Cutting Down on Sugar {Half Way thru the Whole 30}

The other day I mentioned that our family is cutting out sugar. It's true, my husband and I are working our way thru the Whole 30 - day by day.

We are. And it is hard.

Not too hard, in fact some days we think 'why didn't we do this sooner' while other days all we can do is talk about what we want to eat when our 30 days are up.

I like to think that we eat good food, but we also indulge often in sweet and fatty foods. We choose quality ingredients but often the quantity of our servings are oversized as well. The first few days of our elimination diet highlighted how much sugar we usually eat (sometimes added by us and sometimes just added by the food product we buy - our favorite local breakfast sausage contains brown sugar for seasoning and we didn't even notice before).

It was staggering how much sugar we probably consumed on a daily basis. During those first few days we also noticed how we felt almost antisocial when we would turn down desserts or ask friends to go to the coffee shop (iced black coffee is pretty great these days) instead of an evening at our local brewery.  We were surprised that our sugar (along with dairy, gluten, legume) elimination was not just physical but also emotional.

The first few days were difficult. Lots of headaches and lots of cravings. Days four, five and six - my husband and I both woke up as if we were hung over. We were drinking lots of water but at that point our bodies were having a super difficult time adjusting to the foods we were eating. I was especially tired - taking naps and the whole bit on days six and seven.

After the first week things were turning around. We discovered a serious love for sweet potatoes. Our digestive systems were getting used to so many vegetables. However, we were noticing dull stomach aches after meals.

On days eleven and twelve we realized that the dull stomach aches were after meals that we ate quickly. (Usually because we had waited too long to eat.)

Two weeks in and it is easy to stop when we are full and slower eating is becoming the routine.

And that's about it - because we're currently half way thru!

We are hoping by completing the Whole 30 that it will give us some insight into what is "in moderation" for us. And maybe discover what foods we no longer want to eat.

The truth is, we might be some of those sugar-crazed people that actually require more than 30 days to break sugar cravings and habitual sweet eating patterns. But at least we're starting with the 30 days. We'll see what we need to do once we get there.