My results: The 30 Day Sugar Free Detox

What would possess someone to rid themselves of sugar?

Most people that I talked to were shocked that I was even thinking about it because they know how addicted I am.  My relationship with sugar was no longer balanced and I had no idea how to gain back the control that I once had. I was uncontrollably eating every sugary thing insight to an unhealthy and embarrassing degree. I eventually decided that I wanted to give up sugar and so the research began. I found an audio book that I listened to around Mother's Day and I felt inspired, so I checked out a different book from the library, The 21 Day Sugar Detox Cook Book and got started. The first thing I did was set goals for myself and why I thought this diet was important. It took a few days to do this and it was the hot topic in many of my conversations with Nick.

My Goals:
1. Lose the weight that I gained over the past few months (10 pounds)
2. Feel good/in control
3. Fix bad habits
     a. not hungry but putting food in my mouth
     b. so addicted to sugar that I lose my manners
     c. the inability to control myself when it comes to food
4. Weigh myself at the beginning and end of the 30 days
5. Keep a food journal
6. Track my calories

As I was setting my goals I was also cleaning out my cabinets. I put all the food I couldn't eat up high and out of reach.

Here is a VERY simple list of Yes and No foods.

The NO list                              The YES list
beans                                           meat
dairy products                              most vegetables
flour                                             sea food
sugar                                            most nuts
soy                                               fats and oils
fruits                                             lemons and limes
bread                                           1 sweet potato a day (If I worked out)
Cashews and peanuts                   1 green apple each day

The next step I took was making my meal plan for the first week. This took a couple of days worth of preparation but the 21 Day Sugar Detox Cook Book really helped.  The book had a meal plan in it and if you went to the website you could print out the grocery list. I changed a few of the meals but it wasn't that much of a change to my grocery list. Grocery shopping was a huge adventure as we set out to find some of the weirder things we had never heard of. This adventure took a few days and more than 3 grocery stores. Our kitchen was full of foods of all varieties and I was seriously excited to try out some new recipes.

Ready, Set, FOOD!

The first Meal of the diet was lamb burgers with a homemade avocado sauce.  Nick wasn't a huge fan but everyone else who tried it with me thought it was pretty amazing.

Beats, green apples, cucumber and carrot salad. The dressing was made of lemon juice and oil. MY FAV!

Kale chips not exactly the greatest thing on planet earth, but what do you expect from Kale?  It's kinda the nasty neighbor kid to spinach. Really though, I think it was the nutritional yeast that I didn't care for.

Deviled eggs with homemade mayo and pesto sauce.  I could eat these every single day! (ok, really I could eat hard-boiled eggs every single day)

Homemade dill crackers.  These had a good flavor but they turned to a dry dust in your mouth which wasn't exactly the most pleasant experience. They went well in vegetable soup, though.

Dry-rubbed ribs with homemade barbecue sauce, so good.  These have been made on multiple occasions.

Lemon artichoke chicken.  Nick said these were good for having artichoke on them.  Personally,  I loved the artichoke.

These are just some of the foods we tried. Most of them have been added to our regular menu of meals. My first week or two I was in the kitchen for at least 2 or 3 hours everyday preparing everything I needed i.e. homemade mayo, ketchup, BBQ sauce, salad dressings, and other sauces and dips. Most of everything I made was delicious but we did have a few things that we did not care for so we gave the leftovers away.

When I dedicated these 30 days to this diet I decided that I would not cheat because I wanted to see the results and not wonder "what if." It was hard because I made chocolate chip cookies TWICE and it's a habit to lick my fingers, bowl, and the spoon BUT I DIDN'T! I was so proud of myself. *happy dance*

Results:
1. Lose the weight that I gained over the past few months (10 pounds)
I cannot tell you how good I feel. As promised, on day 30 I weighed myself, 3 times actually because I couldn't believe the number on the scale. I had lost 11 pounds!

2.feel good/in control
Oh do I feel in control. I don't need sugar to help me motivate myself for anything and that alone is an amazing accomplishment. I realized that my "hangry" self was caused by low sugar levels more than hungry levels. (Nick contends that this is debatable though)

3.fix bad habits
     a. not hungry but putting food in my mouth
I originally thought this habit was for sweets but I found myself doing it with nuts what I had done with sugar and so I locked up my nuts in intervals as well to help fully break this habit. Still working on it though.

     b. so addicted to sugar that I lose my manners
GONE!

     c. the inability to control myself when it comes to food
This was another one that I found had nothing to do with sugar, just my addiction to food. I'm still trying to control it by measuring my food out and logging it in MyFitnessPal so I am held accountable to how much I am eating.

4. Weigh myself at the beginning and end of the 30 days
Nick hid the scale from me so you think this would be an easy one right? Well let me tell you I hit the gym almost everyday and they have 2 scales there however, I didn't use them!

5. Keep a food journal
At the beginning I started a notebook to keep track of everything and I did not do it :( I did keep track of most of my food via MyFitnessPal though, so not a total loss :/

6. Track my calories
Most days I did this!

Overall I feel great and plan to keep going while adding a few things back to my diet. Right now, though, it is hard to see a future with me and processed foods. If I want sugar then I am going to have to start with fruit, although ice cream is a massive temptation.

I hope you feel inspired! If you have an out-of-control relationship with sugar I would not hesitate to encourage you to try this 30 day detox!  Or should I say 30 day Habit Readjustment Diet?