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 always confused on this because I don’t understand how you maintain after without fruit. If you find you feel better without fruit does that mean you just don’t eat it anymore? And isn’t that not ideal for a “healthy” diet?
Any of the vitamins and minerals you find in fruit, you can get from vegetables minus the excess sugar. So I just have to eat more veggies. As for the fruit, I’ll probably eat it once a week with my cheat meal 🙂
I am on day 2 of the 21 day sugar detox! I felt like yesterday was hard, and we’ll see how today goes. The most difficult thing for me is finding something I can prepare for lunch on the weekend so I can portion it out to take to work. And snacks! I need snacks…celery and almond butter just isn’t cutting it for me. Can you make any recommendations? Also, I thought sweet potatoes were not allowed? I’m on level 3, maybe they are allowed at other levels. I’m really struggling with the detox and don’t want to give up!
Sweet potatoes are recommended for athletes, that’s why i still ate them post workout 🙂 For snacks, I tried to eat protein, so I just ate a mini meal really!
I guess I’m just being really hard on myself! I do CrossFit, so I guess I can allow myself some sweet potato, but I just feel like I’m cheating! Same reason why I won’t eat a green apple. Good job on making it through the 21 days! Hopefully I’ll be able to say I made it through in another 20 days…
It’s absolutely NOT cheating to include post-workout starches for athletes! If you don’t want to eat them, your workouts and recovery will likely suffer- or you can scale back workouts if you choose during the 3 weeks…
Juli~
I am really interested in the 21day detox but have some questions. I did the Whole 30 successfully but really didn’t see great results. I felt better but only dropped 1.5 lbs. For the sugar detox, did you cut out nut butters as well as nuts? Can you have any coconut milk or creamer on the detox or almond milk? when you had sweets cravings at night, what did you eat so that it subsided? Thank you!
I cut out the sugar AND nuts. I still had coconut milk (canned-which I used in my coffee) and I ate those different 21DSD desserts when I was having a craving at night OR coconut butter. That helped a lot.
You rock *fistpump-explode-into-fireworks* I’m getting the courage up to give this no sugar thing a shot when I get back from vaca.
Also wanted to say your ability to ‘link to you’ made it super easy so I added it to my own company’s website because frankly girl, you make me smile. Thanks.
Congrats, Juli! Glad you had such positive results :).
You have inspired me to finally try the 21DSD again. I had attempted it once and failed in the last week which is just dumb. So now I’m on day 4 and so far so good. I was wondering if you had noticed any improvement on your acne by cutting out the nuts as I too am dealing with stupid boy acne, only unlike you I am a stupid boy.
Do you still eat dairy? Removing dairy for my diet is what stopped my acne. I still eat nuts, so I guess everyone is different. Just curious, why did you fail in the last week? I am on day 2 and thought about quitting yesterday, but I am pushing on through day 2! I hope I can make it…
Dairy has been a rarity for me ever since going paleo. As for why I failed it all came down to willpower. I’m constantly in situations at work or with friends that involve food which is never paleo and especially not allowed on the detox. It got really tiring after the first two weeks to keep refusing food and then having to explain why I wasn’t eating it almost every other day. People just kept judging me, sometimes harshly. I’ve got a better mindset going in this time so I’m hoping that I can ignore the criticism and more sneakily avoid the bad food. Good luck to you too on your detox.
Juli, you just rule! Love your block and I am actually learning how to cook using your recipes 🙂 I am sorry to hear about your acne, I also used to break out like hell but in my case, paleo has changed my skin remarkably. No problems anymore. I also use only organic cosmetics and very simple “recipes” for my skin. I found out the less complicated product, the better for my skin. My skin is combination, I have stopped using tonners, I use pure rose water instead. I wash my skin, use the rose water and then organic grape seed oil which is light in texture in comparison to other oils. I do this in the morning and the evening and my skin is just glowing. When I had acne issues, I used pure lavender essential oil topically and it also helped to heal the spots. Keep on, thanks for being here for us and your spirit is AMAZING! Greets from Europe…
Wait…chocolate covered mangos??! I’ve never seen this at whole foods…looks like it’s time for a shopping trip
Juli- I for SURE thought you looked leaner on Friday when I saw you. I mentioned it to Adam and then again to Adam later in the weekend.
I’m on day 7. Not doing too bad. After dinner is my go to sweet time but have been doing ok ith some coconut butter and sunbutter…ummm, yum!! I didn’t realize how much sugar (natural or not) I was eating until I cut it out. I do feel more hungry, but that’s probably because Im not eating fruit every time I open the fridge. Good job on your endeavor!! PS, I’m glad you’ve stuck to your guns and stuck up for yourself for all the negative feedback you’ve gotten. If they don’t like it don’t read it, it is voluntary. Keep it up!!