The Hormone Reset Diet Review

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.

My Story: Part 2

After the birth of my precious daughter I started to relax into motherhood as I did with my son. 

But just a few days later I returned to hospital with a Streptococcus infection. I was also having real trouble breastfeeding, a terrible burning sensation. I told the midwife something wasn't quite right, but all she could see was the latch was on correctly so there shouldn't be a problem. After a couple of days of IV antibiotics in hospital I went home to finish off my course and soon felt a little better. Breastfeeding, however, continued to be a struggle. I just couldn't understand why, this time, it was proving to be incredibly painful. Another midwife inspected me and said everything seemed fine. But one night I had to really psyche myself up to breastfeed, I latched my baby on and bit down on my finger while she fed to divert the pain in my chest. I knew this was insane. Nobody should be breastfeeding like this. Through gritted teeth and eyes blurry with tears, I researched 'pain during breastfeeding' and discovered I had thrush. I went straight to the doctor who gave me the relevant medication for myself and my daughter.

Over the following two weeks I developed a further infection and mastsis.

After this roller-coaster I was mentally and physically all over the shop. My Graves disease was completely unstable with constant adjustments every 3-6 months. My thyroid it seems, reflected my general wellbeing and health. I lost my baby weight but I was eating terribly, comforting myself with sweets and and stodgy treats. To make matters worse, my husband also developed a disease and I lost a family member to cancer. I felt awful. Body pain, thyroid issues, digestive problems and a creeping sense of disassociation...

I was really beginning to feel like life, sucked..... and i didn't know if I had the desire to start feeling good again.

Stay tuned for Part Three. I promise it definitely gets better!

Here's to progress... and setbacks

I love my food, and by my food I mean Haegan Daaz ice cream, chocolate brownies, burgers and Oreo cookie milkshakes. Unfortunately, these foods do not love me. At all. In fact it feels like they straight up hate my body and go nuclear inside me after little more than half an hour.

After spending the weekend with my family and indulging in all sorts of foods that I used to be able to eat almost by the bucketload, my body clapped out on me by Monday. The symptoms I experienced were almost frightening. Symptoms I hadn't experienced before. I started getting pains in my chest (which I have had before), but this time I had pains in my legs and back too. I was so bloated, and felt as if my insides were (to be frank) rotting.

So what can I, and hopefully anybody else reading my account, learn from this? Healing is not easy. In fact it can be overwhelmingly daunting. Since recognising a lot of my symptoms are down to my autoimmune issues I have suffered from so much anxiety and insecurity.

Truth be told, I probably love bad foods way too much. And my love is making me sick. I have dabbled in paleo and dabbled in the gluten and dairy free lifestyle for a few months and found some relief in these eating habits. But now I'm realising that dabbling does not lead to lasting change. In anything. Whether that be half heartedly trying to get a promotion at work, dabbling in studying for a qualification, or as in my case, eating for pure health and nutrition only some of the time. As Maya Angelou said "Nothing will work unless you do." And part of the key is finding what works for you and committing to it. I am now more than ever realising the importance of putting my health first. I invite you to make a commitment, one that will bring real healing or meaning in your life, and put it at the foremost of your mind. Think on it daily, as a promise to yourself. The results will be incredible.

What other ways do you look after yourself, or would like to?

When things went wrong: part one

Graves Disease snuck up on me towards the end of 2011. I had no idea I was even unwell. I was six months pregnant with my second child and my body was going through a lot of changes. Nearly all of my symptoms could’ve been attributed to pregnancy. Feeling tired, hot all the time, disturbed sleep and faster heart rate (I thought all of these were normal). I didn’t even think about about seeing the doctor about any of these things. However, one day while visiting my mum, she tool a good look at me and said “one of your eyes is bigger than the other.” I immediately dashed to a mirror, and saw that she was right. How had I not noticed that? And more importantly, how had my husband not noticed?! He sees me everyday! Anyways, I put it down to a possible eye infection developing and said I’d keep an eye (!) on it over the next couple of days. But my eye didn’t normalise, and in fact, I noticed that both of my eyes were noticeably bigger than they were just a year ago. So after going to get a blood test, I was finally diagnosed with Graves disease.

When I first heard the term Graves disease I thought it sounded just awful (I was so glad to hear it was named after Robert Graves, who discovered the condition). I was nervous about this diagnosis. I was really worried I was going to transfer this on to my unborn child. And hearing how it could affect my heart, metabolism, skin and (already) my eyes, I was eager to manage it exactly how the doctors wanted me to. I did a lot of reading about what Graves disease was and how it was treated, but I didn’t find much about people’s personal accounts with hyperthyroidism. It seemed people only spoke about hypothyroidism. 

As the pregnancy progressed, I was closely monitored with regular blood tests, blood pressure checks and careful monitoring my medications of propylthioracil. At this point I was also suffering from pelvic pain.

I had hoped that once my baby was born that my thyroid would normalise and, eventually, I could come off my medications completely. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and it was only the start of my health deteriorating.

Getting my strength back

So I have a bit of a confession. I have always wanted to be a blissed out yogi. With long flowing wavy locks, slender limbs and a taut tummy. There are just a few problems with achieving this. I can find yoga a bit boring. I have natural afro hair that shrinks as soon as moisture (sweat) hits it. I am only 5ft “3 inches. I have a long torso, short chunky legs and I’ve had two children. As the years have gone by, I’ve seen this fictional, idealised, yogic self getting further and further away from my actual reality. But last year, I’d had enough. I began to realise how impossibly miserable this endeavour was making me, especially because much of what I was doing at the time wasn’t even healthy.

I needed to finally be at peace with myself. To simply just BE. But I knew I needed to fix a few things in order to be able to do this. The number one thing I started doing last year was exercising. I took up pilates once a week  which slowly began to strengthen my body, but after a few months I knew my body needed more. 

That’s when I stumbled across Beachbody’s PIYO by Chalene Johnson. And that has made all the difference! I have so many exercise videos, all of which I have probably only used 5 times each at the most. The reason why I stuck to PIYO, was because I was desperate. Signing up to the free online coaching service kept me accountable in a way I couldn’t have done by myself (I didn’t sign up for the Shakeology as I’m in the UK). Hurting my back to the point where  I couldn’t look after my children for a few days every winter for two years was the final straw for me. At 29 years old I felt this was far too young to be feeling that way. This workout is the perfect blend of pilates and yoga with some cardio thrown in which will make you sweat like a beast (or least I did)!  For me, exercising was the first step in getting my life back on track. Feeling (and dressing) like a sack of potatoes will not do anything for your sense of self worth or self esteem (more on how I try to dress in a later post). Move in your body, aim to become strong. Work on your weak spots, allow yourself to grow and feel a new sense of achievement. I believe in you. xxx 

How has fitness changed your life? What tips would you offer those who want to get into fitness? Do you have fitness goals? What keeps you from getting fit, if you would like to? 

To find out more about PIYO check out this link:

http://www.beachbody.co.uk/product/fitness-training/piyo-workout.do

The beginning

This is my blog, on a journey to wellness through body, mind and spirit. I live in Surrey, south of London in the UK. I am married with two beautiful children and am seeking to raise them with faith, gratitude and wellness. Ever since my Thyroidectomy as a result of Graves disease nearly two years ago, my health and mental wellbeing has been a constant rollercoaster. This blog will chronicle how I will attempt to gain these things back and to live a truly full and joyous life. Thanks for stopping by :)