By Femi Paseda
For every lovely woman looking to live healthily, we’ll be looking at a sensitive topic today, talking about sugar addictions and how we can quit them. The truth is that we are so caught criticizing many other addictions like smoking, drinking, and of course, the use of hard drugs that we forget to tackle sugar addictions. Sugar addictions are real, and more than 75% of Nigerian women are addicted to sugary drinks and foods that we do not know hamper the possibility of healthy living. Before we say, Jack Robinson, you’re already ordering smoothies.
Before we share the grace in the church, you’re already ordering a chilled drink with ice inside. Before you go to bed, you take a glass of wine, and this is a daily routine hampering the possibility of healthy living. According to WHO, 4.3% of Nigerian women get diabetes as a result of sugar addiction, 36.9% become overweight, 14.3% become obese, and 21.8% become physically inactive.
These are scary figures, and a lot of us fall into these categories. However, you do not need to fear; you just need change (and I mean the real change, not the one we are experiencing in the country; else, you are deceiving yourself). Here are some of the things you can start doing to quit your sugar addictions now.
Replace your cravings with real food
This might take some time to perfect, but it works, and for every time you have a sugar craving, replace that craving with real food. In fact, to make it sweeter, for every sugary craving, replace the first letter with another healthy food with the same first letter. For example, smoothie – Semo, cola – corn, Bigi – beans, ice cream – Irish potato. Avoid the shortcut of herbal drinks, thinking that after taking all the sugar in the world, one or two doses of herbal drinks can clear all the sugar – it does not work that way.
Manage your stress
Stress is something we all experience as women; in fact, it is more predominant in Lagos, where we have to sit in traffic for hours to get to work and get back home as well. No wonder Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai said that those living in Lagos have already lived in hell and should be given a free pass to heaven.
However, you still need to find a way to manage your stress because when we are tired and stressed most of the time, we look for something; anything that can make us happy and sugary drinks is the first thing we set our sights on. Instead, do something else to manage your stress like listening to music, talking to a friend, starting a conversation and any other thing you can do to light up your situation. If you’re at home, you can exercise, meditate, and, most importantly, get enough sleep if you want to stand any chance of living healthy.
Hydrate
You do not have to be tired of hearing it because hydration is one of the best tips for healthy living. In fact, when we’re dehydrated most of the time, our minds trick us into thinking that we need food when it is not the case.
Final Note
Do everything you can to quit your sugar addiction as a woman because it is either you quit, or the sugar takes its toll on you and puts you in a precarious position where you have to endure life. Don’t wait for the sugar to end you; end your sugar craving now.
