when i first started the diet DIE IT is what I call it sometimes. I would think about the taste of radishes. Radishes are very strong and I can't stand them they would almost instantly take the tast out of my mind. If that didn't work throw salt on it. YOu have to ask your self this question. IS this really worth my health. Is it worth the money and the time and the pain. Is it worth prolonging being well?
those of you who can eat fruit really have no excuse for eating sugar because you can reduce the fruit down to the point where it is a natural jam. I used to slowly simmer untill it turns into paste. It is most excellent. Spread it on some toast and it is a great desert. I also used to drink coffee in place of desert because it taste so good it would solve my craving with out needing sugar as long as i used some heavy cream. A nice breve cap is oh sooo good if you can tolerate it. Tricks up my sleeve it all depnds on where your at in treatment but really I just tell myself it's not worth it because I am going to get well and i don't want any distractions.

I remember reading in someone's success story or maybe it Matia's statement that at some point you have to come down to this very clear choice when it comes to the sugar cravings- its either you or the yeast/microbes. One of you has to live and thrive and when you feel overwhelmed with the cravings for sugar- bring it back down to that reality! The sugar craving is the signal being given off by the desperate to survive paracites inside you- to feed them. They stand between you and being well. Get pissed off at these cravings. This is you health and your body! t you are in control ultimately every moment. Don't give in or cheat even a little bit! I used to have a terrible sweet tooth.  I  have found for me they will pass like a cigarrette craving if you distract yourself or if you make a choice that is healthy for you. Make sure your family and your friends and co workers know how important it is to not tempt you with sweets. My office is absolutely terrible about things like that. They have sugar stashed in all parts of the building and love to celebrate birthdays with cake and icecream. I find myself explaining to people all the time how I am not being rude for refusing to eat but that I have food allergies and stomach problems and how sugar aggravates it- which is true!  and thank you for the offering but I cannot eat their sweet stuff. My Mom and grandmother used to get offended by it somehow but they finally understand.  I have found that the longer I have been in treatment- about 8 months so far- I have seriously lost my desire to eat sugar. I look at a donut or cookie and for real I don't react with any desire for this-in fact it kind of grosses me out. Especially icing. oh my god YUCK!  now a beautiful orange or handful of blueberries sounds amazing to me. I am so excited for that day.  My friend swears to me that a strawberry is gonna one day when I can eat one will be like a now and later candy. The trick is to continue to get over the hump of cravings let them die off and they will not control you and bother you like they do now. I guess I replaced sugar with buttered yeast free bread. I got really into avocadoes and a few slices of cheese which I can tolerate at this point. find something that is enjoyable to munch on that you are allowed to have and keep it on hand. also look into EFT on youtube to help get over food cravings maybe? sugar cravings - It is similair to smoking- remember how hard it was at first and then it got easier?- it will even out! Your progress depends on not cheating! Even a little cheating will be holding you back. Everyone who cheats says that they would have been better alot sooner if they didn't cheat- so you can still get some progress but it won't be as deep a success or as quick.  Keep in mind that sweet things in the future can still be apart of your eating expereince it will just be in a new and healthier way. I think it takes a while to reprogram our eating habits but that- as you get back into balence even our cravings switch to things that our naturally wholesome for us- we  will crave genuine nourishment. I don't know when this happens exactly- for me it happend probably like my 3rd month of the treatment- I was feeling over my sugar cravings.  I recall jeannette said something about it on an older post. after two years  she had come to the descion that sugar was at a point of grossing her out- like her taste for it had shifted to one where she didn't enjoy the sugary foods she used to? In the meantime be strong and make the connection strong in your mind that the sugar= pain and imbalence. Life will be sweeter in the future! Promise. ;) thanks and hang in there!

for posting this. I am not in treament, because of cost right now, but I hope to be in the future.  I have figured out on my own the past 6 months that sugar is highly connected to my IC and my health problems..  I recently found out through a blood test that my immunse system has a strong reaction to yeast, and all sugars and whey protien in dairy.  Since then, I have been trying to give it up.  I do good for a few weeks, and then I slip..its like I think, "I will start again tomorrow and go crazy now", and then tomorrow comes and I think that same thing.  I have learned something from every fall, like when I eat sugar my bladder frequncy gets better!  weird!  I don't get it but its true.  And then if I do not feed my body sugar the symptoms get really bad again for weeks!  I was doing well, and then I made my husband some granola with nuts and maple sugar, and had some..thinking it was ok becasue it was not "white sugar" and then it triggered a craving very strong for the real sugar....and I went crazy and then felt horrible..this all happened this weekend, so this is a perfect time for me to find this.  I just purchaed Maria's disertation and began reading it, I hope it will motivate me to change.  I will certainly be your no-sugar buddy!