Bath time

My sweet little ham!

21 Day Detox: Final Post!

I must start off by saying how unbelievably encouraged I have been by all the support and friends rooting for Zak and I on this wild journey of the sugar detox. After only FOUR days I had dropped a steady 5 pounds on the scale! But more than that, actually sticking to the rigid plan for four days was a huge accomplishment for me. I plan to continue with this eating plan but in a modified fashion.

I am going to try to eat as I have but loosen up on the fruit restrictions as well as the sauce restrictions. It would VERY difficult to cook without adding anything other than raw spices. When I made the decision to go off yesterday I must confess I was very surprised by how quickly the detox had transformed my taste buds. We went to lunch after church and I got a Diet Coke with my meal and truly after one sip I had to dump it out and get water instead. It was so immensely sweet that I could barely stand it! I can honestly say that I now prefer the taste of what once tasted tart, my Granny Smith Apple.

I will definitely try to give updates of how the weight loss progresses on this modified eating plan, but didn't feel that I could truly call it a detox anymore. 21 Days of Sugar detoxing is not for the weak of heart. I would love to cheer on any friends who are up for the challenge, and who knows, we may give it a shot again!

Thanks for walking through this short lived journey with us!

Day Four: 21 Day Sugar Detox

Well we are at the end of day four and we are one man down. Zak decided to throw in the towel earlier this morning and I certainly can't say that I blame him! This has been a really tough diet/ detox to follow. He lost a total of 3.8 pounds which I thought was great and is going to try and stay off the Mt.t Dew's from now on.

Overall today wasn't terrible. I still had moments of nausea and just a general feeling of being run down but it was NOTHING like the previous three days. This morning my total weight loss was 4.2 pounds which I certainly felt pretty proud of for just three days of following this plan. However, and I apologize if this is too much information but I am starting to feel a little toxic. I haven't been able to go to the bathroom for THREE days now!!! That alone may cause me to at least modify some things for tomorrow as this is not a good feeling and I'm sure it's because I have quadrupled my dairy intake!

After doing a good bit of reading I realized that most of the people that are successful with this detox are already following the "paleo" eating plan which basically means they only eat what you could hunt or gather (fruits, vegetables, nuts and protein). Frankly, as healthy as I know that is, I cannot imagine living life that way. The hope of the detox is that you will continue with a strict Paleo lifestyle once completing this detox and I just don't think that is the way we want to live.

Do I think the detox is a good idea? Yes! Of course! Anytime you take control of your health and the foods you are putting into your body and strive to clean things up a bit is a win in my book! The food I eat now has much more of a distinct taste and my cravings for sugar are nearly gone. I do miss having a carb for energy with my meals but don't crave the after dinner sweet thing as I did a week ago.

The last thing I'll mention is how this detox has opened my eyes to what we give Will to eat! So much of what little Toddlers eat is carbohydrates! Cheerios, Goldfish, Pizza or Mac n Cheese. We forced ourselves this week to pay more attention and help guide Will's taste buds and it really made me feel proud! No promises of what tomorrow will hold but those are my thoughts on today!

Hope yall had a great weekend and feel free to ask questions if you are considering this detox!

Day Three: 21 Day Sugar Detox

Day three didn't start off so hot. I woke up this morning feeling intensely exhausted. Then in the early morning I felt waves of nausea (and no folks I am NOT pregnant!) which is common in the first few days of the detox. The remainder of the day was followed by more fatigue...

This post will be brief because frankly I have no energy and am ready to go to bed!

Zak and I are both very disheartened by how we are feeling and how sick we are of eating meat, cheese and veggies. To say it gets monotonous is an understatement. This may be my last post on the subject if I don't feel remarkably different in the morning and/or a sizable loss on the scale. 

Today I ate a scrambled egg for breakfast with some lunch meat. Mid morning I had some carrots, cheese and a few more slices of Salami. For lunch I ate a salad with avocado, steak leftover from dinner last night, a few pieces of cut up green apples, cheddar cheese and some oil/vinegar. 

I ate a spoonful of almond butter this afternoon and then for dinner I attempted to make these detox friendly meatballs that were very dry with green beans, carrots and some cheese. 

After dinner I had the other 1/2 of my green apple with a small brie round to dip the apple in.

All in all this detox has proven to be VERY labor intensive with all the food prep and quite costly buying all these ingredients we have never heard of only to be disappointed with the meal.

I am discouraged. Definitely will be spending some time talking to Jesus tonight about pressing on with this whole thing. We may just not have what it takes. 

Here's to hoping we have a huge turn around in the morning! I guess I should have mentioned that I was down another pound today so that was encouraging...

Day Two (According to Zak)...

Caroline asked me to post my thoughts on this sugar detox diet.  To be honest, I never read blogs, never think about blogging, and rarely share my feelings, so bear with me.  I also never go on diets either, but when I saw my triple-chin in the mirror the other day, going on a diet didn't sound like such a bad idea.  It's only three weeks-how bad can it be?

But the cold hard truth set in almost immediately.  The past two days have been really, really tough.  Yesterday in particular, the first day of this torture, was AWFUL.  The whole day I felt like curling up in the fetal position and sucking my thumb.  Today was still not great but better than yesterday.  I found myself daydreaming about a huge stack of pancakes at IHOP or a nice 20 piece pack of nuggs from McDonalds.  Sounds pretty good right now actually but I digress..

I have found myself starving hungry every minute of the past two days.  Even after eating.  My usual routine in the morning is to pound an ice cold Mountain Dew and then scarfing down about 10 mini Snickers. Today  I am embarrassed to say I ate carrots.  Then at lunch, when all my friends went to Pam's Farmhouse, I ate a salad.  I almost caved knowing they were crushing some old-school home cooking and I was eating spinach like a rabbit.  

The worst part about this whole deal has to do with what you are allowed to drink.  And no, I'm not talking about booze.  I need a Mountain Dew like a crackhead needs Jesus.  We can drink water, and oh, that's right, water.  We did try this English tea garbage that tasted like the urine of Satan; it was nice to have something different from aqua but I don't think I can take the taste anymore.  

But I think that this diet is slowly working.  Our cravings for Krispy Kreme donuts are slowly going away and my caffeine headache has subsided.  And my pants fit a little looser now than they did even 48 hours ago. So we will trudge on until we complete this adventure.  I am very proud of C-money for sticking with this.  If she quit right now, I probably would too.  I couldn't ask for a better partner.  

Day Two: 21 Day Sugar Detox

Well I have to say, today was not nearly as bad as yesterday! Am I still hungry? Yes! But the headaches are gone and the strong sugar cravings are almost gone. The icing on the cake was when I weighed this morning I was down 2.2 pounds!!! Thankfully that was enough to get me through day two in hopes of a brighter tomorrow!

On the menu today was:

Bacon and avocado for breakfast with 1/4 of my green apple. I know I know sounds disgusting but I set out to make these detox friendly pancakes with that nasty coconut flour and lets just say I spit out the very first bite. That stuff is NOT for the weak of heart! It seems like what eating coconut flavored saw dust would be like.

In between breakfast and lunch I snacked on more carrots! Before lunch we headed to the grocery store to pick up some deli meat to snack on and I got oven roasted turkey and Genoa salami. I must say- I LOVE the salami and have eaten a TON of it today! Really and truly an obnoxious amount.

For lunch I had cheese, salami, carrots and the other 1/4 of my green apple!

After lunch was more carrots of course and a Tbsp of almond butter.

We really splurged with dinner as I made a delicious NY Strip steak that Zak and I split bc it was over a pound. We also had avocado and some steamed broccoli with a homemade cheese sauce that I made with just milk, butter and sharp cheddar.

Then for desert I had the other 1/2 of my granny smith apple! Those apples are worth a million dollars when its the only sweet thing to touch your tongue ALL day!

Overall I am feeling encouraged and hopeful that tomorrow will be smooth sailing and we will be in the groove! But for now, we're just hanging in there!

Day One: 21 Day Sugar Detox

Well I would be lying if I told anyone that today was easy. I am STARVING!!! The truth is, Zak and I both are. Just to outline what I ate today:

Breakfast this morning I had two scrambled eggs and almost immediately was hungry because I usually pair my one egg with a small starch like half of a banana. Then by mid morning when I was ready to chew my arm off I started eating baby carrots for an exciting snack! :) (excuse the sarcasm)

Lunch I must admit was the best of all the meals today as I grilled a piece of chicken, ate 1/2 a small avocado, some whole fat cheddar cheese and 1/2 of a green apple. ....followed by more baby carrots (Have I mentioned that I don't really even like carrots).

Dinner on the other hand was another story. I set out to make a yummy roast, but after cooking it for an hour (per my directions) it was dry as a bone. Never the less, Zak and I attempted to eat it along with basically the same sides I had for lunch with the addition of a spoonful of unsalted almond butter which I promptly added salt to.

I also made these Carrot Pumpkin Spice muffins that contained NO sugar and therefore were awful. The brighter side is that Will absolutely LOVED them which made me feel good because they are super healthy!

I know I know, I sound very angry tonight and am hopeful that by this time tomorrow I will be more encouraged and have less of a hunger headache...but for now this is where we are at.

* Oh and Zak did great today- no cheating! I was beyond proud of him!!!