Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be talking about sugar detox. This is going to be the first part in a two part series, so be on the lookout for part two coming soon. And if you have any questions about today’s blog, then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
So, should we, or shouldn’t we? Well, first off, we have to figure out what is a sugar detox. This can be taken in a range; meaning that some people take it very lightly, and some people take it very serious. In a light sense, a sugar detox would be where we’re taking out, say, the processed sugars, the main sugars. We’re not eating donuts for breakfast or candy bars, but we’re leaving the rest of it in. An intense, focused sugar detox would be where we’re taking out every food in the diet that might have any possible sugar. So that would be your sweet potatoes all the way up to your dairy, those kinds of things.
Obviously, it would depend on your reasoning for what you’re wanting to do and the goals you’re trying to achieve as to which end of the spectrum you would fall on, or if you’d fall somewhere in the middle, but we also need to remember that our body has needs too. Whether or not we need a sugar detox (we’ll get to that here in just a little bit) you should probably know what sugar does for your body. Well, in small amounts, in the right amounts, sugar is glucose at its purest form, and glucose is a primary source of energy for our body, so it’s what keeps us going all day long. It’s what pushes us forward and helps our muscles to work, helps our brain to work.
In a small way, we need glucose. I say “small way” in the fact of, compared to our normal diet, we don’t probably need as much as what we have in our diet right now. Right? We eat more sugar because it tastes good, and it actually changes the way that our brain thinks. If a little sugar is good for you and provides energy, then what does too much sugar do for you?
Well, an overabundance of sugar can actually cause your liver to become resistant to insulin, which is an important hormone that turns sugar in your bloodstream into energy. That means that your body isn’t able to control your blood sugar level, which typically knocks you into type 2 diabetes. If you have heard me talk before, you know that we have a huge epidemic on people who are prediabetic and diabetic. Really, more than a third of people these days are either prediabetic or diabetic, and the pre diabetics typically don’t even know. And so they are diagnosed as diabetic, when in the prediabetic stage, they have the best chance of recovering from that without as many long-term consequences.
If too much sugar can cause that insulin resistance, then we’ve got to consider maybe we do need to make a change. Maybe it is time to take some action before you are put in the position of being a pre diabetic or being in a position where it’s too late.
With sugar detox, there are some people that we work with where sugar is a concern that is brought up early and we feel like cutting that sugar down or detoxing is a necessity for them. Other times we are going through sugar detox with a client that might not be in as much of a need, but both clients will still experience those detox woes that we warned them about.
No matter what level of detox that you’d be going through with the sugar, that there are some symptoms that you will experience, though they may be a varying levels. This would be the same for any type of detox, like if you were going off of gluten, or if you were going off of any major food group that could cause allergens and things like that. You could experience some headaches, some fatigue, some irritability, all the way down to nausea, kind of almost flu-like symptoms. You could be achy. It depends on how much sugar you’ve been ingesting.
One of the worst cases of sugar detox that I ever experienced with a client was someone who actually did not eat a lot of processed sugar, but she had about eight to 10 servings of fruit or dried fruit every day. Now, what people don’t realize is that while dried fruit is fruit, and fruit is good for you, fruit still has a lot of sugar.
It, number one, fruit has a lot of sugar in it, but if you dehydrate that fruit and take the water content out, then that sugar just became more concentrated. So whenever we have fruit or dried fruit, we actually need to increase our water intake for the day to dilute that sugar in our bloodstream. And you should eat it with some proteins because it slows down the absorption. Definitely eat it with some fat to help to satiate you so you’re not going back for more after you get that sugar rush.
We want the body to be calm on the inside, not constantly in a state of chaos. We can experience those symptoms, so knowing that, then we have to kind of figure out, well, what level do we need to go on? If you’ve been going crazy, you really need just a hardcore reset, then my suggestion would be to definitely take out the processed sugars, everything that you possibly can in that realm, limit your fruits and your starchy vegetables, the things that are a little higher in sugars, to your workout days, so that way, then if you eat them right after workouts, you’re going to be more likely to use them as fuel to refuel the body and to use as energy to burn as you go forward after those workouts.
So i’m going to end part one here. In part two we’re going to be talking more about sugar detox and how that will affect you.
If can’t wait for part two, or you want to know more about Custom Fitness and what we do here, then please give us a call. If you’re wanting the accountability and help with creating an action plan to see results, or are wanting to someone to help create a workout plan to push you to your greatest potential, then that’s what we’re here for. Our trainers are here to look out for you and make sure that you are meeting your goals in a safe way.
At Custom Fitness, we customize a plan for you. We sit down with you and find out what your needs are and then build a health and fitness plan around that. We have an entire team of dedicated professionals to help you with your health and fitness goals. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.