Body Back #11- Sugar Detox
I’m sitting here drinking something I think I invented, but have not Googled it to see if I actually invented it. I call it “Honey Milk.” It’s really what it sounds like. We’ve had two snow days here and everyone was all like, “Hot chocolate!!! Snow day!!!” Then I was all like, “Wait! I can’t! Our Body Back challenge for three days is no sugar!”
Our instructor Christie has challenged us to eliminate processed sugar. We can have natural sugar like honey and maple syrup. Sugar, fructose, dextrose and a bunch of other sugars disguised with fancy names are out. I really wanted my warm, sweet, snow day beverage fix. Here’s what I came up with:
Almond Honey Milk:
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 tbsp. honey
Sprinkle of cinnamon to taste
Heat milk in a saucepan or microwave. Stir in honey. Add cinnamon.
After I drank this I realized the almond milk was sweetened. Womp womp! So much for my quest to avoid sugar. I will make sure to buy the unsweetened almond milk. I’m pretty sure Trader Joe’s has unsweetened vanilla. You can also add vanilla extract.
We don’t have sugar cereals around here. Actually, we don’t eat much cereal. Which is insane, because that’s all I used to eat. Charlotte saw some “Frozen” cereal in the store. No. Everything the child has is embossed with a goofy snowman or “so-close-yet-so-far” sisters. I can’t buy her “Frozen” cereal that is really just Lucky Charms. No way. I also try to keep the candy to a minimum and we keep desserts to once or twice a week. But, hidden sugar is EVERYWHERE! It creeps in everything we eat. Bread, peanut butter, ketchup, oatmeal etc.
Oh! Another fail in the sugar ban: salad dressing. My favorite Balsamic Vinaigrette from Trader Joe’s also has sugar. That’s why it’s so delicious.
This has made me realize how extreme my sugar addiction is. For real, I could eat dessert after lunch and dinner. I could drown a waffle in syrup every morning. Gah! Waffles! I have not had a single delicious, sugary latte since Body Back began six weeks ago. I’m not craving them anymore. I think if I keep reducing my sugar, I won’t feel that craving as much. Honey and fruit as natural sweeteners have been the way to go for me and quite literally kept me afloat.
Have you done a sugar detox? Did you eliminate everything? Even honey? My girl Erin did a sugar detox recently as well. Let me know what is working/worked for you!
Spread it around:
It’s in EVERYTHING, isn’t it? I thought I knew this and I was STILL shocked when I started reading more labels. When I did Whole 30, ALL sugar was out. In fact, the book (It Starts with Food) says “sugar is sugar is sugar” aka your brain doesn’t know it was honey not a tablespooon of sugar. You still are satiating your desire for sugar. That REALLY clicked with me! So we are eating oatmeal now without sugar (using apple butter with no sugar and some dried fruit which has natural sugars). And we’ve really cut down our overall sugar consumption after being cold turkey for 30 days. Even Whole 30 says no sugar is unrealistic, but the detox breaks you from wanting/needing it as much afterwards. And we’re not true southerners anymore because we’re now making just regular tea, not sweet tea!
A good (but pricey) balsamic is Tessamae’s which you can get at Whole Foods. You really gotta shake it up though!
Your invention sounds good. And yes, you can get unsweetened almond milk anywhere, actually. SILK, Almond Breeze, they all have them. They’re actually not so bad.
I add them to my cereal. Oops.
Sounds interesting. I really really SHOULD try this. Eventually.
I did it. 10 days. We could have honey and maple syrup but i avoided it. Thing i wanted the most was stupid ketchup. My big take away was i didn’t need as many carbs. Since i couldn’t have a lot of them, I realized they were filling me up for nothing. Without them I felt like I had more energy and even had more calories at night.
Couple of “tricks”:
* The blended frozen banana “ice cream”. Add unsweetened peanut butter and cocoa powder. Dizam
* Mash a banana in oatmeal. Insta sweet
* Frozen grapes are amazing
* mash avocado, lemon juice with salt and pepper for salad dressing
* frozen pineapple in seltzer
BOOM