When all I could think about was food, I knew that was a tell-tale sign that I had a problem. As I’ve been learning about the importance of primary food in my Integrative Nutrition program, I could recognize that I was reaching for food for the wrong reasons. I was reaching for it, not out of hunger but, to fill a void. Sweets, which at one time provided me with satisfaction, were not even doing that.
My mom used to say that when you get your sweet fix early in the day that helps to stave off cravings later in the day. While that might sound plausible, sugar is actually extremely addictive. The body has a way of getting used to added sugar. Consequently, it craves higher and more frequent servings of sugar the more you have it in your diet. I can’t even tell you how many places I had hidden or added sugars in my meals and snacks. That could be sugar in condiments, beverages, granola, yogurt, chocolate, or the plethora of baked goods I was whipping up several times a week.
I’ve talked about sugar here on the blog before but that was nearly two years ago. Nearly two years ago was the last time I went a full 7 days without added sugar! It might not sound like a big deal. If you had asked me even a week before my self-hosted sugar detox challenge, I probably would have said I could stop consuming sugar whenever I wanted. Let me say with full sincerity and zero exaggeration: I was kidding myself and it is a big deal.
My days were comprised of highs and lows and massive cravings—many of which were at night. I like to think of myself as being in full control of myself and situations pertaining to me but, with sugar, I felt like a victim to the energetic rushes and falls it caused in my body. I would feel my blood sugar crash and be desperate for a meal or a snack to balance me out. It even got to the point where it didn’t matter what I would eat or when I would eat because I felt like my heart was racing all the time.
If my reasons for initiating a sugar detox challenge haven’t been clear so far then here’s why I did it:
- I was feeling physically sick, exhausted, overly full, and weighed down
- If I wasn’t eating, I was thinking about what I would eat next
- My mind was increasingly growing foggy and I struggled to concentrate on tasks, let alone my own thoughts
- Sugar was a coping mechanism that I used to distract from problems rather than working on solving my problems
- Not to lose weight but to manage my weight, which I felt was rising due to hidden calories from sweeteners
- To improve my skin (i.e. reduce inflammation and acne)
- I was having dramatic fluctuations in moods where I felt emotionally unstable, agitated, or like my head and heart had just run a marathon (sometimes all of those at once)
- So that I can be better able to help other people—and I can’t do that without first helping myself
- After reading and hearing many studies that show correlation between high sugar consumption and increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, obesity, or other metabolic illnesses
- Most importantly, I wanted to regain control of sugar rather than feeling like sugar was controlling me!
Some of the above areas might not seem like they have a direct relation to sugar and that’s fine. However, I began to notice it would not even bring me the pleasure I once associated with it. So why consume it? In addition, I know that feeling tense and irritated or reaching for food every two hours is not the way life is supposed to be! I’m speaking for myself but I’d say that goes for anyone else out there, too. The food we consume has a direct relation to our bodies. I won’t go into a full tangent about that right now but, simply, the best way I knew I could start feeling better was by cutting out sugar.
So, how did I start eliminating sugar?
I took the same approach as I did the last time I eliminated sugar. From one day to the next, I completely cut out all added sugar. It might sound extreme. After all, changes are usually more sustainable when you implement a few at a time and ease in rather than fully dive into something new. Yet, sugar is one area that I personally feel needs to be cut out 100% so that I can actually notice how I feel without it. If I was to, say, just drop down to having it once a day during a snack, I would still be consuming added sugar. I would still have it in my system, crave it, and plan my day around when I could have it (that was my level of addiction!!!). Therefore, I would not fully be able to access all of the healing that I wanted to accomplish.
My intention upon starting the sugar detox was to spend at least 7 days working on re-structuring my meals with a focus on whole foods. I also wanted to come out of this feeling better and with more stabilized energy! However, I did not set a time limit on how long I was “detoxing”. I just planned to keep it up until I could feel a difference.
Some might say preparing would be helpful. Personally, I do have access to lots of healthy food options. My fridge is stocked with vegetables and fruit and I have a pantry filled with whole grains and legumes. So, it was just a matter of stuffing my packaged snacks and coconut sugar to the far corner of my pantry (out of sight) and focusing on cooking and eating whole foods. If that doesn’t sound like your fridge/pantry, then implementing meals with whole foods might be a better way to begin before trying a sugar detox.
Here is where I’ll break down what I experienced day-to-day. Keep in mind, this is just how I felt but everybody is different so if you do a sugar detox, you could feel different depending on what you eat compared to what your body is used to eating.
Day 1
On the first day, I caught myself getting grumpy at the littlest things. My house can be kind of noisy so I usually wear headphones when I work out but on this day they weren’t working. I wanted to shout at my family for talking and being loud. I realized they weren’t doing anything wrong. It was just me. So, instead, I went to my room to work out and shut the door. Of course, cravings also occurred during the day. By the time afternoon hit, I had a headache.
The hardest habit to break is after-dinner snacks. My sugar addiction has been very active during the day and dangerously loud in the evenings. Heck, if my sugar addiction was a person, in the evenings it would have held a megaphone next to my ears and shouted to be noticed. I made some sugar-free fudge to help me through the challenge and ate a piece after dinner. (I’ll list the snacks I consumed further down the post)
Food recap: papaya, coconut butter, protein smoothie; socca with cream cheese & avocado; gluten-free pasta with broccoli, tomato, & a plant-based cheese sauce; a piece of sugar-free fudge.
Day 2
My alarm woke me up, as per usual, but my heart was racing! I was still trying to find my groove and overcompensated with an overly indulgent breakfast to stave off cravings. Still, that did not prevent me from getting another headache in the late afternoon. I was trying to limit snacking and that used to be my “quick fix” for a headache. Around 9pm I even felt hungry but I knew I would be going to bed soon so there was no reason to eat anything now.
Food recap: soaked steel-cut oats with unsweetened coconut milk, one of my sugar-free fudge bars mixed in and one on top, plus ground flax and more milk; gluten-free pasta coated in kale-hemp pesto, with kale, romaine, olive oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, & lots of lemon; coconut curry with broccoli, peas, carrots, & red bell pepper; a few snap pea crisps.
Day 3
The headache from the night before was gone. This finally felt like a day where I didn’t have cravings and I felt pretty good. I’m low-key wondering if my dinner was sugar-free because the sauce tasted too good but I wasn’t going to obsess over it.
Food recap: Protein waffle made with pumpkin, brown rice flour, & vanilla protein powder—I ate it in a bowl with milk, cacao nibs, pee pollen, & peanut butter; rosemary sea salt crackers; spinach salad with quinoa, red lentil patties, avocado, tomato, lemon & olive oil, hemp pesto, & roasted red potatoes; Rad Na at a Thai restaurant; raspberry hot tea.
Day 4
I felt myself breaking through some mental blocks and writing was flowing out of me today. Also, despite trying to eliminate sugar, that doesn’t mean I should eliminate naturally sweet foods. This was perhaps the most joyless day of eating I’ve had in a long time! I blame it on the savory breakfast…I felt like I just started my day “off” because of that and, come the end of the day, I was reaching for the only “sweet” thing I could to compensate.
Food recap: chickpea flour scramble with red potatoes, broccoli, green onion, & hot sauce; spinach salad with hemp pesto, quinoa, Greek dressing, & red lentil patties; sugar-free fudge bar; sautéed broccoli, bell pepper, kale patty, beet chips & cream cheese; 2 more fudge bars.
Day 5
I had trouble falling asleep (eh-hem, perhaps from the cacao powder in my fudge) last night. I prioritized the inclusion of naturally sweet foods today and felt much better!
Food recap: chocolate protein smoothie with banana, 3 small dates, tahini, & unsweetened coconut milk; sweet potato with ½ large banana, almond butter, wild blueberries, & snap pea crisps with cream cheese; spaghetti squash with cauliflower bolognese sauce; one sugar-free fudge bar.
Day 6
All of my worst decisions happen after I drink coffee. I should know better by now because it has a way of raining my adrenaline and making me feel like I’m “hungrier” than I really am. And again, I may have been spiked with sweetened almond milk.
Food recap: almond-coconut cinnamon protein pancakes w/ butter & sautéed apple; “quesadilla” made w/ almond flour tortillas, sweet potato, broccoli, hemp pesto, & cream cheese; coffee with almond milk; trail mix of pepitas, coconut flakes, & cacao nibs; chickpea pasta in marinara with broccoli, spinach, potatoes, cauliflower, & vegan cheese; protein popcorn with peanut butter & fudge bar.
Day 7
I’m working on a balance between including naturally sweet foods and also not overdoing it on carbohydrates. I realize I build up this idea of “deprivation” in my mind. That is exactly the sort of mentality that leads me to overeating tendencies.
Food recap: pink lady apple; English muffins w/ sweet potato, half a banana, tahini, cream cheese, and bee pollen; tea and protein popcorn; stir-fried quinoa and chickpeas with greens & lemon water; snacking on batter for chocolate tahini date donuts; one & a half fudge bars.
Day 8
Those donuts that I made last night? Yeah, so, I overbaked them and tried to salvage them but they weren’t good. There’s this weird thing I notice I do where I still try to achieve pleasure from food after I already know it is not satisfying taste-wise. My breakfast made me super full and I felt icky for hours afterwards. The sugar detox is really bringing to light some of the patterns and habits I associate with food.
Food recap: vanilla protein and pear smoothie 2 chocolate tahini date donuts; ginger turmeric black tea with lemon & a large banana; bell peppers and onions sautéed with veggie sausage, served over salad greens with tomatoes, cilantro, vegan cheese, & lemon turmeric dressing.
Day 9
Despite stuffing myself these past several days, I realize I don’t actually need to eat as much as I thought. I used to eat “a lot” but, now that I’ve fazed out the refined and added sugars, I can feel pretty content with eating just plants.
Food recap: chia pudding w/ unsweetened coconut milk & chopped strawberries; blueberry larabar and mango chamomile tea; chickpea cucumber & tomato salad over jicama chips with an herbed tahini sauce; harissa tahini roasted cauliflower with chickpeas served over spinach.
Day 10
Today I used a lot of ingredients but it felt very plant-filled and eating in such a way made me feel “clean”, for lack of a better word. I felt like I was choosing better options and thriving on food in a way I hadn’t in a while.
Food recap: protein cookie dough made with applesauce, coconut flour, almond milk, vanilla protein, and a crumbled up fudge bar; reishi cacao elixir made w/water; leftover veggie sausage with peppers, onions, more greens, cilantro & lemon; fresh orange; pizza made with cauliflower and GF flour for the crust, topped with marinara, vegan mozzarella, mushrooms, & a side salad of romaine, cucumber ½ avocado, lemon, chickpeas, and fresh herbs.
Day 11
I feel like I approached my food with patience and was able to enjoy a post-dinner snack because I wanted a treat and for no other reason. It wasn’t necessary but it also felt like I was taking a balanced approach and that is all I’ve wanted to achieve.
Food recap: Buckwheat porridge w/unsweetened coconut milk, flax, ¼ banana, a tsp of almond butter & a fudge bar; mixed greens salad with chickpeas, cucumber, parsley, tomato, olive oil & lemon; sauté of garlic chickpeas, collard greens, & kale with roasted butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, herbs, and ¼ avocado; protein mug cake with a drizzle of cashew & coconut butter; reishi cacao elixir.
Day 12
The place I’m at is one of balance. I really feel like I’ve come to a healthy place where I don’t crave sweets. I can do without them but I can also enjoy naturally sweet fruit or, if I’m craving a snack, opt for something more savory.
Food recap: unsweetened coconut yogurt w/berries, cacao nibs, bee pollen; collard green “tacos” with white beans, chipotle mayo, roasted mushrooms, vegan provolone cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, avocado; comfort wellness tea; half a bag of snap pea crisps; veggie stir-fry with brown rice noodles, cilantro, & kimchi.
My thoughts post-challenge
It might not sound like I made too much of a change in my meals and attitude towards food. I bared my honest truth about the struggles I had with overeating and reaching for foods when I knew that wasn’t what I needed. Prior to the sugar detox I was consuming way more sugary baked goods than I’d care to admit, I was drinking kombucha like if it came from the tap, and sweetened yogurts had replaced my plain yogurts. I needed help!
Speaking of food, whole foods are a priority but sometimes pre-made ones are handy. So here are some packaged items that I reached for often to help me during the challenge: snap pea crisps / reishi / cacao powder / coconut butter / simple mills crackers / tahini / almond butter / Banza gluten-free pasta / Tone it Up vanilla protein powder / cacao nibs / kite-hill cream cheese / Daiya cheese products / also the recipe for the almond-coconut fudge bars I was hooked on
Obviously, behaviors and cravings don’t change overnight. I dealt with those for over half of the sugar detox because my habits still existed; I was just reaching for alternatives. Yet, there was a turning point where I took on a new perspective with food—I’ll have to share about this in another post! Anyway, soon I realized that sweets weren’t satisfying me. They weren’t what I was truly craving and, when I wasn’t filling myself up with food, I felt more vibrant and like a clear vessel for information. The days seemed brighter and I felt happier. It sounds silly, I know, but it is true!
I already have a really particular diet with being plant-based and gluten-free so I can’t imagine adding sugar-free to that list, too. At this time, it is too much restriction for me, personally. Though, I do see that my sugar consumption is something I want to stay on top of so it doesn’t get out of hand again. Therefore I plan to pencil a challenge into my calendar every few months. I think if I can do another 2-3 this year then that will be perfect for maintenance.
Have you ever done a sugar detox? I feel noticeably better and would recommend it to anyone. A 1-3 day challenge may be better to test the waters. Also, if you’re uncertain of how to even approach this, we could work together on removing sugar or any other health goals you may have in one of my 6 month programs! I’ll soon be taking on clients as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach so stay tuned for that!
I hope this article of my experiences proved insightful, relatable, or helpful. Check out my previous posts on the subject of sugar and how to reduce it in your life.
Xoxo,
Melanie