"

SEARCH

IGNITING ARCHITECTS of CHANGE

Home ! Tools for Healthy Living ! The Hormone Reset Diet: Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days [Excerpt]

BY DR. SARA GOTTFRIED / TOOLS FOR HEALTHY LIVING / APRIL 9, 2015

The Hormone Reset Diet: Lose Up to 15

Pounds in 21 Days [Excerpt]

I used to be fat and . . . Im a doctor. After decades of starving myself and feeling as though I were
living in someone elses bloated body, I quit the war. In the process, I came to understand that
what weve been taught about dieting is wrongeven what I was taught in medical school more
than twenty-five years ago. Harsh deprivation, beating myself up over the waning willpower,
daily fights with food and whether to be good or bad in my nutritional choicesthese dieting
skirmishes actually left me more stressed; worsened my hormonal imbalances, body shame and
food addiction; and kept me out of a genuine conversation with my body and what it actually
needs.
It took me many years to learn the lesson, which occurred after trying nearly every diet,
including the no-carb, low-carb, carb-cycling, low-fat, high-fat, low-protein, high-protein, nosalt, lemonade and honey and Mediterranean diets.
[Read: Calories Dont Matter; Heres Why]
The truth? These diets dont work for most women because they fail to address the hormonal
root cause. Hormones dictate what your body does with food. Fatness is the result of major
hormonal misfires in women, and forceful approaches to losing weight fail to address the
hormonal root cause in strategy, tactics and delivery.

Fortunately, there is a solution. You can rediscover a body youre happy within which you
shed the weight, feel trim and sexy in your skin and restore your hormones and healthwithout
a daily battle. After earning a medical degree, becoming a wife, birthing two babies and getting
certified as a yoga teacher, I ultimately learned that theres an alternative to the suffering over
weight that doesnt involve shame or guilt.
In short, you need to correct hormonal misfires with your fork. I learned how to eat in a way
that optimizes hormones and reinstates a healthy weight in women, and now I want to share my
discoveries with you.
[Related: Why Diet and Exercise Are Not the Key to Weight Loss and Health]
As women, were at a disadvantage when it comes to getting fat. We are exquisitely sensitive to
the ravages of stress and inflammationyou may notice the telltale signs as sugar cravings,
extra weight hanging around your waist, moodiness, lack of sleep or perhaps an overwhelmed
feeling. These are clues that your hormones have begun to turn against you, which sets off a
vicious cycle of inflammation (the type that makes you overweight) and more difficulty
regulating the hormones that help you burn fat (also known as the hormones of metabolism, or
the engine for burning calories).
When misfiring hormones are allowed to spiral downward, youre left with a broken
metabolism; and you store fat no matter whateven when you try popular diets like Paleo or
Weight Watchers. Soon the bathroom scale seems weirdly stuck 10 or 25 pounds higher than
youd prefer. If you struggle to get and stay lean, I promise that your hormones are to blame.
Your hormones govern nearly all aspects of fat loss, from where you store fat (and how much)
to your cravings, appetite, gut bacteria and even your addictive patterns with food.
[Read: Letting Go of Sugar: One Cookie at a Time]
The good news is that you can turn this problem aroundin twenty-one days. Ive designed a
step-by-step plan to help women of all shapes and sizes, ages and ethnicities, to lose weight and
feel lighter, from your cells to your soula formula that has had amazing results for thousands
of women just like you.
Just 3 Days!
The idea behind the Hormone Reset is simple: in 3-day bursts, youll focus on making specific
dietary changes, starting with eliminating meat and alcohol, which resets your estrogen, liver
and gut microbiomethe genetic material of the trillions of microbial critters that live in your

body. Every 3 days youll cut out specific metabolism-wrecking foods and trade up for better
foods, which will reset your misfiring hormones, building on the collaboration and regulatory
synergy between them so you can feel like yourself again, in body harmony.
Why 3 days? Because thats the minimum amount of time to reset a metabolic hormone. When
you disrupt these 7 hormones in 3-day bursts, it takes you a total of twenty-one days to
recreate a collaborative team of your metabolic hormones. By the end of twenty-one days,
youll be ecstatic to observe how you feel. Youll stress less, eat clean and move more.
[Related: 7 Simple Swaps for Health Without Big Diet Changes]
Overview of Your Hormone Reset
In your Hormone Reset, we will resynchronize the 7 hormones of metabolism. Here is the order
of hormone resets that Ive found to be the most effective.
1. Meatless, designed to reset your estrogen by excluding red meat and alcohol from your diet.
(Note that this reset is essential for everyone, whether youre a meat eater or not.)
2. Sugar Free, intended to banish your cravings for sugar and reset your insulin.
3. Fruitless, targeted to reset your hunger hormone, leptin.
4. Caffeine Free, which will reset your relationship to stress and cortisol.
5. Grain Free, formulated to activate your thyroid hormone in a powerful new way and will
reset insulin and leptin.
6. Dairy Free, designed to reset your growth hormone, which also improve insulin.
7. Toxin Free, which will redirect your testosterone level to normal, along with supporting the
reset of estrogen, insulin, leptin and thyroid.
[Read: Learning to Feed a Hungry Heart]

After you take all these steps, you will have reset your metabolism to expedite major body
transformation from the inside out. I know what its like at the top, after completing the first
round of 7 hormone resetsI can see the comprehensive view from here, and its amazing.
[Read Maria Shrivers latest essay]
Yes, you will fix your broken metabolism and lose weight. But more important, you will take the
crucial steps you need to feel at home in your body again. You will break the relentless cycle of
stress and weight gain. You wont be constantly bloated, stressed or sleep deprived. You will
grow the happy and diverse bacteria that keep you lean and shed the bacteria that make you
fat.

Remember, this is not a restrictive diet. The Hormone Reset Diet addresses the root causes of
why you cant lose weight by correcting your hormonal misfires. Its an innovative way to totally
transform your body from the inside out.

Copyright 2015 by Sara Gottfried. This modified excerpt originally The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal
Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days, published by HarperOne. Reprinted here with
permission.
Tweet

59

Recommend

Share

4.7k

Share

RELATED POSTS
You recommend The Hormone Reset Diet: Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days [Excerpt].

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Say something more about this...

I Dont Want to Go Back to The Way It Was Before Pope Francis Visited America

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Religion Enters the Digital Age: How Pope Francis Uses Twitter to Connect With Millions
[Excerpt]

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Flee Unto God: My Muslim Faith Makes Me Strive to Be a Better Husband, Father, Citizen,
Neighbor, Writer and Physician

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Sara Gottfried has been dedicated to practicing and helping

women feel at home in their bodies for the past 20 years. After
graduating from the physician-scientist training program at
Harvard Medical School and MIT, she completed her residency at
the University of California at San Francisco. As an integrative
gynecologist, Dr. Gottfried is a firm believer in treating the root
cause of problems, not just the symptoms. She is the author of
the just-released book, The Hormone Reset Diet. More at
www.saragottfriedmd.com.

READ MORE FROM DR. SARA GOTTFRIED

Follow @DrGottfried

SIGN UP FOR MARIASHRIVER.COM'S WEEKLY MUST-READ

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS

The Zara Outfit Every The Gut Bacteria and

Girl In New York City Depression
Is Wearing
Connection
WHO WHAT WEAR

How to Make Paper

Pumpkins for Fall
DIY INSPIRED

WOMENSHEALTH.COM

30 Things You Need

in Your Apartment by
the Time You Turn 30
LEVO
powered by PubExchange

$!

MORE POSTS FROM ARCHITECTS OF CHANGE

CONNECT
with MARIA

&

'

MARIA'S MESSAGE

Read the latest

I've Been Thinking.
CHECK IT OUT

REFLECTION FOR YOUR DAY

+

We have a choice to
use the gift of our
lives to make the
world a better place.
Jane Goodall, Founder, the Jane
Goodall Institute and UN Messenger
of Peace, 2009 Minerva Award
Recipient
MORE INSPIRATION

HARNESS YOUR
POWER
Share your story & become an
Architect of Change
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

Recent

Popular

Archives

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

My Grandmothers Gift: Faith

& Spirituality

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

I Dont Want to Go Back to

The Way It Was Before Pope
Francis Visited America

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Nothing Is Impossible With

God: How My Faith Ignites
My Fight Against ModernDay Slavery

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Religion Enters the Digital

Age: How Pope Francis Uses
Twitter to Connect With
Millions [Excerpt]

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Whats The Pope Doing

During His Alone Time In
America? Maria Shriver
Reports

GET
CONNECTED
Sign up for our Weekly MustReads
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

PROJECTS WITH IMPACT

+

SHRIVER SPOTLIGHT
+

Home | About | Share Your Story | Connect | Newsletter | Privacy Statement

2010-2015 MOS Enterprises, Inc.
Disclaimer: All views and opinions expressed on this site are solely those of the author of the
post. MOS Enterprises, Inc. and all related individuals and entities are not responsible for any
information presented in the content on MariaShriver.com.