When your body is addicted to a substance, a DETOX is usually necessary in order to get your mind to cooperate with what your heart wants you to do. This applies whether you’re a drug addict, an alcoholic, or plain and simple…a sugar addict. It is very difficult for someone to consider themselves a sugar addict. Food is a part of our lives… an acceptable and enjoyable part of our lives. Part of our societal culture is to gather together to eat. The highest traffic area in your home is the kitchen. Parties include food. Business meetings include food. Fundraisers include food. Food is everywhere. Unfortunately for us and even more unfortunate for our children…the food we provide at all these social functions is usually food that is not good for us. Cupcakes, desserts, bagels, bread, crackers, chips, cookies, soda…the list goes on and on. Usually in the corner of the buffet you’ll find a barely touched vegetable tray or some fruit. Since from a very young age we associate these foods as “treats and goodies,” it becomes increasingly difficult for us to want to eat the “whole foods.” We are taught to be addicted to sugar. Therefore, it is the norm and since it is “accepted” in our society, we don’t diagnose ourselves with the label of “addiction.” But the truth is that most of us are addicted to sugar.

One of the biggest reasons we are oblivious to this addiction, is that most of us don’t even realize that what we are consuming is in fact sugar. Since I began my quest to eating healthy, I get asked all the time what my trick is to having lost weight. I have told many people quite simply, I gave up sugar. The most common response to that comment is…”Oh, well I don’t really eat a lot of sugar in my diet anyway”  If the conversation evolves and we discuss more in depth what the person’s daily diet is like…almost always, the only sugar they are avoiding is the obvious one. The chocolate chip cookie, or the dessert. But what they don’t know, is that sugar is in everything these days. People are not trying to overload on sugar….they just don’t KNOW what they’re eating. That is why one of the biggest principles we live by is to Read the Ingredients. Carbohydrates turn into sugar in our bodies, and even though we need carbohydrates in order to have energy, it is important that what we are eating are 100% whole grains and not intaking the wrong kinds of carbs.

From the moment our day begins we put sugar in our coffee, have a bagel or cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch (yummy bread), some chips and  maybe a soda, a cookie for snack?? (well only today because it’s Johnny’s birthday but tomorrow we’ll be good!), rice or pasta for dinner with ragu sauce (oh oh, did we check the sugar content on the ragu bottle?)…of course these are just examples and some days are better than others but overall,

Our society is addicted to sugar and carbohydrates. This makes it very difficult for most people to lose weight and feel great.

That’s where the detox comes in. Detox can take many forms depending on your personal needs. Maybe you want to test yourself out and see if you are a victim of sugar, so one option is to cut out sugar completely from your diet for a while. I did that for 3 weeks and discovered that I was TOTALLY a sugar addict. For those 3 weeks I had headaches, I felt nauseus, I even felt anxiety, but slowly those symptoms started going away and I was able to overcome that addiction.

Others need a little more structure and would like to actually follow a “detox meal plan.”My girlfriend did a 21 day detox which she loved. Here’s the link: http://www.wholeliving.com/152870/2012-whole-living-action-plan

I actually took many recipes from that article and highly recommend them.

Maybe 21 days seems too long for you and you just want to experiment with small changes instead of drastic ones. This wonderful article gives you small steps you can take in the detoxification of your body.

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/detox

Maybe you eat healthy all week but splurge on the weekends and need a detox day.

Whatever your goals are, there is always room for some detoxing. And the nice thing about it is that it gives you a kickstart in this process. I find that when I detox, even for just a day, I make better choices in what I eat, and I crave bad foods less.

I encourage you to try either of these two websites to incorporate detoxing in your life. And please, let me know what your experience was like.