I was inspired to write about this topic as I sit here in my hotel in Atlanta, as I’ve had four book signings over the past three days in Chicago and Atlanta, and many readers told me about they were still having issues dealing with their sugar cravings.

Well don’t worry Beauty Detoxers because I hear you! And here are some tips I want you to incorporate into your life.

Enjoy Your Fruit!

Sometimes eating fruit is enough to squelch a sugar craving before you reach for the chocolate bar (though a little dark chocolate is perfectly acceptable sometimes, too). We naturally crave sweet things; our tongue has sweet receptors that make sweet a natural flavor profile to make up our diet. The only “bad” thing about those cravings is that we sometimes allow ourselves to go for refined sugars and sweets that weigh us down instead of offering us beauty benefits, fiber, essential vitamins, and nutrition.

I meet people that tell me they avoid fruit because they are scared of the fruit sugar, but then they eat lots of chocolate and other treats! Fruit is the most natural food for humans to eat. It is a complete nutritional package and has incredible cleansing properties. By adding more fruit to your life, you may find your sweet cravings more satisfied. Beauty Fruits will make you glow and give you energy. That’s something candy bars and snack cakes definitely won’t do.

The Candida Diet and the Blossoming Beauty Phase

That being said, if you’re having trouble with sugar cravings as you make healthier changes to your diet, step into your new lifestyle by following the Blossoming Beauty or candida-fighting portion of the Beauty Detox plan for a couple of weeks (or more, if you’d like to stay there). Some of the guidelines include:

• Avoiding sweet fruits (for a time), dairy, refined sugars and starches, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, table salt, gluten, oils, and unfermented soy
• No animal products during the day
• Minimal snacking
• Eating more probiotic foods, like the P&E Salad

The Blossoming Beauty phase balances sugar and reduces cravings in the process. When you cut out the things that encourage you to reach for processed sugars, you can eventually begin reintroducing sweet fruits to your diet and they will be intensely satisfying when you want something sweet to snack on. When you’ve rid your body of the cravings for the unhealthy sweets and hit the reset button on your body, you’ll be amazed by how well some watermelon or pineapple will take care of your cravings.

The more balanced your body, the better you can handle fruit sugars. You may stay in Blossoming Beauty for a varied amount of time- a few weeks or a few months or more. Remember that not overdoing oils and fat in general is also important in helping to overcome candida, as I discuss in Beauty Detox Foods.

Don’t Forget Your Probiotics

Taking a probiotic supplement and enjoying Probiotic & Enzyme Salad before dinner can put good bacteria back into your gut. When there’s too much bad bacteria and not enough good, you can start craving more and more sugar to feed those bacteria. Adding more gut-friendly bacteria back into your body can help balance your blood sugar levels, give you more energy, and reduce mood swings.

I’ll have more to say about and recommend in this category very soon. :)

Check in with Your Mental State

Sometimes when you’re craving something sweet, it’s a reflection of your mental state more than an actual physical need for something in the body. You may be trying to self-heal your emotional pain by putting a sweet band-aid over it. That won’t get to the root of the problem, so you’ll just keep craving sugar more and more.

Chocolate is actually a temporary anti-depressant for when you’re feeling lonely or unloved, but if you feel like that often and you stuff yourself with truffles instead of dealing with the issues, you’re not making any progress and you may find yourself more depressed because your clothes don’t fit as well as they used to.

Try to figure out what’s going on in your mind and make the appropriate changes, and use dark chocolate as a special treat that you truly enjoy rather than medication.

Instead, try journaling, meditating, doing something active to relieve stress (running, kickboxing, hiking, yoga—whatever you enjoy). If you’re feeling lonely, you could crave sugar in order to deal with it; ask a friend to come over to talk and enjoy some healthy snacks, or just go out where you know there will be people and enjoy some human interaction. Getting a massage from a healing practitioner might also be a great idea!

Sugar and Salt, the Yin and Yang

If you’ve indulged in a bit too much salt lately, there’s a chance you’ll be craving sweets to balance things out. Have you ever noticed how those two cravings go hand in hand? That’s because sugar and salt have opposite effects on the body; sugar is considered “yin” in Chinese philosophy and salt is considered “yang.”

What that means is when you eat too much of one, you crave the other to achieve balance again. Salt is contracting and can make you feel heavy, bloated, and dehydrated. Sugar, on the other hand, is more expansive and lighter. So if you eat too many chips, processed foods with sodium, or you just top off your meals with table salt and cause the body to contract, there’s a good chance you’ll be craving sugar again, so it can expand again. Overcompensate with too much sugar and you’ll crave salty foods again. It’s a vicious cycle. Pink Himalayan sea salt (or other high-quality sea salt dried by the sun and the wind) will cause fewer sugar cravings, but it’s still good to limit your intake.

Get Enough Sleep

Studies show that when you’re sleep deprived, you’re more likely to reach for high-fat or sugary foods. By making sure you have enough beauty sleep, you’ll be better able to make good food choices—Beauty Food choices. (Hmm, I need to take my own advice here as well…as it is past midnight as I write this. But there’s so much to do in a day, isn’t there?!)

Give in and Make Something Sweet, but Healthy

If the sugar cravings are strong and won’t go away even after you’ve ignored them for a while, eaten something else (something healthy!), or tried to take care of the mental reason for your craving with exercise, meditation, or some other sort of relaxation, it’s okay to give in on occasion. Treats in moderation are part of life! I do love me some treats also sometimes, that is for sure. Do you think only my clients eat all those dessert recipes I have?? :)

Don’t go straight for the one-pound bag of M&Ms or anything, but indulge in a healthy dessert. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Raw Cacao Truffles
• Thyroid Boosting Macaroons
• Fat-Burning Key Lime Pie Bars
• Raw Chocolate Ginger Cake with Cacao Frosting
• Raw Pecan Love Pie
• Dairy-Free Ice Cream

Even though the ingredients in all of these desserts are healthier than the ones in most other desserts, these should still only be enjoyed in moderation. Almost everyone gets intense sugar cravings at least every now and then, and sometimes it’s just best to give in and move on. As long as if you’re doing what you can to make sure there’s no hidden reason for the cravings, it’s okay to indulge in a sweet treat every now and then. Just be sure you choose one with the best ingredients possible.

Be well loves.

Love, Kimberly