The 21 Day Thyroid Plan

With thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
I found this book FANTASTIC as I have thyroid problems so I will find this book extremely helpful FANTASTIC hints and tips I can highly recommend this OUTSTANDING book if you have problems with your thyroid.

This book is a great resource for those with Hashimoto's who follow a meat-based diet. As a long time vegan, I was unable to put a lot of the suggestions to use, but I would recommend this to the newly diagnosed who have no idea how to change their diets in harmony with thyroid issues.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to Mark Pilja, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley.

21 Day Thyroid Plan - Thriving With Hashimoto's is an action plan and detailed foods list by Mark Pilja. Released 29th April 2020, it's 187 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

The book starts with a timely introduction regarding the immune system against the larger backdrop of a worldwide pandemic. The author's writing style is layman accessible, and science based. He discusses and provides definitions for some of the physiology behind autoimmune issues and Hasimoto's thyroiditis specifically.

The following chapters cover carbohydrates (and limiting them), arranging the pantry to more easily sustain a specialized diet, paleo diet, food security (in terms of a pandemic and civil unrest), stress and sleep management (very important factors with auto-immune disease in general and Hashimoto's in particular), healthy exercise and building and supporting the body and immune system. Note: the author is quite specific about foods and combinations he uses for specific meals but this book is a resource guide and does *not* contain specific recipes or meal plans.

Much of the text and information has been reformatted and rewritten to take the pandemic into account. There is a chapter by chapter resource and bibliography list with links included at the back of the book which is very useful and information dense. Many of the citations are peer-reviewed medical publications and may be heavy going for some readers (but well worth the effort).

Well written and accurate. There are a lot of good takeaways here for patients and their families trying to come to grips with a diagnosis and wondering where to proactively change for a better lifestyle.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

21 Day Thyroid Plan is an informative book for people like me who have thyroid problems. This book contains information on diet and lifestyle changes, vitamins, minerals and good fats to name a few. It details how things such as meditation, mindfulness and exercise can help. As a lifelong vegetarian the foods are quite limited for me, but meat-eaters would benefit from the food suggestions. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy.

The 21 Day Thyroid Plan: Thriving with Hashimoto's was written by Mark Pilja. Mark is a certified health coach, and has lived Hashimoto disease since he was 14. In this book, you will learn how to eat, exercise, sleep and manage stress in ways that support your immune system and thyroid.

The book opens with an introduction to the inner workings of the Thyroid Gland and an overview of the immune system. The Author then outline foods to avoid to sustain a healthy eating plan and guides the reader through a complete overhaul of the pantry to make it easier to have healthy foods on hand.

Finally, he addresses a specialized diet that is paleo based, ways to manage stress, get adequate sleep and an exercise plan that can be done at home and can be adjusted based on individual ability. Kudos to Mr. Pilja for re-writing the book to include practical measures to stay healthy during a pandemic such as COVID. This was a well written text, backed up with scientific data and can be considered a handbook to living a healthy lifestyle.

I plan to make utilize the guidelines to help loose a few pesky pounds!!

This book is for people experiencing thyroid issues; however, I think it is just a good overall wellness guide. Pilja focuses on diet, activity, sleep, and stress. Each section provides resources for better wellness. It is very accessible and provides several ways to make little changes for overall wellness.

This is a good overview of factors that contribute to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (and other autoimmune conditions) with concrete steps you can take to improve your health. The author shares his own story of developing Hashimoto’s and discovering how to heal. He also cites plenty of studies, explaining the science in understandable terms.

I was already familiar with much of this content because I’ve been living with Hashimoto’s for more than 25 years and have an avid interest in health, nutrition, and fitness, but I think this book would work well for someone who is new to living with thyroid disease. As an example, he provides a helpful discussion of the different thyroid hormones, including reverse T3, which many doctors will not tell you about.

He provides good guidance on nutrition, exercise, sleep, and supplements you might want to try, including recommended brands, dosages, and notes on how best to take them. I appreciated his explanation of how to determine your maximum aerobic heart rate and recovery heart rate, and how to use those numbers to exercise at the optimal intensity. He also provides helpful examples of different types and levels of workouts, because when you’re dealing with an autoimmune condition, the right type and amount of exercise can be very helpful, but exercising too much or too strenuously can be harmful.

I was annoyed that the author conflated gluten intolerance with celiac disease (at least in the ARC I reviewed—perhaps this has been corrected in the published version). He ought to be aware that celiac disease is an autoimmune condition, and that patients with autoimmune thyroid disease have an increased prevalence of celiac disease.

The book concludes with the author’s recommended 21-day plan, which summarizes the actionable advice from the previous chapters. He also includes extensive endnotes providing his references.

I think this book would be helpful for anyone struggling to deal with autoimmunity who does not already have good knowledge of fitness, nutrition, and functional medicine.

I was provided an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review. Because I have not seen the final published version, I cannot comment on the final editing and formatting.

This book was updated before publishing to include lots of information about Covid-19. The author turned around his hashimoto's with a combination of diet, exercise, sleep and stress management, along with limiting toxins. He gives detailed advice on how to do the same. It is written from a paleo/keto (high fat, low carb, moderate protein) perspective.

He goes into an explanation of how the thyroid works and what leads to thyroid disease and then focuses on how to help it, then goes into his advice for the dietary and lifestyle changes to turn it around. His basic advice: avoid dairy and gluten, eat lots of healthy fat (he says you can turn off your fat-storing gene and never have to worry about counting calories), limit carbs to 100-150 g a day to lose weight or under 50 grams if you want to go keto (he cautions that it was bad for him). For the 21 days of his plan, you avoid all grains, legumes/beans, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, eggplant), seed oils (canola, corn, safflower, sunflower), trans fats, alcohol and refined sugars. You can try adding some of these like beans and oats back in your diet afterwards with extreme care but he basically recommends following the 21 day plan long-term.

He acknowledges the link of animal products with higher rates of cancer, heart disease and other health issues, but he says that this is from eating conventionally raised animal products. He says if you eat organic, pastured raised animal products (no dairy other than grassfed butter) you will be protected from these illnesses.

He provides a list of approved vegetables, fruits (limited), meats, seafood, herbs and spices, sweeteners such as stevia, and oils. For products like milk and yogurt, he recommends coconut products. Organic coffee, organic tea and water are allowed as beverages.

He recommends eating a lot of these foods to help your thyroid: avocados, berries, dark chocolate, extra virgin olive oil, grass fed beef and butter, MCT oil, organic coffee, pasture raised eggs, sea salt, sea vegetables, spinach, sweet potatoes and wild salmon. He also recommends intermittent fasting, days of protein fasting to limit your protein intake, and drinking lots of water.

Special sections deal with the pandemic, like delivery options for healthy foods via subscription services and how to build a healthy immune system.

Pilja then goes into how to manage stress and why it's so vital with suggestions like transcendental meditation, yoga, time in nature, gratitude, saunas and steam rooms, massage, smartphone apps, going screen free and having pets. There are links to paid subscription services for some of these like meditation and yoga apps. He also focuses on how to get restorative sleep, with information on things like blue light and what can help you sleep better. Oh, and quit drinking, which he acknowledges is harder during a pandemic but he says to do some meditation or other stress relief instead.

In the exercise section, he talks about the importance of getting good exercise but not overdoing it. He recommends low intensity cardio, sprinting, HIIT, strength training and yoga. He offers an exercise plan that incorporates all of these that does not require a gym, which I found very helpful. At the very end he has a sample schedule which basically amounts to waking up to meditate, exercise, eat a typical breakfast, etc. with a walk after dinner and into bed by 10.

It's a good basic plan if you're willing to do it, some version of which is basic to health in any culture or diet regime. I personally turned my health around with a very different dietary approach (mostly plant based, though also with a focus on organic, whole foods and little to no gluten) but many of the rest of the elements have been very true for me too, such as the importance of meditation and sleep in protecting my health, and I found the exercise plan very helpful.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

Anyone with issues with Hashimoto’s needs a plan to fight off issues brought on from it. Cold sensitivity, brittle hair and nails, sleeplessness, brain fog, and fatigue just to name a few. Once your issued a meds for life sentence you need an explanation as to why your body is attacking your thyroid. The author gives you ideals and reasons to explain what you need to do next to get back to your self, or you can just use this book to be healthier.

What did I like? The plan has its merit and even with the coronavirus issues lately, the plan is doable. I rely a bit more on supplements and get more of my nutrients through a smoothie but the gist is the same. This is a different approach then what I have done but outcome looks the same. I also recommend Ashwanghanda as a supplement to reduce cortisol, it has worked miracles with my mood. I’m not a huge meditation fan either but I love yoga.

Would I recommend or buy? This book is an entirely natural way to reduce inflammation in the body where I prefer a more supplemental outlook. If you don’t like taking supplements and are looking for a complete natural way to jumpstart your body this may be for you. The goals are the same. Reduce inflammation to look and feel better. I recommend it if you’ve been diagnosed with Hashimotos or any inflammatory disease for autoimmune as a way to try anything to reduce the symptoms.

Thoughts for the author? Thanks so much for a copy so I can offer a opinion. This was a great reference book for autoimmune diseased people, I appreciate the peek. Kudos to trying to help people feel better naturally. I enjoyed the read.

The 21 Day Thyroid Plan: Thriving with Hashimoto’s by Mark Pilja is a great overview of information related to the autoimmune disease Hashimoto’s. As a person living with this autoimmune disease for the last ten years, this book was a light at the end of the weight loss and food choice tunnel. The book not only gives lists of good for you food and reasons why, it also has stress reducers, exercise plans, vitamins to take, and how to put them all together to feel better. The author provides links and websites to help you on your journey of feeling better.

***** I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review. *****

I have hypothyroidism so when I seen and ARC digital copy available I immediately requested. This book is excellent it is really informative and has wonderful advice on what to eat and what not to eat if you have a thyroid issue. There is also excellent tips on looking after your health and well-being. Great read thanks.

I was told to look into this book, due to the doctors not knowing if I was showing signs of thyroid issues. It turns out that is not where my issues stem, however I still found this book exceptionally helpful, and a great plan to follow, with or without a medical issue. It is easy to read, informative and very interesting.

This is an informative book. Having an brief explaination to start is important. It is not just about Hashimotos Disease, but elements that can benefit it as well such as steps to improve your health. Nutrition guidance is also given, which is helpful as well as exercise. The information is provided by a certified health coach and there are a nice variety of these other important elements,such as with exercise. This might not be the book for everyone, but there are details throughout that are helpful. Finding the correct and healthy action for a medical condition varies for each person. Having a list of good foods and bad foods is a nice addition to review. Though this isn't a recipe book it gives suggestions of foods that work best for the body when dealing with Hasimotos Disease. Having this is helpful

Though I don't have Hashimoto's disease ,I do struggle with most of the same symptoms so I thought this book would be helpful. It had a great layout and plan to get started on your health journey.

I enjoy any book that can provide me with information and useful strategies in managing my thyroid issues. 4 stars only because it's non-fiction and I only give 5 stars to fiction books that I absolutely love.