The Ultimate Guide To Doing a Sugar Detox

The Ultimate Guide To Doing a Sugar Detox

What’s A Sugar Detox 

Have you heard of doing a sugar detox? The idea is to abstain from any added sugar for a certain period of time. Some people will stick it out for a week, but a month is better.

It will give your body and your mind time to adjust to living without the addictive white stuff. Because that’s the reason we call it a detox.

Refined sugar activates the same pleasure centers in our brains that cocaine and similar drugs do. No wonder kicking that soda and cookie habit is so hard. 

How Long Should Your Sugar Detox Be? 

Any active effort to cut out any and all added sugar will benefit you. If the idea of living without your favorite sugary treats for an entire month seems like it’s too much, give a week a try. Otherwise, thirty days is a good choice. It’s long enough to give your body time to adjust and change. It’s a great starting place to break the sugar habit and tamper your sugar addiction. 

Start and see how you feel. Commit to a certain time period and go from there. The longer you can stay away from refined and added sugar, the better for your overall health. You can always go long after you reach your goal or re-introduce a limited amount of added sugar and see how you feel. 

What Can You Expect During Your Sugar Detox 

If you are consuming a fair amount of sugar right now – and most of us do – be ready for headaches. Your brain is relying on this easy-to-use fuel and will balk at the switch. The good news is that the headaches are temporary. You can (mostly) avoid them by cutting down on your sugar consumption in the days and weeks leading up to your challenge. Otherwise, drink plenty of water and wait it out. A Tylenol or aspirin works wonders as well to get you through those first few days. 

Along with the headache, don’t be surprised if you find yourself agitated and short-tempered. Those are more side effects of your body getting used to a switch in fuel. As a result, your blood sugar may drop for a while. It’s okay. Your body is designed to deal with multiple sources of fuel. Sugar just happens to be the quickest and easiest, which is why it is burnt first. As long as we continue to provide our body with a steady supply of it, it will stick to burning it instead of fat for example. 

Remember, all these side effects are temporary. Stick it out and you’ll be rewarded with a new sense of well-being and mental clarity. Preparing Your Kitchen For A Sugar Detox

You’re ready to start a sugar detox. Maybe you’re dipping your toes in with a week without sugar, or maybe you’re ready to dive in for a whole month. No matter how long you choose to detox from added sugar, and how you define your actual rules, it’s important to prepare your kitchen, your pantry, and with it your mind for the challenge. Because it will be a challenge and the more sugar you can ban from your kitchen beforehand, the easier it will be. 

There is added and refined sugar in almost every single processed food. There is sugar in things you’d never think it would be in. Frozen vegetables and salad dressings are two examples that often surprise people. Read the labels of everything you have in your kitchen. Look for all the different words sugar is disguised as including dextrose, fructose, glucose, corn syrup, maltose, and others. You can find long and inclusive lists online. 

What will often trip you up is all the little extra things we use to cook and prepare meals. This could be things like mayonnaise and salad dressing, but also spice mixes and seasonings. If you use one of those little packets to make your tacos or chili, you may want to find either an alternative without added sugar or better yet, make your own. Start looking up alternatives and recipes so you’re ready when it’s six o’clock at night and you’re hungry. 

If you’re currently relying on a lot of processed and ultra-processed food, and aren’t cooking much from scratch, it may be time to work on those skills. If you can make your own seasoning mixes and salad dressings for example, or cook a pot of soup from scratch, you’ll eliminate a lot of added sugar from your diet. 

Start working on those skills and try out some new recipes while you prepare for your sugar detox. It will make your life so much easier. It will also make sure you have what you need to do this.

For example, you’ll have a small jar or bottle ready along with olive oil, vinegar, and spices to mix up and store a quick salad dressing. Or maybe you find yourself buying a waffle iron to make waffles from scratch instead of popping the frozen one in the toaster in the morning. 

Last but not least, make room to prepare and store lots of whole foods. Keep cut-up fruit in a bowl in the fridge instead of cookies in the pantry. Snack on raw veggies instead of chips and pretzels. Have storage containers on hand so you can make home-cooked meals ahead of time to replace the processed and prepared food you’ve been gravitating to. You’ve got this! 

Give Your Body Time To Adjust 

Change is hard. 

Our bodies like equilibrium. It’s why we often stay at or around the same weight for years at a time. It’s why we get hungry around the same time each day or prefer a certain temperature setting in our homes. 

We get into habits of grabbing certain food. Breaking those habits isn’t easy. Set yourself up for success as much as you can and pay attention to places and situations that tempt you to slip back into habits you’re trying to change and avoid. 

Change takes time. 

You have to be patient and give your body and your mind time to adjust to eating less sugar and fewer processed foods. This is both a physical and a mental issue. Don’t expect this to be a quick fix. Avoiding sugar for a few days is great and it can help you become more aware of how much sugar you consume in a given week, but real change takes longer than that. 

It can also help to start slow. If you’re eating a lot of sweets or are drinking soda right now, for example, start to slow down your consumption for a few weeks. Start slow and keep weaning yourself off the steady stream of sugar into your body. It will make your actual sugar detox much easier to do.

And be prepared for this to take longer than you expect. It’s okay. You didn’t become addicted to sugar in a flash. Stick with it and you will see meaningful change. 

Change takes patience. 

After a few days or even weeks with little to no added sugar, you’ll feel great. You’ve established new habits. Your body has become fat-adapted, meaning that it will easily switch from burning carbohydrates for energy to using lipids including stored body fat. You’re clear-headed, have more energy, and then boom… 

Out of nowhere the craving hits. Maybe you’re tired, sad, or disappointed. Maybe you walked by a bakery and smelled those sweet treats. Or maybe there’s no apparent reason at all. It happens. And it will happen to you.

It takes time, patience, and grit to change your diet and your lifestyle. Expecting these stumbling blocks will help you overcome them and either stay on track or get back on it if you give in to temptation. 

Change can be permanent. 

To wrap it up, I want to share a bit of good news. Change can be permanent. Yes, it takes time. Yes, you will fall off the wagon. But then you’ll reach the day when the change to reducing your sugar intake has become permanent. 

The surprising thing is that you won’t recognize that day right away. Only in hindsight will it become clear that both the physical and mental change has become permanent. 

Stock Up On Whole Foods During Your Sugar Detox 

One of the best things you can do before starting a sugar detox is to throw out any and all food that includes added sugar. Grab a trash bag or box and go through everything in your pantry and your fridge. Toss or give away the food and start fresh. This brings up an interesting question. What do you stock up and eat while you’re detoxing from sugar? 

Things That Don’t Need A Label 

The majority of the food you will eat and the beverages you will drink during your sugar detox shouldn’t need an ingredient label. Think apples, potatoes, rice, chicken, steak. Whole food. Real food. Eat them raw. Cook them and eat them plain, or combine them into delicious dishes.

There is a lot you can do with whole food ingredients. Think chicken, rice, broccoli, and a piece of fruit for dessert. Or a big batch of vegetable soup. Chili is made with spices and minimally-processed tomato paste to thicken it. Eggs or oatmeal for breakfast.

Use fresh or dried fruit to sweeten things up. Snack on raw veggies or nuts and seeds. Get creative with whole foods. There are lots of ideas and recipes out there. Make a list of your favorites and always have them on hand. 

A Few Convenience Foods 

It’s okay to have a few convenience foods on hand. Maybe it’s a large tub of cleaned lettuce. Maybe it’s some no-sugar-added canned soups. The pre-cooked chicken you can heat up in a flash and serve over quick-cooking rice. 

While these processed convenience foods shouldn’t make up the bulk of your diet, they are great to have on hand when you’re running late, are tired, or just don’t feel like cooking something from scratch. Look for those that have little to no added sugar and accumulate a little stash of things you know you’ll eat. 

You can also make your own convenience foods. It doesn’t even have to take any extra time or effort. The next time you make soup, make it a double batch and freeze half. When you’re baking chicken, make extra to turn it into a different quick meal another day this week. Get into a rhythm and figure out what works for you and your family. 

Replacements For The Foods You Can’t Live Without 

Think about some things you love and the thought of giving them up for thirty days makes you want to quit before you start. Maybe it’s ice cream. Maybe it’s a crunchy cookie that you have with your coffee in the afternoon. Then come up with a replacement. 

Sometimes it’s the sugar-free version of the same treat. Let’s use ice cream for example. There are low and no sugar ice cream options available. That’s one option. 

The other is to come up with something healthier and naturally sugar-free that you can have instead. For example, instead of having a bowl of ice cream, have a bowl of plain yogurt with fresh fruit. Add some nuts or oats for crunch and you come away with your own low sugar version of a Sundae. 

Beverage Alternatives Without Sugar or Sugar Replacements 

One of the hardest things for many people to deal with during a sugar detox is finding something to drink that they enjoy. If you are currently having things like soda, sweet tea, and sweetening your coffee, it can be a bit of an adjustment to go sugar-free. Which brings up a good point. 

Yes, you can decide to use sugar substitutes and have sugar-free soda for example. I could caution you against this. The goal of this exercise is to kick the sugar addiction and that takes changes in behavior and habits. Why not take this time to switch from soda to water and your fancy, sugar-laden coffee drink to black coffee. 

Water should always be your first choice when it comes to beverages. It hydrates you, your body desperately needs it, and it’s readily available. When you’re feeling thirsty, drink a glass of water before you do anything else. 

Water doesn’t have to be boring. If you’re fine drinking it plain, go for it. If you feel like it’s getting old, mix it up. Put it in a fancy glass. Add some ice cubes. Flavor it with a slice of lemon or a few frozen berries. Cucumber and ginger are another interesting twist. 

Try mineral water and soda water if you’re missing that fuzzy feeling from drinking soda. It makes water taste and feel different without adding any sugar, calories, or additives (besides CO2 of course). 

Be careful when adding juices. Most of the ones you buy at the store have added sugar, and even if you press your own, you’re consuming a lot of natural sugar all at once without the buffering side effect the fiber in the whole fruit provides. 

Plain coffee and various teas are another great alternative. Drink your coffee without sugar either black or with a splash of cream or half-and-half. The same goes for your favorite black tea. If you’re currently loving sugary coffee drinks, start weaning yourself off. You get used to it and then to the point where you enjoy black coffee or tea. It will take your tastebuds some time to adjust if your current drink of choice is a white chocolate mocha with extra whipped cream. 

When it comes to alcoholic beverages, cut out any cocktails and mixed drinks. Your best bet is to stick to single-ingredient drinks and when it comes to wines, opt for anything that says dry on the label. Be aware though that alcohol can trigger sugar cravings. If you find that’s the case for you, it may be best to skip alcohol during the actual sugar detox and use it sparingly after. 

Above all, start with water. Drink a glass and see if you’re still craving that soda or fancy coffee drink ten minutes later. 

Have you ever done a sugar detox? If so, what were your results? How did you feel after? And would you do it again? Let me know!

Talk soon,

Andie 🙂