After Giving Up Sugar, Fruit, and Flour For 1 Week, My Before-and-After Pics Shocked Me

The first day was tough! My emotional hunger was high, and I couldn't stop thinking about the perfectly ripe bananas in my kitchen, the fresh loaf of whole-wheat bread I had just bought, the vanilla almond milk yogurt, the chocolate chip blondies I wanted to bake, and the LARABARS — for some reason that was the hardest.

I let myself feel sad about the foods I was missing out on for about a day, and then I focused on the foods I could eat. I meal prepped some fresh kale salads with steamed broccoli and roasted sweet potatoes. I planned some yummy dinners like chickpea coconut curry with rice and black-bean-stuffed sweet potatoes with avocado. I thought, OK, I can do this.