When I was a kid, we used to count to 100 by saying, "1, 2, skip a few, 99, 100." Was that a thing lots of kids did? I don't know, but that's how I thought this whole "posting every day" thing was supposed to go: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, skip a few, 21." It's my mom's fault. She never taught me how to count. Seriously, though, I think it was quite the effort on my part. Completing 12 posts in 21 days ain't too shabby. Maybe you thought since I skipped posts 13 through 20 that I died from lack of sugar.
Well here I am, folks. I'm very much alive. Rich too. He's half alive and half sleeping. Either way, we both survived 21 whole days with no added sugar, and we're better off for it. What's next, you ask? We're not 100 percent sure. We did this half on a whim and half because we wanted to kick start ourselves into a healthier lifestyle. We are now transitioning into a more "clean" style of eating, continuing to leave things white things (sugar, bread, rice, pasta) out of our diet most of the time. I can't pretend that we will never eat pasta, pizza, or a delicious sub ever again. That's just silly. We plan on keeping our diets high in healthy protein and low in bad carbohydrates. Basically, we're trying to steer clear of processed foods. It's almost identical to what we've been doing for the last 21 days, except now we can add things like pure maple syrup in place of refined white sugar. I seriously can't wait for that because I tried to concoct some "desserts" in the last week or so, and let's just say they were...savory. While I'm not craving anything sweet, I would love a little sweetness in my life.
If you recall, I did hope to lose weight throughout this process. I'm happy-ish to report that I lost about 4 pounds. I can hear you all now: "Oh, wow! That's WONDERFUL!" Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wonderful, schmonderful. Seriously, I would be totally happy with that if I hadn't lost it all within the first week! To know that little tidbit is to know that I did weigh myself through the process. I weighed myself a couple times each week -- I wasn't obsessive or anything. I maintained almost the exact weight (give or take .2 pounds) from day 7 to day 21! That was a bit frustrating, but I will take it. Rich, on the other hand (get ready ladies), lost about 15 pounds. FIF. TEEN. I will say, he had just been on a golfing trip with his buddies before we started this, so I'm sure some of that was "water weight," but still! Like I said before, he was very successful losing weight when on a low-carb diet, so this seemed to be a good "marriage" for both of us. Imagine that! I'm very happy for him.
We actually went grocery shopping together last night which doesn't happen often. As we walked through, we educated ourselves on things we could eat and add to our diets now that the 21 DSD is over. It was a good experience. Overall, the entire 21 days has been a good experience. I would say we definitely had more highs than lows, and it was only really tough in the first few days. I'm glad we did it! We're hoping for many of these habits to stick as we move forward.
Thanks to anyone who followed along while we felt our way through this! You can see the other posts in this series here:
Day 1: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 2: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 3: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 4: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 5: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 6: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 7: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 8: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 9: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 10: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
Day 12: The 21 Day Sugar Detox
