I bought this book because I’ve been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue but am not currently under the care of a doctor who is knowledgeable about this condition so I have been trying to educate myself. I also have low thryoid function. I found the concept of carbohydrate-cycling to be quite intriguing and wish the book had a section explaining the biochemistry of it.
According to the book’s quiz I’m in the “crashed” phase of adrenal fatigue although quizzes tend to be one-size-fits-all and I’m not sure how accurate this is. I’m probably between “tire & wired” and “crashed”. I had a severe knee injury 2 years ago followed by surgery 3 months later and I think the physical stress was very challenging. I practise martial arts and do a lot of walking and go to the gym but am still not where I want to be in my knee rehab which is also stressful. The way I feel most days is not so much tired the way you feel when you haven’t slept long enough, but rather, sluggish. Yet I am always on the go. So I was keen to start on this eating plan.
I’ve been following the diet for 3 weeks now. I lost weight right away. I’m 5’6” and was above the weight where I’m comfortable – not really heavy at almost 126 but I had belly fat that I really wanted to get rid of. This has been going on for years, since I had children. I would put on weight and when I reached 126 I would start dieting – primarily by avoiding sugar and snack food. It usually took me 4-6 weeks to drop the weight. After 3 weeks on the adrenal re-set diet I’m down to 118 and could probably lose a few more pounds to get rid of the remaining belly fat. I have not yet achieved the “abundant energy” to which Dr. Christianson refers, but am hopeful that will change.
This is a great way to eat. I really needed help cutting down on sugar consumption. I had sworn off cookies and cake about 4 years ago but there are plenty of other vehicles for sugar including ice cream and candy. So, this diet has been a drastic change in that there is no added sugar in it. I love that I’m finally getting plenty of vegetables.
The one difficulty I’m having is with the morning meal. As others have summarized, the meal plan is “modular”: each meal has a serving of protein (about 25-30 grams, or about the size of the palm of your hand), and a serving of fat, and unlimited amounts of vegetables from a long list of possibilities. Breakfast has ¼ cup of healthy carbohydrates, lunch has ½ cup and dinner has ¾ cup (it is not addressed whether this is the same whether you’re male or female, tall or short, &c). This carbohydrate cycling is designed to match the needs of the body for different amounts of cortisol at different times of day (higher in the morning and lower in the evening). When insufficient carbs are available your body makes more cortisol and stores fuel as visceral fat rather than providing you with energy, so you feel tired. The book suggests that the easiest way to get your protein in the morning is as a “milk” shake, using protein powder made from animal or vegetable sources but not whey or soy. It’s suggested that a non-dairy base be used such as almond milk or flax seed milk. I don’t like protein powder or dairy substitutes like these. My usual breakfast for years has been a smoothie made with plain homemade yogurt, blueberries, frozen mango and bananas, fruit juice, as well as psyllium husk, cinnamon, ginger and a probiotic. I have a hard time swallowing pills so this has been a convenient way for me to take the few supplements that I take. On this diet I have continued my smoothie but have left the banana out because of its high glycemic index, and the mango as well, and the fruit juice, but I still use the yogurt. I add hemp protein powder but if I put the full serving in, it’s rather unpalatable. I also used to have a slice of gluten-free toast with almond butter, and now I leave out the toast and just have the almond butter. It’s filling, just kind of a slog to get through it.
Lunch and dinner are a different story. It’s very easy to eat according to the plan. Although I don’t like cooked kale, it’s great as a salad base if you put it in a food processor (no stems!) and chop it fine. I chop up a bunch of kale this way and put it in the fridge for several days of salads. I also peel and cut up a kabocha squash and chop it fine in the food processor and then stir fry it for about 8 minutes and store that to use for my healthy carb servings along with quinoa or brown rice. A salad of chopped chicken, kale, carrots, chopped cooked beets, nuts, and a bit of quinoa is something I really look forward to. A dinner stir-fry is easy too. Apart from my difficulty with breakfast, the diet isn’t as restrictive as it seems at first. If you’re used to cheesey casseroles it is a big change, but meat and vegetables and starch is a pretty traditional meal. Take a look at Mastering the Art of French Cooking and you’ll find a lot of wonderful recipes that fit the plan just fine. It can take a while to figure out how to make this eating plan work for you, especially if you have children with different eating habits. But planning ahead gets a lot easier as you get more used to what kinds of foods you can cook ahead and combine to make good meals. The first week I was hungry a lot because I was still figuring out what amounts I was supposed to eat and didn’t always get it right.
It’s not an inexpensive way to eat, since you’re supposed to use organic ingredients to reduce your intake of toxins. Major supermarkets tend to have a line of organic foods or natural/no antibiotics/no hormones foods and I’ve gotten a lot of such meat on sale. Also, it is noted in the book that it’s better to eat non-organic healthy types of food than not eat any. If you’re a vegetarian you’re pretty much the poor cousin here because the only suggestions in the recipes are to substitute protein powder, tempeh or beans (which is going to change the carbohydrate ratios so I don’t know what to make of that) for the meat.
A few omissions that are disappointing: dairy and eggs are referred to as “toxic proteins” meaning they are not completely digested. It isn’t clear to me whether these foods are incompletely digested by everyone or just some people. This isn’t well discussed. Also peanuts are not even mentioned in the book and I would like to know why. Perhaps because they are vulnerable to the growth of moulds that produce aflotoxins. Some years ago I was tested for a bunch of food sensitivities. Eggs came up as a mild sensitivity and peanuts as a moderate sensitivity. I’ve never noticed a difficulty with peanuts – I adore peanut butter and have consumed mountains of it over the years (the natural kind, no hydrogenation or sugar). I’ve substituted almond butter of late but can’t see not eating it ever again. I also can’t see never eating chocolate – dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you. Where was I? Oh yeah, toxic proteins. I do not have a dairy sensitivity and although I’ve cut a lot of out I still eat my homemade yogurt. I feel there are a number of babies thrown out with the bathwater in this eating plan.
As I say I have not yet overcome my fatigue (who knows, it could be due to some other health issue). The one thing I have noticed: I have to spend a fair amount of time in an animal care facility as part of my job and my forearms would always break out in a rash. This hasn’t happened since I started this diet. Maybe it’s unrelated, but since the diet is designed to reduce inflammation-inducing foods it shouldn’t be surprising. And if it is related, it’s kind of cool. I also noticed that whereas I slept pretty well before, my sleep has not been so good on this diet. I tried increasing my carbohydrate intake by just a bit in the evening and then slept a lot better. So perhaps you should be open to tweaking things here and there to find what works best for you. But the best part so far is the weight loss and the knowledge that the changes I’ve made in the way I eat are very good ones. I would like to continue to eat this way and after a few months hope to see more positive changes. And at that point I fully intend to eat some of the things I like that are not part of the diet, but just occasionally.
Finally I should mention that I have yet to set my mind seriously to the other important part of the adrenal reset, namely to shift my sleeping habits so that I’m going to bed earlier and getting sufficient rest. The book has a lot of good suggestions about meditation and mindfulness, and about one’s attitude about the stressors in one’s life (I would recommend another book related to this subject: Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman). This is a hugely important component of Christianson’s book, which I’ve given short shrift since I haven’t really approached it yet.
The Adrenal Reset Diet: Strategically Cycle Carbs and Proteins to Lose Weight, Balance Hormones, and Move From Stressed to Thriving
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The act printed book is the CEO next door. Not the adrenal reset diet.
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Chris
Must have book for understanding your adrenals
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The most informative and inspirational
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