I’ve been looking forward to February for multiple reasons. One is Valentine’s Day, but the other is because of sugar sugar sugar!! I mentioned that January was my month of no sugar, and many of you asked how it went so I thought I’d share an update, along with some recipes that helped me out when I was having cravings!
First of all, it was hard. Really hard! But I will say that it got easier. I gave up any added sugars. So that meant no white sugar, brown sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup, or molasses.
At the beginning of the month, I think my body was in major shock, especially after coming off a holiday sugar binge! My coffee tasted disgusting without sweetener, and by the end of the day, I was craving dessert with a vengeance. By the end of the month, though, I actually started to really enjoy my coffee without sugar. I started using a delicious half and half and that made my coffee really rich and satisfying. I still had the occasional cravings but I was more comfortable walking past the pastry section, and ignoring the dessert section on menus.
There were still days where I had a sweet craving though that needed to be satisfied. What did I do? I ate fruit, made smoothies, and ate spoonfuls of nut butter. I also found a few recipes that used no added sugars. I constantly had a bunch of these yummy energy bites in the fridge {made with dates instead of honey}, and I also made a delicious and creamy chia pudding. Seriously so good!
Would I do this again? Definitely! I’m actually planning on continuing into February with only natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. I’m definitely going to have a few cheat days here and there {like tonight with some chocolate chip cookies because you KNOW that’s what I’ve been craving all along!}. I want to keep this momentum going though of really thinking about what I’m putting in my body and seeing if I’m able to make natural and healthy substitutions. If you have any recipe recommendations for me, let me know!!
Have any of you tried having a no sugar month? How did it go?
xox
photo from Cookie and Kate
