The Hormone Reset Diet (7 page)

Tongue scraper.
Scraping your tongue each morning is a great way to get rid of some of the toxins that accumulate there overnight. And it helps with bad breath!

Your favorite veggies (ideally organic, locally grown, and in season).
For example, stock up on lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, beets, purple cabbage, cabbage, celery, and carrots. You will need a pound per day, so go ahead and weigh them in the store. You will need three pounds for the first three-day reset and a total of seven pounds each first week. I suggest that you keep three days’ worth of vegetables in your refrigerator, make vegetable soup, and freeze the rest—just make sure your frozen vegetables don’t contain sugar or additives.

Your favorite fruits (ideally organic, locally grown, and in season).
Keep lemons in stock, because you’ll be drinking lemon water daily. Buy plenty of avocados, olives (whole and puréed as a tapenade), fresh and dried coconut, and berries. Limit high-glycemic fruits if you are trying to lose weight (I define low-glycemic fruits based on their fructose content, and these include avocados, olives, coconut, lemons, and berries), and eliminate high-glycemic fruits completely when you start the Fruitless reset (chapter 5).

Organic and/or free-range chicken.

Organic and/or free-range turkey.

Organic and/or free-range eggs.

Cold-water fish that are low in mercury.
Examples include wild Alaskan salmon, cod, snapper, tilapia, mackerel, trout, sardines, anchovies, orange roughy, herring, flounder, sturgeon, clams, crab, oysters, and scallops.

Hummus.

Grain-free crackers, granola, etc.
Limit these if you are trying to lose weight. Some of my favorite brands include flackers from Doctor in the Kitchen (made from flax seeds) and raw, dehydrated vegetable crackers, such as those from Lydia’s Organics (made from sprouted sunflower seeds, collards, carrots, celery, kale, spinach, zucchini, arugula, radicchio, and other natural ingredients).

Nuts and seeds.
For example, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raw almonds, cashews (limit if you’re trying to lose weight because they are starchy), walnuts, and Brazil nuts.

Flax seeds, chia seeds, and/or hemp seeds.
These are excellent sources of additional fiber and nutrients.

Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and/or organic ghee.
Olive and avocado oils are best for low-temperature cooking or raw dressings. Coconut oil is suitable for high-temperature cooking and is also delicious in shakes! Ghee is clarified butter with the milk proteins removed. Avoid vegetable oils like canola, corn, and soy.