21-Day Sugar Detox

[SteveinMN]

We went off the program the other day with pasta for lunch and then a cinnabon for snack. It was good at the moment but we both suffered afterwards

I've never had a "sweet tooth", but refined sugar is such a small part of my diet anymore that eating a donut or more than a couple of bites of cake almost makes me sick thinking about it. Just kind of that "I know what's going to happen and I don't like it" feeling. It makes it quite easy (for me) to walk away. Now if only I could apply that psychology to a few other foods....

Hubby has been allowed dark chocolate as long as the cacoa content is over 70 percent. It is a small treat that is really worthwilhile, so for the poster with chocolate cravings (all of us, lol) check into the GOOD stuff.

A little bit of good chocolate is far more satisfying than a lot of some cheap-o Hershey bar or such. There's more flavor, a better mouthfeel. Good chocolate is not inexpensive, but in the long run, it probably isn't more expensive than buying more of the cheap stuff.

[Mrs-M]

Happy New Year, Watergoddess!

I'm going to pass on this challenge this time around, but am extending much success and encouragement to all!

Maria527. Extending a warm welcome your way! Hope you become a regular face/member to our home.

[lhamo]

I'll "lean" along with you folks! My big goal for this year is to get my blood sugar issues under control. I have been hypoglycemic all my life, so I know sugar is a big problem for me. But so hard to cut out. Need to do it, though. But I also can't just cut out chocolate entirely! So I'll try to reduce and substitute other things.

For the coffee drinkers, I highly recommend using half and half or cream in your coffee. I started doing this when I was cutting back on sugar last year, and now I can't drink coffee with sugar in it -- too sweet! Only took me a couple of days to adapt to/learn to love the new style.

lhamo

[Geila]

It's great to have so much company! Thanks for the support and encouragement everyone. I really admire all of you who have been able to stay off sugar for several years. I've been working on it for several years myself but seem to relapse about once a year and that relapse lasts several months. And of course it's so hard to get back on course. Last year I was doing really great for most of the year but then a series of events hit (minor surgery, etc.) and then the holidays. So here we go again!

Yesterday was mostly a success. We had a new year's party and had a bunch of leftovers so I threw them out: french bread, cherry pie, carrot cake, etc. On the negative side, I had a good-sized piece of dark-chocolate covered toffee. But it was the last one in the box so no more temptation. Right now my sugar cravings are pretty high (that time of month as well). My goal is to get thru today without buying one of those Panera cranberry muffins.

Thanks for the reminder that I can use xylitol in my coffee! I forgot about that. I'm going to do that tomorrow. I mainly use Splenda because it does not cause sugar cravings for me but I know it's not a good thing either. I am really sensitive to sugar in any form. Here is a great article that confirmed what I had already discovered:

http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/08/m...tolerance.html

I can't really do dairy either. I notice a negative reaction almost as soon as I eat it and I always break out too. So really, my top three offenders are sugar, wheat and dairy. I feel amazing when I cut those out. I don't know why I keep allowing them back in. Crazy human!

Right now I won't worry about restricting fruit or other grains because I want to get the top three off, but eventually I want to get back to my low-carb paleo. I do best on that.

How's everyone doing today?

Maria527 - I just saw that you are also doing low-carb paleo. Fantastic! And you have inspired me to get in the 30-mins of exercise. I think I'll go for a walk right now. Thanks!

[leslieann]

That paleomom site is terrific, watergoddess. Thank you for that. She offers lots of well supported information and useful links to other resources.

[leslieann]

Reporting on yesterday: Fail at the no-sugar part. But success if I count generally improving my nutrition. So I had lots of vegetables, good quality meat and fish, and then when I hit the chocolate it was after dinner (but not planned and pretty impulsive/binge-ey).

I am not giving myself a hard time about it, though, and today I have upped the veggies even more, plus made sure I fed myself enough so far today.

Also, DH took a pile of sweets out of the house and into the office today. What doesn't leave over the weekend will leave in the trash or compost on Monday, so we'll be clear of that.

I roasted sweet potatoes and have to say that when I am off "sugar" those sweet potatoes taste like candy to me. Delicious.

[Tussiemussies]

After hubby's heart troubles, the doc put him on a low glycemic diet - similar to a diabetic diet. It can be low carb but is definately low to no sugar. I have joined him in this dietary change, and have to say I feel so much more energetic!

We went off the program the other day with pasta for lunch and then a cinnabon for snack. It was good at the moment but we both suffered afterwards - me with a nauseous feeling and dh with headache and racing heart. I have to say that sugar is addicting and the removal of it will cause symptoms and then slipping up is "self -correcting ", at least in our case.

Hubby has been allowed dark chocolate as long as the cacoa content is over 70 percent. It is a small treat that is really worthwilhile, so for the poster with chocolate cravings (all of us, lol) check into the GOOD stuff.

Hi, DH and I also follow a no refined sugar diet which I feel so much better just as you do. For a treat my DH makes a dark chocolate cake made with black beans, eggs and stevia and dark cocoa. Stevia is a totally safe sweetener that comes from a plant. Truvia in the grocery store is made from stevia. Anyway the cake comes out nice and DK takes Dark cocoa and mixes it with olive oil and stevia and it makes a great thin topping. It is more like a snack cake but at least a little treat! Just FYI

[Tussiemussies]

PS. For all of us following this diet just FYI, any sugar alcohol in food is very toxic to the body. Artificial sweeteners are also very toxic to the body, just FYI for better health...

[lhamo]

I also had a major fail yesterday. Note to self: A box of chocolate covered almonds in the desk drawer is not conducive to reducing one's daily sugar intake! Moment of weakness at a point in the day where I was feeling rather stressed. It made me feel rather sick, actually, which I knew mentally would happen but it is always funny how your cravings/stress responses can outweigh the careful thinking of your frontal cortex.

Anyhoo, that is over and done with and I have promised myself NO MORE CHOCOLATE IN THE DESK DRAWER! I do have nuts and other things, so if I need a snack there is something there.

Now to make it through the weekend.

lhamo

[Geila]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who struggled yesterday! I did fine until about 8 pm when we were watching a movie and I remembered I still had choc chip cookie dough in the fridge. I did throw it out, but not until after I had made and eaten a batch of it. I felt really yucky physically, and was pretty disappointed in myself.

But today is a new day! I used xylitol in my coffee instead of sugar and I'm going to go thru my fridge and pantry and toss out anything else that I find. It's hard to throw out perfectly good food but I know how harmful it is to me.

leslieann - I'm glad you like The Paleo Mom blog. She's terrific. I love how she delves into subjects and really tries to understand what's going on; and the fact that she always stresses listening to your own body. Even though I follow a mostly paleo diet I make changes based on how I respond to foods. I don't do fermented foods at all and I don't do gluten substitutes or paleo baking. I would rather just eliminate foods that my body doesn't handle well than do all that work to find substitutes which might come with their own set of problems. I also like these two blogs - although Paleo Parents sometimes do focus a bit too much on desserty type things, but that's probably because they have kids:

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/

http://paleoparents.com/blog/

Good luck everyone!