Struggling through detox, need ideas and support

I haven't been where you are, so please take my ideas or suggestions with a grain of salt.

First, let me say that it sounds like you are doing an amazing thing for yourself! Good for you and congratulations on taking this step to be healthier and happier. Just imagine how great you'll feel in a month or two!

For suggestions, well, I'm also one of those people who used to never, ever drink water. I hated it. I drank tea (copious amounts of sweet tea when available), soda, coffee--anything but water. A few years ago I resigned myself to drinking water and it's most of what I drink now. I don't mind it nearly as much as I used to, because I associated drinking water with feeling hydrated. If I think about it, I still don't like the taste much, but I try not to think about that too often. (And for those people who say water has no taste, or if it's "good" water it has no taste--you're all wrong! Even the most pure, filtered, mountain spring water harvested from unicorn tears totally has a taste.)

Anyway, my one suggestion from that experience is to consider switching to carbonated water, if you like that (I do). I used to buy Pellegrino and Perrier by the case. That really helped me transition into drinking water. You could also buy a SodaStream or similar water carbonator and try making your own sodas or carbonated water. It's cheaper, and you can make much healthier, caffeine-free sodas. I've made honey-cinnamon sodas, bourbon vanilla sodas, blueberry lemon honey sodas--all, in my opinion, tastier than store-bought sodas and probably objectively healthier too.

Anyway, good luck and feel free to reach out if you need it.

It took me over a week to get over the horrible headaches/lethargic feeling from quitting diet soda, which was my only caffeine source. Just keep at it and it will get better!!

If you drank as much sugar as you say --

1) Good for you for trying to cut way back!

It's a wise choice. You really shouldn't drink something whose calories are all sugar and little else. Basically, all that does is spike your blood sugar and provide virtually no satiation or nutrition (and in the case of soda, something that has enough sodium in it that it actually makes you thirstier for yet more of the same. It's a vicious cycle).

2) If you're drinking that much sugar, you're probably stuck with having to detox and thus having 'carb flu'. You're changing your eating habits. Your body is adjusted to swimming in a sea of sugar and insulin and when you cut it back (which you should) it's going to take your body some time to readjust. That's just how it goes.


If you're needing something to pacify, you really don't have to zero-out on caffeine at the same time you're cutting sugared beverages. You can keep the coffee and the tea (and if you HAVE to have those sweetened, there are zero calorie sweetners, though I've found with time that by progressively cutting back on sweetners, I eventually went to no sweetner at all). But as a stop gap (and a little energy) tea and coffee may be helpful. If you want to cut out caffeine later, you always can.


When I cut out soda I basically gave myself a "if it's natural" rule, so I could drink water, tea, coffee, or lemonade (juice would fit, I suppose, but fruit juice content is pretty high in sugar as well, especially since many 'juice drinks' have as much added sugar as soda. Lemonade could as well, but it doesn't have to so I would make lemonade myself.)

Good luck, and sorry about the detox. It's worth it for what it does to your diet in the end.

I am not a fan of water. I will drink it with a lot of lemon to help. I do agree, though, that I have been able to substitute my soda with carbonated water (with lime). I like the La Croix brand which is sold at Target. It even comes in a can, in case you want that "soda feeling."

I just want to know where I can buy the unicorn tear water. It must come in a rainbow colored container.

I think a good rule of thumb, for the average adult, is no more than a gallon of water a day. In my opinion, that is MAXIMUM.

sugar addiction is evil..

There's not getting around the symptoms of it..
its worse then withdrawl..

Every so often i go on a sugar binge and have headaches for a week afterwards, and feel like crap. It passes with time..

I dont' think there's an issue with how much water you are drinking. you need more water to flush all the bad stuff out of your system. Most likely when you get through the "withdrawl" symptoms the water weight (which is most likely what the gain is) will go away.

I always gain a bit when I switch up what i'm doing. our body gets confused and holds on to weight to see what's going on. Then when it realizes it will be fed, it releases the weight.

Just dont' give up!!

How much are you sleeping at night?

You may quite simply have trouble sleeping because you have been "hyping up" your body on caffeine and you are just catching up.

To wake up, I like green tea. Yes, ,it has caffeine, but it has a host of antioxidants so it is a natural lift.

As for weight gain, you may want to consider that this is water. When I did my medically supervised detox I gained 4 lbs the first two weeks, and then pow lost 6 the next (I'm not substantially overweight...I just felt like crap most of the time.) I think the gain was water weight, and the loss was a real one.

It takes time. To me, the value of a detox is not the weight loss (though that is nice..) but that I loss my horrible, horrible cravings for sugar and refined carbs. I make much better food choices now and I'm no longer obsessed with cravings.

I drink an emergen-c several days a week , when my energy is feeling low. Per directions you can have two servings a day. Maybe give that a try. I was drinking 3-4 sodas a day and have been slowly cutting back, tomorrow will be my first day with none. Good Luck to you!

My pleasure!