Bill and I are starting the New Year with an epic sugar detox. If you all may remember from a few months back I vowed to go without sugar for an entire year. Clearly I did not follow through with that, however I WILL be going 21 days without sugar, and hoping for longer once I’m in the swing of things. We know many of you have indulged a bit too much over the holiday season, and are ready to kick start clean eating again with a successful detox of all sugar!
Bill and I just spent a wonderful 2 weeks with our good friend Diane Sanfilippo. She came to visit us before the holidays to work on her book that will be released in 2012. Diane is a nutritionist who specializes in Paleolithic Nutrition. She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to health and wellness, and is truly an inspiration to us (especially me). Diane has constructed a 21 Day Sugar Detox that has helped many people over-come sugar addiction, and Bill and I have vowed to detox ourselves from sugar along with many of our close friends and family. Even Diane herself is going to join in with all of us!
We know how difficult it can be to commit to a new way of eating or even eliminate even more foods from an already restrictive diet without the support of friends or family. Many of you who will be participating in this detox with all of us may be living with family members who are not participating, or you may be living on your own. To help support those who may not have the luxury of support from the people around them, Bill and I will be posting a recipe EVERY day, to show all of you what we are eating, and to help keep you all on track.
Included below is a shopping list for some of the ingredients that we will be cooking with for the first week of the detox. We have not planned that far in advance to know exactly what we will be posting each day, so we are providing a shopping list of the food products that are in our home now that we will be cooking with. The recipes we will be posting each day are intended to show you what we are eating ourselves, and to inspire you all to stay on track. You can choose to make the recipe we post that day, or a following day that week. There are plenty of Sugar Detox friendly recipes in Make it Paleo, as well as already here on on our blog if you need some ideas for day 1. We have also included some links to some of those Sugar Detox friendly recipes, so you have some ideas to get started. During the month of January Bill and I will also be working on a fun project that will help any future detoxers REALLY stay on track! This is something that we have chatted with Diane about and we are really excited to get started. Stay tuned, we will be announcing this in February.
Now, before we all get started on this journey of ridding our bodies of sugar for three weeks, I want to get a few things straight with all of you. This detox is about HEALTH. This detox is not about being right, or wrong, or a failure. This detox is about respecting ourselves and our bodies, and doing what we think is best for our own health, mental and physical. So with that in mind I will be listing a few things that sugar does not do and that sugar does do, just so we are all clear on the intentions of doing this detox.
What eating sugar DOES NOT do:
- Eating sugar does not make you wrong.
- Eating sugar does not make you a bad person.
- Eating sugar does not make you a failure.
- Eating sugar does not make you worthless.
- Eating sugar does not mean you don’t care about your health.
- Eating sugar does not mean that you are lazy.
- Eating sugar does not mean that you are not Paleo!
- Eating sugar makes you store body fat.
- Eating sugar makes your skin break out.
- Eating sugar makes you age faster.
- Eating sugar makes you depressed.
- Eating sugar causes more symptoms of pms.
- Eating sugar compromises digestion.
- Eating sugar compromises your immune system.
Sugar Detox friendly recipes that you can already find on our blog
Breakfast:
- Veggie Scramble
- Beef Bacon and Eggs
- Egg Muffins
- Vanilla Pancakes (top with butter only)
- Grilled Chicken Salad
- Asparagus Soup
- Chicken and Vegetable “Lo Mein”
- BBLT Bison Bacon Lettuce Tomato Burger
I love this.
I love your take on sugar.
I love your idea to have a list and post daily.
I love that we're all gonna be detoxing and doing it as a group.
I just LURVE it. Can't wait!
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I must say, I am a little confused … what exactly have you been adding sugar to, or is it more a case of kicking out the little treats? Either way, good luck – it's a worthwhile thing to do.
Have fun … That's the most important bit. I'm certainly looking forward to more great food!
Hi Paul,
This is a detox from ALL forms of sugar, as in all fruit, natural sweeteners (even stevia), and even dairy products.
Bill puts heavy cream in his coffee, we have been eating too much dried fruits and dark chocolates, some wine, and not to mention Diane was here working on her book which did include some grain free desserts.
It's not that we were adding sugar to things. This detox is about eliminating even the natural sugars that occur in our day to day diets that can be causing health issues or more sugar cravings.
Hope that clears things up for you.
I plan to participate in this as well, but because I am currently training for a half-marathon that's in early February, I'll continue to consume natural fruit and sucralose (in my energy drink) as part of my training, before a long run.
Thanks for the motivation!
I love Diane's sugar detox guide! I highly recommend it to everyone and am following it again myself the next 21 days. I bring it out now whenever I feel I need that extra detoxing! Thanks for the recipes, I will definitely be stealing a few of those 🙂
I understand now, guys – best of luck! You're braver than me 🙂
Looking at my own intake, I think a handful of blueberries at breakfast and the fattier dairy products (yoghurt and cream) are about it … oh, and Guinness.
I could probably cut those out – blueberries are a new thing, dairy I could work around and Guinness … grrr … that'd take some pulling out of my strong paleo grip, but I've done it before for long periods.
Best of … looking forward to the write-ups.