My Most Popular Blog Posts: What Did I Forget?

Here’s a list of my some of my most popular posts on this Sugar Shock Blog. Please check back, because I’m still adding to this list. (It’s taking a while to compile all the hot posts since I founded this Sugar Shock Blog in early June 2005,.
Weight Loss Assistance
CLS May Reduce Stubborn Fat Around the Middle
How Not to Pig Out on Thanksgiving;
Musings and Commentary
Shame on Reporters Critical of Cookie Monster’s New Moderate Habits
Holiday Help
7 Tips to Squash Your Sugar Cravings this Holiday Season
5 Ways to Indulge Over the Holidays Without Gaining Weight
‘Tis the Season to be Stressed: 7 tips to Relieve Holiday Stress
Relieve Holiday Stress: Holiday Gift to You from Debra Berndt and Me (Audio Program)
5 Tips to Soften Halloween Sugar Shock
The Sour Scoop About Sugar
Sugar at “Safe” Levels Can be Deadly;
The Inside Scooop about Agave (I don’t recommend it)
iHigh Fructose corn Syrup: Some Scary Facts to Consider Before You Gulp Down Soda & Other Foods (with 3-minute video)
146 Reasons Why Sugar is Ruining Your Health (Guest column from Nancy Appleton)
Reformed Sugar Addict Alec Baldwin Interviews Dr. Robert Lustig;
The Fallacy of Diet Foods
Study Shows Diet Sodas Are Linked to Weight Gain
Tips to Let Go of Sugar or Pile off the Pounds
Delay Away Your Sugar Cravings (Creatively Procrastinate)
7 Tips to Help You Squash Your Sugar Addiction
Slipped? Destroyed Your Diet? 7 Tips to Get Back on Track
Humorous Takes on the News
Michelangelo’s David Returns to Italy After Touring the U.S.
Help to Shop
Stumped when Shopping? Some Sugar-Free Foods By Brand
Social Media
The best time(s) to post on social media
Get Social Media Secrets with Mitch Meyerson
Woo-Hoo, Feel-Good Tunes
Listen to Woo-Hoo, Feel-Good Tunes
Listen to Guests on My Gab with the Gurus Shows
Lose Weight with Best-Selling Author & Spiritual Activitist Marianne Williamson (she spoke about her then-new book, A Course in Weight Loss; she wasn’t running for Congress yet;
Anita Moorjani: On Cancer, Near Death & Treasuring Our Magnificence
Other Health Posts
Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar): Do You Have It?
Anita Moorjani: On Cancer, Near Death & Treasuring Our Magnificence;
Hyperactivity and Mental Woes Linked to Soda Consumption
Take Charge of Your Stress & Sleep: Two Keys to Live Life Well
Salt: The Forgotten Killer: — The AMA & CSPI Urge Crackdown On the White Powder, But What About The-More-Dangerous Substance, Sugar?
Other
Are You Among the 85 % of People With Low Self-Esteem? It Can Lead to Weight Gain & More
My Sweet, But Stringent Standards & Disclosures
Did I leave out your favorite posts? Let me know which one(s) to include.
Connie Bennett is a former sugar-addicted journalist and the author of two bestselling books, Beyond Sugar Shock and Sugar Shock, Connie’s sour-to-sweet story began in 1998, when she quit sugar on doctor’s orders. Her doctor blamed all 44 of her strange ailments (baffling brain fog, ferocious fatigue, horrible headaches, embarrassing mood swings, severe PMS, etc.) on her habit of eating hard candies, red licorice, refined crackers, and other quickie carbs. While releasing her sugar and carb addiction, Connie created many simple tactics to make letting go of sweets an easy, exciting adventure.
Since 2001, Connie has been helping thousands of sugar addicts worldwide through her Sugar Freedom Now Course, speaking, and coaching (she is a certified life coach, certified health coach and EFT practitioner). She founded this Sugar Shock Blog on June 7, 2005.
Subscribe now to this Sugar Shock Blog to get juicy tidbits, tips, and musings on healh, wellness, personal empowerment, social media, and more.

Curb Your Cravings by Tapping: Excerpt from Nick Ortner’s New Book

If you’re grappling with sugar or carb cravings and weight challenges, I highly recommend that you start tapping, a simple, but powerful process.
You can learn about this remarkable technique in Nick Ortner’s new book, The Tapping Solution: A Revolutionary System for Stress-Free Living. Thanks to the publisher, Hay House, I’m now presenting an excerpt so you can discover more how tapping can help you to break the hold that sugar, carbs or food has over you.
At the end of this Sugar Shock Blog post, you also can get the link to Nick’s and my Gab with the Gurus episode.
Losing Weight and Letting Go of Fear, Guilt, and Shame around Food
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. — Thomas A. Edison
“Tapping,” is said to be a combination of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology, and works with the body’s meridian points. Meridians, the basis of the ancient Chinese medical system of acupuncture, are defined as energy channels that carry the vital life force, or qi, to the organs and others systems of the body.
Running up and down either side of the body, each meridian is associated with a different organ—stomach, gall bladder, kidney, etc. Each meridian also has what’s called an “endpoint,” a specific location where you can access the energy channel on the surface of the body. This point can be manipulated using acupuncture needles or simple touch (acupressure) to balance or unblock the energy flow through that particular meridian.
“EFT,” or “Emotional Freedom Techniques” is a single tapping sequence that is designed to hit all the major meridian endpoints, and starts with the hand, then moves to the inner eyebrow, the outer eyebrow, underneath the eye, under the nose, the chin, the collarbone, and the side of the rib cage, then ends at the top of the head.
When you’re experiencing a negative emotional state—angry or upset or fearful—your brain goes on alert. Your adrenaline pumps, your muscles tense, and your blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar all rise to give you extra energy to meet the challenge; your body is preparing you to fight or flee.
The ongoing fight-or-flight response leaves us worn down, sick, upset, overweight, and stressed out. What tapping does, with amazing efficiency, is halt the fight-or-flight response, or stress response, and reprogram the brain and body to act—and react—differently.
Why Does Tapping Help with Weight Loss? The Stress Connection
The stress response can cause a massive cascade of events in your body, including:
On average four times less blood flow to your digestive system.
Lower absorption of nutrients.
Less enzyme production in your gut. (As much as 20,000 times less! This is one of the reasons why, when you eat a meal while you’re stressed, you’ll often feel bloated and uncomfortable.)
Decrease in gut flora population.
Increase in cholesterol.
Increase in cortisol and insulin levels.
The last item is particularly important for weight loss, because when your cortisol is consistently elevated, it’s hard to lose weight or build muscle. In fact, you’re more likely to gain weight, particularly around your midsection. When you lower your stress level (and obviously it’s not just stress about food, but lowering stress about everything and everything) your body will respond. You’ll lose weight, increase the absorption of nutrients, increase enzyme production (so you won’t feel bloated), increase healthy gut flora population, lower your cholesterol, and lower your cortisol and insulin levels. What is this magic diet? What do you eat? Whatever you want! Just relax while you’re doing it. . . .
EFT for Food Cravings
Another problem I often turn to is food cravings, because those are also easy to witness and measure.
Working with food cravings in front of a live audience follows a similar trajectory every time. First, we all have some good laughs as I introduce a bag of candy, chocolates, cookies, or other treats people often crave. I pass around the bag and have people pick their favorite. I have them look at it, smell it, and do whatever else it takes to bring their craving levels up. Then I ask for a few volunteers who want to work live onstage to reduce those cravings.
I first ask the volunteers to describe the intensity of their craving on a 0-to-10 scale—and what, in particular, they are feeling or noticing about the candy or chocolate. I immediately get answers like this:
“The craving is a 10. It smells so good . . . can I have a little bite? I love Snickers, and I’m so hungry!”
“It’s an 8. I didn’t eat much at lunch, and this would really fill me up.”
We all have some more laughs, as it becomes obvious that the volunteers are desperate to eat these treats!
And then we begin some very general tapping, and we tap through the points for several rounds.
This generally dulls the edge of the craving—that almost crazed desire for the food—and it’s what you can use yourself whenever you’re having a craving. Start with the most general and basic tapping to calm the body down. The next question I usually ask is, “If there was an emotion behind this craving, what would it be. If we don’t get to the root of the craving, to what’s causing it in the first place, it’s likely to come back a few hours or days later. Sure, you can tap it down each time. But why not handle the emotion right up front and get rid of the craving once and for all?
As people tune in to the emotions behind the craving, that’s when the laughter often turns into tears. Many of us use food to suppress or dampen negative emotions, events, and the overall stress in our lives.
As my friend Carol Look likes to say, “It’s not about the food!” The food is covering up or masking what’s really going on underneath. When you address the underlying patterns, emotions, events, and beliefs, that’s when your relationship with the food can shift toward something much more healthy.
Now, catch the Gab with the Gurus Show with Nick Ortner, who discusses the wonders of tapping.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gabwiththegurus/2013/04/24/nick-ortner-on-the-tapping-solution/scrub/120

Learn How to Easily Tap Away Your Cravings, Pain, Stress & More with Nick Ortner

Have you heard yet about tapping, the simple, but remarkable technique, which can help you easily manage and get to the core causes of your cravings, stress, anxiety, chronic pain, addiction, excess weight and just about any situation or challenge you’re facing?
No matter what you’re facing, you absolutely MUST learn about tapping or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which is revolutionary, but extraordinarily easy-to-do process.
Stay tuned, because next week (April 24), on my Gab with the Gurus Show, you’ll have a chance to learn about tapping from Nick Ortner, author of the fabulous New York Times bestselling book, The Tapping Solution. (As with all Gab with the Gurus Shows, you can listen live or later.)
Nick will explain to you that tapping or EFT is based on principles of both ancient acupressure and modern psychology. You’ll concentrate on specific meridian endpoints while you focus on negative emotions or physical sensations. (Yes, you want to zero in on what’s going on that’s driving you to sweets, making you anxious, or creating agony. Last night, tapping helped me so much with my grief-triggered insomnia — darn, did I sleep well afterwards!)
Nick, who is quite personable (he was on on my Sugar Freedom Now Virtual Camp a while back) will explain how, when you combine tapping with the spoken word, you’ll calm your nervous system to restore the balance of energy in the body and rewire your brain to respond in healthy ways.
Anyhow, make sure to join Nick Ortner and me on the Gab with the Gurus Show.
Spread the word to your friends, too.
All who listen to the Gab with the Gurus Show with Nick Ortner and buy his book, The Tapping Solution, will be able to get two free gifts. These will be of special interest to sugar or carb addicts or people, who want to shed weight.
You’ll get a program in which Nick helps sugar and carb addicts by helping you come up with the right words to use as you bid your addiction bye-bye. (This is a program Nick and I did to help members of my Sugar Freedom Now Virtual Retreat.)
You’ll also get a program, in which I interviewed tapping expert Carol Look, who helps you to deal with your cravings.
Both of these programs are quite powerful.
Obviously, you can guess that I’m a HUGE fan of tapping or EFT. In fact, I’m so excited about this simple, but revolutionary technique to help people with cravings, trauma, stress, and pain that I’ll soon undergo training myself to become a tapping practitioner. Plus, I’m working with an expert referred by Nick to help me triump however my traumatic last year with mom and its devastating aftermath.
Remember, to save the date: April 24 at 9 am PST to learn about tapping with Nick Ortner, author of the fabulous New York Times bestselling book, The Tapping Solution.

Alone for the Holidays? Guest Post from Arielle Ford

If you’re single this holiday season, here’s a three-step guide for making it a super-special time of year from my friend and colleague Arielle Ford, author of The Soulmate Secret. Now here are Arielle’s tips.
What do Do if You’re Alone this Holiday Season by Arielle Ford
First, for those of you who are sad, depressed, angry, or resigned to the thought you will always be alone, let me offer you a very short exercise.
1) Get out the egg timer and set it for 5 minutes.
2) For 5 minutes close your eyes and dive deep into the feelings you are feeling don’t resist on any level, just allow yourself too embrace the full (possibly unpleasant) experience of your sadness, anger, doubt, etc. Look and see where in your body the feelings reside, feel them and then see if you can feel them even more intensely.
3) Breathe deeply during this process and with each exhale, breathe out the emotion while silently saying to yourself thank you and goodbye. Chances are before the 5 minutes are up, all or most of these feelings will have dissipated. This is because you have stopped “resisting” feeling those feelings and you allowed yourself to be fully present with what was true for you in that moment.
Second: Now, get out your journal and make a list of three things you can accomplish between now and the end of the year that will make someone else’s life better. This can be anything from taking an elderly neighbor shopping, to serving food at a shelter, to a variety of random acts of kindness.
My favorite line from A Course In Miracles is this: “The only thing that can be lacking in any situation is that which you are not giving.” Want more love? Give love. You get the idea.
Finally, decide to create a memento of this holiday season that you will GIVE to your soulmate someday. It can be a special letter, photographs, a scrap-book or, my favorite, get out your video camera and make a short film that shows where you went and what you did for Holiday 2010 that you will want to share with him or her. This is an excellent way to “live as-if.”
P.S. Another very powerful solution for the blues is tapping. If you’ve never heard of Tapping before you’re going to be blown away at how powerful it is. Tapping is a technique that combines ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology with startling results. It’s used and recommended by leading experts such as Jack Canfield, Joe Vitale, Cheryl Richardson, Deepak Chopra, and many others (including me!). If you’re looking to release unpleasant emotions, create prosperity, clarity, energy focus, better physical and emotional health and much, much more, check this out. I use it EVERY DAY!

Tap Your Way to Breakthroughs: “The Tapping Solution”

Have you heard the buzz around the documentary film, “The Tapping Solution,” which spotlights the amazing power of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to change lives?
This breakthrough film — which features such renowned experts as Jack Canfield, Cheryl Richardson, Bruce Lipton, Carol Look, Dr. Joe Mercola, Joe Vitale and Dr. Patricia Carrington — documents EFT’s effectiveness to change the lives of people around the globe.
In this riveting 90-minute film, “The Tapping Solution,” you may laugh and even cry, but most importantly, you’ll learn the secrets to getting the most out of tapping so you, too, can experience the miracles and breakthroughs that are cited in the film.
Now the creators of the “The Tapping Solution” have raised the ante. I’m intrigued by what they’re proposing.
I recommend that you find out now what’s going on here.
FYI, this incredible opportunity is only available for FIVE days. So you’ll want to act fast.
By the way, this film is ONLY for those of you who are ready to change. To create and manifest what you most dream of and desire in life, learn about “The Tapping Solution” now.
In case you haven’t heard about EFT, it has been used:
* To help people overcome addictive patterns like over-eating and smoking
* To overcome fears related to public speaking, concentration and sports.
* To resolve insomnia.
* To deal with pain.
* To overcome phobias such as fear of heights, flying, enclosed spaces, driving, etc.
* To triumph over emotional trauma from physical abuse, war experiences, etc.
* To manage your depression, anger and other disturbing emotions.
* And much more.
I invite you now to check out “The Tapping Solution” and to share this with your friends, too. Just send them to http://tinyurl.com/TappingSolution-Connie
FYI, I’m a compensated affiliate for this program, which means that I can continue to bring you high-quality services and information. Please note, however, that I only share information about events, people or products in which I believe. Please stay tuned for an upcoming Gab with the Gurus Radio Show in which I interview experts in “The Tapping Solution.”