Considering giving up sugar? I took a mini challenge to kick off the month of January and gave us sugar for a week. Here’s what I learned, and the tips I learned about how to give up sugar. Everyone’s experience is different – so if you’re thinking about giving up sugar, take my advice with a grain of salt (or should I say, sugar?) until you try it yourself! 

Hi, my name is Maya McDonald, and I’m addicted to sugar.

The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?! Well, I definitely have a problem when it comes to sugar. I’ve had a sweet tooth all my life (dessert should happen after dinner always, right?), and I tend to find some clever way to have sugar with every meal…and even between meals too.

I’m a stressed sugar eater, so busy days at work make my sugar addiction even harder. Whether it’s eating leftover Christmas cookies (mmm….), a new, sweet salty snack mix at work, a bag of marshmallows (because it’s my latest addiction these days), and lots of lattes with even more pumps of caramel. I wouldn’t say it’s a problem (since it’s never something I’ve really examined), but sugar’s definitely been a part of my daily routine for as long as I can remember. And I figured as I’m attempting to give myself a set of challenges throughout the year, the first challenge I should try is giving up sugar for the first time in my lifetime – so, here goes nothing!

First things first, I had to set up some guardrails on how to give up sugar (or at least, how I decided to give up sugar). I had to set up some rules so I wouldn’t cheat, but also so I could set up my expectations for myself in the upfront.

My Guardrails for Giving Up Sugar:

What Sugar I Wouldn’t Eat:

Adding sugar to anything I usually would:

• Like oatmeal (see yah, agave!), pumps of caramel in my morning latte, etc.

Anything with added sugar: 

• Like treats, chocolate, and any dessert I’d usually munch on after dinner or throughout the day at work. This also includes most things with added sugar like ketchup, sugary sauces, sugary dressings, etc.

Other natural sugars:

• While I definitely don’t think honey, agave or maple syrup are a bad thing – I’ve decided to give them up for a week to see the difference in how I feel.

Artificial sugars:

• Cutting any fake sugar that makes things “sugar-free”, like aspartame, anything like Diet Coke, sugar-free gum, etc.

What Sugars I Did Eat:

Fruit: 

• I ate fruit without added sugar to keep myself sane. I avoided super sugary fruit drinks like juice, but kept whole fruits in my diet. Apples can’t be bad for you, right?! 🙂

Wine: 

• I’m not super human, I obviously still needed wine in my life. I applaud all of you who are having a dry January – but I couldn’t do it. Ya’ll are stronger than I am!

Certain products with natural sugar:

• I definitely couldn’t give up a few things – non-fat milk and low-sugar yogurts (primarily Siggi’s), but tried to give up overall foods that were high in natural sugars (like juices) too.

Okay, so – now onto the good stuff – my experience and what I learned about how to give up sugar. Everyone’s experience is totally different, so if you’re thinking about giving up sugar this may not be exactly what happens to you – but hopefully sharing my own experience is helpful (and encouraging too!)

My Experience Giving Up Sugar:

Day #1: I started my challenge on New Years Day, feeling a burst of inspiration from the promise of a new year…and completely full from eating a 5 course meal and too much champagne the night before. Since I was so full from a week-long holiday celebration of indulgence, giving up sugar didn’t seem too tough – and I really only noticed not including sugar in my morning cup of tea and a little craving of dark chocolate after dinner. So far, not bad. I might be able to swing this whole no sugar thing for a week (or maybe two!).

Day #2: I take back everything I said yesterday, I feel like a garbage can.

While I woke up feeling fine, around 10AM I started getting a killer headache that latest throughout the day when I didn’t get my morning, afternoon or evening sugar fix. Oh, and I’m grumpy, which is an ideal mood for my first day back at work with my co-workers…Trying to rally, and keep it together without buckling and trying to amazing piece of birthday cake my co-worker was eating.

Even though it’s only been a few days since I’ve given up giving up sugar, I’ve also been generally less interested in eating junk food too. My go-to snack is usually a sweet treat vs. a salty fix, so I’ve been munching on healthy popcorn and nuts as a snack. It’s honestly crazy to see how many of my favorite snacks have an insane amount of sugar – it seems like no granola bar, cereal, or even most peanut butters are safe. Let’s hope tomorrow goes better than today.

Day #3 – #6: Okay okay okay, things are getting better slowly but surely. I’m finding it a little less difficult to avoid sugar – even though I’ve been offered birthday cake on three separate occasions and was so sad to have to decline. Birthday cake is my jam!

But I’ve been eating a lot of oatmeal (no sugar, just dried fruits!), salads for lunch, and indulged a few times by eating out this week (once at Sun Was for a family visit, and a local favorite, Range). I’ve been drinking wine, but trying to tone it down during the week nights (although I definitely overindulged with wine over the weekend for a friend’s birthday – whoops!).

The headaches have stopped, and I already feel like the things I’ve swapped that had sugar in them before (oatmeal, lattes, an after dinner piece of chocolate) aren’t necessary something I feel like I need anymore. I doubt I’ll give them up forever, but it’s nice to know that he sugary routines I was used to aren’t necessary as I thought they were!

Day #7 – #13: 

Alright, it’s officially been two weeks and I’m still surviving! I was only planning to last for 1 week originally, but heard from others who had given up sugar that it usually takes 2 full weeks to get sugar our of your system to do a true “sugar detox”. I’m very much looking forward to indulging in a cookie or something sweet (probably from Sweet Mandy B’s in my neighborhood!) later this week, but overall I’m feeling totally fine.

I had heard from other people that giving up sugar gives you more energy and feel better – but to be honest, I didn’t feel like I had an excessive amount of energy that was any different than before. I work crazy full time and blog at night, so my hours sleeping are usually pretty limited anyways, so getting more sleep would have probably made a bigger difference than giving up sugar 😉 But I did lose a few pounds (4 to be exact, which was a lot for me!) so that was a nice little surprise. So overall, I’m definitely happy I gave giving up sugar a go! I’m planning to make little changes like reducing the amount of treats I eat (especially when mindlessly snacking), adding sugar to my morning latte, and other little sugary habits I’d gotten myself into. And I think that’s a little (but important) win!

Have you had an experience giving up sugar too? I’d love to hear about it! And if you need any other tips on how to give up sugar, I’m more than happy to help! Just shoot me an email at charminglystyled@gmail.com, or a DM on Instagram. xx, Maya