“Food is medicine or food is poison.” Dr. Mark Hyman

7 years ago I heard this quote for the first time. I was seeking a natural cure for my autoimmune system, hypothyroidism, and two years of medical visits ended me in tears in the parking lot of a doctor’s office.

The Endocrinoligiests, hormone specialist doctor, ran many tests and his conclusion was, “Sorry K’Lee your blood work looks normal. This condition (hypothyroidism that developed after having my babies) is just something you are going to have to live with and manage and live with for the rest of your life.”

Today I am going to share with you

• How I reset my hormones using food as medicine (the 10-day detox)
• How I used food to reverse hormonal imbalance weight gain and drop 50+ pounds and keep it off
• How I used Clean Keto to detox from food addictions

There are powerful foods that can heal our hormones.

There are also many foods that will harm or even destroy our hormones.

What are the 11 Foods anyone with a hormonal imbalance, autoimmune dysfunction, or autoimmune disease should never eat? I think you will be surprised at some “healthy” foods that are on this list. 

11 Foods that Harm Your Hormones

There is a phrase and the natural healing community called AIP – The Autoimmune Protocol Diet. The AIP diet plan was formulated as an elimination diet to remove foods that can trigger a hormonal imbalance. 

Removing these foods that can trigger hormonal imbalances for a period of time and then reintroducing them in a certain order can give us insight into whether any of these foods are affecting our hormonal imbalances. 

These 11 Foods are:

• (Most) Grains
• Legumes
• Nightshade vegetables
• Dairy
• Alcohol
• Coffee (in some cases such as adrenal fatigue)
• Processed vegetable oils
• Refined/processed sugars
• Food additives and artificial sweeteners
• Soy 
• Dyes

Eliminating these foods for as little as 30 days before reintroducing them slowly one at a time gives insight to any that could be the triggers to our hormones going nuts. 

To get a quick, easy, and basic step-by-step guide I loved Dr. Mark Hyman’s book, “The 10 Day Detox Diet” 

“The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet” essentially walks you through the comprehensive elimination diet protocol by Dr. Hyman.

The thing I appreciate most about Dr. Hyman is that he himself has healed his own autoimmune system so knows firsthand the struggles and is a great tool (baby-stepping) in the right direction. 

Trying anything new can be scary (intimidating).

Often people feel overwhelmed and resistant to even trying.

This easy first step can be very empowering and give you the confidence to keep going.

Plus you will most likely feel a LOT better too!

Before long these little steps will be what brought you to the finish line of being fully healed. 

Every single human gut microbiome is different. No two people with autoimmune disorders or diseases have the exact same triggers. 

Our bodies are all different; there is no one-size-fits-all answer. 

Be patient.

Being willing to research and experiment.

Step-by-step reintroduction protocol

Here’s a step-by-step approach to reintroducing foods that were avoided during the elimination phase of the AIP diet.

First: Choose one food to reintroduce. Plan to consume this food a few times per day on the testing day, then avoid it completely for 5 or 6 days. 

Next: Eat a small amount, such as 1 teaspoon or a tablespoon of this food, then wait about 15 minutes to see if there is any reaction. (keeping a food journal is very helpful! Our minds are tricky and we may not “want” to have a dairy or gluten allergy thus our minds are looking to blame it on something else.) 

Then: Obviously if you experience symptoms, definitely end the test and avoid this food. This is a clear sign that this food is having a negative effect on your body. If you have no symptoms, eat a slightly larger portion, such as 1 1/2 tablespoons, of the same food and monitor how you feel for 2–3 hours. 

Last: If you experience any symptoms over this period, end the test and eliminate this/these foods. If no symptoms occur, eat a normal portion of the same food and avoid it for 5–6 days without reintroducing any other foods. 

A couple of notes to keep in mind:

If you do not experience symptoms for 5 or 6 days, you could reincorporate the tested food into your diet, but be sure to repeat this 5-step reintroduction process with new food. 

Reintroducing dairy after the elimination diet is not something I recommend as dairy is highly inflammatory in most if not all people. However, if you choose to let dairy be something that you eliminated for at least 30 days. Maybe try choosing things such as sheep or goat’s milk instead of cow’s milk.

Dr. Hyman talks about food in the book, but you can also find hundreds of free elimination diet recipes on Pinterest too by searching “elimination diet recipes“.

And if this protocol is resonates with you and you want an even deeper dive you can check to click here for more tips, tricks, and tools.

How I used food to reverse hormonal imbalance weight gain and drop 50+ pounds and keep it off

For many people doing a short detox and using the elimination diet can be all that is needed to course-correct and get back on track. But, that is not always the case. For me personally, it helped but was not solving the bigger issues.

These lovely photos are me after baby #1 with about 15(ish) pounds of postpartum weight that wouldn’t seem to budge. The photos on the right are after baby #2 with about 50(ish) extra pounds of postpartum weight that didn’t seem to budge.

Obviously this was quite alarming.

In my life, I was “that girl” you know the one that could eat anything and never work out and stay stick skinny.

In hindsight, I was most likely just “skinny-fat” a term coined for people who appear skinny but inside is a different story.

NOTHING I WAS TRYING WORKED!!

Granted, again in full transparency, I was looking for the “magical weight loss in 30 days effortlessly” plan (lol). But for the first time in my life, I was actually trying to lose weight AND IT WAS NOT WORKING!

Through the magical power of storytelling, I can fast forward for you to the good part! This is me, age 38, down 50+ pounds for years now, looking and feeling better than ever!

I found something that worked for me. I began to see results not only on the scale, but the thyroid medication I was taking was starting to get reduced by half every 2-3 months!!!!

What did I do?

I started the Ketogenic Diet. Honestly, I cringe at the word ‘diet’….. in all of our minds we have been trained to hear that as a dirty little 4 letter word that has come to mean; limited, start date, end date, temporary, hard, resistance, giving up things and so on.

Am I right?

Let’s call it the Keto Lifestyle.

Before you roll your eyes, or maybe even think to yourself, ‘been there tried that it didn’t work’. I ask you to trust me. I have got you covered.

The reason SO MANY PEOPLE FAIL when starting anything new related to health is primarily one of two reasons;

1. Mindset
2. No Plan

Mindset – if you go into anything with questions like when do I start and when is it over, or even one of the ever most popular searches on Youtube “can you cheat on keto?”. Just stop. Like literally, don’t start anything you are not ready mentally and are just setting yourself up to fail.

“Winners in life win because they win the battle in their minds first.”

tony gaskins

Mindset is where we spend the first month in my One-on-One Healthy Hormones Coaching program. Yes. Month!

Why?

Because friend if we do not first lay the foundation, understand the why, and see clearly the objective it doesn’t matter what changes are made. The likely hood of them lasting……. well let’s just say that is what has made the weight industry a Multi-Billion dollar-a-year industry.

Tools like the Custom Keto Meal Plan were not around years ago when I started Keto. This makes life SOOOO much easier.

Making changes can be challenging, but having a simplified plan to get you jump-started is such a life saver! (and you can try out the customized plan for free!)

For an even deeper dive, one-on-one coaching, and accountability check out my Healthy Hormones Coaching click here.

How I used Clean Keto to detox from food addictions

Food addictions are real. If you live in America chances are that you’re eating the SAD diet (Standard American Diet – fitting acronym right).

The SAD diet consists of loads of sugar, and refined processed foods (aka Frankin’ Foods cooked up in a lab not grown in the ground), fast foods, junk foods, seed oils, colors, dyes, and additives, I think you are getting the point it is a pretty long list.

Odds we could put our money on anyone eating these types of foods that are tested and made to be addictive that most Americans have some level of food addictions.

What I love about the Clean Keto Lifestyle is it eliminates most of the foods that are causing food addictions in the first place.

What is Clean Keto Diet

What’s Clean Keto or Dirty Keto? If you’re following a clean Keto diet, that means you’re avoiding processed foods, whereas a dirty keto diet is one that doesn’t focus as much on whole foods, but rather seeks to adhere only to the macronutrient ratio – that is, the ratio of fat, protein, and carbs – of the diet. (source USNEWS.com)

You can find HUNDREDS of recipes for Clean Keto on my Pinterest Keto boards (this will save you SO much time in not having to search them out yourself).

https://www.pinterest.com/GoingBacktoOurRoots/_created/

Other Tips, Tricks, or Tools to Help You Reset Your Hormones and Lose Weight

Sleep has massive effects on both our hormones and our weight.

It is key to be able to track your sleep closely. I use an Oura Ring with its very in-depth and most accurate sleep tracker we have found.

My husband uses both an Oura Ring and Fitbit.

He does this primarily because his sleep was so poor starting around High School that he quit the football team because of poor sleep. Healing our sleep issues can be very challenging.

We invested in different books, courses, podcasts, and lots of research. Then we implemented.

He wanted to be able to measure if what we were doing was working?

If you do not have access to a sleep tracking device then keep a good journal to monitor it this way. Consider asking someone if you could borrow theirs for a week or two. 

Never hurts to ask.

These include during an infection, following a poor night’s sleep, or when feeling unusually stressed, strenuous workouts during this time are not recommended.

At age 45 he has now gotten to an average of an 80-85 sleep score which is in the good-excellent range.

This is why it is so important to track your process and what is working, then keep doing it. What is not working? Then just stop doing that.

What not to eat if you have an autoimmune disease?

Going by the AIP protocol detox you can reintroduce foods back into your diet. There are certain foods, based on my research, I would say should never be in anyone’s diet:

• Gluten 
• Dairy 
• Sugar
• Seed oils
• Food coloring/food dyes
• Soy

These in our diet are nonnegotiable. Autoimmune disorder or not these foods have been proven to be the root cause of most diseases we see today. Many because of our broken food system creating GMO, or mutated versions of what used to be. 

Wheat for example is almost unrecognizable to even the wheat grown 100 – 200 years ago. The old’ saying ‘things aren’t what they use to be’ is more true than most of us know when it comes to food.

What vegetables are bad for autoimmune?

The top vegetables that seem to give most autoimmune issues the most trouble are in the nightshade family:

Nightshade vegetables: eggplants, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, tomatillos, etc., as well as spices derived from nightshade vegetables, such as paprika

This is not to say “all” nightshades are bad for “all” people with autoimmune issues. Referred back to the elimination protocol. 

Taking these vegetables out of your diet for a. Of time and then slowly reintroducing them will let you know if these vegetables or Foods affect to you.

 Again all of our bodies are different. There is no one-size-fits-all even with autoimmune disorders. 

What diet is best for autoimmune disease?

I would say this answer is pretty simple – the human diet. If you look back to our ancestors and ask yourself, what did they eat? One may say well they ate bread there is documentation in many places.

True.

But was the bread they ate the one they purchased from a grocery store?

One that has been packed with so many chemicals and preservatives that it had been baked a month before finding its way to your kitchen where it lasts another two weeks?

Several years ago my husband and I took a course with Mindvalley called WildFit. Excellent course. We highly recommend it if you are serious about your health journey education will be your guide.

What is the WildFit diet? The term was coined by the founder of WildFit Eric Edmeades came up with the name on a plane trip to South Africa. (Click here to learn more about the WildFit Course)

Eric starts the course with a story of a research trip to South Africa. He is an anthropologist who has been studying a tribe in South Africa for years now. He will venture into the life of these bushmen for months at a time to conduct research. How do they live? How do they eat? What do they eat? How often do they sleep?

The bushmen are the closed living relatives of our ancestors. Still to this day living off the land. This gives researchers a powerful insight into how humans have existed for thousands of years.

On this plane trip, bored, and he grabbed a magazine that was in the seat back. As he was thumbing through the magazine he noticed an interesting article that caught his eye. It was on elephants. 

The article was discussing that elephants in captivity often live a third of the lifespan of an elephant in the wild. The article went on to state the reason for this was what the author of the article called The Wild Fit diet VS the diet of captivity. 

Before this realization captors of wild elephants on average found that the elephants lived about 8 years.

It wasn’t until it was brought to their attention that in the wild they can live up to 80 years that the captors started changing what they were feeding the elephants. 

Interestingly enough this brought years of his research together and he started connecting the dots. He realized in all of his trips to visit this tribe of South Africa he had never met one person that was overweight or obese. 

He had yet to meet even one tribal person who had cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart issues, and so on. 

It finally dawned on him the one difference between these tribal people and people in the First World countries was 

F O O D.

To answer the question what is the best diet for anyone with autoimmune disorders? The same diet that is good for All Humans. The natural diet. The Wild Fit diet. 

Foods that are farmed naturally, are grown organically. Foods that are from the earth not a bag or fast food window. 

In conclusion

Foods affect our bodies in ways that even our most advanced science can not yet even know fully. There are certainly more than 11 foods that can have massive negative affects on our bodies, but these 11 are the starting point. 

The more willing we are to look at our bodies as a whole. To research. To be patient. To experiment in the elimination type prodicalls. The faster we will find healing for our bodies. 

If you have not yet heard my story. How I healed my autoimmune system using food, eliminating toxins, and experimenting with Biohacking (modern science) check it out here

I think you will find it inspiring to know if I did it, and so can you! 

Tell me below in the comments what is one thing you will implement today? One small step you will take away from what you learned to step closer to healing.