Why am I doing this?

I consume way too much sugar.

This statement has always been true. I used to have a daily cup of sweetened tea, a few cookies here and there, gelato in the summer and if I'm honest, a handful of chocolate chips whenever they were in the cupboard. Oh, and cookie dough. Don't even get me started on that.

However then I started a Master's program and my sugar intake doubled or even tripled. Now I am drinking three to four cups of sweet tea a day and although I'm not into the cookies or gelato as much as I used to be, when I measure it out, I'm drinking a ton of calories in the form of honey. And so, inevitably, I've gained some weight. 15lbs to be exact.

This is me, on the right, indulging in Mexico goodness

And lately I've been worried about my health. I turned forty last summer and I've started to think about how much life I have left and how I want to live it. That sounds a bit gruesome, but there it is. I definitely don't want to do any permanent damage to my body so that I won't be able to continue to do the things I love, like running, bootcamp, hiking, biking and just overall enjoying life with my family.

So I'm going to try my first sugar detox and see if I can't kick this habit for good.

My ultimate end goal isn't to eliminate all sugar from my life. No gelato in the summer after a long bike ride around the seawall? That would be awful.

Instead it is to start fresh with a clean slate and try to keep my sugar down to the recommended 25g per day for women on most days, with the occasional splurge here and there. I want to get to the point where I can drink tea without honey, and enjoy the sweetness of fruit rather than chocolate.

So that's where the 21 day sugar detox comes in. I have ordered the book from the library, but I don't want to wait to start the program, so I've also downloaded a cheat sheet. A list of foods that are acceptable and unacceptable and I'll start with that. The book should be here by Thursday and so I can spend some time reading it on the weekend and make sure that I'm following the plan well.

I know this is going to be hard. I'm already craving my morning tea.

But it has to be done.

I have to prove to myself that I can do this.