The Hormone Reset Diet (6 page)

Over the next twenty-one days you will gradually eliminate the foods and reset the seven hormones that are most likely slowing down your
metabolism. If that feels daunting, don’t fret. I’ve included here a shopping guide and grocery lists to set you up for success.

What you eat affects your body, mind, and spirit far more than simply interacting with your taste buds. Food is intimate. When it’s carefully chosen for nutritional value to your specific body, it is assimilated swiftly and easily, and it builds who you are, cell by cell. Think about how you feel the morning after a heavy meal or too much to drink. Consider your mood after you eat a lot of sugar or drink loads of coffee. As you prepare to buy your food for the first reset of your Hormone Reset, hit the pause button and consider what you’ve been filling yourself with up to this point and my recommended replacements. The goal is to become far more mindful of the type of person you want to become—a happy, content, and whole individual with a rich inner and outer life. You can begin to create this, starting with how you eat.

Preparation is key to your success. The following shopping lists are just a starting point to help you get a feel for your options at the grocery store; there are plenty of wonderful foods not on these lists. Feel free to select only the items you like, or go on an adventure and search out healthy items that you haven’t yet tried.

Buy organic whenever possible.

Buy fresh, unprocessed foods.

Aim to eat one pound of vegetables per day! Get creative with different salads and recipes.

Buy local. Farmers’ markets are a great place to get fresh, local food. Just be sure to ask where the food was grown/made. Don’t assume it’s local or organic just because you bought it at a farmers’ market!

Buy non-GM (genetically modified) foods. I believe it’s your right as a consumer to know what’s in your food, including GMs. Your safest bet is to check the listings at the Non-GMO Project, which verifies non-GM foods.
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Another option is to choose organic foods, which do not contain GMOs. Fortunately, grassroots efforts across the United States indicate that citizens want to know what’s in their food: twenty-nine states now have bills for GMO labeling.
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The nine most common GM crops are soy, cottonseed (used for fabric and oil), corn, canola oil, papaya, alfalfa, sugar beets (used to produce half the sugar in the United States), milk (17 percent of U.S. dairy cows are injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH, a genetically modified synthetic hormone), and aspartame (an artificial sweetener commonly used in diet soda as well as six thousand other products; it’s also known as NutraSweet).

Read labels, making sure you understand what the ingredients really are. Dairy, sugar, gluten, and other substances can be hidden under different names. If you’re not certain, Google the ingredient you don’t recognize or just skip that food.

Bring your own bags. The Hormone Reset is an important opportunity to explore different ways of leading a more healthy and environmentally conscious lifestyle. Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store is a small step that can really add up over time.

Embrace your inner chef. Making food from scratch is one of the best ways to ensure you know exactly what you’re eating. Set aside time to cook and experiment in the kitchen each week. You might be surprised how much you enjoy it!

Make extra, and take the leftovers for lunch. While the ideal is always to make your food fresh, the reality is that most of us get too
busy. When you do have time to cook, make extra so that you can reheat or repurpose it for other meals later (especially staples like clean protein and vegetables).

Blender.
If you want to splurge on an amazing blender that will last, I recommend the Vitamix or the Blendtec. A less expensive version that still gets you the fiber you need and travels more easily is the NutriBullet. However, any blender will do the job. (You can also use a shaker bottle for travel.)

Food scale.
Use a food scale daily to keep your food portions accurate. This tool is particularly important for food addicts, who may have lost their judgment on portion size.

Blood glucose meter.
Testing your blood sugar can be one of the most valuable aspects of this program because it will dramatically increase your awareness of how certain foods affect your body.

pH test strips.
Test your urine pH with these strips to assess how acid or alkaline your body is and how food impacts your pH. Buy at least thirty strips to last through Reentry.

Soft tape measure.
You’ll need this to take your initial measurements and to track your slimming waist and hip circumferences.

Bathroom scale and/or body fat scale.
Weigh yourself at the beginning of each reset. You can also purchase a body fat scale or visit your local gym to get your body fat measurement taken.

Sleep and step trackers.
I recommend the UP by Jawbone to track both your sleep and your total steps per day (as well as your food, with the convenient app) because it’s essentially all
in one. Alternatives for tracking your sleep include the Basis, the Lark, and the Fitbit. Alternatives for tracking your total steps include the Nike+ FuelBand, Fitbit, iPhone, and a regular pedometer.

Dry brush.
One of the daily rituals I suggest integrating during your Hormone Reset is dry brushing your skin and stimulating your lymphatic system before you bathe in the morning. This practice can be an invigorating replacement for your morning cup of caffeine. The technique is to brush your dry and naked skin, head to toe or toe to head. Long strokes across your skin exfoliate best: from the bottom of your feet to your belly, then from your hands toward your shoulders, and finally, upward on your torso toward your heart to encourage lymphatic drainage, which collects near your heart.

Epsom salts.
Buy a large bag of Epsom salts and your favorite aromatherapy oils. A nightly bath truly helps highly sensitive people (myself included!) create a buffer from the day. Make a hot detox bath at least five times per week, and add one cup of Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) plus ten to twenty drops of essential oil (my favorites are sandalwood, frankincense, and lavender). About 72 percent of women are deficient in magnesium (as measured in your red blood cells), which can prevent your DNA from methylating (an important and good action your body takes to support your genes) and increase the accumulation of bad estrogens. Research shows that women with higher magnesium levels are leaner and have lower waist-to-hip ratios.
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Taking an Epsom salts bath will help with this process; you’ll methylate better and get rid of bad estrogens.