So, this post took a long time to actually get written. It was a few years of personal living, trying, failing, and learning before I got somewhere that actually helped.
About five years ago I realized something was wrong with my body. I just felt tired all the time, my hair was thinning, and deodorant quit working. I knew I needed some help, but I didn't know where to turn. So, I went to my doctor and told her all these things. She ordered blood tests, hormone panels, and did a female exam. The diagnosis? You are the picture of health! You're probably feeling tired because you have kids.
That was annoying, because I knew something was off. Yeah, I ate healthy. I took supplements. I exercised and got sunshine. I just went back to living life as best as I could with the hand I was dealt. And I slowly got more tired, my joints started to ache, I didn't heal like I should or it took much longer than it should to heal, and I started to pack on the pounds.
After not being able to walk for a week because I overdid it one day and wasn't healing properly, and needing to buy new clothing because I had put on 25 pounds, I decided to try another doctor. This time I got some clues. She said that I had a hormonal imbalance and nutritional deficiencies, and that there was a lack of good gut bacteria in my body.
Well, I started doing some research. I read Super Gut by William Davis and started making my own homemade yogurt. I also started adding in scoops off fiber to my diet. Along with these steps, I started to take some probiotics that he suggested. I even added in a modified exercise program to build some muscle and endurance.
While I did notice some benefits, I was still a stuck overweight and the scale was only climbing! Plus, if I worked out too hard, I would find myself hurting for days while my muscles tried to recover. Then I read the Hormone Reset Diet by Sara Gottfried.
She gave a 21-day hormone reset diet to "defrag" the hormonal hard drive. I figured, "Why not?" I'd already tried going vegan, doing keto, a juice cleanse, and a colon cleanse. What could it hurt?
Here's the basics of it. You eliminate one food group every three days, and continue leaving it out for the duration of the diet. Each group removed correlated to a specific hormone reset.
Days 1-3: Estrogen
- Forgo beef, pork, and alcohol.
- Eat 1 pound of organic veggies daily
- Increase your fiber intake
- Add in good fats
Days 4-6: Insulin
- Limit carbs to between 20g to 49g net daily (subtract your fiber grams from your total carb grams)
- Cut sugar (no more than 15g of natural sugar daily; the kind you find in fruits and veggies)
- Consume clean protein with each meal
- Eat probiotic foods
Days 7-9: Leptin
- Restrict fructose intake to 20g or less veggies and fruits daily
- Restrict fruits to berries, coconut, avocado, and olives
- Start your day with protein within 30 minutes of waking
- Stop snacking and eat only 3 meals a day
Days 10-12: Cortisol
- Eliminate all caffeine
- No more than one ounce of 80% or higher dark chocolate
- Get at least 20 minutes of sunlight in the morning hours
- Exercise after dinner, but 2 hours before bed (30 minutes; 4 days a week)
Days 13-15: Thyroid
- Cut out all grains
- Eat half of your veggies cooked and half of them raw
- Avoid night shade fruits and veggies
- Only whole fermented, non GMO soy (like natto) is allowed, but limit to twice weekly
Days 16-18: Growth hormone
- Remove all dairy products (including yogurt and kefir)
- Substitute butter with ghee
- Eat your largest meal at lunchtime
- Try to incorporate HIIT workouts
Days 19-21: Testosterone
- Replace toxic products like personal cleansing products, perfumes, and cleaning products
- Start your day with a glass of hot water with lemon juice
- Add in a good multivitamin, magnesium, etc. for what you may be deficient in
- Use real salt and other mineral containing ingredients when preparing your food
Even though I generally eat very clean and healthy, I do have some areas that need work. My breakfasts generally consist of two eggs made in real butter. My lunches are an Orgain plant-based protein shake with an IQ Bar. I make my own yogurt and fiber blend. And my dinners are generally homemade and contain mostly whole foods but this is where I get most of my dairy in the form of cheese and my simple carbs in the form of rice, white potatoes, and pasta. Changing things up really wasn't that difficult for me since I was already accustomed to cooking my meals from scratch. The biggest challenge would be meal prepping soups and salads to get more veggies into my daily meals. I did have to add in an Orgain shake and an IQ bar just to get all my necessary calories; without them I was barely eating 1,200 a day!
Let me tell you, the caffeine was the hardest hit for me! I was up to four cups a day just to make it through to bedtime. So, when I first read the book, I took a few weeks to slowly wean myself off before beginning the protocol. I started by replacing my fourth cup around 3PM with decaff. Next, I drank only one cup of regular in the morning instead of two. After a few days, I dropped the 3PM decaff. Then, I switched my cup of coffee at work to decaff. By this step, I was ready to begin the diet. The final step was to eliminate my work cup of coffee, and then convert my morning cup of coffee to decaff. By day 10, I quit drinking it all together and was right where I should be with the protocol.
I've been using Limelife skincare products, so I didn't need to remove any toxic skincare. However, the my cleaning products were in need for a reset, so I used the first few days to research which would work for me and then replaced them slowly as our budget could afford.
I found myself with less energy than usual, so I did old school Callanetics along with just a few synergistic weighted exercises (modified for my own health and physical needs). I didn't workout every day because I generally feel pretty tired or I'm surrounded with children and I don't want to be swinging weights or laying down on the floor to get trampled.
I also incorporated a few days of "grounding"(going outside without shoes and letting my body "connect" with the earth), however in the South, you just get attacked by bugs whenever you're out too long, so I didn't get to do too much of that!
At night time, I did about 15 minutes of Wim Hoff breathing exercises after my prayers and before trying to falling asleep; I usually prayed throughout doing these when I would remember something I had forgotten to mention earlier.
My last doctor had given me the name of a great multi-vitamin and urged me to take it along with a few other vitamin and mineral supplements. So, I was getting my nutrition covered with the extra Vitamin C and D, plus magnesium and iron. She also encouraged me to include a digestive enzyme into my day so that I could get all the goodies in my food. Let's just say the last 3 days were a breeze!
I got this food journal to help with logging everything. And I used My Fitness Pal app to get the calories, carbs, fat, and protein in each food item. Yes, I did weigh some of my fresh veggies on a food scale to get an accurate amount for my calculations.
I know that you're probably wondering about the results.
I didn't lose a ton of weight, though the scale did go down about 5 pounds. This is significant because up until this point it has only gone up! I did sleep about an average of 8 hours each night with few wake up period throughout the night, and those were very small compared to the usual half and hour or longer that I was waking.
My deep sleep isn't the greatest. That's probably because I'm going through perimenopause. You're suppose to get at least an hour and a half of deep sleep so that your body can heal, and I generally don't get much at all. On this protocol I was averaging about 45 minutes of deep sleep.
Would I do this diet again? Yes. I think it's probably a good idea to try at least once a year, if not a few times a year to give your diet and lifestyle a reboot. I'm also incorporating some of these changes into my everyday life, like salads for lunch and more veggies in my dinner.
Who knew messed up hormones could cause so much trouble! I learned so much about working with my cycle to find the balance my body needed. I hope my journey encourages and helps you!
