21-Day Sugar Detox Begins Today

Today, I’m taking the plunge by starting a 21-day sugar detox. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but please don’t roll your eyes at me. Yes, I know I just had a baby, but believe me when I say I’m not doing the detox to lose weight. In fact, I just had a baby, which gives me all the more reason to jump on the sugar detox bandwagon.

You see, my main meals have always been fairly healthy (though I could have given up those quick and convenient gluten-free waffles with maple syrup long ago). But thanks to what seems like insatiable nursing hunger, my snacking has gotten a bit out of control. Between meals, I’m always hungry–hungrier than when I was nursing the boys, it seems. The problem is, I’ve been snacking on sugary stuff, which just makes me crave more sugary stuff, which leaves me unsatisfied and hungrier still, which is also doing nothing to help me function on limited sleep or rebuild my strength. So, there you have my list of reasons for doing a three-week detox.

In a nutshell, the 21-day sugar detox is paleo-eating (which I’m fairly well versed in) plus full-fat dairy (since I’m doing Level 2). The catch is you cut out the majority of the sugar that the paleo diet allows you to eat. And I’m not just talking about the obvious sugars such as honey, maple syrup and coconut sugar. I’m talking about fructose as well. The only fruits allowed on the 21dsd are green-tipped bananas, grapefruit and green apples. And even though that sounds a bit bleak, I get it. The goal is not to survive 21 days with extremely limited sugar so that I can say I did it. The goal is for change to take place.

My personal goal is to curb my sugar cravings and reset my palate so that I can enjoy sweets without overindulging to the point that it negatively affects my body, both physically and emotionally.

I think the key to success with this detox will be preparation. I spent last week reading up on the 21dsd, scouring Pinterest for meal and snack ideas, meal planning, grocery shopping and even some early food prep.

Last week, after meal planning and making my grocery list, I went ahead and bought my 8 pounds of beef since it was on sale. Then I trimmed it and packaged it before freezing it for this week. Now I just have to thaw it before using it for my crockpot beef recipes.

I also went ahead and made a non-sweet treat and froze it. I needed to know I had some small way to satisfy any cravings so I didn’t fall off the bandwagon. There isn’t any sugar in it, but shhhh, don’t tell my tastebuds that. I’ll share the recipe later this week!

I know the hardest part of this detox for me will be snacking, since it has been my current sugar pitfall. So to help combat that, I’m making a big batch of jerky in our dehydrator. I’m not sure how long it will last because James Michael eats it like it’s going out of style. But I’m hoping it will last until the end of this week.

Other than that, I did some basic veggie prep to make tonight’s crockpot dinner easier to throw together. My plan is to stay ahead by prepping for the next night’s meal the day before. We’ll see how that goes with the Rowdy boys and Miss Scarlett.

Most all of the food I have planned for this week is pinned on my 21DSD board. I’ll add to it as I come across other recipes, and I’m hoping to review my meals for the week on the blog as well so that I can remember what I liked and how I changed recipes should I ever need to complete the detox again.

The meals I have on tap for this week include:

• Pumpkin Pancakes
• Carrot Pumpkin Spice Muffins
• Banana Vanilla Bean N’oatmeal
• Beef Jerky
• Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Crockpot Barbacoa
• Crockpot Thai Beef Stew
• Paleo Asian Chicken Stirfry
• Crockpot Carne Guisada

You’ll notice this recipe list includes only five main meals (three of which are crockpot meals, woohoo!). Because those five meals total 13 pounds of meat, surely it will be enough to cover our lunches and two extra nights this week. Surely…except you don’t know my husband. He typically eats five meals a day: first breakfast, second breakfast, first lunch, second lunch and dinner. This does not include snacks. So, if for some reason 13 lbs can’t get us through the week, I’ve got plenty of frozen fish and chicken that I can use to whip up something. But more than likely, I’ll make him cook steaks this weekend to give me a break from doing all the cooking!

Do you have any favorite 21dsd recipes to share?