Skip to main content

Committing to 30 days without sugar - YOU will hold me to it

Every year at this time we commit to something new; changes for the better that we hope will stick. I've found that publicly committing to something and having a buddy in doing so is exponentially more successful than just writing some wishes in my journal, especially when the new plan is a big one.

Last year I spent a month of summer sugar-free. It wasn't my first attempt, I've spent the last 7 years on one elimination diet or another in attempts to take better control of my health and the auto-immune and inflammation symptoms my body's been displaying. I've been gluten-free for those 7 years, dairy-free off and on for 30+ years, and even meat free for a portion of my life as well.

So I know that cutting out foods is never easy, and for each of us, there's always one vice that's the hardest. Dairy, wheat, starches, sugar, alcohol, salt, it doesn't matter; if it's our crutch, eliminating it feels like we're depriving ourselves of the pleasures of life. And if we're truly addicted to it, we can even get a little mental when we cut it out.

For me, that strongest vice is sugar. So I've spent the last week preparing for the next 30 days so I can have the highest success possible. I've been collecting recipes and motivating infographics, reading about the harm sugar causes (right), and psyching myself up for the detox. Yes, I'm excited for the detox. Because after the last month of cookies, maple-chocolate granola, Frango mints, bagels and cream cheese... I feel like shit. I'm tired, inflamed, uninspired, achy, lazy, and a little depressed. And I'm ready to let all of that go. I'm guessing the holidays have had a similar influence on you.

I invite you to join me. Our Juice Plus family is launching a Transform 30 group tomorrow - where we embark on the One Simple Change plan to guide our bodies back to optimum health with whole food nutrition, good habits, and support each other to do so. Email me to learn more about "T30" and get started.

Whether you want to wean yourself from sugar, gluten, dairy, meat, snacking or something else, or whether you want to create better habits - exercise more, drink more water, sleep longer, or start meditating, this group is a great resource and we have a private Facebook page for it where our team of coaches will be posting.

Follow this blog (sign up for it to the left) to get updates on my journey. Thank you for holding me accountable to this #OneSimpleChange! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gluten Free for Psoriasis

Recently I've been putting my researching brain cells to work on studying the Gluten Free way of life. Since the age of 14 I have had psoriasis, and recently it's been showing signs of progression to psoriatic arthritis, a progression that occurs in about 20-40% of the cases (studies are still incomplete, although the reverse is 80% of PA patients have had psoriasis, so the two are definitely linked). I've been tested for allergies in the 1980s (none), and I'm a pretty natural consumer as well, so I don't use body products with harmful ingredients like parabens or sulfates. Herbal and homeopathic remedies and dead sea salts have all helped reduce my inflammations, but have never eliminated the disorder completely. I was vegetarian for 7 years in the 1990s, and that never cleared up my psoriasis either. Because of its progression I've started researching the diet and how it relates to the disorder, and stumbled upon several articles and studies that now link...

Specific Carbohydrate Diet

After 2.5 years on a strict gluten-free diet and showing only marginal improvement to my skin condition of psoriasis, (although pain free from psoriatic arthritis), my naturopathic doctor has recommended the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). I had grown frustrated with the worsening allergic reactions I was having to several new foods, and went in for a checkup about two months ago, seeing both my naturopath and a new acupuncturist.  For me this reaction is severe joint pain and swelling on my right side, and I am so sensitive to gluten that now anything made in a factory with gluten - as well as all "inflammatory" foods such as soy and the "nightshades" family now - gives me this reaction. Both docs agreed I should go off the nightshades, refined sugars, and soy, and add some acupuncture, Chinese herbs and natural remedies (aloe juice, apple cider vinegar, and more) to my daily rituals to enduce some intestinal healing.  Since then I have seen a 50% reduction i...

DIY Bath Salts

A few weeks back I added two posts for making your own face products. Along that same home-factory-idea line is the typical bath salt. I laugh when I see them in the store for $15, when it's often only $1 of Epsom or Sea Salt and a few drops of essential oil, plus $10 of preservatives you DON'T want on your body! I making salt baths more regularly after a car accident several years ago that left my back in a pretty poor state of health. I was taking a pain-bath about 3-4x a week and it helped immensely. Now I take them for all sorts of reasons: relaxation, menstral cramps, headaches, chest colds, aching muscles, and psoriasis flare-ups. The salt is the base to this so let's start there! SALT First, all salts are sea salts either mined as rock or evaporated from the saline solution. Sea salt is sodium chloride, and is used in cooking and cosmetics. "Dead Sea Salt" is proven to have the highest content of body-healing minerals it it, from the Dead Sea. Table s...