Are you a sugar addict? Is sugar addiction even real? What’s the difference between sugar addiction and emotional eating? If we’re addicted to sugar, what should we do? These are all the questions we will answer with Bitten Jonsson, RN, ADDIS/SUGAR Certified and a Sugar Addiction Specialist. I gave her carte blanche to use my own assessment to explain and help you understand addiction. If you look at the medical definition of addiction… I’m an addict. Throughout my life, I have been addicted to many substances and activities: started with sugar then moved on to drugs and nicotine and then human co-dependency and work. As Bitten described, I have an addictive personality. But I don’t like the label of addict. To be honest, I don’t like labeling altogether. I find labeling to be very disempowering. When I labeled myself as an addict, which I did in my twenties, it made my addiction worse. I thought I was powerless.... that the substance had more power than I could ever have over my own addiction. For me, my addictive behaviors are a message from my soul... once I understood this concept of addiction, it allowed me to recover as they say in the word of addiction. Instead of recovery, I say I surrendered. Surrendering to my addictions created the Going Beyond The Food Method. The Going Beyond The Food Method was born from me hitting rock bottom and seeing the story repeating itself in my patients. It's about shining the light on your possibilities by acknowledging and having compassion for your darkness. The Going Beyond The Food Method is what healed my sugar addiction at 38 years old. But it also what allowed me to stop nicotine too at 36 years old... I just didn’t know that’s what I was doing! That you are watching on video or listening on the podcast I hope my vulnerability in sharing my story will help one of you... to see the light and what is possible. In this episode we discuss The definition of sugar addiction A quick tour to your brain - the three types of brain  I also shared my own addiction assessment that Bitten completed   Last episode I talked about a superstar student of the current semester of the Going Beyond The Food Academy is seeing so much results in a short 4–week period that she feels the duty to share our method with people in her life that need it.  She wanted to know if we have an episode of the podcast she could share with people that would encapsulate our approach and what to do to get started… we didn’t have one. Well, that’s not true. We had many that dissected one point but none that recaps our approach at a higher level. One designed for beginners.   So, I created it… Practicing the basics is just that! Click here.  Leave me a review, if you enjoy the show and would love to encourage and support my work, leave me an honest review using this link, click here. For a podcaster like me, reviews are like a fuel... and I would appreciate hearing from you more than I could possibly say!  Here's a quick tutorial on How to leave a review.      Links mentioned in the episode Bitten Jonsson's website Get your Food Freedom Score Take the Food Freedom Challenge Audio Training: How to Change Any Eating Habits   Submit a question for the next episode If you want to submit a question for Stephanie's next episode, click here and join our free and private community.   Reach Stephanie  Website Facebook Instagram YouTube Email