Hi Everyone,

I am really worried about the amount I am eating since being on TSM. On my weekly progress page, others have also said they have experienced an increase in eating....and it was also pointed out to me...with the drop in alcohol, the corresponding drop in sugar could result in sugar cravings.

Well...Maybe I am extreme...but I feel like I am changing from an alcoholic to a sugarholic.....AND...I have put on weight. ARGHHHHH. (With the reduction in al...I thought I would lose weight..or at least stay the same)

I am keen to hear from others who have found their eating changing....and tell me what to look forward to as things progress. The sugar cravings are as strong as my wine cravings used to be before TSM. GOd...maybe I should start to NAL before Chocolate?

If anyone has any ideas, advice, observations, learnings....I would love to hear them.

Hope everyone is having a great TSM week.

Kiwichick.

Hi KC!
When I was younger for some reason alcohol did not make me want to eat. HOWEVER, I am obviously older & in the last few yrs., after & even during the craving for carbs is UNCONTROLLABLE! I always had a fear of getting REAL FAT. Now, if I don't do something soon my one of my worst nightmares may begin to materialize. I have put on some weight too. I am a short person so even 5lbs. is noticable. Sometimes the fear of fat is worse than the craving for AL. The only solution I know is to try to back off on AL whenever you can. Easy to say, I know. I am dreading going out to dinner tomorrow nite.(my trigger). Even if I have only 2 glasses of wine, I am a MONSTER at the fridge! Don't buy anything sweet anymore but now anything with bad carbs will do. Like cereal, oatmeal, stuff like that. Ya I need lots of help in that department too.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE & I FEEL YOUR PAIN.
JANE

I've always been a chocoholic, but I find that when I drink, moderation goes out the window. The wife's out of town, and last night I had quite a few beers and ate almost an entire bag of gingerbread cookies. The craving is just intense. If only naltrexone worked with sweets as well...

i know that in the past when i quit drinking i couldn't get enough sugar in me and really gained weight. since i don't want that to happen this time i am trying to extinguish sugar along with alcohol, by having something sweet every evening after taking nal. don't know if it will work, but why not try? come to think of it, hmm i guess i should be more careful about avoiding sugar earlier in the day if i want this to work.

i have not noticed additional food cravings, but it does seem like what i want to eat is different. oddly i am eating more meat and protein when usually i'm more of a veggies and grain fan.

path

Path, you may find the following study interesting.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10832904

The gist of it is that we are attempting to use alcohol to self medicate and increase serotonin (remember serotonin contributes to feelings of wellbeing). Since carbohydrates also increase serotonin when we reduce our drinking we may increase our carbohydrate consumption to try to keep the serotonin levels the same. Not all alcoholics are susceptible to this and the research here reports the carb-craving alcoholic is a subtype of alcohol dependent person.

Here is another link that describes ways to naturally increase serotonin

http://www.ehow.com/how_5413029_increase-serotonin-naturally.html

Hope this helps.

saint vincent,
thanks for posting these articles. this is definitely me. i do everything on the how to increase serotonin naturally list except for not drinking alcohol i live in a place with 300+ days of sun a year and i still need special lights in the winter. i exercise daily, live a very low stress life, and eat mostly unprocessed foods, (except for beer), and still need serotonin boosting meds.
i wonder if i'm going to have to find some new way of bumping my serotonin once al is reduced or gone. fortunately i have been feeling good and stable of late, optimisitc about tsm getting me out from the daily al routine.
does anyone else here have experience with this alcoholic sub-group? has anyone had problems with mood once going alcohol free?
i know that when i quit for 2 years the combo of anxiety and depression was absolute HELL.
i don't know why, but somehow i am hopeful that this time will feel much different.
does anyone have any thoughts on this? everyone here is so helpful and i am so grateful.

with fingers crossed,
path

haven't done my record keeping, but pre tsm about 70=/-/wk
at week 9 about 60

L-glutamine supposedly helps with sugar and AL cravings. I am taking 4 - 6,000 mgs of it daily and can't really tell a difference, but others swear by it. I also follow a lo-carb diet but there are plenty of sugar-free products out there to satisfy a sweet-tooth. You just have to careful as the Malitol in excess can make you want to go...

Path - I got your pm but accidently deleted it or something?! I dunno - weird! :-)

houtx,
thanks for the l-glutamine tip. i think i may have tried it in the past, but will keep it in mind if the sugar craving thing comes up as i reduce al intake.
as to the pm, i will happily share the info again if it's something of interest to you.

path

You might also want to try to eat plenty of meat and fat, and cut out many if not most of your carbs altogether. I hate to bring up "Atkins" here as that kind of eating is pretty controversial - however many new studies and re-looks at older studies show a real benefit to high fat/low carb eating. The main benefit is that over time the carb cravings are GONE.

I crave sweets always and just bought some L-glut a few days ago. I find if I take too much it makes me sick so I'm starting gradually. I bought some 1000mg capsules which I open and dump about half under my tongue - this gets into the blood stream fairly quickly without my having to swallow the whole thing. As well I'm taking 5HTP.

Good luck with finding something which works for you. By the way, I think it's better to try to extinguish your sweet tooth and not find substitutes most of which are bad for you.