The Fast Metabolism Diet (16 page)

After you’ve collected three days’ worth of this valuable information, take a good, hard, analytic look at the data. Do you tend to eat at the same
times every day, or are your eating habits random? Do you get up early or sleep late? Do you rush out the door? Will it be tough to eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking? Do you stay up late or eat dinner late? Are there foods you know you can’t have on the Fast Metabolism Diet that you eat frequently? Are there foods on the diet you like but don’t eat very much, that you might enjoy eating more of?

Compare your diet diary to the diet rules in
Chapter Four
, and see which ones might be a challenge for you. What can you realistically live with, and what has to be modified? Where are you going to have to compromise—cheese? sugar? And where are you going to feel like you’re getting away with something great—avocados? almond butter?

Now let’s break it down so we can make it all work for you.

The first thing to consider is your schedule. If you work outside the home and have a strict schedule, it will likely determine when and how you eat. For example, maybe you can’t get up and have a good breakfast within 30 minutes of waking because you have to rush to the office, and you usually eat something there. No problem. As long as you eat
something
within the first 30 minutes of waking, you’re still following the rules. Just switch your morning snack and your breakfast. Have an apple as you’re getting ready for work, or a hard-boiled egg on the train. Once you get to work, make your phase-specific
meal: your oatmeal or toast, eggs or turkey wrap, or celery with almond butter. You’ll also need to think about which food choices will work when you aren’t at home. If your office has a kitchen, great. If not, will you need to pack a breakfast the night before?

If you work the night shift, your schedule will be different. As long as you are eating within 30 minutes of waking, and every three to four hours after that, it doesn’t matter what
time of day you begin, whether that’s 6:00 
A.M.
, 6:00
P.M.
, or any other time.

Your work schedule or other aspects of your life may also impact when you have dinner. If you tend to eat dinner very late, you may need to have
an afternoon and an evening snack before dinner to be sure you are eating every three to four hours.

Your daily schedule can also impact what day you start the diet. Although I generally recommend starting on Monday so you are in Phase 3 on the weekend, when the food choices are a little more liberal, this doesn’t work for everyone. I have one client who has date night with her husband every Wednesday night. For her, it works best to start on Saturday. Saturday and Sunday are her carb-rich, sugar-rich Phase 1 days; this melds best with the way she eats on the weekends with her family. Monday and Tuesday are family dinner nights, so she cooks meat and vegetables for everyone, and finds it easy to adhere to Phase 2. On date night, she is in Phase 3, so she can go out for Mexican food and enjoy guacamole, or Middle Eastern food and enjoy hummus, or she can have salmon sashimi at a sushi restaurant. Thursday and Friday are her remaining fun Phase 3 days, and then by Saturday, she’s ready for Phase 1 again.

Think about your own schedule in these terms—are there particular days when it would definitely be easier to be in a particular phase every week? Plan your start date based on that. Any schedule can work with the rules, especially if you always have
Crash Stash snacks
in your purse or desk. This is crucial. You can make the Fast Metabolism Diet work with your life, as long as you plan ahead.

Every recipe in this book includes a
portion size, but how much weight you have to lose also influences your portions. If you have a lot of
weight to lose, it’s going to take more food (not less!) to keep your metabolism roaring.

To figure out your
portion sizes, first determine your goal weight. I’m not going to tell you what it is. You already know exactly how much you want to weigh and what weight makes you comfortable. Take what that number is, and compare it to your current weight, then look at the chart that follows to determine your portion sizes while you are on Fast Metabolism.

How much do you want to weigh? I’m asking you, not telling you, because you already know. It’s a number that is completely unique and individual to
you.
It’s the weight that makes you happy, and it has nothing to do with the weight that will make someone else happy.

I’ve had clients who weighed 250 pounds, and they knew they would be happy and comfortable at 180 pounds. Other clients feel best at 150 pounds, or 130 pounds. Your goal is to be able to feel and
eat like a “normal person.” No chart can tell you what that means for you.

I never recommend going by weight charts or the
BMI. I hate the BMI! I just can’t bring myself to recommend it to my clients. I’m not going to put any
weight charts in this book because chronic dieters already have a number in their heads. When you reach it, you might decide to set a new goal. But for now, decide what you want to weigh, and write that number here:

My current goal weight is:

IF YOU HAVE 20 POUNDS OR FEWER TO LOSE
: Go by the basic portions listed below, and the portions included in the recipes in this book.

IF YOU HAVE 20-40 POUNDS TO LOSE
: Add a half portion. For example, if a portion of chili is 2 cups, and you want to lose 30 or 40 pounds, then you would have 3 cups of chili.

IF YOUR LONG-TERM GOAL IS TO LOSE MORE THAN 40 POUNDS
: A lot of clients come to me with these weight loss goals, but I tell them, let’s work at this 40 pounds at a time. So, that means that you will be eating as if you only want to lose 40 pounds (i.e. the 3 cups of chili), with one exception. That is, I require that you double your veggie portion. So if the suggested portion for someone trying to lose 40 pounds is 2 cups of spinach, I want you to eat 4 cups of spinach so we keep our eye on the long term goal and use that food as the catalyst for continued weight loss.