What to Expect:
“This really isn’t so hard. Maybe I should eat this way all the time.”
You may experience: Noticeable improvements in mood and energy.
Your best bet: Ride the wave! Share your experience with others and think about how you feel, the healthy choices you’re making, and how much you’ve learned.
Today's Lesson:
Sugar and inflammation
Have you noticed that some aches and pains, or maybe some skin irritation or acne you used to struggle with, have started calming down? Wondering why stripping sugar from your diet is having this great effect? It’s all about lowering inflammation in your body.
Inflammation is the body’s response to a problem. When your body thinks there’s a constant problem, it lives in a chronic state of inflammation. This steady, low-level inflammatory state underlies all chronic disease and suppressed immunity. Essentially, it’s at the root of just about every disease or disease state (big or small) imaginable.
Sugar consumption plays a role in chronic inflammation in two main ways:
- Depleted nutrient stores from overconsumption of bad carbs (see 2 Days Pre-Detox for more on how bad carbs deplete your nutrients) lead to a chronic state of stress in the body, and that means inflammation.
- Chronically high and/or low blood sugar—that blood sugar roller coaster that comes from consistently ingesting too many bad carbs—creates a stress state for the body, and again, that means inflammation.
Now that you’ve removed sugar and poor-quality carbs from your diet, your systemic inflammation is dropping, and you may be seeing the results in myriad ways: better skin, improved digestion, fewer symptoms from chronic conditions, and more. This is one of the many ways that diet impacts our health in more ways than we imagine!
The Dish from Diane:
As you approach your third week of this detox, you may be feeling like you’ve hit a stride and really have this whole thing down. You may even be feeling like this wouldn’t be a bad way to eat in the long term. While I do want you to bring back some foods to your life post-21DSD (don’t worry, it’s all covered in your post-detox week!), I definitely don’t want you to feel like eating 21DSD-style is the only way to be healthy. There are many ways to incorporate healthy foods (like sweet fruits and berries) that aren’t 21DSD friendly after your detox is completed, and we’ll talk about that in your post-detox week.
Feeling like this hasn’t been so easy? It’s common at this point to feel like you’ve already done “enough,” or like you’ve gotten what you needed from the detox. Stay the course! The next week is going to solidify a lot of the new healthy habits you’re creating, and it’ll challenge you to push outside your comfort zone when it comes to meal and snack creativity. We’ve got you covered with creative but easy meal ideas, so stick with us here! You can do this, and we’ve got your back!
Today's Checklist:
- Post to social media using the hashtag #21DSD about your day 13 experience and share an ache or pain that’s cleared up since starting the program!
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