Changes I Made In Week Before 14 Day Sugar Detox

OK, so here is my next post I promised about the changes I've made in the week before beginning the 14 day sugar detox I am starting TOMORROW!  (If you missed reading my first post about this sugar detox, read this post first.) So, if you know me, you know that I LOVE SWEETS!  My husband and I often joke that I have a separate "dessert stomach" because even if I'm full from my regular meal, there's always room for sweets and desserts!  Most of the time on a regular day, I am pretty controlled in my eating habits for breakfast and lunch . . . it's dinner and evening snacks I've made changes to so far, and will have to continue doing so if I want to see results. So far I have just limited my carbs, sugar, dairy, & gluten consumption.  So basically, I've cut a lot of carbs out of my dinners and a lot of sugar and dairy out of my snacks.  I will admit I had a chocolate chip cookie (or two or three) over the past week, but hey, I had to get rid of them before this detox OFFICIALLY started, right?!  I normally have 2 scrambled eggs in a croissant with cheese for breakfast, so the past week, I just had the 2 scrambled eggs, along with 1 or 2 pieces of bacon on a couple days.  For lunch, I normally would've had a greek yogurt and crackers with peanut butter for instance.  So for the past week, I've had tuna salad (made with almonds and plain greek yogurt).  Since I'm cutting out dairy for the next 14 days too, I am going to try to make the tuna salad with avocado to make it more creamy, starting tomorrow.  I also have had some strawberries and blueberries at lunch or for a snack.  Sometimes I'll have a handful of almonds for a snack, or celery with almond butter.  Then for dinner, I really haven't been creative yet.  I basically have just had whatever meat we were having along with vegetables.  If my family was having rice or macaroni or corn, or anything starchy that I couldn't have, then I just wouldn't eat it and would eat more veggies instead.  Hopefully eventually, I can get my family into this new healthier way of eating too, but for now I have to learn first and just make small changes with them . . . more on this later on another post probably.   Then here are the BIGGEST CHANGES I've made so far . . . my COFFEE and my NIGHT-TIME SNACKING.  I really, really love my coffee . . . ask my co-workers.  I often come into work, set down my coffee I brought from home that I made (with plenty of creamer and milk), along with a starbucks iced white chocolate peppermint mocha . . . oh, it pains me to even say it!  My favorite starbucks drink!  I even learned how to make a pretty similar version at home, by ordering the peppermint and white chocolate syrup from amazon.com.  As we speak, I even have half a bottle full of each, and I'm sending them to my mom's house to store in her fridge since I won't be using them for a while.  :-(  But I can't stand for them to spoil or throw them out!   So, my NEW COFFEE ROUTINE is . . . black coffee with 1 tsp of coconut oil and 1 tsp of coconut sugar.  I am so happy I don't have to just drink it black.  The coconut oil and sugar is on the approved list for me to have, and I also like pouring about 1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk in to make it more like a latte.  It's actually pretty good, and much better than what I could imagine black coffee would be - I haven't even tried it completely black out of fear! :) Ha ha! Then for my NIGHT-TIME SNACKING . . . usually I would grab easy, carb and sugar loaded stuff . . . like ice cream, chips and salsa, chips and dip, about the worst thing for you.  I think I often just snack out of boredom or stress, but sometimes I actually am hungry, because I usually exercise after dinner and by the time we get the kids to bed, then I'm hungry again.   My NEW NIGHT-TIME SNACKING routine has been lots of veggies (different colored peppers or celery) dipped in either almond butter or guacamole.  Sometimes I even grab a hard boiled egg.  This does fill me up!  And that is the goal . . . eat to be full.   I already do not normally drink soda, usually just water or sweet tea.  But in the past week, I have also cut out the sweet tea.  Tonight I tried unsweet tea with coconut sugar mixed in and lime.  Delicious!  I've also had the unsweet with just lemons squeezed in, and that is good too. I took my "before" measurements and pictures tonight . . . maybe one day I'll be brave enough to share.  But I thought it was too cute that Alaina, my 3 year old daughter, wanted me to take her pic too, with her pool floatie around her of course!  

I think this is the way I've been feeling even without a pool floatie, bloated and yucky in my mid-section.  So, here's to feeling better overall after this detox is up, and hopefully making some good changes that I stick to even afterwards! I'm hoping in the next week to try some new dinner recipes.  Eating this way takes a lot of prep and shopping for the right foods.  The main thing I have to focus on is that overall I'm feeling better and that is the most important.  I'll try to update with new posts through the next 14 days on how everything is going and with some new recipes that I try.  Thanks for following along with me on this journey to better health!  Click Here to read Part 3 of my journey.