OILS AND DRESSINGS: HEAVY ON THE VINEGAR, LIGHT ON THE OIL
• extra-virgin olive oil (for dressings)
• trans-fat free spreads like Smart Balance
• virgin olive oil (for cooking)
SPICES AND HERBS: FAVOR EXCITING AND NEW
DRINKS, DESSERTS, AND SWEETENERS
• unsweetened tea: green or black
• stevia-sweetened soda or juice
• stevia-sweetened soda or juice
• dark chocolate with at least 70% cacao
If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail
Since low dopamine is associated with impulsivity, it’s especially important for you to plan ahead. Have dopamine booster foods on hand when you come home in case you’re in the habit of eating as soon as you walk in the door.
Dopamine Booster Activities
Through the twenty-eight days of Diet Rehab, you’ll also be adding these booster activities to your daily life. Remember, you’re the expert of you, and your feelings are information that indicates what you’re needing at the moment. In the past, boredom would have mindlessly led you to a plate of chili cheese fries, but now you will be armed with a whole list of dopamine booster foods and activities you can use to fend off monotony.
Of course, have compassion toward yourself, and remember that low dopamine can be associated with hopelessness and sadness. So if this list of dopamine booster activities makes you feel overwhelmed, take a deep breath. Start slowly by adding five minutes of Sudoku and one dopamine booster snack to your mundane Monday. Or treat yourself to a game night to shake up your weekend routine. As your dopamine levels begin to climb, so will your motivation to tackle more and more on this list—and in your life. As you do, you’ll probably discover some great dopamine booster activities of you own!
Act in community theater
Apply for a job
Ask a special someone on a date
Attend a 12-step meeting
Attend a lecture
Be the one to initiate sex tonight
Break down your list of goals into small, achievable subgoals
Browse
realtor.com
for a new house
Build something
Call in to a contest on a radio station
Clean the house to loud music and at a quick pace
Cook something you’ve never made before
Dance
Do a fast walk with your dog
Do some intense cardio or interval training
Do volunteer work that’s rewarding and exciting
Drive a new way home from work
Dye your hair a new color . . . or let it go gray
Eat something you’ve never tried before
Fix something
Get a new haircut
Get eight hours of sleep
Get neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback
Get off at a train or bus stop in a part of town you’ve never been to before, or get in your car and drive to one
Get tickets to your favorite talk or game show
Get waxed
Go ballroom dancing
Go Kart
Go shark tank diving
Go to a 12-step meeting for the first time
Go to a bootcamp-style fitness class
Go to a city you’ve never been to before
Go to a restaurant you’ve never been to before
Go to a sporting event
Go to a zoo
Go to an open house just to look
Go to the target range
Go whitewater rafting
Go window shopping
Go wine tasting
Have a dance party with your kids
Have that conversation you’ve been meaning to have
Hike up a new trail
Hire a personal trainer
Hit some balls at a batting cage
Hit the playground with the kids
Host a theme party
Initiate foreplay
Invent something
Join a free
meetup.com
group—everything from hiking to groups just to meet new people
Join the PTA
Join Toastmasters, a public speaking group
Jump off the diving board into the pool
Jump rope
Karaoke
Kiss
Learn a new language
Learn how to salsa
Lift weights
Make a movie on your phone
Make an obstacle course for the kids—see who can do it the fastest
Make love
Make some really hot salsa
Meditate (download my dopamine booster meditation at
www.drmikedow.com
)
Miniature golf
Mountain bike
Order healthy takeout from a place you’ve never tried
Paint a room in your house a new color
Paint your nails a new color
Participate in a contest
Play a game or do a puzzle that challenges you, such as Sudoku, a crossword puzzle, a video game, poker
Play backgammon
Play ball
Play billiards
Play board games
Play bocce ball
Play darts
Play fetch with your dog
Play low-stakes poker with friends
Play Ping-Pong
Play soccer
Play tag
Play Twister
Poke around with one of those programs on your computer you’ve never used before
Read an exhilarating novel or story
Read the comics
Read your horoscope
Rearrange your furniture
Ride a roller-coaster
Rollerblade
Sail
Scuba dive
See a therapist
Show up on time
Sign up for a dating website like
match.com
or
eharmony.com
Sign up for speed dating
Ski
Snorkel
Snowmobile
Spend five minutes browsing vacation spots online
Sprint
Start a blog
Start a fantasy football league
Submit your short story to a magazine
Surprise your significant other with a romantic fantasy
Surprise your significant other with some sexy lingerie
Take a belly dancing or pole dancing class
Take a cold shower
Take a spin class
Take a trapeze lesson
Take a walk in the rain
Take part in a flash mob
Take the stairs
Take your dog to the dog park
Test drive a new car—buy it only if you can afford it
Text somebody and tell them why you appreciate them
Train for a 5K
Try a new sport, such as fencing, tennis, or surfing
Try on a new pair of shoes
Vote
Walk a new path
Watch a game show
Watch a horror or action movie
Watch a street performer
Watch airplanes take off
Watch competitive sports—better yet, play one
Wear a new color makeup today
Wear sexy underwear—even if it’s just for you
Whiten your teeth
Write a song—and perform it for somebody
Write down five things you’d like to do this year
Write down ten things you’d like to do in your life
As you boost your dopamine with booster foods and activities, you’ll be cutting back on the pitfalls listed below. The list I’ve provided isn’t comprehensive, but it gives you a good indication of the kinds of things to avoid. When reading the nutrition label, be on the lookout for high levels of fat—especially saturated fat. When reading the ingredient list, too much oil and any partially hydrogenated oils can make some seemingly booster foods—like some “energy bars”—a pitfall food.
Remember, as your dopamine levels begin to rise, these former pitfalls will start to lose their seductive lure. But that doesn’t mean they’re not problematic and potentially addictive, so it’s important to keep them at arm’s length. Do a pitfall food raid in your kitchen as you begin to stock up on dopamine booster foods. Especially with the impulsivity associated with low dopamine, it’s important to make sure these foods aren’t easily accessible in moments of weakness or boredom. I want you to really think about what you want to eat before it goes in your mouth. That way, these pitfall foods will become occasional treats, not perennial parts of your everyday life.
Bacon
Breakfast pastries
Brownies
Buffalo wings
Butter
Cheese dip
Cookies
Corn chips
Cured meats like salami and Slim Jims
Deep-fried crackers
French fries
Fried foods
Full-fat coffee drinks
High-fat creamy cheese
Movie theater popcorn
Mozzarella sticks
Potato chips
Sausage
Soda
Whenever we focus on our strengths, we are setting ourselves up for success and happiness. Dopamine-craving types need novelty, adventure, and challenges. Now that you are armed with an arsenal of ways to get these needs met in healthy and sustainable ways, use that competitive streak in you to gradually yet powerfully commit to the life you know you want to live. It’s not really about all the things you
can’t
have; it’s about getting what you really need so that the self-medicating substitutes fall by the wayside.
14
Diet Rehab: The Program
Now you’re ready to start adding delicious booster foods and activities to your life! Here’s the gradual detox program of Diet Rehab, which has you loading up on boosters and then—when you are starting to get what you need from your life—gradually cutting out pitfalls. To find suggestions of booster activities, see pages 208 and 223, and to find a list of booster foods, see pages 204 and 219.
As you already know, pitfall foods flood the brain with unsustainable amounts of serotonin and dopamine through saturated fats, sugars, and white carbohydrates. Yes, they are as bad for your brain as they are for your body!
Booster foods give your brain sustainable energy by promoting a healthy release of serotonin and dopamine, which is, of course, good for both brain and body. Thanks to the protein, healthy fats, and fiber they contain, booster foods also keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time. Booster activities also promote healthy serotonin and dopamine levels, which will help you to decrease emotional eating and promote eating based on physical hunger. This combination of boosting will balance your brain chemistry, and, yes, you will actually begin to favor and even crave booster foods while feeling both physically and emotionally satisfied.
In weeks 1 and 2, you will add serotonin and/or dopamine booster foods, depending on which neurochemical you’re really craving.
As your brain chemistry begins to become balanced in weeks 3 and 4, you can then fill your diet with any booster foods on pages 204 and 219. That means a person with low serotonin is free to try some dopamine booster foods, and those with low dopamine can add some serotonin booster foods. Our brains rely on healthy levels of both neurotransmitters to feel happy and healthy, and when you’re feeling balanced and getting the excitement, happiness, or peace elsewhere, you will begin to benefit from any booster on these lists.
Armed with the knowledge of which boosters are particularly good for your brain chemistry, those low in serotonin can always favor serotonin booster foods
.
Also, you can favor them when you’re feeling anxious or stressed out. Knowing that a whole apple with a cup of herbal tea is a serotonin booster food is a great weapon when you feel like you just can’t handle one more thing at work, and it will also help you to bypass the vending machine candy bar.
Those low in dopamine can always favor dopamine booster foods. Reach for these foods when you’re feeling low and need a pick-me-up. Knowing that plain, low-fat Greek yogurt with a cup of green tea is a dopamine booster food will help you pick yourself up when you’re dragging, helping you to bypass the sugary energy drink and french fries.
Serotonin and dopamine booster foods have a lot more going for them than healthy levels of protein, good fats, and carbohydrates. They are also packed with one or more of the following healthy brain chemistry–promoting compounds: B-vitamins, amino acids, omega-3s, and protective antioxidants. For example, salmon—especially wild-caught—is a protein with fat, which means it helps to release dopamine, but it also contains so many brain-nourishing omega-3s that it’s good for maintaining
both
serotonin and dopamine production. Blueberries—especially organic ones—have healthy levels of natural serotonin-boosting sugars, but they also have antioxidants that prevent damage to your neurons—helping them to continue pumping both serotonin and dopamine. Check out Appendix A for some of my favorite recipes using booster foods. These tools will help you make the booster food lists your grocery store list!