The Archetype Diet

by Dana James

  To wear your crown as a Wonder Woman, you must remember the unique power of your feminine energies—tenderness, warmth, compassion, intuition, and empathy. You must realize that a soft heart doesn’t mean a soft head. You must embrace the idea that strength and kindness can coexist, as can being smart and sensual. You can also learn from the other archetypes to help you ascend to the crown.

  You can embody the Femme Fatale to engage in the sensual pleasures in life—like savoring a sweet rose tea on the sofa while wrapped in a soft blanket.

  You can tap into your inner Ethereal to access your intuition and blend it with your intellect for clarity, truth, and wisdom.

  You can learn from the Nurturer how to open your heart and live from a place of deep connection and trust.

  When you add the positive attributes of the other archetypes, you rise up to the crown to transform yourself from a woman of importance to a woman of inspiration, elegance, and grace.

  THE WONDER WOMAN FOOD PRESCRIPTION

  In order to support your transition to a whole woman, you need to address the hormonal imbalances that your Wonder Woman lifestyle has triggered. Emotional and physical stressors cause a surge in the stress-coping hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. At the right level, these hormones are fat burners. At the wrong level, they inhibit fat burning. What’s more, excess cortisol tells the body to store fat around the abdominal area, and this is why chronically stressed Wonder Women put weight on their belly first. (On a side note, most belly-busting supplements are just cortisol regulators.)

  HORMONAL IMBALANCE: CORTISOL AND BEYOND

  Wonder Woman’s dominant hormone is cortisol. When your body is in balance, cortisol levels should rise when stressors are encountered and then return to normal when the stressors have gone away. But if you are constantly bombarded with trivial stressors—two hundred unanswered emails, kids drawing on walls with permanent makers, or an error on a report—your stress hormones can remain elevated and start to interfere with other hormones. Excess cortisol can also impair liver function and slow the removal of toxins and excess hormones from the body, contributing to fatigue, weight gain, skin breakouts, and hormonal imbalances.

  One hormone that cortisol affects is the thyroid hormone thyroxine (T4). Since thyroxine revs up the body (and so does cortisol), if your cortisol levels are elevated, your brain will tell the thyroid to produce less T4 to slow you down. When this happens, you can feel wired and tired at the same time. Your cortisol is elevated, keeping you awake and alert, but your metabolism has declined. If you catch this early enough, all you need to do is decrease the cortisol response and the thyroid will auto-correct. But if you don’t, then you’ll need to restore both your adrenal and thyroid function. I have specifically designed the Wonder Woman’s diet to restore both her adrenals and thyroid. I’ve also included supplements at the end of this chapter to help with the reset.

  Cortisol also affects the production of progesterone, one of the sex hormones, which balances excess estrogen and aids cognition. Cortisol and progesterone are made from the same precursor, and the body will prioritize the synthesis of cortisol over progesterone. That’s because progesterone is, among other things, the pregnancy hormone, and the body does not prioritize fertility when under stress. It wants you to escape a stressful situation so it will give you more cortisol to help you out. If you’re a Wonder Woman with PMS, hot flashes, or brain fogginess, it’s highly likely that you have low progesterone. The solution, however, isn’t necessarily to add more progesterone, it’s to calm down cortisol and reinterpret the stressors so that the body can create more progesterone naturally.

  ADRENAL FATIGUE—LOW STRESS HORMONES

  Over time, if the stressors are not removed or reinterpreted, the brain’s communication with the adrenal glands starts to falter. The adrenals produce less and less cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, making it difficult for you to deal with stressful situations. Where you once had too-high levels of stress hormones in your body, you now have too little. This is known as adrenal fatigue, and the symptoms associated with it—chronic fatigue, depression, decreased libido, weight loss resistance—are what we commonly refer to as “burnout.” You have stressed your body beyond the breaking point and now struggle to deal with even the most minor stress.

  What’s more, too little cortisol also impacts the body’s ability to convert T4 to the active thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine (T3), which regulates energy and boosts the metabolism. If your metabolism is not functioning properly, you will put on weight more easily and find it more difficult to lose it. In essence, when you have too little cortisol, it becomes more difficult for you to lose weight, even while on a diet. This is why it’s essential that you 1) add in the supplements that improve cortisol regulation, and 2) work through Part III, “The Six Rs to Heal Your Mind,” to change the beliefs and behaviors that add stress to your life. If you can’t get out of bed without a cup of coffee nearby, feel exhausted after even a moderate amount of exercise, or find yourself nodding off at work in the middle of the day, then it’s highly likely you are adrenally fatigued. If this is the case, it’s even more important not to skip meals and eat every three hours so that the adrenals are not calling on your scant supply of stress hormones to stabilize your blood-sugar levels. I highly recommend you skip coffee, intermittent fasting, restrictive diets, and high-intensity exercise. Instead, get nine hours of sleep, meditate, and eat the nourishing diet prescribed for Wonder Woman. The body will recover; you just need to give it the tools and nutrients to do so.

  THE COPING MECHANISM

  Wonder Woman eats (and drinks) as a way to switch her brain off. If your habit is a nightly glass of wine, you’re unlikely to go back to your emails when you’re a little tipsy. The wine gives you permission to check out. You might also decompress from a stressful day with half a bar of dark chocolate while listening to a podcast. Whatever your choice of distraction, you are rewarding yourself for making it through a chaotic day. If you’re an out-of-balance Wonder Woman, this “treat” can be the only thing that brings you joy, and you’ll be resistant to giving it up. However, as you add more joy into other aspects of your life your desire for these treats will diminish. And by recognizing this habit for what it is—permission to switch off—you can simply allow yourself to do so without guilt. Remember, the goal is to be a layered, complex woman who alchemizes all of the positive attributes of all four archetypes (sensuality, compassion, intuition, and intellect), not just a woman who works, and that requires investment into each of these four areas.

  WONDER WOMAN’S MEAL PLAN

  As Wonder Women are always on the go, I have found that following a food formula is often easier for her than sticking to a specific ten-day plan. As such, I have outlined the guidelines below so that you can apply them anywhere—at home, at restaurants, or while traveling. To make these concepts more tangible, I’ve included a ten-day meal plan in Chapter 13, but remember: you do not need to follow the ten-day meal plan to the letter, just get the concept right.

  Step 1: Improve Your Daily Eating Regimen

  Start each morning with an elixir to bring your feminine energy into balance: add 1 teaspoon of rose water to 4 ounces of cool filtered water.

  Always eat a protein-based breakfast: no oats, fruit, or green vegetable juice.

  Be sure lunch and dinner each consist of seven ingredients: three vegetables, one protein, two fats, and one carb. These meals should look like the food plate here.

  Remember the Rule of 4 when it comes to portion size: a portion equals 4 ounces of protein, ¼ avocado (or other fats), ¼ cup of carbs, and up to 4 cups of vegetables.

  Don’t skip your four p.m. snack. If you do, you’ll come home starving and will want to shove whatever food you can find into your mouth. At four p.m., take ten minutes to decompress, make yourself a tea, or drink the adrenal tonic below and eat a nutrient-dense snac
k, making sure the number of calories in the snack is no greater than your ideal weight in pounds.

  In the evening, wind down with Wonder Woman’s tea, which is specifically designed to support adrenal function and promote liver detoxification.

  Step 2: Choose the Right Foods

  Specific foods can help to rebalance the Wonder Woman’s physical and emotional state. Add the suggestions below to your daily eating regimen. Remember, subtle tweaks can make a big difference.

  Eat bitter vegetables daily. This includes arugula, broccoli rabe, dandelion greens, endive, radicchio, escarole, watercress, mustard greens, and kale. Bitter vegetables stimulate liver detoxification and support adrenal function. Enjoy a watercress soup or snack on endive with hummus.

  Add yellow fruit or vegetables. This helps align the third chakra to improve feelings of self-worth and self-confidence. Try yellow bell peppers in a salad or pineapple as an afternoon snack.

  Eat 4 ounces of clean animal protein at lunch and dinner. Do not eat more than this unless you want to build muscle. Choose a variety of proteins, not just chicken because it’s convenient. Eat seafood at least four times a week for its selenium and iodine to support the thyroid. Organic tofu and tempeh can be consumed once a week but not more than that because of their weak estrogenic effect. (Wonder Woman can have estrogen dominance due to low progesterone levels.)

  Eat grass-fed red meat once a week. Red meat is rich in iron and zinc, which help support Wonder Woman’s energy levels. Don’t exclude red meat because you’ve read that it’s “bad” or that it increases cholesterol levels. If you’re eating 12 ounces of steak a day with fries, then it’s an issue, but 4 ounces once a week is just fine. Try organic lamb cutlets with chimichurri sauce or organic steak served with Dijon mustard.

  Eat ¼ cup of starchy carbs at lunch and dinner. Wonder Women are not as sensitive to carbohydrates as Nurturers and will often feel more balanced when they add a hint of carbs to their meals. This amount is equivalent to 4 tablespoons. It is a sprinkling. Since it’s a relatively small quantity, stick with one type of starchy carb per meal: beans or rice, not beans and rice. If you skip the carbs at lunch, this is not license to double them at dinner, as more carbs will cause a bigger spike in insulin levels.

  Use nuts and seeds to your energetic advantage. If you are feeling scattered, eat more nuts as they help to ground you. Snack on almond crackers with avocado or add cashews to wok-tossed vegetables. If you are feeling overwhelmed, opt for seeds as they are energetically and chemically lighter. Snack on turmeric-spiced pumpkin seeds or add hemp seeds to salads.

  Make your snacks work for you by eating snacks that support your adrenals and thyroid. It’s best not to eat gluten-free pretzels or popcorn, which don’t do anything other than keep your fingers busy. Instead, eat snacks that are rich in magnesium, vitamin C, omega-3s, zinc, selenium, and iodine. Try the adrenal tonic (recipe below), turmeric hemp milk lattes, green vegetable juices, nori with ¼ avocado, 4 Brazil nuts with goji berries, fresh figs, or home-roasted sunflower seeds with sea salt.

  Avoid gluten and dairy. All archetypes need to avoid gluten and dairy for the first four weeks of their new diet, but this is even more imperative for Wonder Woman. If you eat foods that you are sensitive to, you will inflame your body, calling on cortisol to dampen the inflammation.

  Be generous with fresh herbs. Add basil, cilantro, dill, and parsley to salads. These herbs help to bind up toxins, making it easier for the liver to remove them from the body.

  Foods that rebalance the Wonder Woman: grilled fish, organic poultry, raw salads, cooked vegetables, fresh herbs, bitter vegetables, yellow fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and a small amount of red meat, grains, legumes, and starchy vegetables.

  Foods that should be kept to a minimum: dairy, gluten, soy, and sweets.

  THE WONDER WOMAN ADRENAL TONIC

  If you have been feeling fatigued, anxious, or depressed, your adrenals probably aren’t functioning as well as they should. Adding this tonic to your daily repertoire can help to restore their function. If you are adrenally fatigued, add the licorice root as specified in the recipe.

  ¼ teaspoon powdered ashwagandha root

  ½ teaspoon powdered rhodiola

  ½ teaspoon powdered cordyceps

  1 teaspoon coconut sugar

  1 teaspoon raw cacao

  1 teaspoon coconut oil

  Dash of cinnamon and nutmeg

  1 cup nut or seed milk such as almond or flax, or coconut milk (heated or not)

  If adrenally fatigued, add ⅛ teaspoon of powdered licorice root; otherwise skip

  Place all ingredients in a blender, cover, and blend until well mixed. Serve either warm or over ice. If you’ve added the licorice root because of adrenal fatigue, and you find it too overpowering, add an additional teaspoon of cacao and coconut oil. You could also add these ingredients to your morning smoothie instead of drinking them as a tonic.

  All of the active ingredients in the tonic have consistently been shown to improve adrenal function. (Cacao, coconut sugar, and the spices are primarily for taste.) Ashwagandha increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which stimulates brain cell renewal.2 It also improves energy levels and mitochondrial health.3 Rhodiola increases cognitive function, attention, mental acuity, and clarity. It also improves stress resistance by increasing a “stress-sensor” protein.4 Cordyceps are medicinal mushrooms that improve physical and mental stamina as well as boost the libido.5 They also increase natural killer cells to fight off bacteria and viruses.6 Licorice root mimics the effect of cortisol, so add if you are adrenally fatigued.7 Do not add licorice root if you have high cortisol or high blood pressure, as licorice root can increase both. All ingredients can be purchased online and I have created this adrenal tonic already blended for ease of use. More information can be found in Resources.

  THE WONDER WOMAN TEA

  This tea unites the femininity of rose with the masculinity of holy basil to decrease adrenal fatigue and anxiety. It’s blended with nettle and cardamom to support liver detoxification. The recipe below makes a single 12-ounce serving, but you can make the tea blend in larger quantities and store it in an airtight canister.

  2 teaspoons holy basil

  2 teaspoons nettle

  4 dried rosebuds

  4 cardamom pods

  Combine the ingredients in a small pot with 12 ounces of hot water. Steep for 5 minutes, then strain into a tea cup. Add more hot water if the tea is too strong.

  THE WONDER WOMAN’S FOOD PLATE

  Step 3: Supplement Strategically

  In addition to the adrenal tonic, add in some foundational supplements to support the adrenals and thyroid.

  Vitamin C: More vitamin C is stored in the adrenal glands than anywhere else in the body.8 The body needs vitamin C to synthesize cortisol and adrenaline as well as the pleasure neurotransmitter dopamine. Vitamin C also helps to regulate bowel movements. Take 1,000 mg per day.

  B Complex: Take an activated B complex to help boost energy levels and regulate sex hormone levels. It also helps to metabolize alcohol. Look for the activated forms such as L-5-MTHF (folate), pyridoxine HCl (B6), and methylcobalamin (B12). Take one daily after food; two on the days you drink alcohol.

  Magnesium: Magnesium is a natural relaxant. Take 300 mg of magnesium glycinate (or magnesium citrate if constipated) before bed as magnesium also helps encourage a deeper level of sleep.

  Phosphatidylserine (PS): This helps protect cortisol from damaging neurons in the hippocampus, where your long-term memory is stored. Take 200 mg before bed.

  5-HTP: If you can’t sleep due to excess cortisol, add 50 mg 5-HTP daily before bed. This is the precursor to serotonin and melatonin. If you’re taking a selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), speak to your physician before taking 5-HTP.

  EPA/DHA (omega-3): If you don’t eat oily fish like wild salmon and halibut four times a week, take 1,000 mg of this omega-3 supplement daily. This helps sensitize the receptors to the stress hormones and rebuild the hippocampus, which is damaged by long-term exposure to cortisol.

  Thyroid-Supporting Supplement: If needed, take a thyroid supplement that contains iodine, selenium, zinc, and tyrosine to help support thyroid levels.

  As you ascend to the crown and rebalance your physical body, you can loosen up on these guidelines. You can increase your carbohydrate portion to ½ cup per meal at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can also substitute one of your lunches or dinners for a vegan meal and include up to ¾ cup of protein-rich carbs such as lentils, chickpeas, and quinoa instead of animal protein. If you find your weight stagnating, you should return to the baseline program outlined above.