Feeling yucky - sugar detox? hmmm...

Hello friends!  I haven't posted in a few days... I've been feeling yucky!  I woke up a few days ago and just couldn't get awake and felt achy in my elbows and shoulder joints; bad thing is that I haven't been able to shake this feeling for a few days.  (boo, hiss!)  I wondered if perhaps I wasn't drinking enough water (I still struggle with that) or if I just wasn't getting enough potassium (my nutrition tracker on MyFitnessPal showed that my diet was low on potassium - I tried eating more bananas but it didn't help very much).  Since this has lingered as long as it has, I got thinking about the fact that I have been eating a much healthier diet and haven't been eating as many carbs nor as much sugar so perhaps my body was detoxing as part of getting healthier.  So, I did some research and here is what I learned: 

When you change to a healthier diet, your body goes through a detox process.  Whether the toxin you are eliminating is drugs and alcohol (which is what we typically associate detox with) or food-related (such as gluten, sugar, dairy, pop, coffee, etc.), the body goes through a process of eliminating those toxins from itself.  Symptoms include:  headache, rash, fatigue, nausea, bloating, etc..  Though these symptoms are certainly not fun, they are a great sign that your body is cleansing itself and you are on your way to feeling better.  Don't think those signs are an indication that your body doesn't like the changes, just work through the process!!  Here's an article that talks about this. 

Next thing I learned is that even though I had seriously decreased the amount of sugar and carbs that I was eating, I just learned that I was still consuming more of each than was truly ideal.  According to the FDA my Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) (assuming I wanted to lose 1 lb. per week) for carbs was 216 grams per day and for sugar was 65 grams per day.  HOWEVER, further research indicates that a healthier RDI for someone like me (pre-diabetic and overweight) is actually 55 grams of carbs and 25 grams of sugar!  WOW!!!  That's a big difference!!  I thought I had been doing so well with my reduced consumption of carbs and sugars until I started looking at them based on these revised recommendations.  I have updated my goals in "MyFitnessPal" (an app where I track my food, exercise, weight and measurements).  The one thing I keep thinking is:  how much carbs and sugar was I eating BEFORE I decided to get healthy??  I can't even imagine how much I was consuming; it's overwhelming to me!!  No wonder I am overweight!!  BUT... I am doing well on my journey to get healthy and I'm not looking back!!  I feel better when I am eating fewer carbs and sugar, so I am going to stick with it!!

That's all for now...
Stay healthy my friends...