Getting the jitters just looking at this XD

Thats why I personally don't drink coffee

No joke...minimum ten cups a day for me. Black. If I don't get at LEAST that much I feel like passing out.

"I'm not addicted these are just choices! I can stop anytime I want! (Hit me up with another, black as night!)"

Wow. I know very few people that like black coffee. Most of the people who I know who drinks coffee either has decaf, mocha, iced coffee, or "Regular" (with added milk) coffee.

I used to have it with sugar and milk, then just milk, and then about three months ago I switched to black because we were going through too much milk. It's one of those things that takes some adjusting too.

Well, you got to do what you got to do during this pandemic I guess..

I actually started drinking it black BEFORE the pandemic hit. I stopped putting milk in it because it was getting to expensive to go through two liters of milk a day. XD

Yeah, milk is getting expensive. Unfortunately I eat a lot of cereal so I can't go without ;w;

I used to eat a lot of cereal too, mostly Cherios and low-sugar Rice Crispies...but now even those are too sweet for me. Even just the SMELL of refined sugar makes me nauseous now.

the opposite for me. i love sugar XD

I used to...until I started watching documentaries about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ksKkCOgTw

yeah, i know sugar is terrible. probably get diabetes later in life

That can be avoided by cutting out refined sugar you know. If I can do it, anyone can.

i guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5SNAluOj6U

well i guess i do not then. i'm going to die anyways

I used to have that attitude about it...until the documentaries showed me the sugar industry isn't just hurting ME...it's a big contributor to climate change and hurts people in poorer areas much more. So I treated it as a boycott, not a "personal health choice," even if it IS both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oq24hITFTY

I know it is... unfortunately even healthy food over in America has processed shit in it. And the REALLY ORGANIC stuff is so overpriced that it costs $15.00 USD for a SMALL jar of organic honey that has nothing processed. That isn't so bad, until you factor in ALL the other organic food that costs the same, ranking up the costs per week of shopping. Meanwhile, the processed foods cost like $5 USD, $2USD, and even .99 Cents. Lets face it, only the rich can be healthy in Western world

That is EXACTLY why we need to fight the food industry. It's the very thing that got me to boycott it in the first [place.

It IS almost always possible to eat healthy even on a budget...you just need to be smart about it. Look for deals and always read the ingredient labels.

Well I do in fact discard quite a few brands and products that disgust me. For instance I never eat that hogwash Frankenstein meat called "Spam", that horrid crud that is "luncheables" (seriously for a while that was my only lunch when I was little in school and one day I ate undercooked "hotdogs" from that which horrifies me now), ANYTHING that is made by Chef Boyardi or their equivalents, Kraft Mac & Cheese, ANY Maruchan product (mainly Ramen noodles, though the noodles themselves aren't bad but the flavor packages are certainly terrible), and ANYTHING MADE THAT FUCKING HOO HAW Jimmy Dean Meats/Breakfast Products (They bludgeon animals for sick enjoyment, according to a secret report, and let them suffer (While many factory farms are downright evil to animals Jimmy Dean/Tyson Chicken Farms are THE ABSOLUTE WORST)
My family also tries to cut salts out of food as well. But I still have a long way to go, however, because I still heavily crave foods that I know are ruining the environment.

This is all good. And shaking the junk food addiction isn't something that happens overnight. It took me almost a whole year to go completely sugar-free.

One thing you do need to watch out for and ALWAYS check ingredients labels for is glucose-fructose/high-fructose corn syrup. It's five times as sweet, five times cheaper than and MUCH more toxic than cane sugar...and of course food companies put it in everything they can.

What about sweeteners like Stevia? Or Carob? I've wanted to know if other natural alternatives to sugar are good, or bad?

Definitely this summer I want to try to cut sugar. I drank too much soda in my life already.

Sugar alternatives...are complicated. Some like Sucralose (Splenda) so far seem to have no adverse affects...except one, which I'll get into later.

There are a lot of kinds that in small amount are okay...but in large quantities can cause indigestion and diarrhea.

Aspartame is outright poisonous as it turns into formaldehyde in the body.

What all these have in common though...is even if the body doesn't process them as calories...the brain is tricked into thinking it should because it's sweet. It doesn't matter how many calories something actually has, if it TASTES sweet, it signals your brain to start releasing insulin to break it down...and then there's nothing to break down, so your blood chemistry confuses itself and this can lead to many unknown health issues. Plus, it's the same as smokers trying to quit by vaping. If you're still consuming the same substance in a different form, your dependence on said substance will continue, defeating the purpose.

The best strategy I found is to use the power of the mind to your advantage. You keep eating junk because it "tastes good," right? It makes you feel good for a few minutes. Convince yourself otherwise. Tell yourself it tastes gross. Tell yourself it's poisonous and that every time you ingest it your damaging your body. Think of other gross things when confronted with junk food...like, say...actual junk. Every time you see ice cream or cake or chocolate or whatever...think about rotting garbage or feces. Eventually, this will permanently change how you feel about junk food, as it did with me. When you tell yourself something is gross long enough, it will BECOME gross to you. That's why even the smell of caramelized sugar now makes me nauseous.

Well I will definitely start working on eating less sugar and stuff of that nature starting this summer and maybe by the end of this year I will be avoiding those cravings. It will be a long process for me because I am very rooted into sugar and processed salt, but I do have faith in myself that I can do it

Another good strategy is "snack substitution." Instead of telling yourself "I will resist the urge to eat junk today," say "I'm going to eat something better today." If you crave potato chips, have unflavored tortilla chips or Triscuit crackers instead. Instead of white bread, eat whole grain bread. Instead of white pasta, whole grain pasta. Instead of white rice, brown, red or dark rice, etc.

Whole grains that are very high in fiber are one of the best ways to both satisfy cravings AND help flush out the "junk" in your body that has accumulated over the tears. As William Shatner put it, "Fiber...can be your FRIEND!"

Yeah, I heard about how fiber is really good. Thanks for the help/advice :)