Sugar Detox: Day 1

Day 1: The Purge

In order to start my 30-day sugar detox off right, I decided to purge my kitchen of all the sugar filled foods I could. From the candy bars to white bread, they all had to find a new home. This involved a lot of checking nutrition labels. There is now nothing in my kitchen with more than 15 grams of sugar per serving. I did this so that when I have a suddenly weak moment (which will happen) that there won’t be anything for me to sugar binge with.

While we’re on the topic of reading nutrition labels, my goal is to only check labels when I buy the food. I don’t want to count calories, carbs or points. Pills and shakes are also not part of my diet plan. I’m going to do this the old fashioned way so that the weight is easier to keep off.

For breakfast Thursday, I had a fist-sized portion of oatmeal with raisins and a little bit of cinnamon and honey. Normally, I’ll have a bowl or two of Lucky Charms and a soda for caffeine since I don’t drink coffee. I finished the meal off with a bottle of water.

The bottle of water took me until lunch to finish off. I’m not a water person, in fact most of my daily water intake comes from soda and juice.

It only took about two hours after before I couldn’t focus due to the sugar withdrawals. All I could think about was what I would do for a trip to the candy machine or a soda. I literally would have paid $100 to get a soda.

For lunch, I had an all fruit smoothie. It was easy and simple: bananas and frozen strawberries with orange juice. This, unlike breakfast, was delicious. The sweetness of the fruit help sate my morning sugar cravings and got me a little closer to dinner.

The mind-numbingly distracting cravings continued until supper. It was at this point I realized just how dependent I was on sugar. It helps to counter them with gum and even more water. The water helped me feel full, and the gum keeps my mouth busy. Not a total fix, but it took the edge off.

For dinner I made something simple but awesomely delicious.

Salsa Chicken: First, get a slow cooker. Now put in chicken. Now a jar of any kind of salsa (enough to cover the chicken). Turn on low and wait 4-6 hours.

The result is pictured above. The chicken literally falls apart as you take it out of the slow cooker.

I limited myself to yet another fist sized portion of chicken. I shredded the chicken and also sprinkled on a little cheddar cheese and then got a fist sized portion of tortilla chips.

Ta-da. Healthy Mexican dinner.

Usually the time between dinner and bed is full of small snacks for me. Denying myself my pre-bedtime sugar triggered yet another wave of cravings.

Another bottle of water down and I felt a bit better.

My first day is finished and I’m not looking forward to tomorrow.