Week 1 of the 21 Day Food Writer’s Diet

Welcome to Week 1 of the 21-Day Food Writer’s Diet! If you haven’t read the introduction yet I urge you to start there and get acquainted, but then you can begin immediately!!

As a reminder, I’m not a dietician or a doctor, so I recommend you consult with one of them before taking any of my humble advice! I’m just sharing what has worked to keep my weight off as a food writer and a mom for the past five years!

Have I scared you enough?? Well, then you’re ready to start! Here are my 3 Tips for Week 1 of the 21-Day Food Writer’s Diet! Try not to skip ahead 🙂

Tip 3: See it to Believe it

Have you ever run into someone who tells you, “Hey, you look great, have you lost weight?”, and then even if you haven’t suddenly you FEEL like you have? Well, that is what you need to feel to start this.

Visualize the person you want to see in the mirror and really believe it!

To begin I recommend standing in front of the mirror, naked if you can, and look at every part of your body. Find the parts of yourself you love the most (we all have at least one) and those you might want to see transformed. Next, close your eyes and carve out your perfect silhouette. Repeat this as often as you can. Sitting in the carpool line, waiting for a movie to start, just close your eyes and see the vision of yourself. It won’t happen overnight, but with time if you TRULY BELIEVE YOU ARE LIGHTER, LEANER, STRONGER…then you will be!

Tip 2: Move in a Way that Moves You

I know a lot of us don’t feel there is any time in the day to exercise, but I’m sure we all can find 10 to 20 minutes to move a little each day IN A WAY THAT MOVES US. The key is doing someone you ENJOY and it doesn’t need to be a 60-minute workout with a trainer. IT ALL COUNTS!

Personally I love to run or hike outside, so that is my favorite escape; but I only go for about 25 minutes and it barely feels like exercising. I also will take my son to the park and try to exert a little extra effort by racing him around or doing tricep dips off the slides.

You might get some side-eye from other parents, but that’s just because they’re jealous of your killer arms.

Lastly, the thing I do EVERY DAY is push-ups while waiting for the water in my shower to heat up. I used to not even be able to do ONE push-up, and now I do twelve with ease!

Best of all you can really thrill your partner or scare your children if they walk in on you doing your naked push-ups 🙂

Tip 1: Intermittent Fasting with a Twist

Now here is the meat and potatoes of Week 1 of the 21 Day Food Writer’s Diet: Intermittent Fasting! By now you’ve probably heard of Intermittent Fasting, but in the most basic terms, it’s a specific block of time in which you will be either eating or keeping your body in a fasted state.

The most common (and easiest) is a split of 16 hours fasting and 8 hours eating where hypothetically you can eat whatever you want, but your satiety levels actually increase over time so you find you are eating less!

Now my twist on the 16:8 breakdown is actually lengthening the time my body is in a fasted state Monday through Friday and then returning to the 16:8 for the weekend.

Here’s what a typical week looks like in my Intermittent Fasting with a Twist plan:

• Monday-Friday: Eating from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturday-Sunday: Eating from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Overall, I believe the most important part of the lengthened fast period is actually the early 7 p.m. cut-off. Nighttime eating, in general, is not really necessary at all (unless you work nights).

So what CAN you have while you’re fasting?

I start every day with a glass of hot water with lemon and drink LOTS of coffee and tea until 1 p.m. I also try and stay busy with writing, errands, and outdoor activities that don’t involve food!

As I mentioned in my introduction though, if I have a day with an event outside my eating window, I EAT! This is lifestyle choice and it needs to flexible, or in 21 Days you’ll be googling the next 21 Day plan.

What you can expect for this week

This week just focus on eating for a block of eight hours or less every day. Don’t go past 7 p.m. if you can, or 8 p.m. at the latest. If you work nights and absolutely have to eat then keep it as light as possible; our circadian rhythms haven’t caught up to our modern lifestyles yet.

Start the week weighing yourself only if you must as I prefer to rely on how you’re feeling in your body versus what the numbers on a scale are saying. Truthfully I weigh myself every FRIDAY instead of Monday because this is about body positivity first and foremost. You will always weigh less on Friday 🙂

Lastly, add in a glass of hot water with lemon every morning (or when you’re feeling too hungry) and find some time every day to do something where your heart skips a beat (or some naked push-ups).

A preview of next week

Certainly, this can’t stop at Intermittent Fasting or there wouldn’t be anything revolutionary here! Stay tuned for Week 2 where I introduce one of the most important additions to your new Food Writer’s Diet lifestyle!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! YOU’VE GOT THIS!