The Hormone Reset Diet (34 page)
Read The Hormone Reset Diet Online
Authors: Sara Gottfried
7.
Repeat your Hormone Reset every three to six months.
I tell the women who join my online course of the Hormone Reset that life is a series of “detox, retox, detox,” meaning I don’t expect you to be perfect when it comes to food. However, what works for me and for the vast majority of women is to make the Hormone Reset as a system reboot once every three to six months, to cultivate body awareness, drop pounds, and get lean and clean. Learn more and consider joining the next online event at www.HormoneReset.com/detox.
When it comes to your habit dashboard, remember the ideas from chapter 2 about how habits ideally will replace your reliance on willpower. I wish willpower were consistent all day long, but the truth is willpower fades over the course of the day, which is a major problem for those of us with food dependency.
Whether you want to get and stay lean because of vanity or sanity, because your doctor told you that you must, or because you just want to fit into your wedding dress, we have good science from the
National Weight Control Registry that informs the rules of maintenance. The registry shows that over a decade its members lost 10 percent of their body weight—and 87 percent have maintained it for more than ten years.
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In order to be eligible for the registry, adults must have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for a year. On average, a woman in the registry (and 80 percent in the registry are women) is forty-five years in age and weighs 145 pounds.
What I find fascinating is that the registry members fall into one of four camps,
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and my suspicion is that these camps are hormonally and genetically determined.
1.
Stable Mables.
This group includes more than 50 percent of the members. They are stable in weight and are healthy, exercise aggressively, and are very content with their weight.
2.
Strugglers.
Twenty-seven percent of members fit into the second camp. They’ve struggled with weight since childhood and rely on the greatest number of strategies and resources to stay in their target weight zone. Not surprisingly, many people in this camp describe feeling high stress and depression.
3.
Pink Clouders.
This represents 13 percent of the members, and they were successful at weight loss the first time they tried. Out of the four camps, they are the least likely to have been overweight as kids, have the longest duration of weight maintenance, and have the least difficulty controlling their weight. (I don’t know many of these people!)
4.
Restrictors.
Slightly less than 10 percent of the members, restrictors are the least likely to use exercise to control their weight, are older, eat fewer meals, and report more health problems. In other words, they restrict their food instead of exercising.
Take a moment to reflect on which camp you fit into. Once you do, you can use that information to guide your maintenance strategies.
When I learned about the four camps of people who maintain their weight loss for years, I got curious about the specific strategies
registry members use to sustain weight loss. That is, what are the little hinges that successfully swing big weight loss maintenance doors for people? The most effective strategies are:
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• maintaining high levels of consistent exercise
(about one hour per day in 90 percent of registry members—in fact, this is more important to prevent weight
regain
than to prevent weight
gain
;
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another study showed that bursts of ten minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise are linked to greater maintenance of weight loss
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);
• eating breakfast
regularly;
• self-monitoring
(75 percent of registry members weigh themselves at least once per week);
• minimizing TV
(62 percent of registry members watch less than ten hours of TV each week); and
• maintaining a consistent eating pattern
across weekdays, weekends, and holidays.
I agree with all of those techniques. Interestingly, eating more fat and experiencing disinhibition around food were linked to greater weight regain, but the amount of physical activity was not.
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That tells me you must pay attention to fat (not too much, not too little), you should avoid your trigger foods, and you don’t need to exercise fiendishly for maintenance to work. In my opinion, a healthy breakfast, burst exercise, self-monitoring, and consistency keep these folks lean—and these habits can keep you lean too!
Recently, I went on a trip to Point Reyes, California, which is a nature lover’s dream destination. It offers great hiking, kayaking, cycling, horseback riding, and swimming, and it’s one of the best places in the country to bird-watch. The light at the end of the day is luminous
year-round, and the landscape makes my heart sing and my adrenals smile. It’s low stress, and it’s good for my body.
After I visit a place like this, I wonder how I can take that sense of peace and bring it back home to my “real” life, filled with a husband, children, a mortgage, and a household to run. I know that a life filled with nothing but bird-watching and hiking is unrealistic. But my goal is to bring back some of the calm I feel in Point Reyes so it’s not all or nothing: total stress until I escape and crash for a few days in nature.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, PhD, said, “If we understood our cognitive limitations in the same way that we understand our physical limitations … we could design a better world.” His statement applies to your Hormone Reset; it’s a mind-over-mouth game.
Creating a low-stress lifestyle takes some planning. I’ve found that it’s easy to get swept away in the day-to-day world, and a big part of me loves the excitement and energy that permeates my work and my life. I’ve found a few helpful things to create this kind of lower-stress life, and I want to share them with you. You might want to start incorporating one or more of these into your routine and see where you land.
Meditate.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you can’t quit your job or run away to Hawaii, meditation is one of the best things you can do to create inner calm. Clearing your mind of the clutter is as important as taking out the garbage so the kitchen doesn’t start to smell. It doesn’t take much. Get up ten minutes earlier than you usually do and sit on a cushion. (I have a meditation app that makes a lovely Tibetan bell sound to signify the beginning and end of my meditation.) Take a few deep breaths before settling in. Then begin. Simply watch your thoughts as they arise, and then let them go with your out breath.
Make cutbacks.
When I look at my life, it’s hard to see places to cut back. I don’t want to skimp on time with my kids or husband,
with my girlfriends, or in my work. I love all of these things. But I’ve found that I have to look at the nature of these activities and discover ways to modify them to meet my needs for low stress. For example, instead of taking my kids on an all-day outing, I might choose to stay home with them in our pajamas and dance or play a board game. With my work, I might choose to delegate more work to others or cut back one afternoon. I say “probably not” to more queries for my time, so that I have more time to remind myself not to “overcare”—a term popularized by Doc Childre, founder of the Institute of HeartMath—when the mind and emotions cross the line of balanced care and get too attached to and bogged down with whomever or whatever you’re caring about.
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Assess the drive.
Commuting and chauffeuring can take a toll. Examine your driving time, and see if there are ways to cut back: carpool, take public transportation, look for a new job, telecommute one day a week. I believe that driving is a major contributor to stress, not to mention that it can take a toll on your body, the planet, and your valuable time.
Banish the vampires.
Emotional vampires suck the energy right out of you. I want you to think about the vampires in your life, people who make you feel depleted, insecure, or just plain angry. You don’t need to hang onto these people. You can wean them from your life, just as you do with sugar.
Plug into passion.
I don’t want to add more to your plate, but in certain cases low stress means adding something you love to your life. Creativity is a life energy that pulses through us; when we don’t have it, we can feel low energy and stressed. Figure out what activities you can turn to when you feel stressed: knitting, hiking, painting, poetry writing? Many women let their passions slip away to overcare for others. I’m asking you to reclaim your passion. It will not only benefit you but also benefit everyone around you.
Schedule in relaxation.
I have a firm rule: I must set aside thirty minutes a day for relaxation or stress relief. Sometimes I run, often I listen to guided meditation on my iPhone, or go for an ambling walk. If I’m ambitious, I’ll join a friend for a barre fitness class. It doesn’t matter what it is, just that you do it. No excuses: you would easily spend thirty minutes on a phone call or at the coffee shop, so I know you can find the time. Think of this like a reservoir: each time it rains, the reservoir fills up. No rain means no water. If the reservoir is empty, there will be nothing when you are the thirstiest. In the same way, when you practice relaxation, you will be filling up your inner reservoir so that in times of intense stress, you will know how to access a relaxed state of mind.
Connect to spirit.
One of the key ways to create a low-stress lifestyle is to realize the critical role that your spiritual journey plays in healing your metabolism. When there’s no time for your spiritual life, it’s more likely that you’ll become dependent again on food as a way to fill the void, and you’ll regain weight. Figure out what kind of spiritual practice works for you to keep from letting that happen. It could be something I’ve listed previously, such as meditation or walking in nature. Or it could be praying, joining a spiritual community, or reading inspirational texts. Whatever it is, pick something and make a commitment to conscious contact with a Higher Power of your understanding.
As you sustain your progress with your Hormone Reset, I have a supplement to recommend. While I hope you now understand that baking your child a cake is not as loving as you might think, occasionally
we want a treat. For those situations, try a carb blocker that contains
Phaseolus vulgaris,
an extract from white kidney beans. Take it thirty minutes before eating foods that are higher in carbohydrates, such as pumpkin, sweet potatoes, yams, or if you must, the occasional chocolate cake.
When I was in a program for food addiction, I heard a great parable. I tried to find its origin, and my research suggests it may have originated with Native Americans, but it was also described by the Reverend Billy Graham.
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I want to share it with you because it helped me with maintenance, and I know it will help you too.
My sponsor told me that inside all of us exists a power struggle between a white dog and a black dog. The white dog represents peace, joy, love, acceptance, truth, compassion, and faith. The black dog represents anger, resentment, hate, fear, insecurity, doubt, superiority, and ego. Typically, the black dog will dominate if you’re unaware. Which dog will win the internal fight for control of your body and mind? The one that you feed!
The white dog is fed in many ways, such as:
• planning your meals one day in advance so that you’re not relying on willpower and a last-minute scramble to feed yourself;
• nurturing yourself and claiming at least a minimal, effective self-care regimen;
• getting regular exercise;
• cultivating body awareness—hitting the pause button with meditation, yoga, and the Cell to Soul Practices featured in this book;
• having meaningful conversations with people you love;
• talking with like-minded friends about your vulnerabilities, and tapping into the collective wisdom about how to address them; and
• intentionally choosing a low-stress life, instead of letting yourself get taken over by stress that is actually under your control.
In other words, the white dog is your Higher Self. When you take your white dog off the leash, she is calm and friendly. She doesn’t bite your neighbor or otherwise behave out of control. Amazingly, when you feed your white dog, your black dog calms down, too.
On the other hand, your black dog gets fed in opposite ways, by:
• having a stressful day;
• cutting corners on your sleep;
• waiting too long to eat;
• overeating;
• eating foods that don’t serve you;
• leaving food choices to the last minute;
• eating foods that are triggers, such as sugar, grains, and dairy;
• pretending you’ve got it all figured out and don’t need any help; and
• not pursuing your unique abilities and passions.
When you let your black dog off the leash, she goes nuts—barking, biting, pooping and peeing all over the place, and generally destroying your home and upsetting the neighbors.
The bottom line: feed your white dog. It will power your maintenance and provide the momentum you need to keep the weight off and find lasting success.
When I take a group of women through the Hormone Reset Diet, I love to hear all the different ways women feel back home in their
body once they are finished with the seven resets. There are many variations on how this feels to a woman, and I offer the following descriptions so that you can see which resonates most with you, now that you’re at the end of your Hormone Reset.
“I love to reside in this sacred temple.”
—Arti
“When your body and mind are in sync, you feel like you’re unstoppable, vibrant, and energetic, but in a calm and grounded way. It’s nirvana!”
—Michele
“When I’m at home in my body, I feel fully awake and appreciative of all life has to offer and the desire to receive it
.
”
—Sherry