I must apologise for the radio silence. We have recently moved house and only got the internet just over a month ago and as you can imagine, there are still boxes everywhere!
Lately I had been feeling like I needed to ramp up my healthy eating progress. It had taken a real battering during the moving period and I needed a fresh start. Then I came across The Hormone Reset Diet, by Dr Sara Gottfried, MD. The premise of her book is to get your hormones back in check so you can gain energy, vitality and lose those elusive pounds. The way she recommends we reset our hormones is to eliminate certain food groups in three day increments, which are; red meat and alcohol, sugar, fruit, caffeine, grains, dairy and toxins. Quite a list right? But Sara does a good job of explaining in scientific terms why she believes this is necessary, and each elimination is designed to address the hormones estrogen, insulin, leptin, cortisol, and thyroid. After 21 days of elimination each category is slowly re-entered to see what foods you can and can't tolerate for the best health.
I've never done a detox before, but I decided to give this a try for a few reasons. I was having raging cravings for sugar and carbs (which is basically sugar, right?), low mood, and aches and pains, especially in the morning. Another reason was that I recognised my raging sweet tooth was sabotaging nearly every attempt I made to eat clean and well, so unless I dealt with this, any changes I made with my diet would be in vain. The last reason was that Dr Sara was a Harvard trained medical student who went on to become a gynecologist. She later left conventional medicine to pursue a more holistic approach to women's health, but decided to keep her hand in the scientific arena by focusing in on hormones.
The book was a relatively easy read and seemed to make good sense, but I knew I would need more than just my willpower (and my husbands!) to get through the next 21 days. So I joined the Hormone Reset Community with extra resources to get me through for $99 (the fee worked to my advantage being in the UK!)
Meat, the first elimination, was a walk in the park for me, and since I don't drink alcohol that was nothing to worry about either. The day before the sugar detox however...I demolished a pack of Jaffa Cakes (and for good measure, did it before my husband got home from work). This was by far the hardest elimination, with grains being the second hardest. The sugar detox, aside from being hard, was surprisingly emotional. I learned a lot about my eating habits and patterns and saw how much of it was a way of calming me down and pushing away stressful feelings. Instead, I simply let the feelings continue and indulged in licorice tea, which felt completely uncomfortable and unnatural. I started having Epsom Salt baths, which I now absolutely love, and eating a pound of vegetables (around 450g) of vegetables a day. At first this made me seriously bloated and uncomfortable, and after a week I had to lower my intake for a few days to give myself a break, and then I was able to increase my intake slowly. By the end of the three weeks I was really enjoying all of the vegetables and small amount of beans I was eating. I also switched off my phone and laptop around 9:30pm most nights, and it was surprising at how relaxed this simple act made me.
So, was it worth it?
This is a good programme. The book took you through all the basics you needed to know to do the diet. It was a little hard to read on the kindle, and I found I had to keep going back and forth in the book to re-establish certain points. There is a real emphasis on lifestyle too; taking time to de-stress, meditate, get a good nights sleep and the importance of being active everyday. Signing up to the community group meant that there were many women going through the same struggle and this community made it a very supportive experience. There were also many additional help sheets, recipes and Q & A videos.
The downside was that this racked up to be pretty expensive. She recommends supplements, shakes, blood glucose monitor, activity monitor, and pH strips. In addition to the joining fee for the community, this was not a cheap endeavour. Also, some ladies didn't have the best of experiences with the customer service team, something of which I hope improves in time for the next detox in the Autumn/Fall.
Overrall I had a good experience with this programme. I learned that I can cut my sugar addiction, that my body really enjoys a lot of vegetables and a small amount of fruit. My trigger food is chocolate (even dark chocolate) and that I don't have to use food as therapy. I lost six pounds, my husband lost 13. Typical!
To find out more about The Hormone Reset Diet click here.
What lessons have you learned about your relationship with certain foods? This week I invite you to really look at your food intake, and notice when you tend to slip on your health ambitions. Research how you can start replacing these habits with things that make you feel good and empowered.
