great post! i think it’s absolutely normal to get more of a sweet tooth in October and as the cold months begin. I rarely bake in the summer and suddenly I want to bake all the time in the fall. Of course i don’t want to eat it all myself, but I love having dessert after dinner, which I don’t really do in the summer. I love your advice about adding a healthy ingredient to your sweets. there’s nothing wrong with baking, and boosting its nutrition helps make it of value to your diet! and i always cut back on a recipes sugar. i have learned one too many times that over a cup is way too much, especially if there are chocolate chips or raisins involved. 1/2 a cup is plenty in that case, and still delicious!
I like your outlook! There is nothing at all wrong with baking and it is super fun! I especially enjoy baking goodies in the fall and winter time too! I like how you cut the sugar from recipes too especially when there are chocolate chips or raisins involved!
Truthfully though, my sweet tooth has totally increased. And I blame a lot of it on pregnancy. With the void of wine in my life, I’ve been substituting it with more sweet treats and now my body “needs” something every day. I’m trying to keep it within reason though. Whenever I deprive myself or try to substitute a psuedo fake treat for the real thing, I just crave the real thing more.
For me, it’s all about moderation!
This post is so helpful. I strive to exercise (hard!) everyday but then I go home and have a big bowl of frozen yogurt or SIX cookies (last night…) and the calorie burn was all for nothing (although i still take pride in other health benefits). Have you EVER been a sugar junkie? I want to know there’s hope!! Ohhh it’s so hard!!
Trust me, I love sugar. I could eat cookies everyday, but I don’t like the way sugar makes my body feel so I try to just stay away from it. No to mention my skin breaks out horribly anytime I eat a lot of it. My outlook is if you are spending time in the gym working hard, you can’t let a cookie or candy bar derail your progress. You need to find a healthy balance that works for you where you can enjoy a treat here and there and feel satisified, not deprived, yet still be eating healthy enough so your work in the gym is showing! With the holidays coming up, I thought this would be a good post since we will all be faced with way more goodies than normal.
I loved it. I was actually going to send you a private message asking if you could do a post on clean eating while working out, but you did this so this post helps a ton! I would love to see more like it. You always create great workouts and I’d love to hear about the nutrition part of it from your perspective. And as always, thanks for replying to each response, it’s why your blog is my favorite!
I’m glad you found the post helpful. I will for sure touch on clean eating while working out in the next week or so. I really want to talk more about nutrition on my site since we are coming into the holiday season and so many people fall off the clean eating wagon for no reason other than that it’s the holidays. I appreciate your kind words and thank you for reading!
I don’t bake a lot because I’m horrible at it, but if we have sweet things in our house, we are going to eat them. Focusing on natural whole foods makes those sugar cravings go away to where you don’t feel deprived not having a brownie after dinner. Holidays are always such a hard time since baking and holidays seem to go hand in hand.
Great tips Kjirsten!! We had a whole bowlful left of candy after Halloween and like you I had to get rid of it so I wasn’t tempted – out of sight, out of mind. So I gave it to my housekeeper and she was more than happy to take it off my hands. However I did keep a few for when I want to have a small indulgence and stashed some in the freezer so that I’m not as easily tempted. I like to save those sugary treats for the weekends when I really let go because if I didn’t then I’d just binge – I have to give myself that day to just eat whatever I want – but not go too overboard and keep it in moderation. During the week I always have a sweet tooth after dinner so I have either some prunes, a spoonful of peanut butter, or a handful of puffins, and that always seems to cure it 😉 But like you said, what really works for me is keeping it out of the house and have “healthy” sweets instead…for instance I cannot keep a carton of ice cream in the freezer, that is just too dangerous around me!
I’m just like you and like eating pb when I want something after dinner. I like eating clean during the week and then relaxing a little over the weekend. We try and have fun eating up or making not as healthy meals on the weekend, but we also try and balance them out by working out, walking the dog, eating healthy at other meals. This was we can still indulge but not binge. I can’t keep ice cream in our house either. I know its there and my brain will want it!
Great post! I used to be a sugar queen growing up and have come such a far way this last year. Since I ear really healthy everyday I don’t crave sugar too much and when I do I can control my portions around dessert. I still have episodes every month or two where I go on a sugar high and overindulge way too much in one day! Thanks for the tips!
I think everyone has those days where we eat too much sugar but we are only human. I’m glad that eating healthy has helped eliminate your cravings! Eating clean and whole foods is the best way to keep sugar cravings at bay, at least I think!
I definitely consume more sugar during the holidays… but thats one of the best parts about the holidays- all the amazing food! When I bake things now, I give half the batch away to Chase’s business partners or the concierge/doorman at our building. It feels good to give something nice to someone and they always seem to be stoked to be getting a nice treat!
+5 at 15.2 would not lead me to think you’re indulging too much.
I’m just like you that once I have sugar, I want it the rest of the day. For that reason is why I like to advoid it as much as possible. I also get headaches and my skin breaks out and I swear I get moody when I’m coming off my sugar high. I like you take on if you do eat something decadent, you will balance out your other meals. That is a great mindset to have. At 15.2 weeks, I think around 5lbs is pretty average. Plus you are super tiny and eat really healthy so your body will need to gain a little more right away. I can’t remember how much I gained at 15 weeks, but 5lbs sounds right. I know once I hit around 20 weeks I started gaining about two pounds a week no matter how much I worked out or how healthy I ate.
Great post Kjirsten-especially after we talked about this yesterday. The few days after Halloween were the worst for me, and I ate so many treats at my baby shower last weekend. I’ve cleaned the house of the bad stuff and stocked up on healthy snacks. Yesterday was my first day curbing the sugar and I feel better already. My main treats yesterday were a KIND bar, some frozen berries & mango, unsweetened almond milk w/unsweetened cocoa, and a tiny piece of very dark chocolate.
I think you did the best thing and cleaned out your house of the goodies. Its amazing how frozen fruit can curb a candy craving when there isn’t anything else around. Isn’t it great how your body responds so quickly when you stop eating treats even for a day?
I love this post b/c I’ve had a MAJOR sweet tooth throughout my pregnancy. I already had a bad one to begin with and now it’s worse! I’ll try some of your tips – hopefully they’ll help….at least a little! 🙂 P.S. I miss my wine too! haha!
I think with all the different hormones and emotions you feel when you become pregnant, that sets off a major sweet tooth. I am normally a pretty strict when it comes to sweets but since I became pregnant, I’ve totally let myself indulge way more than normal. My baby girl must definitely have a sweet tooth!