Day one complete. And I didn't die or kill anyone.
Well the first day of the 21 Day Sugar Detox is over. And I’m still alive. Barely.
Here are the things I learned in just 24 hours about detoxing from sugar.
- First: Sugar is added to everything. At breakfast, when I went to toast some bread, I found one of the ingredients was sugar. Huh, I thought. And had a rice cake. At lunch, the packet of sliced salami I reached for (that I’d now be having sans bread) had both corn and syrup in it. At dinner, the breaded frozen fish had sugar in it too. WTF?
- Second: Sugar is my break. I spent part of the day writing and writing breaks almost always involve sugar. I get up, grab something sweet – maybe a cookie or a piece of candy and then I go back to work. Without this break, I wasn’t actually sure what to do with myself. I ended up making myself a few cups of tea, but I found I honestly wasn’t sure what to do to satisfy my need for a break.
- Third: Sugar is my stress relief. Yesterday the car died, after I left the sunroof open and rain got into the gear box of the car. I had managed to short out the gear box and the brake switch. Of course while they were looking at the car they discovered a number of things that probably needed to be fixed if I ever wanted to say, stop in traffic. The total for these repairs? $2,000. Now normally when I hear news like this, the first thing I do is eat something. Almost always sugar. And when I got the news about the car repairs, all I could think about was mauling a piece of cake. Instead, I gritted my teeth for like an hour.
- Fourth: Sugar gives me a boost. Sugar gives me a boost not unlike caffeine. It maybe doesn’t last as much, but it wakes me up a little, makes me happier and fixes (at least temporarily) the 3 pm slump. At 3 pm today, I was exhausted, without really having anything to show for it. I’d slept reasonably well the night before and it wasn’t like I’d spent the day building a fence. I’d spent it writing, not exactly an physically draining task. In fact, by 3:30pm, I’d actually nodded off on the couch, which I never do. Is this because my body expected sugar around this time, and not getting it, sort of shut down? I don’t know, but it was very strange. It could also have been that I hadn’t eaten enough so was just low on fuel in general, having not had much to eat. Maybe that led to the fatigue.
My biggest failure is that I had not adequately prepared for having no sugar. The food I had in the house I had not thoroughly checked. I thought the main problem I’d have would be the leftover Halloween candy. Wrong. Tomorrow, I’m going to set myself up better – have more sugar free snacks in the house. I’m also going to have to figure out a better break (when I take them) that doesn’t revolve around eating. Maybe I could go for a short walk or something.I’d love to hear how Day 1 went for you. Was it easier than you expected? Harder? Did you pretty much stay on the wagon or are you eating a donut as you read this? Also, I was wondering if you might help me by giving tips as to what I can eat that is sweet but that doesn’t contain refined sugar. I do have a few things, but I’m hoping you guys might have some good suggestions. Drinks? Snacks? Let me know in the comments.
Okay, on to Day 2! Oh, if you’re new here and want to jump in, join us. Here are the rules, I promise they aren’t too bad.
I mentioned the Wild Sweet Orange tea from TAZO in a facebook post. Other things!
Seltzer + a little fruit juice
(No sugar added) bread/toast with (no sugar added) peanut butter + honey or banana as needed – a good breakfast
Oranges slices – this one really only works if you cut up 2-3 at a time and put them in the fridge for when you want them. Otherwise, it’ll never happen. Same with apples.
Thank you Amy! Hitting the grocery story now. I have none of these things in the house, which is probably why I barely made it yesterday.
If you buy the “weight control” type of oatmeal at the grocery store instead of the regular kind (since you’re pretty skinny I’m guessing you don’t usually get that kind), it’s sweetened with Splenda instead of sugar and tastes just as good as the regular stuff. I usually have that and half a grapefruit sprinkled with Splenda for breakfast. For a sweet snack, grapes are a good one and putting some in the freezer to grab one by one adds a certain je ne sais quoi. Yeah, I just said that. Huh. Back to work for me!