We all know how tempting it can be to reach for something sweet when the craving hits, but what happens when it feels like you’ve lost control over your sugar intake? In today’s blog, I’d like to share the journey of one of my clients, a woman in her 30s, who struggled with mindless grazing on sweets, biscuits, and chocolates without even fully enjoying them. By using a powerful Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) technique called SWISH, we were able to regain control of her sugar habits, moving from guilt and shame to a healthier relationship with food.
The Challenge: Overcoming Sugar Cravings
My client was dealing with a common challenge: she wanted to control her refined sugar intake, but sugary treats were always present in her household. She bought biscuits for her husband and sweets for her children but often found herself succumbing to the temptation as well.
What made this more challenging was the effect sugar was having on her body. After eating sweets, she felt sluggish, experienced stomach pains, and grew upset at the thought of harming herself with unhealthy choices. She recognised that her triggers were often boredom, the need for a sugar rush, or even the influence of her husband’s negative behaviour. This urge would hit after lunch, at petrol stations, or during family cinema trips.
The Experience of a Sugar Craving
When I asked her to describe the moments before she gave in to temptation, she painted a vivid picture. At home, the sight of the kitchen cupboard containing biscuits and sweets was enough to spark excitement. She described a mental ‘fanfare’ when she opened the cupboard, with childhood memories flooding back. This connection to sugary foods as childhood treats held a powerful emotional pull.
Outside the home, she would often open sweets before even reaching the car after buying them for her children, or at the cinema, she would start eating them before the movie began. The automatic nature of her behaviour, combined with her guilt and shame after indulging, disrupted her energy. Even though she used Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) on herself, it often only delayed the inevitable.
The NLP Approach: Using the SWISH Pattern
During our session, we decided to tackle her cravings using an NLP tool called the SWISH pattern. This technique is designed to replace an unwanted behaviour with a more desirable one by using the mind’s natural ability to associate images and feelings. The key to success was addressing one specific behaviour at a time, so we focused first on biscuits and then sweets.
We started by visualising the unwanted behaviour. With her eyes closed, I asked my client to mentally walk through the process she normally went through when reaching for a biscuit: opening the cupboard, lifting the lid of the biscuit tin, and bringing a biscuit to her mouth. She took a mental snapshot of this moment and set the image aside.
Next, we created a more desirable outcome. In her case, it was imagining herself dancing in the kitchen, feeling lighter with clearer skin and a flatter tummy. With this image in mind, we mentally shrunk it down to the size of a postage stamp, while at the same time enlarging the image of her reaching for the biscuit. Then, on my instruction, she mentally swapped the images, turning the old behaviour into a blur and magnifying the positive outcome.
We repeated this process several times, each time making the unwanted behaviour less clear in her mind and replacing it with the image of her desired outcome. We future-paced various scenarios, such as going to the petrol station, visiting the cinema, and longer car journeys, imagining her choosing healthier options instead of sugary treats.
Immediate Results
The results of the session were immediate. After the SWISH process, she reported that she no longer felt the urge to go to the kitchen cupboard, and even if she did, she couldn’t ‘see’ the sweets in her mind. Similarly, the next time she went to pay for petrol, she visualised handing the sweets to her children without eating any herself and even felt sick at the thought of indulging. When we talked about cinema trips, she described how the ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ bar seemed to have been erased from her mind.
Later that day, I received a text from her saying, "I've had my usual cuppa but without the biscuits. Thank you."
Long-Term Results and Deeper Work
While the SWISH technique worked incredibly well for immediate behaviour change, there was still deeper work to do. We scheduled additional sessions to address the underlying guilt and shame she felt after indulging in sweets, and we explored limiting beliefs and childhood trauma that were likely contributing to her cravings.
A month later, she continued to have more control over her sugar intake. By focusing on her triggers and using tools like EFT and NLP, she developed a healthier relationship with food and regained control over her choices.
Final Thoughts
It’s easy to blame ourselves when we can’t resist sugar cravings, but often, there’s more beneath the surface than just a lack of willpower. Cravings are frequently tied to deeper emotional connections, past experiences, or even ingrained habits from childhood. Many of us grew up associating sweets with rewards, comfort, or moments of happiness, and these associations can be deeply embedded in our psyche. Breaking the habit isn't just about resisting the sugar itself—it's about untangling the emotional ties and addressing the underlying beliefs that drive the craving.
Additionally, blood sugar levels play a significant role in sugar cravings, and it’s important to remember that it's not entirely your fault when cravings hit. When we consume refined sugars, they cause our blood sugar to spike, leading to a surge of energy. But this is quickly followed by a crash, leaving us feeling tired and craving another sugary fix to bring our energy back up. These peaks and troughs in blood sugar can create a cycle that feels hard to break, and it's a physiological response, not a failure of self-control. So rather than feeling guilty, it’s helpful to understand that these cravings are your body’s way of responding to fluctuating blood sugar levels.
Self-compassion is key in this process. Beating yourself up for succumbing to cravings only reinforces negative emotions like guilt and shame, which can perpetuate the cycle of seeking comfort in food. By approaching your cravings with curiosity and understanding, you can uncover the deeper reasons behind them and address them from a place of self-love rather than self-judgment. Tools like NLP and EFT are especially powerful because they help reframe these automatic behaviours and dissolve the emotional triggers attached to them.
By using techniques like NLP and EFT, we can identify and work through the emotional and psychological triggers behind cravings, creating lasting change.
If you’re struggling with unwanted behaviours, whether it’s sugar cravings or something else, know that there are effective tools that can help you take back control. The SWISH pattern is just one example of how powerful your mind can be in shifting habits and creating new, healthier patterns.
Are sugar cravings controlling your life? Let’s work together to find the root cause and create a future where you feel more empowered and in control of your habits.
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