The #1 Secret to Losing Weight without Dieting

If you read enough diet books, they contradict one another. One expert tells you to eat raw, another, high protein, another vegetarian. Who's right? While nutritionists may disagree on many things, there is one area where they agree: sugar makes you fat.

In Jorge Cruise's new program, the Belly Fat Diet, minimizing your sugar intake (under 15 grams per day: that's less than four teaspoons of sugar!) is the key to suppressing hunger, shedding pounds, and trimming away belly fat. I found this to be true in my own life. I was a sugar addict, constantly craving something sweet, eating compulsively to soothe my emotions, and eating sugar until I felt sick. My weight yo-yoed up and down. I hated the extra pounds from my sugar binges and suffered from a negative body image.

After 15 years of overeating, I kicked my sugar habit and transformed my body and health. My depression, mood swings and cravings lifted. My impatience, short fuse, and irritability diminished. My hunger decreased. I lost weight. My skin cleared up. I had constant energy all day long instead of afternoon crashes. I even looked at food differently: eating to fuel my body rather than to soothe my emotions.

Now I help women get off sugar, stop compulsive eating and love their bodies. For many people, sugar is addictive. One bite causes powerful cravings for more. While sugar's lure is powerful, it's possible to eat a sugar free diet and gain a trim, fit body, stable moods, and abundant energy. Just starting out? Here are 10 tips to remove sugar from your diet:

1. Add self care. Eliminating sugar will create a vacuum. Better to fill it with something positive, self-care, than something negative, self-sabotage. Have a good book to read to fill the hours you spent eating ice cream in front of the TV; learn a hobby instead of baking. Pamper your body by giving yourself facials, pedicures, or a massage instead of pampering yourself with cookies.

2. Keep your blood sugar stable. Eat breakfast, eat protein with every meal or snack, eat low GI foods, and eat at regular intervals. This will stabilize your blood sugar so that your moods and energy are at an even keel. Much of the time, I craved sugar because I was hungry (I was always trying eat less because I wanted to lose weight.) Eat enough so that you feel satisfied, and regularly enough so that you feel stable, and you won't crave so much junk.

3. Treat yourself like you're in detox. The first week of sugar abstinence is hard, when the cravings are at their most powerful. Be kind to yourself: this is not the time to tackle a large project, to implement lots of changes, or to work overtime. Give yourself extra support. Go to bed earlier. Take naps. Cook simple meals of foods that you can eat. Spend time in prayer and meditation. Call on others for support.

4. Create a supportive environment. Be kind to yourself and minimize triggers. For the first month after I gave up sugar, I asked my family to hide the sweets we had in the house so that I wouldn't seek them out and eat them. I avoided certain aisles in the grocery store, movie theaters, and abstained from any baking.

5. Hang on during the first week. The first 4 days without sugar are intense and uncomfortable: you may feel fatigued, irritable, angry, moody, and have strong sugar cravings. Hang in there. After those first few days, you will feel fantastic as you no longer crave the sugar. You'll feel the veil lift and feel better than you have in years.

6. Be a diet detective. There is no one diet or way of eating that works for every body. Use your body as a guinea pig to learn which foods make you feel your best. How did I learn that eating tortilla chips makes me crave sugar? By observing my body. How did I learn that a paleo diet of lean meats, lots of veggies, berries, nuts, avocados and healthy fats makes me feel fantastic? By observing my body.

7. Give up fake sugars. I know this is a tough one to follow: many women rely on Diet sodas when they're craving something sweet. But in my experience, aspartame, Nutrasweet, and Splenda don't quell sugar cravings, but increase them. A study at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio found that a person's risk for obesity went up a whopping 41% for each daily can of Diet soda.

8. Just start over whenever you slip and fall. Don't wait until the next morning to start over when you blow it. Don't let a slip turn into permission to binge. Be kind to yourself when you mess up, and get right back on track. Adopt a mantra. (I like, "I am strong and resilient.") Brush your teeth or have some other ritual to signify that you are "done" eating. Remove yourself from food: take a walk, call a friend, go outside, go to the library. Do something to change your environment so you can switch gears.

9. Release the shame of being overweight. Sugar addiction and weight gain are not character defects; they're symptoms of poor self-care skills. Most of us aren't taught how to nurture ourselves in healthy ways, which is why we seek comfort in food. The good news? Healthy self-care can be learned. In fact, you're doing it right now, by looking for alternative ways to care for yourself.

10. Be willing to ride cravings. Your mind will try and convince you that you will die without a candy bar, Coke, or ice cream. But you won't. Be willing to sit with the discomfort of a craving. Cravings are emotions, and you need to let them move through your body: e-motion. Most last 10 minutes. Anything that helps move that craving energy through your body is very helpful during that time: going for a car ride, walking, swinging, dancing, yoga, knitting, deep breathing, meditation, and even rocking in a rocking chair.

When I was a compulsive overeater, I couldn't imagine life without sugar. Sugar was my reward for working so hard, for taking care of a large family, for being a "good" girl. By God, I felt like I deserved that ice cream, that candy bar, that bowl of granola. Actually, what I deserve is what everyone deserves: a nourishing, satisfying, love-filled, high energy, dynamic life. That is what I found by giving up sugar. That is what I also wish for you.

Karly Randolph Pitman is the founder of Firstourselves.com, giving women tools to heal a negative body image, overeating, and sugar addiction. She uses self-care - love in action - to create emotionally, spiritually, and physically nourishing lives. The author of Overcoming Sugar Addiction and Heal Your Body Image, she offers workshops and teleclasses on giving up sugar, ending emotional eating and loving your body. Follow her on twitter, sign up for her free monthly newsletters, or join her on Facebook.