The hard things!

One of my biggest challenge so far has not been the fact I'm not eating sugar. The hardest thing was telling people why I was doing this.
In Brazil (where I am from) sugar is in everything. People use A LOT of sugar in their coffee. When I told my mom that I was doing this she thought it was just for the purpose of self inflicted pain. It wasn't! and it wasn't that painful! But I was very strict with my no sugar rule, especially in the begging. That meant no drinking alcohol either, not that I am a heavy drinker but who doesn't enjoy a beer on a Friday night? The weekend would be my biggest challenge I knew it, but more on that later.
My point is every time I am out with anyone I feel like I have to defend my diet, explain the whys and get asked multiple times if I am sure I don't want a drink or a piece of pizza! It's not easy!
 I need to come up with some sort of drink I can order while I am not drinking (which I only plan to do for 3 weeks total), I'm not doing artificial sweeteners either because I feel like that would defeat the purpose of health.

Handy tip: I always have a bag of almonds and sunflower seeds in my purse!

I went to the movie with my friend to watch The Lucky one, which was terrible in my opinion, but this is the snack that I brought to the movies with me. Way to save some $$ and not be tempted by unhealthy snacks!

The first few days

I know that sounds dramatic but if you knew of my late night chocolate binges you would be surprised!

First of all, yes it was challenging in the first days. But it is totally doable! You just have to commit to it! Find something that motivates you and drives you! 

On the first days I spent most of my free time reading blogs of other people who had done this (hence why I decided to share my experience) and it was a great motivator to know other people had gone through the same thing as me. I will later post the details of how I've been doing this diet change. But here is a little visual of my grocery list for the first week (I did eat more than this and things that were not on the picture).
The first day was great! It was a Sunday, I worked out and was feeling great!
On Monday though, I woke up shaky, not feeling well. Had a fog in my head most of the day. I did not get crazy headaches, but I felt strange! I never went hungry in this whole time! I think since this is a big change I am  eating allowed foods freely.
Day 3- Was very similar, fighting the urges and staying away. Mornings and nights were the worse! I just felt weak almost. I also noticed my skin was more bumpy this day and I felt like I was sweating a lot (but that might be due to the fact it was hot and I was moving but still).
Day 4- I woke up feeling groggy at first, but then again I always do and like magic I was feeling amazing before my coffee! WHAT??? I usually don't even open my eyes before my french press has been pressed down! I had a lot of energy this day and was feeling very motivated by that. I also felt like I wasn't hungry ALL the time. Before I would get these sudden urges to eat and that didn't seem to happen as much.
I will list some the resources that I used: I bought a great E-Book called I quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson that helped me a lot. The more I read and got informed I got more inspired to keep going. I wasn't actually that tempted to eat sweets anymore and that felt like FREEDOM to me, who a week before devoured a bag of chocolate chip cookies in two days.
Strength!!

My own sugar detox

Why did I even think about eliminating sugar from my diet?
I used to get a lot of migraines ever since I was a child, and after puberty it got even worse. There are certain times of the month when I ALWAYS have one, woman out there I'm sure some of you relate. But when I started to be more careful about the food that I am putting into my body I noticed a huge change. I have tried to cut down on refined sugar before and I was always very successful Monday- Friday. Friday night I would go out for some drinks then grab a 2am pizza slice, then come home and rage on chocolate chips. Oh, the chocolate chips! They got everywhere! I would find them hidden on the couch, on my bed...it was bad!

I started researching online about sugar binges, and night binges and came across the sugar detox diet. When I read the goal was to but ALL sugars from your diet I nearly fainted and thought what a cruel thing to do! 

I thought I could have moderation, I have always believed in that and did not like the idea of not eating fruit.

Two weeks later I was making breakfast for a friend who has been sugarless for two months and he pointed out (as a joke, but still) how much sugar I had added without noticing. Apple sauce, peanut butter ( I had the sugar added one), soy milk, dressing, the list went on and on...

That is when I decided to give it a try. How bad could it be? I would do it for only a few days and see how I felt! The next day I went through my food and gave away TWO full grocery bags away!

On Sunday April 22nd I started!