21 Day Sugar Detox... Day ??

Alright, so apparently everyone was skeptical about me doing this. Hubs lasted a total of 3 days before he caved and ate any break and candy he could find.... thank hunny....

 The things I learned for a week on the detox.

  *Its HARD!: You don't realize how many things you eat in a day that are just your go to snacky items that have sugar or something else that's a "no-no" for the Sugar Detox. yes there is more than just sugar.

 *I was hungry: I was pretty much hungry from Wednesday afternoon on. I know I wasn't eating enough of something, but I just couldn't ever figure out what that was!

 *Read labels: the biggest thing is that reading labels is a good thing! Sometimes you don't realize what you are putting into your body, and your kids too!  

 *Bread is crazy in my gut: This sounds outrageous after just a week, but bread is killer on me! You are supposed to give up all wheat and pastas and breads ect for this detox. While that is next to impossible at our house where bread IS a food-group, I did it. And now, let me tell you, a half hour after eating bread my gut in in flip flop mode. Its not horrible, but its enough to make me wonder. So over the weekend I tested it out and sure enough each time I had bread with a meal I could feel it later.

 WILD!!?? I think so!

  *Headaches: I have headaches. All the time. Its more like a "oh its 2:00 headache time" Thats about how my life has gone for months, maybe years. I just deal with it and either drink lots of water or give in and carry Tylenol to grab whenever I need it. The Sugar Detox literature says that the first week you may experience headaches and flu like symptoms. So I was preparing myself for it. Luckily (insert sarcasm here) Tuesday I went to the doctor to find I had a sinus infection. So my flu like symptoms pry got drown out by the meds I am now on! However, I didn't experience one headache! Which was baffling to me because I always have them!

 Since the weekend I've noticed that after I eat, lets say pizza, I come home and I get the ache in my gut as well as a headache forming. This afternoon we went to Tasos with my family for lunch, I had a horrible headache after eating my grilled cheese there.

 It's so wild that I'm going to work extra hard to eat as little of/and try to cut out bread from my diet. I'm going to try some gluten free pasta, because lets be real here.. pasta is like a food-group as well!


 SO - while I horribly failed at the 21 Days of Sugar Detox, I learned just enough to keep me going forward trying to eat better and cook better for my family.
 And someday I'll try it again when my chicken I baked hadn't gone bad forcing me to have NOTHING planned for my meals for 3 days and just knowing what else to cook... what do you put with a meal if it isn't bread?! (Thats hubby's constant question to me... we're bread people..)

 I very highly recommend you checking out Diane Sanfilippo's information because she KNOWS what she's talking about!

 Check out the 21 Day Sugar Detox site here -- http://www.the21daysugardetox.com/

 Her website is called Balanced Bites -- http://balancedbites.com/ and I just got her book Practically Paleo which is FULL FULL FULL of so much information AND wonderful recipes!

Day 1 ~ 21 Day Sugar Detox

and so it begins.... For the whole of this year, 2013, I've just felt "off". Like something wasn't quite right with my body all around.

 I have been through a few changes in the last year including getting an IUD put in, which I haven't been terribly impressed with but that's another story.
 I am constantly feeling tired and worn down. I feel like I just don't have the energy to do anything after I get home from work, which means the laundry and the house in general don't get any TLC from me!
 I've been doing a decent job getting my butt to the rec to work out, but its still a struggle in my mind to actually stand up an go!

 So what do I do? I've cried about it. I've fought with hubby about it. I've simply laid on the couch and watched a movie all the while thinking "you need to get up!" I've talked with friends and read online how cutting bread out of your diet makes you feel better, as well as sugar.

 And then I started reading up on the 21 Day Sugar Detox ~ https://www.facebook.com/21daysugardetox ~ besides the obvious work of it all, in the end they say it should make you have more energy, loose a little weight, and just all over feel better!

 As any normal person would do I decided to start this between the holidays! I have been thinking about doing it for a few months, but with things like 4 sessions on Saturdays and NCYC thrown in there I couldn't find the time to prepare my fridge, let alone actually watch exactly what I was eating.
 So I borrowed the book and on the way to NCYC in Indianapolis I read up and started doing some planning. I'm not sure if I talked into, or guilted into, but I got hubby on board!

 He's helped me start to read labels carefully, helped pick out veggies to have on hand at home, and just in general he has really been supportive as we go into this adventure! What do I even want out of this?

 At the end of these 21 days I really want to be able to look back, even before today, and see how my food choices have affected my body. I'm hoping for a noticeable change so that hubby and I can both consciously go forward making better food choices for ourselves and our kiddo.


 .....fastforward.... it is now 6:00pm. I've made it home from work and baked up a bunch of chicken breasts for this weeks lunches, I've made myself NOT eat bread, jelly, a cupcake(kiddo got one earlier today for being great at school!), and coffee with loads of creamer.
 While that doesn't sound like a lot I feel like its a little victory. Its only the first day so I'm not craving or hurting too badly.... yet. I'm sure that will come soon enough. But I feel like I did pretty decently for a start! 

And I'm ready for the week. The biggest part is planning so you don't get off track or stuck in need of a quick snack. While I'm a horrible planner... I feel like I've done a decent job of it for now! Here's to 21 day's sugar free!!