My husband and I have completed our first official 21-Day Sugar Detox, woohoo! Just like I did for week 1 and week 2, here is week 3 broken down day by day:

Day 15

Breakfast: Green-tipped banana + coffee with cinnamon
Snack: None.
Lunch: Leftover aji panca meatballs and guacamole.
Snack: None.
Supper: Peruvian anticuchos! Marinated beef heart kebabs. Very delicious, but I am going to tweak the recipe before I post it on the site.
Extra snack: I didn't prepare any sides with supper and we ate very early, so a few hours later had some celery sticks with almond butter.
Exercise: 1 hour walking; Qigong just after getting up. Does restoring old cast iron pans count as exercise? Because I sure feel like it does. I went through half a dozen steel wool pads and spent about an hour and a half scrubbing (hard) to get some antique cast iron pots and pans I inherited from my mom into working order.
Comments: Still feeling awesome :-)

Day 16

Breakfast: 3 strips of bacon, wilted spinach, 2 coconut flour biscuits + coffee with cinnamon and vanilla.
Snack: None.
Lunch: Big mixed greens salad with radishes, carrots, castelvetrano olives, celery, carrots, tuna with tamari, toasted sesame oil, ginger powder, and lime juice, large mug of yerba mate.
Snack: None.
Supper: Homemade vaca frita (Cuban slow cooked beef shredded and pan fried) and kale! My new favorite recipe. It is SO delicious and easy to make -- but it takes 2 whole days of prep! 1 day to slow cook the meat, 1 day to let it marinate before frying. Totally worth the effort, though. Recipe will be on the site soon. Made a side of homemade chimichurri to go with it, though I ended up putting it on my greens instead of the meat, because the meat was so flavorful on its own!
Exercise: 1 hour walking; Qigong just after getting up.
Comments: None...still feeling good.

Day 17

Breakfast: 3 strips of bacon, spinach cooked in the bacon fat, 2 coconut flour biscuits, black coffee with cinnamon and vanilla.
Snack: None.
Lunch: Big mixed greens salad with alfalfa sprouts, green onions, carrots, celery, Asian tuna (with gluten-free tamari, toasted sesame oil, cilantro, ginger powder, lime juice).
Snack: Coconut flakes and a few mixed nuts.
Supper: Lechon asado (Cuban roasted pulled pork) with a big side of red kale and homemade chimichurri + San Pellegrino and lime.
Exercise: 1 hour walking; Qigong just after getting up.
Comments: Still feeling awesome, and notice my hunger levels being even more stable.

Day 18

Breakfast: 2 coconut flour biscuits, spinach, 5 links of Applegate Farms' pork sausage, black coffee.
Snack: None.
Lunch: Big mixed greens salad with castelvetrano olives, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, green onions, baby red bell peppers, 1/4 package of Applegate Farms' ham.
Snack: One green-tipped banana and coconut flakes.
Supper: 1/2 lb of beef heart strips, marinated in lime juice, aji panca paste, fresh-pressed garlic, and salt for about 4 hours. Quickly stir-fried the heart in one pan and cooked an onion, red bell pepper, and green bell pepper in a separate pan with the leftover marinade. Combined the meat with the veggies in the larger pan briefly to mix everything. Topped with some fresh chopped cilantro. YUMMY!
Exercise: 1 hour walking; Qigong just after getting up.
Comments: I am so glad I've been experimenting with non-slow cooked beef heart. One farm I get my grass-fed beef hearts from sells them pre-cut into strips, perfect for stir-fry!

Day 19

Breakfast: 3 coconut flour biscuits, 4 strips bacon, iced black tea.
Snack: None.
Lunch: Busy hectic day at work, didn't get super hungry, so had approx 2 Tbsp almond butter with celery sticks.
Snack: Handful of mixed nuts.
Supper: 1/2 lb sausage with red & green bell peppers and onions.
Exercise: 1 hr walking; Qigong just after getting up.
Comments: Meant to do some Convict Conditioning today. Have to make myself be better at keeping up a regular schedule.

Day 20

Breakfast: 3 coconut flour biscuits, coffee with cinnamon
Snack: None.
Lunch: Mixed greens salad with carrots, celery, cilantro, and topped with my Asian tuna mix.
Snack: None.
Supper: Was supposed to be chicken, but I miscalculated the cooking time on my (frozen) chicken, so instead I had to pull out some emergency rations and cook grass-fed beef hot dogs. Had them with a huge side of mustard greens and onions and a small glass of kombucha.
Exercise: 1 hr walking, Qigong just after getting up; gentle swimming/treading water in the pool for about 15 minutes without touching the sides or bottom; treading water with arms extended above head (and head above water): 20 sec, 45 sec, 15 sec (testing different kicks, trying to master the egg beater).
Comments: Still chugging along, feeling good :-)

Day 21

Breakfast: 3 coconut flour biscuits, 2 eggs fried in palm shortening, black coffee.
Snack: Handful of mixed nuts and a green-tipped banana.
Lunch: Chicken soup with made-from-scratch chicken broth, golden beets, onions, cilantro, and spices.
Snack: None.
Supper: Grass-fed beef liver sauteed in bacon fat with bacon and onions.
Exercise: 1 hr walking; Qigong just after getting up.
Comments: Today's the last day! It's been fun, and actually pretty easy. I am glad I did it and will most likely commit to another one some time in the future.

What now? Well, I certainly don't have any sugar binge plans any time soon. In fact, the beets I put in my soup today, on Day 21, were almost too sweet for me! I can hardly imagine eating things that have any considerable amount of added sweetener. I have been craving dark chocolate something fierce, so I do plan to let myself have a bit of that, and I also look forward to being able to have a nice glass of wine with supper. I am also very excited to try out a new nut butter brand called You Fresh Naturals. The flavor that I received uses maple syrup and dates (I'll be posting a review soon!) I also think it will be nice to include some starchy veggies now and then, too. Oh! And I almost forgot butter. I'm very excited to add butter back into my diet. And some aged raw cheese. I may also test myself out with drinking raw milk. I haven't been drinking milk since I moved almost a year and a half ago because there was no source close enough to me for raw milk. BUT there is a new pick up point that's a 10-15 minute drive away, so I think I'll be purchasing some soon. I never had any negative effects from drinking raw milk before, but I'm still curious to see if I notice any differences after adding it in.

So, while I plan to technically break from the plan tomorrow with some nut butter with maple syrup and probably some 85% dark chocolate, I still plan to stick with this way of eating about 85-95% of the time for a while longer. I'm interested in taking Tim Ferriss's approach to "cheat" days and letting Saturdays become days for indulging any cravings (within reason) from the week prior as well as intentionally being high(er) carb. I'll let you know how that goes, and what exactly I decide on.

Would I recommend the 21-Day Sugar Detox? Yes, definitely. I think the way that it is designed, with 3 levels, makes it accessible to a wider range of people. I forget sometimes that not everyone is like me and most people don't necessarily take the same all-or-nothing approach to life. Some people do much better with baby steps than with across-the-board changes. But, that said, people like me can jump straight ahead into level 3 if they want.

As I begin to add things to my diet, I am going to pay close attention to my energy levels and mental clarity. I've been very pleasantly surprised by the increase in both, even though I would not have described either as needing improvement before beginning the 21DSD.

Interested in trying a 21-Day Sugar Detox? I recommend starting it with the group, if you can. You can find much more information about the program and the guides if you click on the affiliate banner below: