By Zeynep Kulakçı, Dietician

Zeynep Kulakcı

Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with the nutritional mistakes I’ve made as a dietitian. Even though I have a university education in the field of healthy nutrition, there are some foods I can’t resist and sometimes mistakes that I miss. While these mistakes don’t come back to me as annoying pounds, they’ve been causing tremendous fatigue lately. One-word summary of this mistake: sugar.

Despite getting a good 7-hour night’s sleep every day, lately, I’ve been waking up tired as if I hadn’t slept at all. I observe that my energy is depleted very quickly during the day. When the blood tests and doctor’s checks said that I had no problems, it was time to check what I ate during the day.

Recently, whenever I feel that my energy is running out, I turn to desert options. I complain about the pace of work and prefer the easy one; when I’m hungry I eat packaged foods. I try to cool off with fruit sodas.

Yes, although I know what I should do very well, I’ve been eating unhealthily. For this reason, I bought the book “21 Days Without Sugar” written by a colleague of mine, Özge Bezirci, and I wanted to invite you to this challenge that I started against myself.

In her book, Bezirci shares how she completely avoided artificial sugar for 21 days and what she observed in her body. When asked why it is 21 days, she said, “Scientific studies show that we need 21 days to form a habit or to give up on it. So if we want to form a habit, we have to maintain it for 21 days.”

Sugar is an addictive nutrient in the body and we need it also emotionally. Therefore, it can be tiring this process, as it is when trying to break away from any addiction. You may need more than 21 days, you may experience moments when your willpower weakens for 21 days. That’s totally normal.

Come, start this challenge with me, no harm in trying. Here’s what we need to do:

We will not consume for 21 days:

-Packed Products,

– Sugary and Fizzy Drinks,

– White Bread,

– Alcoholic beverages,

– Chocolate, Wafer and Chocolate,

– Anything containing glucose syrup.

In addition, we will drink more than 1.5 litres of water every day and will do 30 minutes of low/moderate exercise. You can walk, cycle or swim.

With this challenge, we aim to feel more energetic, get rid of sugar addiction and be healthier. In addition to these results, you can lose fat, especially in the abdomen, and gain healthy eating habits.