Opening the Door to a Better, Brighter Self

Hey Folks! We're excited to welcome Certified 21DSD Coach Stefanie Bonastia. Stefanie's article is part of a series contributed by our Certified 21DSD Coaches. Enjoy! – Diane and Team

It seems that in giving up one addiction, I have inadvertently created another. But luckily for me, this new addiction works in my favor instead of toward my demise.

When I finally cut the cord on sugar and all of the sneaky ways it was wreaking havoc on my life, I opened the door to (brace yourself, here comes the cliché!) a whole new self. And now I’m addicted.

Addicted to the point that now I’m actually a 21-Day Sugar Detox Certified Coach. And the benefits of living this lifestyle just keep coming on. Daily, weekly, monthly, and almost as surreptitiously as the darned sugar!

So here’s the story:

I had been eating pretty healthfully for years. Since the birth of my first daughter, nutrition started playing a role in my life and took root pretty firmly. And although I felt pretty good–and by pretty good I mean I was triple the woman I used to be when I was eating processed foods–I still had symptoms I couldn’t shake.

I was hormonal.

When I say, “hormonal,” I’m talking about that all-encompassing umbrella under which all the emotional irregularities fall. I was moody. I was easily frustrated to tears. I was angry. I was emotional. I was impatient. I was eating my stress away on a regular basis. And my self-esteem? A precarious thing.

But I had not yet given up sugar.

Fruit is healthy! I thought. And guess what–fruit IS healthy. But I was having a LOT of fruit. Up to five pieces a day. And I sweetened my buckwheat porridge with honey (It was local! And full of wonderful raw enzymes!) almost daily. I ate dark chocolate squares on the regular and I sweetened my green smoothies with pure, organic maple syrup.

This diet, by many people’s standards, was still exemplary, and I stand by the fact that these foods are indeed highly nutritious.

But sugar is sugar. And I was having too much.

“Too much” is a relative term and everyone’s “too much” is different. But for me, “too much” comes quickly as I have learned that my hormones are HIGHLY sensitive to sugar.

I completed my first 21-Day Sugar Detox and was kind of floored by the way I felt. I wasn’t so prone to stress eating. I didn’t bark at my kids first thing in the morning on certain days of the month. And there was something akin to positive self-chatter (or was it simply the quieting of the negative chatter?) going on in my head and I had no idea what it was. I felt relatively in control of my eating habits and emotions for the first time in…years? Decades?

I thought it must be a coincidence. Something equivalent to a “runners high” that comes from going all in on a challenging task. Some kind of adrenaline surge.

So some months passed and the sugar crept back in the way it always does: slowly and quietly. Before I knew it, I was back on the roller-coaster. So I decided to do another round of the detox. And guess what? The control came back.

But it wasn’t just the control. I call The 21-Day Sugar Detox a “gateway drug” because it starts out with the elimination of sugar (and other foods) and ends up cleaning you out of so much other emotional crap that the “Me” comes back, too. It cuts down the quintessential hormonal bullshit and leaves room for your Self to be let out of the gate.

I became a Coach. I started working with groups. And you know what? The addiction gets bigger every time. I drank the Kool-Aid N’Oatmeal and now I’m hooked.

Now, not only am I repeating the process with my participants on a semi-regular basis (I am not 100% 21DSD-compliant 365 days a year. I adhere to the principles between groups to a good degree, but ALWAYS know when it’s time for a reboot), but I am watching them go through positive changes as well, and gosh darnit, it just lights me up!

So when I invite people to participate in my 21-Day Sugar Detox group, it is coming from a well of enthusiasm that is REAL. It is coming from a place of “I’ve been there. I’ve seen what can happen. Let me help you get there!” because I know how it can feel on the other side of that addiction.

This one is much, much brighter.

Stefanie Bonastia is a 21-Day Sugar Detox Certified Coach and an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach based in Morristown, NJ. The founder of Evolve Well with Stefanie, she is a mother by day (and night) and a healthy lifestyle renegade in all the hours between. Stefanie’s passion for health coaching is fueled by her own personal evolution from “living” to “thriving,” and the desire to help anyone with an open mind & heart to do the same.