Sugar Detoxes are all the rage.
I’ve counted at least 10 different names, types and time periods. Mostly they go by time periods, but I’m sure there are more.
The 2 Day Sugar Detox
The 3 Day Sugar Detox
The 5 Day Sugar Detox
The 7 Day Sugar Detox
The 10 Day Sugar Detox
The 21 Day Sugar Detox
The 30 Day Sugar Detox
The 3 Step Sugar Detox
The I Quit Sugar Detox
The Raw Food Sugar Detox
The Blood Sugar Solution Detox
In order to gain control of sugar in our lives, we do need to get the sugar out of our systems for a set time period, which various for each person.
I’ve read a lot of these detoxes and feel that most of them are like diet books with catchy, popular in the news “sugar related” titles. Nothing more than the Atkins, South Beach, Zone and even the famous Sugar Busters diets have been through the years.
I commend all the detox authors.
It’s absolutely necessary to start raising awareness about ingesting sugar in general.
People need to have awareness about sugar and weight, sugar and health and sugar in general.
It has been hidden from us and manipulated by big food and the press for so long. Now the Internet, of all places, is finally getting the word out.
What I find troubling about the rash of detoxes lately is word “diet” at the end of some the names. As in The Blankity, Blankity Sugar Detox Diet.
It’s good for people new to the idea that sugar might be causing some of their difficulties with weight and health but as for the folks who are highly susceptible to sugar’s addictive qualities another “diet” is just not going to cut it.
We are all familiar with the typical yo-yo phenomena when dieting.
Believe me when I tell you, and just look at the millions of the best seller books above like Atkins if you vigilantly quit sugar you WILL lose weight for as long as you continue off the sugar. You will not stop until you reach your goal weight.
However, the rate of success long term, as we all know, hovers at the less than 5% mark and that’s being generous.
Most folks gain all their weight back – and then some – after sometimes losing remarkable amounts of weight.
I know that’s not what people want or need.
Our clients have all tried at least ten plus diets or systems. They’ve done meetings and points and potions and pills and shakes and restricting and pooping funny cleanses.
They’ve done it all and still they can’t put down the sugar for just a day or two let alone for any pre-set time period.
It has truly, in their minds and bodies, risen to the level of an addiction. They freely and willingly admit that.
Well, to be honest, most start with the idea of a “dependency”.
Not one of those “joking” addictions either.
You know the ones: “I’m just addicted to cola. I have to have my chocolate. I’m totally addicted to bread” Ones where the sentence is said in jest, but the reality is 100% true. It’s an addiction like any other.
So what should you know if you’re going to do a detox – ours or any other?
You should know, and if you’ve read around the site at all you know, that sugar has been manipulating more than just your body, weight, and health.
It has been playing with the chemicals in your body that regulate emotions, feelings and all the basic rewards systems that helped us evolved to find food, want to have sex and relax in peace and during times of stress.
I’ve written till my figures are raw, talked until my voice is shot but no one seems to care about the science of dopamine and serotonin.
What they do care about is their weight, their health and their success in the world.
So what do you do during and after a detox to help make it as effective as possible?
What you do is pay attention to the effects sugar has on how you FEEL. Or surprising to most folks – how it makes you NOT feel.
If you can blend the physical detox with the mental understanding of sugar’s effects on your rewards systems and your natural feel goods then you have a shot.
So where is the “inflection point?” Where does this all go south? Why do people lose the weight then gain it all back on both sugar detoxes and on all the traditional old school “low carb” diets?
Why? Why? Why (people jumping up and down)
It’s because of the old “pink cloud”.
What the hell is a pink cloud?
A pink cloud is how you feel amazing after your detox and you are motivated to not use sugar forever. You’re on a pink cloud.
So just how long does that feeling last you ask?
It usually lasts till regular life starts up again.
No one needs to die, you don’t need to get fired or divorced either.
Just any normal life stressors that you used to handle with a bit of “somethin’, somethin’” or a sweet tea or two is now the gateway back to your old ways.
Back to using sugar as your crutch.
Most everyone that has read this far knows that place intimately. They’ve been there a few times.
And to this day, they can NOT explain WHY they caved and went back to sugar in words.
Sentences like “I don’t know how it happened” or “my car just turned in at the 7-11 by itself, I swear, before I knew it it was in my mouth!”
It’s all downhill from there. We often don’t hear about it until days or weeks later. Sometimes we never hear from the person again.
Those ones hurt. If any of you read this please come back we don’t judge.
I’m gettin’ kinda wordy here but you get the idea.
Heck, it’s not an idea it’s your life. Yo-yo is a kind phrase. It’s the roller coaster from hell.
If you want to jump off, jump here: Quit Sugar Now. We’re here for ya.
If the stories of detox to yo-yo’s hit a nerve then please join our merry band of naturally sweet, sugar-free and sugar reduced marauders for love, support, and instruction on how to get off the roller coaster from hell. Quit Sugar Now.
