It's Day 5 of the Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet test group and I feel great and learned somethings about myself, like the fact that I'm a "sweet addict." Not really a sugar addict, mind you, just craving something sweet -- even as simple as a banana or a smidge of honey in my tea.

As for the stats, I'm down a pound and a half, my fat mass dropped a percent and my lean mass rose a percent, so that's cool.

Someone on the Facebook group had posted a smoothie recipe from the first go-around of the detox plan and I like it a lot more than the smoothie I had been drinking all week, but apparently it's not part of our current plan. The "offending ingredient" is half a banana, but it made a huge difference in turning the smoothies from bearable to enjoyable.

But, hey, if just half a banana can satisfy my need for sweetness, that's a win for me.

Lunches, snacks and dinners haven't been as problematic because they're not supposed to be sweet. I've been having a big salad full of protein, veggies, avocado, olives, avocado and a homemade dijon vinaigrette. Really good and filling with all those healthy fats.

(At right is my typical lunch.)

The snacks are really good -- a small handful of nuts midmorning if I need it, and a homemade dip, like tapenade or tahini dip with raw vegetables in the afternoon. Dinners are some combination of a lean protein and a nonstarchy vegetable but cooked in super yummy ways. Last night I made a ratatoullie, which I served with a chicken I cooked in my Ninja Kitchen System.

But about the caffeine -- I tried, I really did, but the first few days I found myself falling asleep at my laptop in the mornings, which is ridiculous. So I have been sneaking in 8 ounces of plain, undadulterated coffee in the morning, which is about a third of what I'd been drinking.

Let the Force be with me

After a year or so of reliability, my Fitbit One started having connectivity issues so I figured it'd be an opportune time to buy the new Fitbit Force, which I've been coveting since it came out. I ordered one from Brookstone last week (found a shipping discount) and it arrived a couple days ago. I really like having the reading at the ready on my wrist, and while it's not the sexiest bracelet on the planet, its matte black strap looks far less gadgety than other fitness trackers.

As chance would have it, I also won a Withings Pulse a couple weeks ago from a Twitter contest the company held so I've been using both to see how accurate they are, since I've heard that wrist-based fitness monitors have accuracy issues. When I compare the two, they come within 100 steps of each other with the Force on the lesser side, so I don't think there are any issues with accuracy.

And while I really like the Withings Pulse and how it uploads info through my phone to the Withings Health Mate phone app, it doesn't have any alarms you can set for buzzing you awake in the morning. But it does have a little pulse monitor on the back (hence the name), which is useful.

One thing that no fitness monitor does (except a heart-rate monitor) is give you a good reading for non-cardio activities, like strength training, which I've been doing twice a week now for the past few weeks. But you know what does?

Shrinking saddlebags, that's what!

On my walk today, as my hands brushed against my sides, I realized that I was "bumping into myself" a lot less and that my saddlebags seem to be slimming down, which makes me very happy.

So I guess I'll have to change my choice of DJ nickname -- I tell people that if I were a DJ, I'd be DJ Saddlebagz.

And in other fitness news, the Rafflecopter robot chose Felicitia as the winner of the Planet Fitness membership giveaway. (I've emailed you -- congrats!)