I have been doing Schwarzbein since about the first of this year, and I can't say that I've ever completely gotten rid of my sweet tooth, either. I haven't, however, gone strictly without sweets all that time.

Still, I was encouraged the other night by a noticeable change in perspective. I was really, really craving something sweet/carby after dinner, and I "binged." That "binge" consisted of about 1/3 c. of natural cereal w/ milk and exactly 16 Ghirardelli chocolate chips. I was feeling a bit guilty at first, and then I remembered what a binge used to look like for me. I get intense monthly cravings, and a night like this used to lead to something like 6 times that much cereal or, sometimes even and, 1/3-1/2 cup of chocolate chips (who measured?!!) Or maybe it would be ridiculously large amounts of ice cream or whatever other treat we had in the house. That would result in a sort of sugar hangover for the next couple of days, with me extremely irritable and desperately depressed. Suddenly this last little "binge" didn't seem so tragic.

And I was perfectly satisfied with that little treat -- even felt like the chocolate was a bit too much. On another night, 8 of those good, dark chocolate chips (4.5 g of carbs) completely satisfied the sweet tooth with no apparent ill effects. I have a hard time believing that kind of a treat, even fairly often, is likely to be devastating to anyone's health. Maybe I'll use the rule we used with our kids to keep them from getting into a TV habit - no two days in a row.

I should say that I recently got impatient and tried Atkins Induction. I lasted exactly 8 days before I got sick of having headaches and the shakes and decided again that I would rather be healthy than speed up the weight loss. I'm still glad I quit Atkins, but I think those few days with virtually no carbs helped me to really relish the carbs I added back in, rather than still feeling deprived because I had been accustomed to so much more.

Anyway, I begin to think I've finally found what I need to help me tame the beast and no longer be completely mauled by it on a regular basis. That's my main concern regarding sweets.

Beth N.