1. Drink 3-5 cups of tea daily, especially when you're craving carbs or sugar. If you are using the Newport Skinny Tea, drink the daytime tea 1 hour before breakfast and one hour before lunch. At night drink the night time tea, or other decaffeinated tea meant to help you sleep peacefully. Use tea to help you manage cravings.
2. Eat every 3-5 hours. At your 3 meals and 2 snacks, fill 30% of your plate with low fat protein, it doesn't matter what kind right now. Use an app like My Fitness Pal to track your calories and macronutrients, we are aiming for between 1200-1500 calories per day.
3. Fill the rest of your plate with low glycemic carbohydrates... this means vegetables + a dash of fat. Right now we're going for GOOD ENOUGH. Increase your vegetable intake, each day. If you need some inspiration you can check out our Clean Eating board on Pinterest. You can include fruit as well, but don't go overboard on it, especially if you know that your metabolism has been damaged.
4. Decrease all consumption of white carbohydrates and what I call white fats, which include refined sugar, flour, rice, potatoes and bread and vegetable oils that aren't olive oil. This means fast foods, packaged foods and baked goods. Does this mean you can never have them? No, it means you're cutting back on them and increasing vegetables and fruits. Here's my warning, these types of foods are incredibly addictive, and you will have some withdrawal symptoms when you stop eating them, you may feel ill, nauseous and even have some sort of physical reaction like a headache when you give them up. There's no prize for going super fast, so take your time, these changes are for the long haul.
Here's the GREAT NEWS, we are taking these steps to help increase your good hormones and decrease your bad hormones (yes, I will be writing about this more). Each meal affects your hormonal state for about 3-5 hours after you eat it, so each meal is another chance to get it right.
There is no point of giving up on your plan because you went out and had pizza one night, because the next meal is just the next opportunity to get yourself back in hormonal balance.
I really want to stress how important it is that you give yourself a reason for changing these habits and that you know that it is a process and sometimes you will not achieve each step above. It doesn't matter- DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP ABOUT IT, that is only reinforcing the negative image you have in your mind.
As always, with all supplements and eating plans, its essential that you are talking with your physician before making changes, they are the only one who can give you personalized recommendations based on your medical history.