The Rationale Behind The 21-Day No-Sugar Challenge
An article in New York states that 90% of people who lose weight gain it back within a year, sometimes more than they have originally lost!
Being in the health and fitness industry for more than 15 years, I know this fact to be true!
But why is that?
The most important reason is that we take losing weight as an event.
"Oh, I am getting married in 3 months; I should lose 20 lbs." "I have a beach vacation next month; let's get those abs."
To achieve our unrealistic goals, we restrict food, go on a starvation diet, do excess cardio, and in the process, we manage to lose a decent amount of weight.
What happens after the 'event' is over? Of course, we celebrate.
We binge-eat, and as a result, our bodies gain all the weight back.
The cravings and hunger become too intense, and we ultimately revert to our old eating patterns and, therefore, our original weight!
If you want to lose weight and keep it off permanently, you need to build habits.
Not just one habit, but about a dozen key health & fitness habits which, when mastered, will help anyone achieve their health & fitness goals and maintain them possibly for life.
It's a good idea to isolate these habits and tackle them one by one.
Twenty-one days is a good enough time to build a habit (however, it's not enough and often requires a maintenance phase which I will discuss later in this guide).
Details of The No-Sugar Challenge
What was the challenge?
Participants had to refrain from consuming sugar-calories for 21
days, from 15th November 2021 to 05th December 2021.
What kind of sugars were not allowed during these 21 days?
Sugar comes in two forms-
1) Natural sugars found in foods like raw honey, fruits, and carbohydrate-rich foods.
2) Added Sugars found in virtually all processed and packaged foods.
Foods that have added sugars in them were restricted.
Why 21 Days?
Habits take time to build.
Research has proven that it takes approximately 21 days to imbibe a habit.