#Recap January 31

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Yesterday ended the 30-Day Sugar Free Detox Challenge. The post today is a RECAP of lessons learned and results.

Finishing this challenge was the most difficult of the previous 25 Coach4aday Challenges. Navigating the mental and physical components of big changes was more than I expected.

List of Previous Challenges

Changes after 30 Days

Changing a habit sometimes does not provide tangible results we can see. That was not the case with going Sugar Free for a month.

Here are some data points I tracked daily the last 30 days. Full disclosure my results don’t guarantee it will occur for others, but I attribute most of the changes to eliminating sugar.

1. My weight on Jan 1st and Jan 30th.
2. My Blood Pressure on Jan 1st and Jan 30th
3. The quality of my sleep on Jan 1st and Jan 30th

WEIGHT-At the start of the challenge I weighed 188.8 lbs.-during the 30 Days I reached a low of 178.4 lbs. on Jan. 26th and finished the month at 180.2 lbs. my total weigh change was 8.6 lbs. This was not a goal, but it was a result. I attribute it to following the guide found under SLEEP notes. I wasn’t perfect the entire month. Traveling in January resulted in me consuming 3-4 menu items over the course of the month that had added sugar.

BLOOD PRESSURE-My wife had ReliOn/Wrist Cuff BP Monitor that I used 3 times a day. I use the middle daily reading and recorded it. On January 1, 2022, my average BP was 134/76. After two weeks the readings stayed constant in the 120/70 range. My final reading on January 30th was 115/60. This month did not see me exercise regularly. I only walked 18 holes once the entire month due to weather and obligations.

SLEEP-This was a data point that did not move much but there were some subtle changes. What I tracked were the following. A. How long I slept. B. How many times I got up to use the bathroom? C. What was the length of time in between interruptions?

At the end of December, I was sleeping 8.5 hours on average and waking twice most nights. Usually, the interval between sleep interruptions was about 3.5 hours. The biggest change was not in length of sleep or interruption intervals but was the number of interruptions. For the entire month I only had three (3) nights where my sleep caused me to get up twice. Most nights it was only once and five (5) nights no interruptions. I still slept on average 8.5 hours a night.

Lessons Learned

Taking on any new 30 Day Coach4aday Challenge is a personal attempt to see if I can create a new habit that will help me improve of grow. January 2022 has done that. Determining that I have control over what I consume is possible with intentional thoughts. Reflecting some new habits would be as follows:

1. Becoming a label reader and determining how much added sugar each product contains.
2. Appreciating the natural sweetness of fruits when you eliminate added sugars from your diet.
3. Appreciating new techniques to fight urges -one in particular is DEADS which I wrote about on January 21, 2022
4. That this challenge could not have been achieved without the support of my wife who shopped and cooked meals that allowed me to stay Sugar Free.

Tomorrow it is on to my 26th 30-Day Coach4aday Challenge. Hope you will consider reading that post and seeing if joining in is for you.