Totally normal! Your body is craving sugar because it’s trying to get the dopamine “fix” it’s missing now that you stopped drinking. The reward centers in your brain need a new fix and sugar is a readily available replacement.
If you are not careful, you will end up replacing your alcohol addiction with a sugar addiction. I speak from personal experience here as someone who woke up one day and realized, “Oh crap! I’m eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s almost every day (Half Baked, please!) and devouring carbs like a madwoman.”
Avoiding Excessive Sugar In Sobriety
In addition to avoiding another addiction cycle, consuming too much sugar is going to continue the terrible cycle of blood sugar spikes and crashes you engaged in when you drank alcohol.
This is where I found myself, which is why you have to make good nutrition a priority in sobriety from the beginning.
A caveat – if you are hanging by a thread and eating a Snickers bar on Friday’s at 5 PM is helping you stay away from happy hour, then do it. I am NOT suggesting you try to eliminate sugar from your diet right away. In fact, please don’t. It’s too much all at once.
I am giving a gentle warning to not let it get too out of control or you will find yourself right back where you started, trying to deal with another addiction. Getting out of the addiction cycle takes time, patience, good friends and so much more.
Keep up the good work and stay awesome,
Kimberley XOXO