I have a huge sweet tooth. I always preferred dessert over the savory!
It is hard, and my cheat/ massive fail days usually consisted of eating candy and donuts the entire day.
However I can tell you that 10+ months of IF, while it hasn’t “cured” my sweet tooth, it has helped me to prioritize when to eat sweets, because my body is not as used to getting as much sugar as it did prior to IF. So I basically started feeling quite sick (most IF-era will tell you the same) over time when I’d eat too much sugar! My stomach would be awful for a day and my digestive system was literally crying in pain.
So I know what my body’s natural sugar limit is now, and I know that my body is telling me not to eat above it. So I still get cravings, but they are managed by knowing it’s not what my body really wants, and the knowledge that I will feel terrible after.
Do I still overindulge occasionally? Yes! But rarely, and to a much lesser extent.
I have been a tea with milk and sugar drinker for over 40 years. I don’t know what kind of tea you drink. But mine was regular black Lipton tea. To help eliminate sugar, I switched to green tea (which is more mild). I buy the kind with mango or peach flavor. Still get the caffeine (which I will never give up) but the taste is better than black tea without anything added. I’ve been doing this for 3 months and it is normal now. I do, however, occasionally splurge with a Chai tea latte from the coffee shop, but its a weekend treat only.
Good luck with your progress.
I know that this is not the advice you are looking for, but the only thing that has ever worked for me is cutting sugar completely.
Maybe not sugar as an ingredient, but at least all types of sweets even with artificial sweeteners, low-calorie stuff, etc.
For me the sad reality is that I am not a disciplined person, so the saying “100% is easy, 99% is hard as hell” is definitely true for me. I quit it and never look back.
It’ll take some time, before I was fasting I originally had 3 sugars with milk in my coffee , and I would have 2 every morning before I left the house.
The first 2 weeks going black coffee only was rough. I started making cold brew and that was easier to transition to, now I can easily drink it black hot or cold.
Either way you’ve gotta just stay strong and get over the first few weeks, once you get into your new routine it’ll be much easier. I can’t even drink coffee with ant sugar now because it’s too sickly for me.
It helps if you find a way to brew your tea so it’s less bitter. I know that I try to drink coffee in my window usually so I start early. The only black coffee i like is La Colombe Cold brew but it’s pricy lol and also hard to come by… so yeah maybe a higher quality tea or figure out the best way to brew it. Or even try and cold brew it if that works!
I will try to get sugar free alternative but it’s really about self control until you no longer feel intense cravings. Maybe eat more sweets in your window? I mean like more fruit or something that satisfies that craving. For me it’s using peanut butter with banana lol bc banana is sweet and has fiber so you feel satisfied. And the fat is also satisfying and then I sprinkle some stevia sweetened chocolate chips. Part of it too is like it taste good enough to be enjoyed but also taste health enough not to over indulge LOL(Like Reese’s PBCups for me)
I forgot to mention I have to put cream in my coffee I use non dairy and I will use sugar or a sweet cream most of the time bc I just love the flavor and will use lakantos syrups or sweetener…
But! When I don’t add any sugar to the coffee/creamer I will sprinkle cinnamon on it and that helps idk if a little sprinkle of that would break fast but I hope that helps!!!
I just started 16:8 last week but I continued to have my regular coffee with milk and sugar and flavored torani syrup. I knew that it wasn’t a “proper” fast but I also knew I’d be less likely to build the fasting habit if I took that away from myself. I’m slowly going to ease off the add-ins until I’m at black coffee. All that said, I still lost 2lbs last week. No significant diet changes. Just 16:8.
I hate to say it, but you’ll probably be better off cutting out all the sugar (and over processed carbs) and NOT using sweeteners. It’s not an easy transition but you’ll be surprised how quickly it kicks in that ‘normal’ levels of sweetness have suddenly become too sickly to eat. And you won’t get those cravings anymore.. it’s hard but totally worth it…good luck!