It’s official. 21 days are over. 21 days, sugar free has finally come to an end. If you haven’t heard, I’ve been doing the 21 Day Sugar Detox by Balanced Bites. And I’ve loved it!! Which is sick and weird since that meant no sugar, including fruit. And if you know me, I LOVE sweets. Like, love love love them. BUT, sweets don’t love me. Not only do I gain 6lbs from eating 1 banana, but I feel bloated, I don’t have a ton of energy, and well, I crave even more sweets. And I found all of this out from not eating sweets. I had no idea I felt like that until I took these beloved foods out.
So let’s recap. Something else to remember that I have cut out of my diet is nuts. All nuts. One day, I just woke up and decided to not eat them because I was sick of feeling like sh*t all the time and wanted to know if they were the culprit to my bloated belly and stupid acne. I’m just such an all-or-none person. I have no middle ground, no sense of moderation. Just not how I roll. So I cut out nuts, then shortly after cut out fruit and sugar.
At first, this was pretty tough. My go-to night snack is anything sweet. Whether that’s eating Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips from the bag or chocolate covered mangos from Whole Foods, I wanted it all when the sun went down. So the first 3 days were kind of annoying, then the 4th day SUCKED. I mean, REALLY sucked. I was super light headed, really really dizzy, felt like I was blacking out half the day. It just sucked. So I went home, loaded up on sweet potatoes and sweet potato chips and instantly felt better the next day. I was just super low on carbs since I hadn’t really stocked up on vegetables in the first 3 days. After that, it was easy. I even made a couple sweet desserts and didn’t even taste them, just gave them to friends instead.
What I did find was that I craved something crunchy way more than I usually do. I really wanted sweet potato chips or Tyrrell’s vegetable chips on a regular basis. I day dreamed about them a lot. And I wanted to eat beets and carrots a ton more…probably because they are sweet. I ate more meat and more fat than I usually do, fat coming mostly in the form of coconut butter. I’ve stopped craving sweets most of the time, just once in a while I’ll get that.
So here were some of the things I ate while on the diet that aren’t entirely sugar free (but are acceptable in moderation on the sugar detox)
- Sweet Potatoes (mostly post workout)
- Green Apples (I had 3 over the course of 21 days)
- Tyrrell’s vegetable chips
- Coconut Butter
- Coconut Water (1 per day, if that)
- Kombucha (1 per day, if that)
- Alcohol (ok, that’s not allowed, but if you remember, I just couldn’t say no. 5 shots of Grey Goose were consumed)
So here’s what I think after 21 days. I think it’s awesome and everyone should try it. Yes, fruit is natural. I get it. But, if you’re anything like me, life sucks because even fruit makes you gain weight and feel bloated, so you may actually benefit from removing that excess sugar. After cutting out the treats, I felt WAY better and had more energy than ever. I also felt like my hormones were more in balance because I never felt like I was going through any mood swings. I felt like I was in a good mood almost every day.
So I was going to post photo results, but then I got scared and backed out. That’s just too frightening to me even though I’ve post half naked pictures of myself in the past. My bathing suit pictures is just serious. Sorry people, I’m lame.
What I can say is that even though my goal was not to lose weight or change anything body wise, I did feel like my body changed. I felt like my stomach got smaller, I felt a bit leaner, and I honestly thought my cellulite didn’t look quite as bad. I don’t think it’s anything that any of other person would notice, but I did and that’s all that really matters to me.
This is what I think. I think EVERYONE should try it at some point. We don’t really know how much sugar affects us until it is completely stripped of our diet. I, will probably not go back to eating sugar other than a once-a-week cheat, but Laura who wasn’t as greatly affected probably won’t be quite as strict as I am. So try it out yourself. Man up. If I can cut out sugar, anyone can. ANYONE.
Stop complaining. There will be a recipe tomorrow, ok? Geez.
I’m on day 6. Day 4 was also brutal and I find myself about to run into the alcohol situation today as a friend who has been out of the country for a year returns for two days before returning to said country for another year.
I don’t really get “sweet” cravings right now so it’s a bit easier but the first few days I was just shoving food in my face to try to kill the cravings. It was pretty crazy.
Just chase some vodka or tequila shots down with water! I felt fine the next day! Good luck!! I did the same thing with shoving food down!
I norcal’d it mixing my drinks w/ soda and lime. Luckily my tolerance took a hit so I was a cheap date and I only had 3 drinks total. Piece of cake. Thanks for the words of encouragement!
Wait a minute! Whole Foods has CHOCOLATE COVERED MANGO?!?!
Thank you for inspiring me to do my own 21 DSD….starting tomorrow as I’m having a fig as I type this :-/ Go on with yo bad self girl!
I still want to see pictures! Congrats on an awesome detox!
Would love to know how you felt after going back to eating fruit. Thinking of giving this a try though.
I haven’t really had fruit yet, but I probably will have a delicious cheat meal once I get back from Powell and I’ll let you know how fruit goes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9MH_tks_wE
Congrats to you! I would love to see an outline of how you ate during this, especially what you had for portable snacks since you eliminated nuts and fruit (besides the obvious carrot sticks).
P.S. I love your website! I have tried many of your yummy recipes and look forward to many more!
Im doing the whole30 right now. This is next on my list. Thanks for always being an inspiration to me!! I am always looking up to you on so many different levels. Thank you as always 🙂
I need to do this. Period.
I, too, will go for the sweets, always, whether it’s fruit or chocolate chips. When I try to take out the blatantly unhealthy sweets, I end up eating more fruit than my stomach can handle and feel awful.
Gotta get on boooardd… take the plunge… eeee! THanks for the review; it helps to hear from others who have gone through it.
first of all i think you are hilarious, girl.
second – you totally inspired me to do the 21 day sugar detox. since i am totally cheap, i was wondering if you had any websites/free resources I should use to get started or get more information? I remember reading that you followed the official book. maybe?
http://www.balancedbites.com has all the information you will need!
Awesome, I think I’ll be trying this soon myself. I love fruit way too much. I’ve cut back a bit, but I still love my paleo treats too. The only sugar I eat aside from fruit is honey (it’s actually the only sugar I can have), so hopefully it won’t be too bad! Maybe I’ll start in a couple weeks, after I get back from my vacation (aka visiting my family back in the midwest).