21 Day Hormone Reset Challenge

       Today I am starting a twenty-one day diet to help reset my hormones. Why should I and many if not all woman do this from time to time? Let me take you through some background...
     
       A few years back I went for the first time to my now holistic doctor, questioning my fatigue and terrible pain around and during my period. I was fit, ate decently healthy, and was angry that my body would be so messed up during a whole week of every month. I would binge eat during my period, not have any energy to exercise, and I felt miserable. When I went to Dr. Vincent Medici (very eccentric, very wise health expert!!!) he told me I was estrogen dominant. Wait, I thought it's good for women to have lots of estrogen and men to have lots of testosterone. Duh... No. Women should have a good mix of estrogen and progesterone. When estrogen takes over, a lot of issues start arising. It is really easy to become estrogen dominant with all the xenoestrogens (fake estrogen) we are exposed to everyday. A few daily occurrences include exhaust from cars, using plastic, being on birth control, using makeups and lotions, and eating hormonal red meats.
       
         Dr. Medici recommended for me to read What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About

Premenopause- Balance Your Hormones and Your Life from Thirty to Fifty, by John R. Lee and Jesse Hanley. Yes, I'm not thirty yet, but it is scary that with processed foods and exhaust and other factors, increasingly younger ages are being affected by hormonal imbalances. You know there are problems when girls younger then ten are getting their periods... The interesting part is that the book goes on to say estrogen dominance can affect women who have low levels of estrogen, too. Estrogen dominance "describes a condition where a woman can have deficient, normal or excessive estrogen but has little or no progesterone to balance its effects in the body." (p. 45), so either way, estrogen dominates. The book recommends to counter the estrogen with taking progesterone cream, which I had been taking before I got pregnant. Two weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a diet book sitting on my mom-in-law's table describing how to help fix the hormone imbalance many struggle with.
         Before I get into the diet, I'll tell you some of the symptoms of hormonal imbalance, and see if you can relate to any of these: PMS, breast tenderness, hypoglycemia, foggy thinking, infertility, mood swings, irregular menstrual periods, osteoporosis, depression, insomnia, fatigue, polycystic ovaries, fat gain, and much much more. I have struggled with hypoglycemia, irregular periods, and fatigue and mood swings around my periods. Enough is enough. I know my dreaded period will start up once again when I stop breastfeeding in the months to come, and I do not want to dread it anymore. I am praying this is a successful diet that will really reset my body.
       The book I read was The Hormone Reset Diet by Dr. Sara Gottfried, and she simply goes through seven components that most people consume daily that should be cut out, if only for the twenty-one days, to reset and clean out the body. She makes it really easy with taking out one of the seven elements every seventy-two hours (three days) which helps reset that hormonal issue. These are the seven components taken out:

1. Going Meatless: Red meat and alcohol really cause estrogen dominance. Some signs of estrogen dominance are ovarian cysts, breast tenderness. and difficulty losing weight. 
2. Going Sugar-free: Sugar causes insulin resistance. This causes weight gain and sugar addiction. 
3. Going Fruitless: High glycemic fruits cause high leptin. This causes excessive hunger and weight gain.
4. Going Caffeine-free: Caffeine causes imbalanced cortisol which leads to stress, poor sleep, and hunger.
5. Going Grain-free: Grains (including gluten) cause high thyroid/insulin resistance which causes bloating, exhaustion, and hair loss. 
6. Going Dairy-free: Dairy results in imbalanced growth hormones. This causes stuffy/runny nose, frequent skin reactions, and tendency toward sinusitis. 
7. Toxin-free: Toxins cause testosterone imbalance which leads to fatigue, achy joints, and frequent colds.

      This seems like you're taking out EVERYTHING, but it actually leaves the healthy basics, and it is really only for twenty-one days (three weeks) so I think completely doable. It is so important for your health. You start the first three days or seventy-two hours with just going meatless (and no alcohol). You then move on every three days to the next subtracted element. This is what the eating program looks like as you take out more elements:

• consume a pound of veggies a day
• eat at least eighty grams of protein on hormone-free, grass-fed, free range chicken, eggs, turkey, or fish
• eat beans, lentils, seeds, and nuts for other protein
• consume good fats from coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, clarified ghee
• add probiotic foods such as sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi
• drink a lot of water 
• consume at least 25 grams of fiber a day

      Dr. Sara emphases to do this diet with a friend and keep a journal to help stay accountable. I have recruited my mother Becky, my mother-in-law Sue, and my sister Marianne. I am so excited to see the results physically and mentally that are sure to come from this reset. Each week I will update you on how we are doing and the real struggles and successes we are experiencing!

       Questions or interested about this reset? Would love to talk about the benefits of a hormonal reset and encourage you to research more about it!