Fast Metabolism Diet: Getting Started

A lot of changes in the last two months! I have accepted and started a job at a defense contractor doing a similar job that I previously did before I was a full time mom. AND my husband is now a full time dad. It is always difficult during transitions but it's all been filled with blessings! That is the reason, though, for my lack of posting. It's been busy working out a new groove, a new routine. Now that I am settling in I want to share about a new "diet" I started.

Let me start off with saying that this "diet" is less what you think of a "diet" and more of encouraging good choices. A diet, based on the dictionary definition, is "food or feed habitually eaten or provided". What you normally eat can be a good diet, a bad diet, a weight loss diet, or a lean diet. It is not just weight loss but it can be! In general, based on the normative American diets, we generally associate a diet as an action to lose weight and eat healthy. The Fast Metabolism Diet is very similar. The goal is not to lose weight per se but more on the side of eating healthy. The premise behind the FMD is that you reset your metabolism, clean out your system, and have a fresh start. While I need all of those things I also read that people stopped having sugar cravings (mine are so awful) and maximized their workouts.

I started the diet this past Monday (July 6) and it has gone surprisingly well so far. I am on day 6 of the 28 days and on day 2 of phase 3 in the first week. A mouthful there right?! So here is the basic premise of how it works.

There are 3 Phases in each of the 4 weeks for 28 days total. Here are the phases broken down:

There are phase specific exercises to do as well.

Phase 1: Cardio... goes well with all of those carbs!
Phase 2: Strength Training... to pair nicely with your protein.
Phase 3: De-stress Activity... which matches the laid back weekend attitude!

For me I focused on running for phase 1 cardio. Some options are intervals (help you recover if you aren't a runner just yet), elliptical, spinning, or just plain running! On phase 2 you can pick a strength workout to try. Since you are only doing strength once per week you will want to do multiple muscle groups during your workout, more dynamic strength training. There are plenty of at-home, body weight workouts on YouTube. For phase 3 my choice is yoga but meditation, quiet/no tech time, a massage will all work too.

Every week you follow this routine with a few other rules and it helps to reset your metabolism, get rid of your sweet tooth, and give you more energy. It is also an opportunity to get your regular diet back on track.

Here are a few more rules:

1. No caffeine
2. No alcohol
3. No sugar or sweeteners (with two exceptions)
4. No gluten
5. No dairy
6. Eat 5 times a day
7. Eat within 30 minutes of waking up
8. Eat organic produce and nitrate free meat (when possible)
9. Drink half your body weight in ounces every day
10. Do the phase specific exercises

I know I know. No one likes rules but these are for your benefit. So if you are dedicated to making a change then jump in... if you're not then you might not be ready for this yet.

I will post some recipes and a recap each week + menu for the next week. Hopefully that will help spark some ideas if you are interested in trying this out. Let me know if you try it and how it works for you. Keep in mind it is important to plan ahead. When you have to eat every 3 hours you need to be ahead of the game. Also, meal planning and prepping is key.

Tomorrow I will post on my review for week 1and the meal plan I used (with links to recipes). I'll give some information on what my results have been too.... You won't want to miss it. I've been surprised!

See you back here tomorrow! :)

<-Kassy->