First Steps with Disordered Eating: Where to Begin Rebuilding Your Diet

When it comes to eating, Dr. Saulitis insists: rushing is the main enemy. The first step is not a fast or a sudden overhaul, but a slow, gradual reduction of fast sugars, replacing them with proteins and fats. Only once the body genuinely feels good with this can you think about the next stages.

First step: slowly remove fast sugar

Start by reducing fast sugar "as slowly and slowly as possible," replacing it not with more sugar but with proteins and fats. The doctor advises keeping at least five percent of carbohydrates from grains in your menu — without that "you won't get anywhere." The slower you make the transition, the better the result.

"First step — and then as slowly and slowly as possible the fast sugar goes down, and you replace it not with sugar but with proteins and fats."

Reach the level where the body says "yes"

The goal of the first stage is a state where the body feels good and you have shifted about 90 percent toward proteins and fats. Only then do you take the next step, and over roughly three months you can move to purely protein and fat. The real benchmark is not numbers but a feeling: the body should say "yes, I like this, I feel better."

"The main thing here is that you get a kick from your own body, that the little carcass says: yes, I like this, I feel better."

When fasting can be considered — and why not sooner

Popular "gurus" recommend intervals of 16, 20, 24 hours and more. But the doctor warns: these fasts make sense only once a person has fully shifted to fats and proteins, found a stable mind, come out of depression, and held it for at least three months purely on protein and fat. If you keep those ten percent of carbohydrates while fasting, then once you return to food they "instantly explode" — 50, 60, 70 percent — and everything rolls back.

A common mistake when coming out

A very frequent and catastrophic mistake is exhausting yourself with fasting and then coming out on juices, purées, vegetables and fruit. The doctor explains: the advice about fast carbs and juices "on the way out" leads nowhere. If you eat anything other than fats and proteins, the gut is precisely what stops working properly.

A simple note on the gut

The doctor calls fat the one nutrient that moves the bowel in the right direction: fat triggers a release of bile, and bile drives peristalsis. If you have constipation, fruits and vegetables don't give you peristalsis.

"The only nutrient that moves the bowel in the right direction is fat."

Practice: first-steps checklist

1. Slowly cut fast sugar, replacing it with proteins and fats — not abruptly, but little by little.
2. Keep at least ~5% of carbohydrates from grains in your menu as a support at the start.
3. Reach a state where the body feels good (≈90% of intake from proteins and fats), and only then take the next step.
4. Do not start interval fasting until you've held purely protein and fat for at least three months and have come out of a heavy state.
5. For constipation — first add a bit more fat (for example, butter) rather than juices and fruit, and observe how your well-being changes.