WEEKS 9 TO 12
Congratulations! You have reached the third phase of the 131 Method. The primary objective of the Renew phase is to reintroduce or refresh your relationship with carbs! The Renew plan further increases the metabolic flexibility you’ve developed during the Ignite and Nourish phases while simultaneously healing the gut, balancing hormones by reintroducing the right kind of carbs back into your diet. The work you did in the two previous phases will have prepared your body to efficiently use carbs as fuel rather than storing it as fat. By following the very specific weekly design of Renew, you will be able to successfully thrive with carbs, fats, and protein yet continue to make progress!
Have you ever dated or been friends with someone only to realize that for whatever reason you tended to bring out the worst in each other? Most people go their separate ways. But sometimes you realize that by just making a few adjustments you can make it work. If after reading an earlier chapter you cried a little thinking you had to break up with carbs for good, wipe those tears away sister, (or brother)! You are going to love Renew! We’re bringing carbs back, baby!
This is another important distinction between the 131 Method and dumb diets. With most diets you commit to eating a certain way, maybe by limiting fat, cutting calories, calculating points, or using special containers. And maybe you experience some success—but as soon as you let yourself be a human again, bam, you’re right back where you started (plus five pounds). It’s not your fault. You’re not a computer. You just need a guide.
Your goals on the four weeks of Renew will be to:
After you’ve completed three weeks on the Renew guidelines, you’ll have the option to select a fasting level for week 4 or continue with Renew’s guidelines for one more week instead.
The meal plans on Renew have been designed to reboot your relationship with carbs By following a precise weekly schedule that cycles fats, protein, and carbs, your metabolism will learn to efficiently switch between each fuel source.
Though this phase does have a bit more structure than the two previous ones, you will still have the freedom to modify the plan to work for you. To do this, you’ll need to follow the daily plan for this phase with a bit more precision than Ignite or Nourish. Don’t worry, you’ll still have the ability to personalize your approach. Renew significantly shifts your macronutrient ratios every two to three days through a process I call macrophasing.
Macrophasing in a nutshell is the alternating of macronutrient ratios every couple of days, which increases metabolic flexibility and promotes efficient use of energy. (I’ll explain how this works in a moment.)
We all know that girl who looks great, eats whatever she wants, and effortlessly maintains her weight, while we are in a constant battle to lose those final pounds. Why is it some people have more wiggle room than the rest of us? I used to envy others who could indulge in a slice of pizza or plate of pasta without regret or consequence. Why couldn’t it be that easy for me? If I so much as enjoyed the aroma of fresh bread, it showed up the next day on the scale. I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. I needed to know what made us different. What is it that enables some people to have more freedom when it comes to food? The answer is metabolic flexibility. Get excited!
With Renew, you’ll learn to apply an intuitive approach to intermittent fasting. During earlier phases, when you began to master the benefits of intermittent fasting, you likely followed a precisely timed meal schedule. Using a schedule to track the timing of your meals helped keep you accountable during the sometimes challenging early weeks of becoming fat adapted. Structure gives us a foundation for success, but inflexible reliance on rules puts us at risk of developing unhealthy obsessive behaviors that can leave us feeling powerless.
Step into your power! Take a moment to honor the fact that you’ve come this far! Pat yourself on the back for taking the time to better understand what works and what doesn’t, and pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you and why.
When deciding how and when to eat during Renew, I really want you to take the training wheels off. It’s time to drop rule-based thinking regarding the timing of your first and last meals. Don’t get me wrong; while rules provide order and security, rigidity and compulsive thinking can get in the way of your long-term success. Signs you’ve slipped into a dieter’s mentality are clear when diet rules and daily habits are more important than your body’s common sense.
My first attempt at intermittent fasting was heavily influenced by my old dieter’s mentality. Once I established a schedule for my first and last meal, I stuck to it like a dog that won’t let go of a bone. If I scheduled my first meal for noon, I wouldn’t eat it at 11:50 A.M. even if I was starving, weak, and about to pass out. I didn’t allow a single bite of food to pass my lips until precisely noon. If I had a dinner date with friends that meant broadening my eating window to 10 hours instead of the usual 8, I considered that day a failure. The diet rule mentality was stronger than my common sense. I ignored what was right for me on any particular day, ignoring even true hunger!
Conversely, there were days when I just wasn’t hungry when my first mealtime rolled around, but I ate it anyway. I had yet to learn the power that comes from understanding and trusting my body’s ability to know what is best. I believed that to be successful, I had to follow all protocols with exact precision. That, my friends, is dieting. It’s not healthy. It’s not sustainable.
An intuitive approach to intermittent fasting simply means instead of using your watch or a rule to dictate when to eat, you’ll allow hunger and energy to guide you. Ideally, as you approach the fasting and refueling of week 4, you’ll want to shorten your eating window to roughly six to eight hours if you plan to do a more advanced-level fast. But again, don’t get all caught up in a schedule and overthinking it.
As a result of the 131 Method, I learned that I’m smart enough to figure stuff out. I don’t have to wait for someone to tell me what I can and can’t eat, what shake or supplement I should take, or that I must do a, b, and c workouts on specific days! I’ve learned that the “all or nothing” mind-set is a recipe for failure. I feel so much more free. —JESSICA S.
Maybe you’ve looked at your previous weight loss attempts or exercise plans as all-in endeavors. This extreme way of thinking results in the broad categorizations of efforts as either “failures” or “successes” with little room for anything in between. That line of thinking stunts metabolic flexibility.
Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you’ve got a tight lower back. We can assume part of the problem is lack of flexibility, and that means you need to stretch. But attack the tightness too aggressively by overstretching, and you’ll do more harm than good.
Flexibility, whether biomechanical or metabolic, requires planned progression. Each phase of the 131 Method has been designed to create this. Each progression works to develop the metabolic flexibility needed to move to the next phase safely. The next step in your journey, creating healthy metabolic flexibility, is achieved through macrophasing.
From my studies and through the tens of thousands who have adopted the 131 Method as a lifestyle, I know that anyone can increase metabolic flexibility. Macrophasing creates flexibility while maintaining your ability to be fat adapted. You’ll do this by enjoying meals that stretch your current macronutrient tolerance.
Macrophasing is a lot like cross-training. To achieve optimal fitness results, top trainers know the importance of changing up routines to keep clients’ workouts exciting and push the body to use energy instead of storing it. By cycling different macronutrient ratios in specific amounts over a period of days, you teach your body to use the energy from foods you eat rather than storing it as fat. The result is improved metabolic flexibility.
Each week of Renew has three different stages or types of menus: Lean Green for two days, Carb Charge for two days, and then Fat Burning for three days. I’ll break down exactly what meals might look like on those days and how to approximate your macros in just a minute. How you organize those days each week is up to you. If it’s more convenient to follow Carb Charge days on the weekend, go for it! However, to comfortably transition into ketosis, be sure to finish strong with three consecutive days of Fat Burning ratios before starting a fast in week 4.
You probably have already figured out that it’s pretty normal to experience increased hunger on Carb Charge days and sometimes the day after. The increased carbohydrate intake can sometimes create an insulin response even in the most fat-adapted of us. That extra hunger might correlate to a project that’s forcing you to expend a lot of mental energy lately, or maybe you’ve just been killing it in the gym. Practice identifying the causes of both true hunger and emotional eating.
Instead of obsessing over getting all my workouts in, staying in my calorie zones, tracking every step, and feeling defeated when the scale went up instead of down, I learned to be kind to myself, customize the process, and still lose weight. —KAREN W.
For two days, each week, you will want to eat meals that are high in protein, low in fat, and low/moderate in carbohydrates along with plenty of vegetables. The macronutrient range I suggest is as follows:
10–15% fat
30–50% protein
20–40% carbohydrate
Here’s how:
Meal ideas:
For the next two days, you will eat high-carb, low-fat, and moderate-protein foods. The ratio is as follows:
15–20% fat
15–25% protein
55–70% carbohydrate
Here’s how:
Meal ideas:
For the next three days, you will eat low-carb, high-fat, and moderate-protein foods. The ratio is as follows:
70–80% fat
15–20% protein
5–10% carbohydrate
Here’s how:
Meal Ideas:
Here is a sample daily meal plan for one week of Renew. Please refer to Part III for your recipes!
Breakfast: Lean Green Breakfast Chili
Lunch: Turkey, Asparagus, and Broccoli
Dinner: Garlic Shrimp with Spinach
Breakfast: Egg, Turkey, and Arugula Breakfast Wrap
Lunch: Salmon Cakes and Spinach Salad
Dinner: Turkey Meatballs with Zoodles
Breakfast: Overnight Protein Oats
Lunch: Chicken, Quinoa, and Sweet Potato Bowl
Dinner: Minestrone with Herbed Potato Wedges
Breakfast: Raspberry–Chocolate Breakfast Bowl
Lunch: Root Vegetable Soup
Dinner: Sheet Pan Chicken and Vegetables
Breakfast: Flaxseed–Cinnamon Muffins
Lunch: Pizza Muffins
Dinner: Sea Bass with Mango Salsa
Breakfast: Eggs and Greens
Lunch: Cauliflower Fried Rice
Dinner: Chicken Tenders with Broccolini with Lemon and Garlic
Breakfast: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pancakes
Lunch: BLT Pinwheels
Dinner: Turkey Meatloaf with Buffalo Sauce with Chili–Lime Brussels Sprouts
*These sample meal plans are included in the Ebook Supplemental Material PDF download.
Some vegetarians find it a challenge to keep carbohydrates low and protein high during Renew. Remember, this is less about precise macronutrient ratios, and more about significant changes in the ranges. Make this plan work for you with the following helpful tips.
LEAN GREEN PROTEIN SUGGESTIONS:
CARB CHARGE PROTEIN SUGGESTIONS:
FAT-BURNING PROTEIN AND FAT SUGGESTIONS:
Even if you’ve had success with a previous fast and refuel week during the Ignite and Nourish phases, take the time now to assess your readiness, schedule, stress, and need before beginning one again. Should you choose not to fast, continue macrophasing for the final week of Renew.
If you agree with all the statements in the checklist, then go ahead and select another fasting level from Chapter 5, such as Level 4: Three-Day Mini-Fast, for week 4 of Renew. Be sure to carefully follow the fasting and refueling guidelines!
*****
I spent most of the last two decades living in fear of weight gain. I let false beliefs about my faulty body become my reality. I viewed many foods as the enemy and my metabolism as the consolation prize. I punished myself with brutal workouts. I craved the freedom that others had. I wasn’t desperate to lose weight; I was desperate to be healthy, a term I associated with being thin. I wanted freedom from the hours of endless exercise and calorie counting. The ever-looming threat of weight gain was robbing me of my joy.
It took a steadfast commitment, at first not to myself but to my family. (Sometimes our own fear is so real, it helps to use the love we have for others to motivate change.) Once I started on this journey, I became my “why.” I began to experience for the first time what it felt like to be healthy. I couldn’t believe the foods I was able to enjoy or how much better my body felt. I couldn’t believe how much better I felt about my body. My body was working with me. It wasn’t my enemy; it was my gift.
In the beginning, I struggled with familiar thoughts. Each time I phased my diet, I did so reluctantly, struggling with the belief that I would screw up the success I had finally found. When I started phasing my diet, including macrophasing in what I now call Renew, I remember slipping into my old way of thinking: “Maybe I can tell people to do this, but there’s no way it will work for me.” It wasn’t just my diet that needed to change; I needed to change my thinking.
I reminded myself that I was too smart not to trust the research and the team of crazy-smart experts I had assembled. I chose to challenge that nagging negative belief and embrace Renew. I didn’t need to fear carbs or any food, for that matter. I needed to repair my relationship with these foods and trust that my body would not betray me.
Renew is your opportunity to start fresh, a win earned by the work—not perfection—of your two previous phases. The end of Renew signifies the end of your first cycle.
