:41.698)
We're getting deep today and that's, I'm burying my soul here. I know.

Lindsay (01:47.733)
Well, on the topic of jelly bellies, this is interesting because we are going to talk about sugar addiction today. And I feel like those little fuckers are pretty, pretty addictive, those jelly bellies.

Mike (01:55.757)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (02:01.568)
my god, yes. yeah. Yeah they are. They're right up there with red vines. Even more potent than red vines sometimes for me.

Lindsay (02:13.193)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love a good red vine, but I'm actually a Twizzler over red vine.

Mike (02:22.774)
What happened to us, Lindsay?

Lindsay (02:24.971)
What do you mean?

Mike (02:26.636)
You like Twizzlers over Red Vines?

Lindsay (02:28.785)
Well, I mean, I've always I've always liked wizards over red vines. I was just afraid to admit it.

Mike (02:35.086)
feel like I don't know you anymore.

Mike (02:39.63)
You

Lindsay (02:40.279)
Twizzlers tastes like plastic and apparently I like to eat oily plastic.

Mike (02:46.018)
Yeah, and red vines taste like rubber, and apparently I like to eat oily rubber. Exactly.

Lindsay (02:52.94)
Rubber versus plastic. Now, I still haven't tried those candy corn flavored red vines and I'm dying to because I do love I love the candy corn and I like the I think they used to call it like Indian corn. It was it's the one that's like brown and orange and white. I know if we still call it Indian corn, but.

Mike (03:00.168)
yeah.

Mike (03:08.941)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (03:12.36)
yeah, uh-huh.

Lindsay (03:16.935)
That's pretty good too. Have you had any yet this season? Any candy corn?

Mike (03:20.972)
No, not yet. And I don't have a lot of desire to, which is good. I'm going to try to stick with that.

Lindsay (03:30.359)
Mm That is good. If that's what's happening, go with it. OK, so I have had some. There was a tub of candy corn in my office break room, just like a tub of it. And I kept walking by going, now I don't need to eat that. I don't need to eat that. And then at some point I was tired and I walked by and I was like, I think I just stuck my scoop my hand in and got some. So.

Mike (03:47.064)
Yeah.

Mike (03:58.222)
Thanks

Lindsay (03:59.595)
Yeah, and it was worth it. So delicious.

Mike (04:02.392)
There's something about the willpower of walking by something like that in a break room three or four or five times. It does. Yeah.

Lindsay (04:08.991)
It just breaks you down. It just totally breaks you down. All right. So we're going to get started on some what AI told me about sugar addiction. But I did want to hear a little bit about like your ideal treat. Like if you could eat anything, what is it you're eating in terms of sugar?

Mike (04:29.334)
In terms of sugar, think I like a... I think I like a... If I'm really going hard in the paint, we're really doing this, then I'm getting a like a drumstick ice cream from a gas station along with some Good and Plennies.

Lindsay (04:45.599)
Yes.

Lindsay (04:52.443)
OK. are the good OK, I'm a good and plenty person, too. Yeah, absolutely. So you're going to eat the drumstick and then you're going to hit the good and plettings after. Sounds like an awesome plan. I could see doing one of those ice cream sandwiches that have the mint chip ice cream in between. And then I could have some good and plenty to think about those is that that's definitely.

Mike (05:06.126)
A little chaser, yeah.

Mike (05:12.802)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (05:20.959)
Like I've heard people say about like potato chips and things like once they start, they just go through the whole bag. I don't really do that with potato chips, but a box of good and plenty. I'm all about it. And then I feel absolutely so sick because that's a ton of sugar.

Mike (05:26.069)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (05:36.721)
yeah, I'm shaking the box. I'm looking to see if there's one stuck in there that I can like lick out. Like I have some kind of draft tongue and get it out.

Lindsay (05:39.063)
Now that I think about it though, my go-to is actually a box of Good and Plenty and a box of Milk Duds. And I will put those in a little bowl. So I've got them in there and I'll eat. I'll pick out a piece. I know it's I've got problems. my gosh. Okay. And hopefully I'm not blowing at my sister's spot, but

Mike (05:50.254)
Mmm.

Lindsay (06:08.575)
One of my sisters recently revealed to me that she has a pretty bad sugar addiction and she's a nurse and she said they always have like cake and cookies and stuff in their break room and they're like running around working their butts off. And so by the time you get to the break room, there's no well power. And she was like, I ate seven fricking cookies the other day. So runs in my family.

Mike (06:24.525)
Yeah.

No.

Lindsay (06:34.849)
So AI says, I won't read the whole thing, but it said sugar addiction is a complex issue and a controversial topic within the medical and scientific community, which that I did not know. I don't know why it's controversial, but there's no definitive diagnosis for it in the same way as substance addictions like alcohol or drug abuse. Many experts believe that excessive sugar consumption can lead to compulsive behaviors

and negative health consequences. Did you know eating sugar could lead to compulsive behaviors?

Mike (07:11.753)
Well, it seems to pair with, I the way I eat sugar.

I mean it's just it's not like I sit around and be like huh maybe a box of good and plenty's would be better later you know it's just like you're seeing that I just my eyes get wide and beady and I just want to grab it and stuff the whole thing in my mouth

Lindsay (07:34.859)
Hahaha

Lindsay (07:39.287)
Well, I guess I guess I was reading it like other compulsive behavior.

Mike (07:44.11)
That's what I'm saying. Yeah. So it's the same way that other compulsive behaviors is just like, if it breaks down your willpower, because if you can't, if you're used to giving in to those kinds of cravings and you're like, I'm going to do this and that I can see that I hadn't heard that before, but it just, makes sense to me.

Lindsay (07:59.606)
Yeah.

Mm hmm. I hadn't heard that either, but it does make sense. Absolutely. And I have had the experience of having too much sugar and being kind of like extra jittery and like extra like I want a sugar high. And at that point, you know, I could I could buy some stuff I could shop so. Or, you know, any any number of things compulsively. OK, so the key characteristics of sugar addiction include.

cravings and they define that as an intense desire for sugary foods even when full or not hungry. check loss of control difficulty limiting sugar intake often leading to overeating. Check withdrawal symptoms physical discomfort or emotional distress when trying to reduce sugar consumption. I have experienced that.

Have you, where you like cut out sugar and then you feel weird?

Mike (09:06.006)
Yeah exactly it's it's just it's the same feeling that I had right when I stopped drinking. Same feeling.

Lindsay (09:20.647)
Well, if you think about it when you stop drinking you are cutting out sugar because there's or you're reducing it pretty pretty steeply because you There's so much sugar and alcohol Okay, let's see Cravings Overeating of course just consuming excess because you eat it on top of food you already ate for your meal.

Mike (09:46.923)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (09:49.535)
Neglecting other responsibilities, prioritizing sugar consumption over more important activities or obligations. I don't think I've done that.

Mike (09:59.534)
Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, exactly. He was like, dad, you missed my game today. Yeah, I was out trying to score some jujubes. Like, I don't think it's gotten to that. But maybe it could be if like, you're like hiding. That's a different category. Maybe it's the same. But maybe if you're like going to the store and it's like hiding candy in your car or something like that.

Lindsay (10:01.441)
That's problems.

Lindsay (10:26.571)
Yeah, I do think there are people who have food addictions in that way. I've been to 12 step around food, addictions, overeating, eating disorders, you know, all the things, anorexia, bulimia. I've been to these 12 step meetings around that and I don't go now or regularly, but there were people in there that described sort of that thing, being unable to...

put anything before they're eating. Yeah, which is pretty intense, especially like the binge eaters are gonna, when they're in that zone, you're not gonna divert them from doing what they're doing. I'm pretty grateful I don't have like that level of, not to say I don't have issues, got body dysmorphia. I there's some stuff, but it's a mild version of it. And listening to some of these people, was like,

Mike (10:59.5)
Hmm. Yeah.

Lindsay (11:24.127)
It's rough because you do have to eat food. You don't have to eat sugar, but you do have to eat food. And a lot of people are just addicted to food in general, especially like salty, crunchy, sweet, those things.

Mike (11:35.894)
Mm-hmm like there's a there's a what they call the pleasure point between sugar salt and fat content and So when you get those balanced, right? That's what the yeah, exactly. That's exactly

Lindsay (11:40.823)
Hmm?

Lindsay (11:44.94)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (11:49.867)
Ding, ding, ding, ding, brain. OK, emotional eating, know what that is, denial, minimizing or denying the impact of sugar on your health or well-being. I've kind of done that when I've said, OK, I'm going to cut out sugar because I sleep better. I feel better. There's all these reasons why the sugar is not working for me. And then been like, but I could have one.

Mike (11:59.118)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (12:19.649)
Just like with alcohol, right? I'm gonna cut this out, it's not good for me. And that's true, it's not good for me. And I know that the upside's quitting, but then being like, well, I can just have like a little, just a little few good and plenty, which, know, one isn't enough and a thousand, you know, or whatever the, what's the term? One's too many. That's right. Did you ever experience?

Mike (12:21.485)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (12:41.858)
Yeah, one is too many and thousand aren't enough.

Mike (12:48.044)
Yeah, that's... yeah, and that's when... Now it's great. I've been working with Steph Lincoln and talking about that. And when you start to look at the exceptions you make for things that are outside of your nutritional plan, and you can start to see that like for me, candy was like, that's an exception, but I was eating it.

Lindsay (12:49.752)
that kind of...

Mike (13:15.946)
more like it was the rule. Like, I'm just gonna make this exception and that exception. And then we kind of have this selective memory when it comes to viewing ourselves of not realizing that we're doing it more than we think.

Lindsay (13:27.799)
yeah, that's a good. So besides your just a little diverting from our main topic, but we did have stuff on the show, y'all. So if you haven't heard that episode, go back a couple of weeks and you can listen to her. She's an amazing person. But sounds like you're working on more than just the strength training plan. You're working on your food as well. Cool. Do you and you log it all or and you give that log to her?

Mike (13:45.56)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (13:50.584)
Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, it's all digital, so I put it on there. So yeah, so it's hard. I think the hardest part of it is not what I thought it would be, like putting on things that aren't healthy. I don't like that, but I'll do it. The hardest part of it has been actually to...

Lindsay (13:58.603)
Does say?

Mike (14:20.814)
If I'm cooking something from home to try to find exactly what that is on the database of tracking. it's a best guess. Like if I mean prepackaged stuff from a store, they'll have those. But if I'm like last week I was cooking up a goose and some duck and I know, I just had to kind of make my best guesses, find something that was close enough.

Lindsay (14:42.017)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (14:45.653)
Yeah, I've tracked food before in MyFitnessPal and in Fitbit and it's the same thing like anything with a label, easy peasy, anything that's, which is kind of sad because you should be cooking things that don't have labels for the most part, eating things that don't have labels. But I did notice that too, you're kind of guessing.

Mike (14:57.122)
Yeah.

Mike (15:06.978)
Yeah, I think overall it's helpful because I have a better idea of, you know, the kind of macronutrients that I was eating and the proportions of them, you know, like, especially you're like, maybe it's only a few pieces of bread, but just look at how many carbohydrates that is. And if that's within your plan, great. But if it's not, then, you know, some of the foods are very calorie dense, but nutritionally poor.

The opposite is true too. Some are very nutritionally dense and like leafy greens and like livers and other kinds of meats. Mmm. Yeah.

Lindsay (15:42.631)
I'll do the greens. I'm not doing a liver. will you eat liver? dude, liver and I've learned a lot about you so far this today and I'm not sure I like it. Liver is a no. Peanut butter or no popcorn butter.

Mike (15:58.232)
Yeah.

Mike (16:04.344)
Butter popcorn, jelly bellies, yeah.

Lindsay (16:07.591)
Yeah, those two things. And then you've learned something about me too, which is the Twizzlers. Yikes. We don't have to end this podcast. We just aren't, we don't see eye to eye and stuff.

Mike (16:13.986)
Yeah.

Mike (16:19.949)
I'd say that we are celebrating our differences in this podcast.

Lindsay (16:25.387)
That's actually true. Okay, we can keep going. here. So if you recognize multiple of these signs in yourself, it's a good idea to seek professional help. It's kind of like the 20 questions of Alcoholics Anonymous. Like people go through and they're like, well, I don't have, you know, and they'll end up with like not having two out of 20. And they're like, see, and it's like, if you have two of these, you're probably an alcoholic. It's like, we have 18, bro. So qualify.

Mike (16:37.838)
Yeah.

Mike (16:42.478)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (16:48.878)
Yeah, Yeah, Exactly.

Lindsay (16:54.987)
Dang. All right, so then AI asked me, would you like to know more about how to reduce your sugar intake? And I said, yes, please. And some practical tips. I mean, not easy to do if you actually have a sugar problem. So this is where AI is a miss. It said check for added sugars, which can be listed under various names like sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, dextrose.

Mike (17:02.68)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (17:24.286)
and high fructose corn syrup. So I guess anything that has like an O at the end of it. Aim for products with minimal added sugars or none at all. Many processed foods such as sauces, condiments, baked goods contain hidden sugars like bread. A lot of times we'll have in sugar. Up for whole and processed foods of course, we all know this. I think most of us.

Mike (17:29.922)
Yeah.

Lindsay (17:53.057)
I think the two of us and most people probably listening know all this stuff like aim for things that have less than four ingredients or something like that. Now here's a no brainer limit soda sports drink, juice, sweetened tea, those kinds of things and replace them with water or sparkling water. So if you're a, if you're a soda drinker, I I'll drink a diet Coke maybe once. I don't drink it every day, but

Mike (18:11.907)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (18:24.695)
If you, have relatives that are like, what are those, are they, what are those huge bottles? Is it a quart? What are those two liters? They'll drink those, you know, throughout the day, those huge bottles every day. So to replace that with water is going to be a big push, I would think.

Mike (18:46.05)
Yeah, yeah, I think that the methadone for that is the flavored sparkling waters, right?

Lindsay (18:51.773)
Mm-hmm. It did mention sparkling. says you can do that. And you can satisfy your sweet tooth with fruits, berries, and honey. Mm-hmm. Like a giant spoonful of honey, maybe. Not like, I want good and plenty. Let me have some blueberries. That's not a...

Mike (19:10.412)
Yeah, it's a shift. It's definitely a shift. speak of honey. When I was out in DC in Virginia a couple months ago, guys I served with, he's now keeps bees. And so he gave us all some homemade honey. so good. So good. And then, I mean, that's sugar too. So.

Lindsay (19:25.079)
Lindsay (19:34.487)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (19:35.98)
think it's a good step down from you know like calorie dense things like chocolate bars and ice cream and everything else but eventually I think it only takes a few days really to change your gut biome I think like to get the sugar cravings out it takes a few days of just maybe subbing apples and

Lindsay (19:46.091)
Yeah.

Mike (20:05.07)
different foods like that for candy and then you get it out of your system but then the compulsive behavior of like I'm sad I want ice cream or I'm whatever it is right the emotional response that takes a little bit longer

Lindsay (20:14.571)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (20:23.159)
True. And that's where my downfall is, because I'll quit. Like you said, I can go a few days and actually start feeling better. I enjoy fruit. And one thing I really noticed is that my taste buds come back to life. So if I stop eating sugar, things are more flavorful. Things are really sweet, like a berry is like, it is like really sweet once you've not had anything for a while. But for me, it is that behavior of like emotional eating, like

Mike (20:39.885)
Yeah.

Mike (20:45.204)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lindsay (20:52.609)
I'm celebrating, want something sweet. I'm sad. For me, lot of the times is fatigue and stress. yeah.

Mike (21:01.72)
Yes, sleep, sleeplessness. I was having to talk to myself in the mirror this morning. No, yesterday. Doesn't matter. But I looked at myself as like, we can do better. We got this. We can do a little better.

Lindsay (21:09.274)
Lindsay (21:20.16)
In what way?

Mike (21:23.566)
I was exhausted a few days ago and I'm like, let's supplement my exhaustion with like just sugar and like going through the cabinets and like eating candy that my kids had and just like rating, rating stuff and yeah.

Lindsay (21:36.467)
Your kids are like, that's mine. Yeah. Yeah. A nap would be better.

Mike (21:42.698)
It's like easy cookie monster, get out of there. Yeah.

Lindsay (21:53.495)
And sometimes I can't get a nap like if I'm in the office like today, I try to go to the office Tuesdays and Thursdays and normally we record on Mondays, but like we're going Tuesday this week and that two o'clock to three o'clock in that range. I've had lunch, but I'm tired. I'm still staring at the computer. Maybe it's because I have had lunch that there's I'm a little bit full and

Mike (22:10.901)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (22:21.565)
that's really when I can't walk past those candy corns and things because I'm just going to supplement my fatigue and sometimes even boredom. Like I'm at work but I'm doing something tedious and to get through that thing and just push through it I'd like to use sugar for that.

Mike (22:35.415)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (22:43.203)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (22:47.787)
The downside is I get a pretty big sugar car. Well, first of all, I'm pre-diabetic, so this is not the ideal plan to meet. But I crash really hard. And it doesn't take that long to go peak and then crash. So it's not going to get me through the whole day. So an hour later, I'm like groveling.

Mike (22:53.526)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mike (23:00.397)
Yeah.

Mike (23:11.074)
Yeah, I think generally, I try to have, Steph helped me out with this is have a protein shake on hand, each day. So use that because I'll, know, it's a chocolate flavored one. So you get some of like the hits right there, even though there's no added sugars to it. and then satiating yourself a little bit with the protein. and then drinking water.

Lindsay (23:18.967)
Mmm.

Mike (23:41.022)
glass of water and maybe if you know for energy for energy like you know like 12 ounces of water and maybe bang out a few push-ups or something like that and kind of keep me started again.

Lindsay (23:52.149)
my God. I just I just pictured my boss walking by and I'm on the ground in my my office just doing some push. He would be like, all right, I'm just going to keep walking. not even going to ask what that is.

Mike (24:01.742)
Exactly.

Mike (24:09.123)
Exactly. Hey, I'll get back to crunchy numbers in a second, nerd. Let me do some push-ups first.

Lindsay (24:14.454)
Exactly. Let me do some crunches. So you're saying or Steph was saying, like, not like, drink water throughout the day, but right when you're having that craving or you're fatigued or whatever, drink like a whole glass of water right then.

Mike (24:33.45)
I might've gotten that from before I started working with the staff, but, it's just another trainer. I was talking to at some point a couple of years ago, we said, you know, like instead of like pounding caffeine in the afternoon, you know, sometimes cold drink of water is exactly what you really want. and you, you feel it and then doing a quick,

you know, walk or getting outside or something like that kind of resetting your brain resetting your body.

Lindsay (25:05.409)
Do you pound caffeine also in the afternoon or do you drink caffeine in the afternoon?

Mike (25:10.183)
I have mostly stopped and, mostly by, noon I'm done with caffeine. that helps my sleep out a lot. And even though I fall asleep quickly, no matter what, almost I'm up within a couple of hours. If I'm drinking caffeine, like I drink, some, some diet sodas,

Sunday at the 49ers game and in the heat and then on the way back the car ride back and then next thing I know I'm walking around my house at 11 p.m. like I'm tired but I can't sleep so yeah that caffeine that's a real thing and then that's you just what I realize is like unless it's a safety issue like I need to drive somewhere and I'm responsible for other humans I won't have caffeine

Lindsay (25:53.975)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (26:05.377)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (26:08.195)
unless I need it to get there safely.

Lindsay (26:11.095)
Okay, that makes total sense actually.

Mike (26:16.302)
Because if I do, then I'm really upping the chances that the next day I'm going to be tired and then craving sugars, become tired, and then just start that cycle over again. So there's a lot of intention and planning that go into it. I think at first to adapt to a different lifestyle.

Lindsay (26:30.165)
Yeah, it's a cycle.

Lindsay (26:41.813)
Yeah, yeah, that's that's the part where I get super motivated. I read all about it. I'm like, OK, I'm to be intentional about this. My ADHD allows me to go down this rabbit hole of like hyper focus. And I'm like, all right. And then a couple of days into it, I'm like, tired of this. And I go back to whatever I'm doing. But that's that I'm I'm I want to quit sugar or at least reduce significantly right now because.

Mike (26:54.403)
Yeah.

Lindsay (27:10.709)
That's part of what we talked about last week about self care and that instead of me trying to do all the things, I'm focusing on my sleep. the sugar, sugar and caffeine are two things that disrupt my sleep, especially because I don't tend to eat, you know, sugar. I don't eat it earlier in the day. So it's towards the end of the day. Or if I don't eat it, you know, if I'm not at work, if I'm not in my work office, I don't eat any sugar in the middle of the day or anything. It's dessert after dinner. So then it's like,

Mike (27:18.307)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (27:36.888)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (27:40.439)
close to my bedtime.

and disrupting my sleep. And I'm just like you, if I drink caffeine too much or too late in the day, anytime afternoon, I'll fall asleep and then I'll wake up at like midnight or one in the morning, just like wide awake. And, and now we have like drinks that are the two together. So I think I've mentioned Josh gets up and he pounds like, I think at least one, I think there might be two.

rock stars like mango rock star. I I tried it once and yeah, it was just incredibly sweet and incredibly caffeinated. was just like up into the air, you know, just and then, you know, checking with me at 10 a.m. and I was like, I can't function.

Mike (28:12.991)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

BWAH!

Mike (28:33.262)
Exactly.

Mike (28:40.223)
Exactly.

Lindsay (28:41.803)
That's how he gets through his day though. loves it. I was going to say something. nothing to do with sugar at all, but you went to the 49er game. How lucky. mean,

Mike (28:52.642)
Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. Besides them losing, it was pretty fun.

Lindsay (28:58.123)
I was going say, how'd you like that end? The ending of the game was a little bit less than cool,

Mike (29:06.388)
My boy, he's seven and he's like, dad, how come so many people here say the F word? I'm like, well son, it's a combination of things. When you combine lots of alcohol with football, with a home loss, and sometimes unlimited vocabulary, the F word will come out quite a bit.

Lindsay (29:12.748)
Ha

Lindsay (29:30.501)
I know it came out at my house on Sunday for sure.

Lindsay (29:36.001)
He was just like, he's effing, you know, these guys suck. Yeah. Anyway, not sugar related, but I will say Josh ate a lot of sugar that night. He was trying to soothe himself.

Mike (29:39.374)
You

Ugh, yeah.

Mike (29:52.33)
yeah. Yeah. after a super bowl loss or two, I've done the same. Seething myself with red vines. though the thing that has helped me and I'm, it's not like I'm a guru who's been off of processed foods and sugar forever, but what helps me on this, on this journey is knowing that when I'm avoiding sugar, or treats and just junk food,

is that I only have to really avoid it for a few days. I'm like, can I do that today, tomorrow, the next day? Because then after that, the intense cravings aren't there anymore. Can I do this for a few days? Can I sub apples or blueberries for this for a few days? I think I can. Can I do it for today? one day at a time, right? One day at a time. And the other, yeah.

Lindsay (30:33.481)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Lindsay (30:42.924)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a good point is that it's not forever to remember that the feeling of loss is not forever. It's temporary, like most things in life, and it will change.

Mike (31:02.69)
Yeah. The other thing that helped me out quite a bit. Go ahead.

Lindsay (31:04.833)
That's.

Lindsay (31:08.512)
No, no, no, go ahead.

Mike (31:10.862)
There's some advice my grandpa gave me and he said the best he's done with eliminating or reducing unhealthy foods was not to think about I need to quit this or eliminate this because let's take, I know, I brought up ice cream earlier. I like ice cream. But if if you say I need to stop eating ice cream, I need to stop eating ice cream. Your brain just hears ice cream, ice cream, ice cream.

Lindsay (31:30.463)
Mm-hmm. Me too.

Mike (31:40.0)
and you obsess over it and think about it all day. And so it can make it can be less effective. So his take on this was to say, instead of just thinking about the things you're going to eliminate, really try to crowd them out with better things on your plate. So it's like, all right, you still have a little BS at first there, but crowded out with the other things that are better for you. And think of what you

Lindsay (31:43.101)
huh.

Lindsay (31:47.052)
Right.

Mike (32:07.274)
aren't intending to eat. Like, and I've tried it, it works for me.

Lindsay (32:12.363)
Yeah, that's a good point. Yes, this is almost like a mantra. I'm going to stop doing ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream. And it's just like a mantra that, you know, your brain is kind of I will very much focus on something that I'm trying to quit and and get into that loop of like thinking about it all the time and then wanting to have it more because I'm thinking about it all the time. For sure. One of the things that happened when I quit drinking well,

Mike (32:20.61)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (32:42.359)
Chardonnay was my drug of choice, you know, apparently, and I didn't know that because I would say, I don't like sweet things. That's what I was always saying. You know, I don't eat, and I never did, I didn't eat desserts. I didn't like anything sweet, but I sure did like that Chardonnay. And when I was quitting that, I was told, well, it was suggested to me, eat sugar. And I thought,

Mike (32:50.723)
Yeah.

Lindsay (33:08.425)
Why I don't like sugar and they they said, no, you've you've been drinking sugar and if you replace the craving for shard with something sweet, so there might so. So I got a case of ABBA ZABA. Have you had that as a taffy with peanut butter? That's when I forgot to bring up. I love that stuff. I mean, talk about. Unhealthy, but there is protein in it because there's.

Mike (33:14.474)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (33:28.258)
Yeah.

Lindsay (33:38.199)
peanut butter. And whenever I had a little craving for some something to drink, I would non one of those and it did work in that time and I was prioritizing, you know, quitting drinking this the Chardonnay. So so at the time it was okay. And but I have noticed, you know, there's like a tendency to gain weight when people are quitting.

Mike (33:41.76)
Yeah.

Mike (34:07.064)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (34:07.393)
Drugs are alcohol and I think part of it is you do start replacing with other things, namely sugar. And at the time it's a priority, but then, you know, five years without a drink, now you're just eating sugar and you don't really necessarily need it. So.

Mike (34:23.214)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's tough. It's tough, especially if you don't have the awareness because your awareness is tied up in the thought that I've quit this one thing and then you're not really realizing all the other things you're doing to accommodate quitting that one thing or replace it with.

Lindsay (34:44.267)
Mm-hmm.

Well, I have a brain that likes that the default setting for my brain is to seek things external to myself as a way of feeling better coping as a coping mechanism instead of tapping into the strength I have inside, which I have that I know I do from all these years, but that's just my default setting. So I will.

Mike (34:57.898)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lindsay (35:18.407)
reach there for a little trip to the Amazon site or an Amazon or because so I have to be like consciously aware of what I'm doing otherwise I'll just slip into my default mode.

Mike (35:25.048)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (35:33.558)
Exactly, exactly. I think when I was on a coaching call with Steph yesterday about my progress and things I can do and I said, well, here's a mentality that I want to get away from that I think is common for a lot of us and it's that I've been doing so well at this, let me reward myself with something to eat that's

the opposite of what I want for these gains and we'll reverse them. And I said, I'd like to do something that acknowledges that progress.

Lindsay (36:04.395)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (36:12.6)
but not make it some other food I was trying to steer away from that was bringing me to the place of, you know, being overweight and out of shape and not feeling good. And, her advice on this was, yeah, there's other things you can do. You know, you can, you can say, I'm going to watch this show or some other external thing that you can do for yourself as an acknowledgement of progress, but make the parameters for that specific

Like because I did four workouts this week or because I you know I ate the way I wanted to three days in a row here's the thing I'm gonna do for myself

Lindsay (36:54.209)
So defining that in advance. Okay. Yeah.

Mike (36:56.725)
Mm-hmm. Because just like, you know, this recovery, we can use feelings of like, well, I'm feeling like I deserve this and not really having done much. But you know, our brain can play a little tricks on us. And next you know, we're sitting in our car, eating red vines.

You know, or Twizzlers, that's right.

Lindsay (37:20.933)
Or Twizzlers. I definitely just just I will say this. I definitely eat more red vines and Twizzlers just because in my household we are a red vine household here. Josh is very much not a Twizzler person. Since he's the one purchasing most of the sugar in our house, I definitely have access. And have you had the

Mike (37:33.036)
Yeah.

Mike (37:42.7)
Yeah.

Lindsay (37:48.407)
the red vine nibs. That's the bag that's black licorice and the red together with. Yeah. Okay.

Mike (37:55.66)
Yes. I have had those and when I go to stores, cause they don't stock them as much as they do the other stuff. I'm looking behind other pieces of candy to like find them. And I'm like, and then I stopped. I'm like, what am I doing? I'm a grown ass man searching for candy. Like a crack head. I had got us just, just get a hold of yourself.

Lindsay (38:18.133)
Yes, slapping yourself. Stop it. Stop it.

Mike (38:20.078)
Yeah, stop it yelling at myself in the grocery store. Like, who's that guy? don't worry. He does this all the time.

Lindsay (38:25.207)
He's just some weirdo. I actually am going to amend what I said earlier about liking twizzlers better than red vines because I had completely forgotten about the bag of nibs. That's a family size bag of nibs is my absolute favorite thing in the whole world.

Mike (38:36.248)
Thank you.

Lindsay (38:45.825)
So what about Halloween? So what is your tradition with your kids? And then what do you do for people that are coming by your house?

Mike (38:56.96)
It's the traditional give out candy and do all that. I'm I've tried to stay away from imposing my standards that are in reaction to addiction on other people who don't necessarily have addiction.

Lindsay (39:22.934)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (39:23.81)
You know, so I'm not, you know, I'm not saying, kids have as much candy as you want, but I'm also not going around the house, you know, dumping out treats and stuff that are for my kids and for my wife that just cause I can't control myself. Exactly. I threw away all your chocolate because I wanted some.

Lindsay (39:41.271)
Sarah probably appreciates that. She's like, right. She's like, now I want some, so you need to slow your roll, asshole. When I was growing up, we had a couple days after Halloween where we could eat kind of whatever we wanted because we didn't have sugar in our house. Outside of that, my mom used carob.

Mike (39:52.302)
Exactly, yeah.

Mike (40:03.245)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (40:10.571)
when she made like cookies instead of chocolate. Yeah, it's like little kernels of rock in your cookie. what is, you God, so gross. And, you know, she just used alternatives to sugar. So we didn't have like, there was no sugar cereal, nothing like that. And so, but we'd had these couple of days where we could eat kind of what we wanted. And then, then it was done. Then it was like,

Mike (40:17.085)
Hahaha

Forget about those things, that sucks.

Mike (40:27.234)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (40:38.719)
anything you didn't anything you had left was kind of like, bye. So I would spend two days, my sister would just pick out the things she liked and just eat those. And if there wasn't a ton of stuff she really, really liked, she just wouldn't eat that much. I was like, I'm going to set a world record for the fastest candy eater, you know, I just try to get all of it, whatever I got in my in my mouth before.

Mike (40:42.36)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (41:02.434)
Yeah.

Mike (41:06.626)
Yeah.

Lindsay (41:08.487)
And, and now where I live, it's kind of cool because we live in half moon Bay. We live right downtown and half moon Bay is not that big of a town, but the surrounding area has is all agricultural. And there's a lot of families who's, you know, are agricultural families. they're migrant workers, a lot of migrant workers. And so, you know, they are living on very small amount of, you know, their budget's pretty small. And so.

Mike (41:20.12)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (41:34.978)
Yeah.

Lindsay (41:37.589)
they all come to downtown and walk around and get candy from all the houses downtown. And so they're so cute too. They're so stoked. I've noticed a lot of them just have like, you know, well, let me put it this way. Well, there's no black families hardly in Half Moon Bay. So when I say white kids have a certain thing, it just is non-migrant workers, but white kids will have the like, the little like specialty.

Mike (41:43.635)
nice.

Mike (41:55.022)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (42:04.055)
Halloween like it might look like a monster hand that has a little bag underneath it and they hand it to you and then you put stuff in it or something like that. And the migrant workers for the most part have like a pillowcase. They just they're walking out of the pillowcase, which is great. But we just fill those things up. We just put some we buy so much candy because we want to make sure we can give them like a handful when they come around and they are adorable. Yeah. Yeah, it's cute.

Mike (42:09.251)
Yeah.

Mike (42:16.578)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (42:28.61)
Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Lindsay (42:32.523)
very cute and the parents are always like, you know, super grateful and it's fun. But the first year we lived here, we didn't realize the sheer amount of people that were going to come by our house. And we had to like a panic. Josh had to make like a panic run to see. So we ended up with a crappy candy at the end. We're like, we're sorry. Here's a handful of. Yeah, super hard.

Mike (42:44.642)
Yeah.

Mike (42:56.758)
Here go, Tootsie Rolls, woohoo.

Lindsay (43:03.135)
And so then last year we went overboard and so we have this like bowl of candy in our house and every once in a while it's hidden in a cupboard but I know where it is. You know what I mean? And I don't even like the leftover stuff but I'm like, you know that small thing of hard banana taffy that could be good right now.

Mike (43:16.034)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mike (43:24.994)
Mm-hmm. yeah. That's... Yep. Exactly. I've been there.

Lindsay (43:32.542)
Well, hey, we've kind of come to the end of our time limit.

Mike (43:37.166)
think so. Yeah so a couple of recaps sugar can be very addicting. It's the same receptors as things like cocaine and the thing you can do to curb cravings is notice that it's only for a few days. Do it a day at a time and have some substitutes some naturally occurring sugars like fruits flavored sparkling waters and then

Lindsay (43:38.423)
think we did it.

Mike (44:08.322)
Find ways to acknowledge progress or reward yourself or to treat yourself with things that aren't sugary treats. And crowd your plate out with healthier things.

Lindsay (44:22.167)
Done. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Mike (44:23.128)
done exactly.

Lindsay (44:27.253)
All right guys, we will see you next week.

Mike (44:31.436)
Yes, thanks for listening everyone. a friend and until next time we'll see you later.

Lindsay (44:34.515)
Yes. Bye.