21 Day Sugar Detox - The Beginning DUN DUN DUN!!!

Today is Day 1 of this crazy detox challenge! I'm halfway through the day and finally munching on my prepared lunch.  Honestly the three recipes I've had so far have turned out pretty tasty, much to my surprise and relief.  I started things out with a pretty negative outlook yesterday, and this is why:

Yesterday was Day 0.  Day 0 under the plan is the day you buy your groceries and do some prep work for your meals so you don't end up with nothing to eat.  I decided that, at least for the first 7 days, I would follow the suggested meal plan and grocery list as closely as practicable, so I could give an honest assessment of how things worked out.  Just looking at the grocery list though, I immediately felt disheartened. 

I knew it would cost a small fortune to buy all of the ingredients for the recipes in the Week One Meal Plan, especially due to the large amount of meat required and the fact that the only place to get a lot of the ingredients would be at Whole Foods or Central Market, not a regular grocery store.  Even accounting for the fact that I knew I would have more leftovers from meals and I cut a bit here and there, my grocery bill from Whole Foods was almost $300 - that's about our monthly budget.  And this is supposed to only last me for a week??? My immediate thought at this point was: I'm going to have to change things up or quit if it's going to cost me a small fortune for only a week's worth of groceries. 

Me, clearly in love with money, which I could really use right about now, stupid Whole Foods.

The next thing that disheartened me was the amount of work some of the recipes require.  I decided I would do prep work for what has resulted in today's meals.  For one meal I had to first make homemade mayonnaise - seriously.  Then I had to make the actual recipe.  After that, I went ahead and made the suggested breakfast, which was "Buffalo Chicken Egg Muffins."  I had to first fully cook the chicken in the suggested manner, THEN approach the recipe for the meal I wanted.  This was very time consuming.  I finally made one of the suggested snacks, which was thankfully pretty easy.

So by the end of the Day 0 I was feeling pretty low about this whole detox.  I really would like to see some of the health benefits.  But I'm concerned about affordability and time.  

But now, as I finish eating my lunch, and reflect on how I've felt so far today, the massive prep work feels more like it was worth it, and I'm actually excited to try my Day 1 dinner recipe of "Mexican Meatloaf" tonight.  I haven't been hangry at all today:

I haven't had any insane hunger pangs or that feeling of being really tired after eating anything, and this is without me having any caffeine today either (my beloved but evil Diet Coke is a no-no on this plan and coffee without sweetener? Blech!).  My energy has been surprisingly good, so here's hoping things continue in a generally positive manner (the book does warn that in the first week you could have "flu like" symptoms while your body finally processes all the crap its been storing).  I mean, health benefits better happen because giving up wheat, dairy, and alcohol for nothing would be crazy. SERIOUSLY.

TL:DR; This is definitely going to be very very tough but maybe worth it? Also, yay money. Just sayin'.