The Fast Metabolism Diet (22 page)

I
’m so proud of you. Here you are in week four. By now, you have likely begun not just to eat in an entirely new way, but to think about food in a new way, as well. For many, this will have been a big transition. You’ve done it! Here you are, in the very last week.

This is the week to look back at what you’ve done for the past 21 days. Whether you’ve built your own maps or followed the menus I’ve created, pull them out and look at what worked for you. Did you increase your spinach and broccoli portions in Phase 2, and did that seem to help you fill up and lose more weight? Did you notice that the French toast in Phase 1 made you feel more satisfied than plain toast with fruit? Did you notice that oatmeal or chili in particular made you feel warm and fuzzy?

What are the keys that have led to your success so far? Let this be your week to contemplate the things that you loved, that really lowered your stress hormones, and that made you feel great.

Then give it hell.

This is the week to really do it. Be perfect. Be strong. Be awesome. Hit every phase exactly right. Do every phase-appropriate exercise. Complete the repair process and light that metabolism on fire.

This is also a good week to do everything you’ve wanted to do during the four weeks that you haven’t done yet: look through the recipe chapter for those you didn’t get to try yet. Make them! (Or, stick to your favorites or leftovers from past weeks, if that’s easier.) If there are phase-appropriate
exercises you still haven’t tried yet (A meditation class? A deep breathing seminar in person or online?), go for it! Generally, my clients tell me they have a pretty easy time with
week four. They realize they are coming to the end, they feel good about their weight loss, and they want to finish strong.

So do it! You have been using food as medicine to enhance your health and well-being, so you should be feeling really good—balanced and stable, in control of your cravings, stronger and lighter and better than you did four weeks ago. Make this last week the best week ever, and really enjoy the incredible job you have done.

You’re entering the last week of your personal four-week cycle, and the last week of the Fast Metabolism Diet. Remember, your body, in this particular part of its own four-week cycle, has
never experienced this particular diet.
To your body, each of the four weeks is an entirely new experience because you are in a different place metabolically. You are at different stages of repair and rebuilding, and each time you experience each of the three phases, you bring a healthier body to the table. But even if you are happy with your weight-loss number, you still have to remember that your body isn’t completely repaired yet. You’re so close, but you don’t want to stop before you reach the finish line.

Really drive home the principles this week. Stick precisely and exactly to the meal map and the grocery list, even if you dream about having a glass of wine or a dessert next week. This is the final week to stoke your metabolism. No more damp logs!

You’re going to miss my telling you what to do once these four weeks are over, aren’t you? So, one last time, here I go telling you exactly what to eat. Remember that you can switch meals within phases, or use some of the meals I suggest but not others. And remember, you are in the home stretch! This is not the time to get creative with the rules or start phase-swapping. Yes, I did once saw a cast off my ankle a week ahead of time, but I had a very important horse show, I was young, and my mother was working that night, so she wasn’t there to tell me not to do it. Let’s collectively agree that we are not that young, nor are we stupid, and I am here to prohibit you from straying. You and I both know you need this, you want this, you deserve this. So do not break my rules. Instead, give it hell and finish strong. While you’re in the process of following this last week, I want you to start thinking about what’s going to happen when the diet is over. I’ll talk in more detail about this in
Chapter Ten
, “Fast Metabolism Living,” but by about Wednesday of this last week, you may be thinking: “Wait, what am I going to do next week? This is the end!” This can be a major transition, so while you are in the throes of week four, I want you to be game-planning for your future.

Although some aspects of the metabolism may have a genetic component, in most cases a slow metabolism is due to how you have been
living. So how were you living before? How was it different from the way you have been living the last 28 days? What have you learned during the past four weeks about how your body really
wants
to live? What creates an optimal environment for your body, your metabolism, and your overall well-being?

If you feel better, clearer, and more energetic off caffeine, do you really want to go back on it? If you feel happier, calmer, and cleaner without eating refined sugar or gluten or corn, do you really want to go back to eating those things again?

If you do, your metabolism will be better able to handle those foods occasionally, in moderate amounts. But consider how well you are doing without them. Some people
will
go back to unhealthy
habits, and a fast metabolism can make up for a lot. But at some point, if you really drag yourself back down again with foods that don’t give your body the nutrition it needs, and with foods that contain
toxic things it doesn’t need that tax your liver and promote fat accumulation, then guess what? You may eventually find yourself back where you started. A fast metabolism is meant to support a healthy lifestyle, not miraculously nullify a totally dysfunctional one.

So this week, as you are giving your all to the plan, think about how you can give your all to your life. And by that, I mean live like you mean it, with purpose and discernment. Take care of your body. You fixed it. Do you really want to break it again?

When you are back to your “normal” life eating like a “normal” person, you have to understand what that means. In case you still aren’t sure, look at how you’ve been eating the past four weeks: You haven’t been abstaining from any food group. You’ve been eating proteins, fruits, vegetables, and grains. You’ve been losing excess weight steadily. You’ve been improving your physiology and internal chemistry. You look better. You’ve been exercising moderately. Your mood has improved. Isn’t this how you would like to live all the time?

My goal for you is to learn to live with balance, enjoying your life but not at the expense of your health. Obesity and weight gain cause significant increases in
diabetes, breast cancer,
depression,
heart disease, and many other chronic illnesses. You’ve set yourself on the right track, and you’ve
been learning what promotes health. You’ve been participating in it, succeeding in it, making an impact on the scale, your health, your whole life.

I was meeting with a client the other day whom I hadn’t seen in years. She was now in the throes of menopause and looking for some natural therapies to help ease her through this hormone transition. She had already put herself back on the Fast Metabolism Diet and had just completed a full 28 days, getting her back to her target weight. She had done a version of the program with me six years earlier, and it was amazing to me how she hadn’t forgotten the rhythm and the foods and the phases after all this time. She told me that many of the lifestyle changes from the diet she had maintained as part of her healthy life, but that she felt that she needed a strict tune-up, not only to get back to her ideal weight but also to remind herself how amazing her body felt and responded to being treated so well. She recited to me what she called “Haylie-isms,” such as: “Don’t fast before going fast” (eat before working out), or “If it’s fake, take a break” (no artificial sweeteners), or “If it says free on the label, don’t buy it” (no fat-free or sugar-free diet products). I was proud! Proud of her for taking a preventative approach to her health, proud of her for taking the initiative to put herself back on a program that would promote health and allow her to achieve an ideal body weight, and proud that she had taken me and my dorky little sayings with her on her life’s journeys for the past six years.

So as we spend this last week together of this short 28-day program, think about keeping me as your nutritionist for many more years. I’m with you for life—and you can enjoy the rest of it in better health, better balance, and at the healthiest possible weight.

Think about making healthy, balanced food choices from now on. Think about preferring nutrient-dense over nutrient-poor foods most of the time. Think about moving and practicing stress relief and eating tons of vegetables. Think about everything you’ve learned, and think about how you can live it, this week, next week, and for the rest of your life. Take all that you’ve gleaned forward with you. You know how to stimulate the five major players. You have the tools to ignite, stoke, entice, and keep your metabolism going, so during this week embrace the changes you have made and look at how some of them can be not just life changing but also changes for life.

To print out your final week of meal maps go to:
http://rhlink.com/fastmain
.