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Yesterday I started my third round of the 21-Day Sugar Detox. During the second round, I had some specific goals in mind, and I accomplished those. I’ve been thinking about what I want to get out of this round of detoxing. I’ve got no great ideas as of yet.
Truth be told, I blame it on the Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter. That stuff is hard to turn away. I’ve been through several jars of it in the past few weeks, and I could feel my old stress eating habits returning like a disgustingly comfortable pair of dirty old shoes that long since belong in the trash. I refuse to return to that person, feeling that shame and self-recrimination wash over me so it was time to do something.
I had such an emotional breakthrough after the last detox ended that I’m hoping for a similar experience. Yes, I want to deal with the stress eating and such, but I feel like I should have some other goal in mind, something more.
We tend to misuse food, or at least I do. Food tends to be a substitution for any number of other things that are happening in our lives. Have a bad day at work? Uncork that bottle of wine and have a glass or two. Feeling crabby and stressed out by all the things you need to get done and no time to do them. Unwrap that chocolate bar and dig in. We misuse food in so many ways just to help us get through the day-to-day grind of life, but it isn’t healthy and often it doesn’t really improve the situation. Sometimes it even makes things worse once the sugar rush wears off and the hangries set in.
Maybe instead of misusing food as a panacea to manage difficult emotions we should learn to be deliberate about our food and lifestyle choices. Maybe we can consciously choose foods that are beneficial to managing stress and that are not detrimental to our health. Maybe we can make lifestyle choices that help us manage stress in place of our negative food choices.
There is an exam coming up at my job in the next few weeks. I tend to stress over my work exams, too, so maybe now is a perfect time to do the detox with that in mind. I seem to read more when I’m on the treadmill so I could use that as a goal. Maybe I could try to get 30 minutes on the treadmill each day, no particular speed or distance, just reading for my work exam. Exercise is one area where I lack discipline so this could end up being good for me.
We’ll see.
In the meantime, I’ve prepared some beef liver pate (recipe coming soon) as a nutrient dense protein source. I’ve also hard-boiled a dozen eggs for snacks. I’ve got some leftovers in the fridge that I need to use up and several recipes in mind for later this week so I think I am in good shape for the first few days.
