Hello! I told you this post would be coming eventually 🙂
As y’all know, I did a sugar detox from February 28 – March 11. I originally planned on doing a 21 day detox, but I chose to stop my detox before I went to Omaha last week. I decided to not worry about sugar because I knew it would be too difficult with eating out and the recipes my family was making. I really just didn’t want to inconvenience anyone.
Back in June of 2015, I did a 10 day sugar detox. But I didn’t really do it. A couple times I would get sugar free pumps of vanilla in my coffee and I would put 1/4 of a cup of sugar in my brownies and justified it by saying I was cutting down. NO! That didn’t do anything!
This time I decided to get real and take the detox seriously. I wanted to really see how it maximized all of my fitness efforts as well as how it made me feel.
Some things I learned:
- YOU MUST READ LABELS.
- If you aren’t sure of a specific ingredient from a label, google it or just skip the product.
- Freaking pickles have high fructose corn syrup in them. Wtf?
- Spices have sugar.
- Ketchup (and many condiments) have sugar.
- Peanut butter has sugar.
- My protein powder has sugar.
- Vanilla extract has sugar.
- No breads (you’ll have to make your own…no worries there are plenty of recipes online!). Follow me on Pinterest to see some I pinned.
- I started craving carbs because I wasn’t getting sugars. And carbs are a sugar. I also found myself craving salty foods too.
- If you look up sugar detoxes on the internet, they all say different things. Some say you can’t have fruit, some can. Some say you can have a limited amount of artificial sweeteners and some don’t. I say yes to fruit and no to artificial sweeteners.
- The sugar detox aligns with whole 30 if that’s something you’re interested in.
- Grapes became dessert for me. They are SO SWEET now and so refreshing to me!
- Just because it’s fruit doesn’t mean you can have it. Dried fruit is made with sugars so you need to read labels!
So how did I get some sugar/sweetness?
Date paste is what I used when a recipe called for sugar and I felt like it was needed. It’s super simple, you soak dates in water for 10 minutes, throw them in the food processor, and process until it’s a paste. I love it. I keep this in my refrigerator at all times now.
What did I do about condiments?
I made my own ketchup and stored it in a mason jar (it wasn’t pink like this picture makes it look like, I promise it’s red haha). I love this ketchup better than normal ketchup. I’ll never go back to buying ketchup again. It tastes so artificial and fake now!
I made my own BBQ sauce, too. 🙂
I also made my own mayonnaise and ranch dressing but I made it wrong so they didn’t taste good.
What did I eat?
These plantain chips became my best friend. Like I ate half of the container one night with salsa. Because guess what…some chips have sugar and these don’t!
I made turkey nachos. It’s ground turkey with taco seasoning on top of plantain chips with tomatoes, cheese, lettuce and some salsa. To die for.
Another thing that I ate was a lot of these when I needed some sort of sweetness…
I highly, highly, highly recommend Larabars. They are healthy and satisfying. Do you remember when I did the protein bar test last August? Well, it was then that I found my love for Quest Bars. I used to take them everywhere with me and snack on them for dessert, but now thinking back…they bloated me like crazy! And i’m thinking it was due to the erythritol and other artificial sweeteners. Now I don’t buy quest bars; I only get Larabars. Because they are made out of dates (the natural sugar) and can be used as dessert.
La Croix is the only other thing I drink besides black coffee and water. You can drink unsweetened teas, unsweetened almond milk, and coconut milk too.
I made some pulled pork and threw it on top of lettuce with cheese and DILL pickles (because those don’t have high fructose corn syrup) and some of my homemade BBQ sauce. Again, labels people!
I made almond butter cookies. They really weren’t that good but when you’re craving a cookie, but can’t have sugar, it will totally do.
I made my own blueberry chia seed jam.
This was good on my favorite pancakes…
with almond butter. I lived off of almond butter during this detox. You have to be sure to read the label..some have sugar and some don’t. This was a good brand that I found.
And with that almond butter, I also ate a lot of these almond butter banana waffles.
I am so thankful that sweet potatoes weren’t off limits (they are on some sugar detoxes) because I lived off of sweet potatoes too. Baked sweet potato fries, sautéed veggies, and a turkey burger with homemade ketchup. Notice the La Croix in the background 😉
More sweet potato fries and homemade chicken fingers. This has been my go-to meal lately!
And for dessert I would make a probiotic bowl. I diced up some fresh strawberries and banana (or whatever fruit you like) and poured some Green Valley Kefir to get probiotics in my body!
Doing this detox gave me a lot of reason to get creative in the kitchen, which just happens to be one of my favorite things!
You know, when you’re in the actual process it really doesn’t feel like you’re seeing any difference unless it’s super obvious one day, but now that i’ve introduced it back into my diet and haven’t been as strict on myself…i’ve definitely noticed how much it really did affect me. And because of that…I decided to do another detox starting yesterday. I want to get rid of all those toxins in my body from the processed foods and sugars i’ve allowed recently.
^^This is super helpful for label reading!
When I posted about bloating a while ago, I mentioned that I wanted to see if sugar had anything to do with it based off of what my cousin was telling me happened to her when she did Whole 30. Sooo, with that said, I would recommend doing this for anyone struggling with bloating and cannot figure out why…I absolutely noticed a difference this time around.
Let me know if you have any questions about the detox so I can answer! I want to help!
Ps. Follow me on Pinterest. I find lots of good things for the sugar detox (and well, all things healthy that I can). I’ll follow you back!! 🙂
Colors of Life 
Comments on: "The Sugar Detox" (10)
Great job! Do you think that cutting down would have the same effect, or do you need to totally wipe out sugars to feel better?
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For me, it was wiping out sugar. For someone else it could be just cutting down. I never ate much sugar as it was (pumps in my coffee, sodas, etc.) so when I cut it out completely is when I really saw the difference because obviously the little I was eating was causing a problem. I think from now on I will completely cut it out, but if I want some chocolate chips in pancakes or something and I haven’t had sugar in a while I’ll put them in. Does that make sense? It’s crazy how much it all really depends on each person’s body!
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This is so interesting! Did you have any withdrawals the first few days? Those are always the worst when I try to cut out sugars! I’ve seen some other people talk about plantain chips & I really want to try them sometime. And I’m really curious about your barbecue sauce! I’ve seen some “low carb” ones online but it’s almost impossible to find one that doesn’t have any sugar in it.
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The first day – not so much! I felt like a couple days down the road is when I really noticed. Because one day without sugar isn’t a big deal but when it’s consecutive days your body catches on! The BBQ sauce is great!!! I’m going to send it to you on Pinterest.
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I’ve been planning on doing a sugar detox foreverrrrr because sugar is by far the biggest obstacle I have when trying to lose weight! I am so happy you wrote this post!! I love using dates as a sweet treat. I would love to hear like a day by day of how you felt! Did you feel crummy the first few days? Also, could you share that almond butter cookie recipe! Thanks so much!! P.S. Trader Joes Almond butter is to die for and the only ingredient is almonds 🙂
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It is such a hard obstacle. That’s when I think I lost a couple pounds too. I really don’t remember a day that I felt absolutely crummy. There were days that I felt like I couldn’t fill up and then days that I craved carbs and my salty plantain chips though. I actually felt great (which is surprising because most people don’t) but I think that has to do with the fact that I didn’t eat much sugar in the first place. Trader Joe’s does have good almond butter I agree! I’m always trying different brands. I’ll send you the almond butter link on Pinterest.
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After my Whole30 fail I learned a lot about sugar (especially how it is in EVERYTHING) and plan on implementing some occasional sugar detoxes so this post is really helpful. Thanks!
P.S. LaCroix is my jam!!
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You’re welcome! I’m so glad it was helpful to you. It’s almost ridiculous how much sugar is in everything. I’m definitely more conscious now!
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These aren’t accurate statements. First of all, you can’t just say “peanut butter has sugar in it.” There are many peanut butters and other nut butters on the market that are sugar free. Also, carbs and sugars are like rectangles and squares. Not all carbs are sugars, but all sugars are carbs. Interesting and helpful post, but just be careful to make sure that what you post regarding detox’s and food in general is accurate for those young impressionable girls out there. I was one of them, with a nasty eating disorder too. I respect what you’re trying to do but accuracy is more important.
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Hi, Caroline. Actually the statement about peanut butter having sugar was listed under my “what I learned” list meaning that I had not previously known peanut butter has sugar in it, but after doing the detox it was something I became aware of. I know that not all nut butters have sugar, which is actually why I eat almond butter (mentioned at the bottom of my post) and why I tell people to get a nut butter without sugar along with emphasizing how important it is that everyone read labels.
As for the carbs and sugars – a study done by Harvard’s school of public health tells us that carbs (whether simple or complex) are sugar. Feel free to check it out: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/carbohydrates-and-blood-sugar/
The difference is where they land on the glycemic index, meaning, how they affect your blood sugar. Simple carbs have more sugar units than complex carbs. All carbs are broken down into glucose (a type of sugar) and then digested into the blood stream. You can look up several articles regarding the subject if you feel inclined.
I work really hard to do a lot of research on the subjects I post about because I would never want to give inaccurate or false statements to my readers….and even to myself. Thank you for your comment and I hope you have a great day!
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