No Sugar Added
That first cup of coffee tastes so good. If you're a coffee drinker, you know exactly what I mean. Do you take yours with sugar? I am a no sugar added type of girl.
Even if you are not a coffee drinker this post is for you.
This post is about knowing what we add to our food and beverages.
Today I will use my beloved macchiato from Dunkin Donuts as an example.
You see, I thought I was doing real good by not adding sugar or flavor to my espresso.
Recently I discovered I wasn't doing all that good. In fact, I was sabotaging myself without knowing it!
When You Think You're Doing Good
Practically every morning since Dunkin Donuts introduced the macchiato, I have been enjoying a cup, or two, a day.
If you do not know, a macchiato is very much like a latte. The difference is that rather than being mostly milk like the latte, the macchiato is about a quarter foam and the remainder of the cup is split in half between milk and espresso.
Typically people add flavor to their latte or macchiato. I'm not like typical people. Calling myself keeping my wake up cup of macchiato healthy, I order it without flavor and without sugar.
I receive a puzzling eye with that order, but for the places in which I am a regular, they no longer question my not adding sugary flavoring.
Instead of milk, which I don't drink, I ordered my macchiato with almond milk.
On a recent trip to Dunkin they had run out of almond milk. Disappointed, I ordered my macchiato with skim milk instead.
It was awful! The espresso was more than I could stand, but I noticed something else. It wasn't sweet.
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You
Why was my macchiato sweet in the first place?
I had not noticed that it was sweet until substituting the almond milk with skim milk.
A bit puzzled, since I was being “good” and all, I went on a mission to find out what the heck could be going on with my macchiato.
At first I turned to MyFitness Pal. That pulled up the almond milk I use at home. Unsweetened 30 calorie almond milk. It has no sugar. There was no way that that was what Dunkin was using.
I was determined to get to the bottom of this.
On my next trip to Dunkin, I made it a point to determine what almond milk was being used.
While in line waiting my turn, I got the opportunity to take a picture of the almond milk left sitting on the counter after a worker had made a latte for someone.
Once I got settled back in at work, I looked at the nutritional information for the almond milk used by Dunkin.
My eyes scanned down to Sugar. OMG! 12 grams of sugar. 12!
For weeks, when I thought I was being good, at least 12 grams of sugar was being added to my “wake me up” beverage. Sometimes that happened twice a day!!
Igniting Sugar Cravings
After discovering how much sugar was in my macchiato, a thought hit me.
I understood why I was craving sugary foods such as cinnamon rolls and Dunkin Donuts sugared raised donuts.
It was because of the uptick in my sugar consumption, the extra consumption I did not realize I was getting.
How to Get Back on Track and Cut the Sugar
After the “I've been adding sugar to my beverage revelation,” I had to get back on track. That meant I had to cut the sugar.
Quit cold turkey. Quitting cold turkey was my knee jerk reaction after discovering how much sugar was in my cup of macchiato. Thinking that idea probably would not work, I decided to take a different approach.
Slowly wean off the added sugar. I have been down this road before so I know this approach works well for me. Since I had gone to drinking medium macchiatos while they were $1.99 with my DD Perks card, I decided to go back to the small size. I will do that for about a week. My next step will be to go to having it with skim milk rather than with almond milk. I know that will taste awful. That will help me stop wanting the drink. At the same time it will help me not want other sugary foods as well.
Swap refined sugar for natural sugar. Let's face it, in those moments you want something sweet, the last thing you are considering is a piece of fruit. I have learned though, if you take a moment to pause, consider what you are about to do, then consider your alternative, you can choose fruits such as an orange, strawberries, or kiwi over a cinnamon roll or sugary donut.
Drink green tea instead. While I wean myself off of the macchiato, I will turn to a cup of green tea for what would have been my second cup of macchiato for the day. The good thing about green tea is that it does have properties that are good for speeding up your metabolism.
Drink more water. If I was drinking a sufficient amount of water per day – half my body weight in ounces – I would be too full to have a second cup of macchiato.
Start making my own wake me up beverage. I have a book called 21 Best Cacao Recipes: Nature's Healthy, Happy and Delicious Superfood Chocolate you can enjoy even on a Weight Loss or Low Cholesterol Diet!. In it is a recipe for cacao and maca latte. I've made it a couple of times. Since it does not take a long time to make, I can start making that for myself before I leave out in the morning.
What to Do Next
What I have shared with you is how I reacted after realizing I was adding sugar to my espresso drink, how that added sugar resulted in sugar cravings, and the strategy I plan to use to wean myself off sugar. Use these strategies to help you with your sugar cravings. I also recommend searching the web for additional ideas. Share with us what you find.
Start the Discussion: How do you handle your sugar cravings? Share in the post comments, on Facebook or Twitter.