7 Signs You’re Addicted to the Wrong Carbs

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:01  
So another one is, you just can't stop. Okay? You have a hard time having one. Whether it's candy or cookies, pastries or jelly beans, stopping is always the hardest thing for you. And if you have one potato chip, and you just can't stop it to the whole bag is gone. One Nacho, and you eat 50 Or until there are no more. You know, you know, at that point, you're really not eating for your hunger. You're really eating because now you realize you just can't stop. Once you start that thing up. It's like this thing that just can't stop. 

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Alright, let the shenanigans begin. Hey, welcome back. Today, this is seven signs you have a bad carpet addiction. Now bad carbs are really what I'm referring to quote unquote bad carbs. I'm not referring to you in how serious your carb addiction may be. I'm referring to the carbs as bad, not you anyway. So don't own don't wear that. So today, we're talking about seven signs that you have a bad carb addiction. And we're gonna get right into it. Now, if you're not really sure what I'm referring to when it comes to bad carbs, definitely listen to the previous episode, I break it down, we talk about bad carbs in I also refer to them as simple carbs. So if you miss that, go back, and just take a quick listen. And then you'll be up to speed and you'll be able to jump right into this one quickly. So here are the seven signs that you have a bad card of addiction. And we're going to talk about and what to do about it and what to do to stop it as well. So carb addiction, it is a really big deal. You know, all of us, of course, eat carbs. And most of us find our way to being addicted from the time we're born, because we were brought up on formula. And you know, the formulas that are on the market, 90% of them are just mostly sugar. And so from the very beginning, we're being indoctrinated, and on to sugar. And so just just know from the beginning, if you have a drink in Formula when you were a baby, it's you've kind of, it's not your fault. I don't think it's your fault anyway, rarely, but because you may not have the awareness. It's just who we are in what we've been exposed to. And that's now hey, we're just addicted to carbs. Now, you may not even realize that you have a carb addiction. And that's pretty common too. And one of the ways that I kind of over the years have helped people to realize even have a carb addiction is to do some simple tests, and I'll explain those to you in a moment. But right now, I'm going to ask you some questions to determine whether or not you are hooked on to sugar and simple carbs, which are the bad carbs. Now, one of the signs I would say the first one I would ask is if you tend to eat carbs after you're already full. Now a good example of this is you just ate a meal and you are absolutely stuffed, but you haven't had dessert? If that's you, you may have a carb addiction. Okay, so we've you're still shoving sweets into your mouth after you're absolutely stuffed? Oh yeah, you know, you know you're not doing it because you're hungry.

Right. So that's going to be something that you really need to look at. So now another one is if you're emotionally attached. So if you eat carbs, when you're feeling some kind of way, if you're sad, even if you're happy, but if it's emotionally attached, then bam, it's something to look at. And I'll tell you, for me, I realized I was emotionally attached to my carbs. Because when I started paying attention to it, I realized that I would crave certain sweets, for certain emotions. I would want different sweets, if I'm happy in different sweets when I'm sad. And it got to the point where I could tell what I was by what I was eating, how I was feeling. And that's pretty messed up. But it was at that point that I began to realize, you know what, I need to tackle the sugar addiction. And give you an example.

I have this addiction is my crack, it's Haugen does Rocky Road ice cream. And what I did was I went to my local supermarket, and I would buy some, and I will keep them in the freezer until I had that certain emotion. So if I feel sad, but then I go, Oh, God, thank God, it's there, it's in my freezer, so I can get it. And what I would do is I would keep them handy just in case, I would feel sad, I'd have the ice cream there too. Gonna do its thing, you know, make them feel better. And I decided when I realized that, you know what, this is a problem, that instead of keep it in my freezer, I would keep it in the freezer at the supermarket and just wait to buy it in those moments that I was sad. And I thought you know, just that delay, may give me enough time to process it that, hey, this is all emotion. You don't need that ice cream. Just that commute time to the supermarket was gonna be what I needed to make sure. I don't need it, if that makes any sense. So what I did was I started doing that. And when I was feeling some kind of way, what I would do was I would go to the supermarket. And I would just look at the ice cream in the case. And when I did that, I would just feel better. I knew the ice cream was there if I really needed it. But then I would process the feeling and I would leave. So that was really great. It was a great strategy. I was weaning myself from attaching this emotion to the ice cream. And I was doing great. But one day I went to the supermarket. And they didn't have ice cream in the case.

Okay, you would think at this point. Oh, good. It's not there at all. Then this is your way of dealing with your addiction. Your ice cream is in there now you're gonna have to deal with those feelings. It didn't work like that. I called the manager and I asked if there was any in the back. And he said no. So I said okay, so I went to another supermarket.

They didn't have any either. I went to another supermarket. They didn't have any either. I went to three more supermarkets and they did not have the Haagen Dazs ice cream. I was beside myself at this point. So I come back to my original store manager and I go hey, I really need to get some of the ice cream.

And can you check any other stores? And he rattled off the stores and I said no I've been to that one. He rattled off another one I set up into that when they don't have it. He rattled off another one and I said I've been to that one. And I was hearing myself say A, that I drove all over the city, looking for this ice cream that they don't have. Apparently he was listening. Apparently he was listening to. And he said to me, you know, I'm going to call and find out what's going on with our Haagen DAAS. And I will let you know exactly when it's coming in. And he also said to me, Hey, when it comes in, I'm going to put a case in the back just for you, I won't let anyone touch it. I felt like a drug deal. So at that point, it was so clear to me that this addiction was just out of control. Well, you called me a week later to let me know that the whole plant had been shut down that makes the rocky road version of hugging does and it was there was just none in the state, there was none in the entire state. So believe it or not as crazy as it sounds, that helped me to process it. And it put a much finer point on the fact of how emotionally attached to carbs you can be from my personal experience, and it was crazy. So if you feel that same way, or when it comes to either cookies, or pasta, or potato salad, or soda, or your favorite candy, when you use the word love when you are describing a certain refined food. Yeah, think of it. You may have a carb addiction.

So another one is, you just can't stop. Okay, you have a hard time having one. Whether it's candy, or cookies, pastries, or jelly beans, stopping is always the hardest thing for you. And if you have one potato chip, and you just can't stop until the whole bag is gone, or one Nacho and you eat 50 Or until there are no more. You know, you know at that point, you're really not eating for your hunger, you're really eating because now you realize you just can't stop. Once you start that thing up. It's like this thing that just can't stops, it just won't stop until there's nothing left. And that's definitely a sign of addiction. So be mindful of it when you're eating something and you go, I just can't stop. I can only can I just can't have like one Skittle. Okay, one m&m, one potato chip. So try your favorite, quote unquote, sweet. And see if you can eat just one. And then leave it alone. This is what I'm going to challenge you to do. eat just one and no have another one for 48 hours. Now, if you can do that, and if you can't do that you are on the list of people that most likely are a bad carb addict, just so you know. And I think the first thing to be aware of, we're going to talk about what to do about it. But we can't really take the steps on what to do about our comp addiction. Until we acknowledge that we have it, it's like any addiction, you have to first say, Yeah, is me on my addicts. So you have to kind of admit it before you can work on it. So be mindful of that. So when you hear these things, don't run away from them. Don't feel bad about it. Don't turn off the podcast. Don't do those things just sit here and take it. You know, because at the end, I'm going to help you to really look at it a little differently. Okay, so sit here and just take it, let your emotions and let your feelings just go for this ride. I know it's kind of hurtful to hear that you are a carb addict. But a there's going to be a silver lining at the end of this. Now, if you're one of the people that when you eat

when you eat your carbs, you think, you know I'm going to eat them. Now I know it's bad for me. But what I'm going to do is I'll be good tomorrow. I won't eat them tomorrow. So after today, I'm going to be good. I'm not going to eat any more carbs. But today, I'm going in I'm going to eat what I want today but tomorrow is going to be today. Now that sounds good. So think of it if that's you, you know us you If you give free good to yourself today you are okay, you can have it, but tomorrow you're not. But we're gonna get a little deeper into this, okay?

If you say tomorrow, often. So you say, I'm not going to do it, too. I'm going to do it today, but not tomorrow. But if you have the pattern of saying, I'm not going to do it tomorrow, but then you do it the next day, or the day after that, then you have an addiction, you know, so the first person to be honest to is yourself, and if you say, Hey, I'm gonna put it off, and you realize that it's not always true, that sometimes tomorrow doesn't really come in, then there's a problem. So acknowledge that, and know that, hey, you have tendencies of being a carb addict. You know, another one, to see if this is you, okay? You can't, if you're going without carbs, simple carbs, we're talking about the bad carbs. If you're going without the bad carbs, and you say, Hey, I'm just going to go without the bad carbs, you get distracted, you can't stop thinking about what your next snack is gonna be. You want to look for some other kinds of carb to fill yourself up with this type of distraction isn't really hunger related. It's all about the food. And you can't even get on with your day without appeasing your desire for sugar. If you feel that way, and it's really holding you back from doing things because you're not having it then you are, it's a good sign that you too, are struggling with a carb addiction. Not a good carb addiction. But a bad simple carb addiction. Okay, so it's really good to be aware of that. Now, other control portion sizes, too, is another good way to recognize that you may be having a carb addiction, when you start seeing your portion size, go up and up and up. So at one point, you're having just one bowl of chips. And the next time you're having two bowls of chips, or I see that's what people that do that microwave popcorn a lot too. They start with one bag of microwaves popcorn. And then in a few weeks each night, they're having two bags of microwave popcorn. And the number just starts to gently go up and up and up. So when you notice that instead of that one portion that you're kind of used to you're going up, you know, rows of cookies, I've seen this, and I've had people tell me all the time, I used to just only eat one row of the Oreos. But now I'm not satisfied until i e two rows. So if any of that sounds kind of familiar to you, then you may be a carb addict. Now if you go through withdrawals, sometimes when you cut back, that is definitely a sign that you are a carb addict and what I really do, and that's one of the things that I asked people to do is join me on a 30 day, no simple carbs, diet. Okay, no bad carb diets and you can do this for 30 days. And if you can make the decision to do it, that's a big old hurdle. So this is going to put you on the path, okay, of dealing with your bad carb addiction. It's gonna put you on the path. And people always say, You mean just cut them all out? Yes, you will have some withdrawal symptoms. When you cut all those simple carbs out you're gonna, you're gonna have increased cravings. This is just not uncommon, but it will subside over time.

Okay, so how we deal with it is we cut them out. That is part of the process, and see how long you give yourself 30 days and see how long you can last, okay? Because depending on how long you can last gives you an idea of how, how severe your carb addiction is, okay. And you do want to know that, you want to know if you can do 30 days, if you can do 30 days, oh yeah, then we can do this, and it's not going to be too challenging to get rid of your current addiction. But if you can't make it 30 days, then you given up your carb addiction is gonna be more involved. And I'm going to give you some of those steps coming up. Okay. So if you can't make that 30 days, this is some of the stuff you're definitely going to need to do next.

So number one, this is what you're gonna do. When you can't do 30 days without simple carbs, you're gonna eat small meals often. Because the goal at this point is to keep your blood sugar level, okay? Now, you want to eat small meals, often at least six what six small meals a day serve with the average when we talk about small meals, and each meal needs a healthy carb and a healthy protein and a healthy fat with each meal. Okay, and six small meals. And a good example of what that would look like is green beans and avocado, bam, you get it, okay. So if you do green beans and avocado, that's a perfect meal snack, then you do as many until you're satisfied. Okay. Another is chicken, woods, green beans.

Okay, chicken and broccoli. If you're doing meat, if you're not doing me, you can do tofu and black beans, you know what I'm saying? And some kind of green vegetable like kale. So definitely, there are ways to do it. And if you want more help, I'm happy to help out with helping you to get through this. But first, remember, you're going to eat those small meals. Second, you want to read the labels on the food, the best thing that you can do is read the labels on the food aisle and really know what you're eating and know what the content of the food that you're eating, you want to have an idea of particularly of what the sugar levels are. And most things you eat, shouldn't be in a package. And if you can stick to that you're going to do really well on a program. And by package I mean package like a package, meaning the food was so processed, okay. So you're using if there's a package involved, it's processed. So just get used to that thought in your head and you want to, if you're reading labels really pay attention to them. But you definitely want to avoid as many labels as possible technically, because you don't want many processed foods in your diet. The next thing you want to do to help you to get over your carb addiction is drink lots of water, it's going to help flush the toxins out of your body. It's going to help you to feel fuller, it's going to keep you hydrated, because sometimes we fill up on those carbs when we just are thirsty. So being hydrated is going to help you to deal with not only the hunger, but it is going to help you to deal with your cravings for sugar. Okay, so drink water all the time. And the next one is going to be eat plenty of healthy fats and protein. So I would strongly recommend definitely eating plenty of healthy fats. Okay, that's going to be important, but I don't recommend eating plenty of healthy fats if you are still doubling and dabbling with the simple carbs because fat and carbs together is a problem for you and a problem for your body. Okay. Now if this stuff is kind of confusing, creating these new habits and you think you may need help creating these habits. I definitely would like to help. And what I would do if you can't go that 30 days is reach out to me because there's a detox that I recommend and that I can coach you through. No matter where you live, you'll be able to do this and I will ship it all to you. It's a seven day detox that will, one, reduce your dependency on refined sugars, breads, and even nicotine and caffeine. And to increase your energy, three, it's going to read your district digestive track of accumulated waste and putrefied bacteria. And it's great for helping your body to get rid of Candida. If you're not really familiar with Candida, I'll explain that. On another show. We'll get into that today. It's just a bad. It's, it's technically it's a it's a bacteria, I'm using a loosely, it's a bacteria that's in your gut and on your body. That can be problematic if there's a lot of them, and they live off of simple carbs. So if you're feeding yourself a ton of them, it's really bad for your body. So look, I did it anyway. But I'll give you more detail another time about like Candida. Now, on number four here is improves your mental clarity, clarity when you do this detox as well, okay. And it's going to restore a better balance to what's going on a pair of statically in your colon, so you want that. So all the other things are going to happen. You're going to eat small meals on it. And there'll be very few labels to read, but there'll be labels to read, we're going to do that on, you're going to drink tons of water at the same time, you're going to be able to eat tons of healthy fat, when you're on this, you're going to have nice protein, you're gonna end create new habits. And arguably,

the hardest thing to really do is going to be to create new habits. And what it does is it totally helps with creating new habits. And that you can stick to, okay, because if your daily routine is to grab a sugary coffee, and a bagel in the morning, a sandwich and a soda in the afternoon, and a big bowl of pasta in the evening. All this has to change. So being open to creating new habits is going to be a big deal. And if you do the detox, it's going to help you to do that. So the clinic agenda in the cleaning out your cupboards is also a really big deal.

It's really difficult to break any addiction, if you still keep the stuff around. So be it whether it be here heroin, cigarettes, or sugar. And in some cases, people say sugar is just as addictive as cocaine, or heroin in some cases. I mean, it's important to realize that you just can't have it in the house. So think back of my strategy of what I had to move from not keeping it in house and keeping it in the supermarket and just visiting it. So that may be a strategy, excuse me, that may you know, you may consider my strategy of keeping ice cream at the supermarket instead of in your house. And when you have a craving for it, just go by the store and visit it and take that opportunity to work through all the stuff you need to work through or think about with it being in the store and not in your house. Keep everything out of your cupboards out of your freezer.

No crackers, no cookies, no cakes, no candy. If it's in your house, you will eat it. And if you think you will, that's such an addiction talk. And people go but I got kids and they need cookies. Well to be honest, if it's not good for you. Why is it any better for your kids? It might this may be the opportunity that you need to help your kids understand that this stuff is not good for them either. And it really isn't. You know, so be mindful of that and think about it as you move forward.

So a quick recap the seven things to determine whether or not you are a car Baddeck Amana reduce the one you do 30 days with no sugar. If you can last 30 days with no sugar, bam, then you have taken what the you have learned what you need to learn to not be a carb addict anymore of that. But if you can't, I strongly recommend you reach out to me and consider doing the detox, which will help you eat small, several small meals so that your sugar level is balanced, it will help you to read labels, it will help you to drink loads of water, it will help you to eat plenty of healthy fats in protein, and it's going to help you too.

So the important part is to create new habits. Okay, that's really in a nutshell. And one of the things that you'll need to do is clean out your cupboards and make sure that there are no sugary or in this case offending items that's going to help you to backslide into your sugar addiction in your house. And you're gonna come up with lots of excuses why it's there. You know, my kids, there's a party coming up, what am I going to give away for Halloween? You know, trust me, your brain is going to work overtime, on sabotage. So, if you're going to need support, and if even hearing this has been difficult for you, and accepting the fact that you are a sugar addict, will a you're gonna have to deal with it, you're gonna have to come up with new strategies, you're gonna have to accept it at some point. So accept it now. Or come to terms with it after diabetes or some horrible ailment or obesity or blood pressure challenges, or, or passing something like that on to your kids. This is also an opportunity for you to give them new habits that will lead them to just a healthier adult life. You have choices. And if you need support with making them do not hesitate to reach out. You can hit me up on my Instagram. It's I am Dr. Fitness. Thanks again for listening to seven signs that you may be a carb addict here on Your Health Moment. And what we're talking about next week, is we're talking about social media and the stressors from social media and how it could be affecting your health more than you think. 

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Your Health Moment. Learning what tools will help you to live a life you love is so important. And I encourage you to check out some of the other episodes. If you're ready to take the next step for your health. I'd love to have that conversation. Head over to www.iamdrfitness.com or go to my Instagram @iamdrfitness and that spelled I am Dr. Fitness to get in touch with me and we will put together a plan that starts right where you are today. My name is Dr. Fitness. And I will see you next time on Your Health Moment.

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