You don’t have to count calories with a plan like this – the protein sparing modified fast (PSMF) days are
designed to be super low calorie. The overall calorie deficit for the week when you include them in addition to the protein centric, low carb approach of the rest of the plan is MORE than enough to see results, without having to track your macronutrients. Remember, your energy (calorie) budget isn’t reset at the end of the 24-hour period, it is more of an average of your weekly energy budget, and throw even one PSMF day and you will still end up in an overall deficit for the week.

Totally – many people have used this approach now and still been successful, particularly as I give guidelines to help structure the rest of the meals. Even if you start with the PSMF days and gradually choose 1-2 other meals throughout the week to swap out some of your current food choices to ones more suited to fat loss, then you’ll see results. Remember, any shift, however small, if in the right direction will still, overtime, result in big differences over time. And the recipes are delicious and family friendly.

This plan was designed with you in mind. Some of the biggest dietary challenges are eating foods that impact
negatively on hormones. By making the plan dairy and gluten free, we remove dietary triggers of inflammation that can make hot flushes, abdominal cramps, mood and blood sugar swings more of a problem. Removing dairy is something a lot of people hesitate to do or find hard to do – in this plan, it is just how we roll. The type of dairy that can be inflammatory is the casein protein found in cow milk products. Goat cheese and whey protein isolate doesn’t contain substantial casein protein, which is why they are included.

Alcohol contains 7 Cal per gram and is preferentially used as energy, meaning anything else you eat alongside it will be stored for later use. Alcohol can lead to disinhibition of food choices – as in, when we drink, we are looser with what we eat – ergo, potato crisps, nuts etc. More alcohol can then trigger a low mood and low blood sugar the next day – leading us to make bad food decisions to help prop up our good mood neurotransmitters.

Yes, tea and coffee and any no-calorie beverage is no problem. Ideally, stick to sans cream or milk (for reasons
stated above) and on PSMF days in particular. A splash of dairy-free milk, no drama. A tall latte though will bring with it additional calories. Be mindful of these extras as they add up. The best advice is to order black and have a splash of milk. And, if you notice your anxiety creep up with too much coffee, make the switch to decaf (or half and half with the beans) to lower the stress response creating the anxiety. Diet soft drinks may impact on your sweet palate and may make it harder to curb a sweet tooth. Or it can do the opposite and buffer that. I am not a fan of the daily diet soda, as we can use it instead of good old- fashioned water to help hydrate us. We also can use it to ‘fill a gap’ which is caused because our diet isn’t balanced in terms of protein. If you currently drink it daily, can you cut that in half and have it every second day?

I don’t encourage snacks for a few reasons

1. It’s tempting to snack on something convenient - usually high carb crackers, or nuts which bring with them a higher caloric load (and difficult to eat a handful) or similar.

2. Every time you eat, you cause a hormone response in the body and can suppress fat oxidation and your body being able to burn its own fat stores.

3. Some people eat out of boredom, habit, or to distract themselves from a harder task. Or they are scared to be hungry. They aren’t actually hungry. Ideally you want to spend some time tapping into your physiological response to your diet and you want to be hungry. Being hungry means you will enjoy your meal much more when you do come to eat.

Yes. Non-PSMF meals are pretty family friendly, however this does mean you’ll be using leftovers and not freezing them for later in the plan (as many of the initial meals are) so you do need to be mindful of that.
However, I didn’t want to create a plan that had to be done in isolation. People have generally managed to stay on point during Mondays Matter because of the metabolic reset meals, the preparation they do, the protein-centric approach, and because I’ve given clear guidelines as to how to structure meals if not strictly following a plan. And, with the ‘gifts’ you can plan to incorporate and enjoy these each fortnight without fear of taking a step backward. Remember, the elements put in place are because I really want you to understand what the fundamentals of your forever fat loss diet, not feel like you had to be beholden to my particular ideas around food. I really want you to continue with the success you have had previously. Learning how to eat in a way that you can move forward with, confident that you know how to make good decisions, and – if you do enjoy Christmas, Easter, a bunch of birthday dinners in one month, the PSMF days are a useful tool you can pull out of your back pocket to help you get back on track.

Yes. We have a base plan, and then we add in additional fuel to support activity and I’m pretty adamant that people do this for anything that is looking moderate-high intensity, or is long duration. Look, it is tempting to go as low as you can, but that is NOT the best approach long term. We want you to put into place something which is a minimum effective dose. The goal isn’t to eat as little as possible with fat loss – it’s more about trying to eat as much as you can most days of the week but still see results. A hard training session needs fuel. You’ll feel better for it and your body composition will thank you.

The sleep disturbance can be a couple of things, largely related to the stress response. While initially you can feel like you don’t *need* the sleep like you did initially, sooner or later it will catch up on you. I recommend a couple of things here.

1. Sleep routine/hygiene. Dim lights at night (all lights, not just in the bedroom), put down devices 45 minutes before bed at the latest, listen to calm music, put lavender drops on your pillow. Block all light from the bedroom. Use blue light blocking glasses (such as these) when watching TV at night. Avoid watching or engaging in anything too stimulating

2. Resist the urge to up the coffee, and potentially see if you can drop it out so you don’t have increased stimulants making you feel wired but tired

3. Creatine monohydrate, among many other things, can help you feel alert without the jitters. This is to help you throughout the day, not as a cure to the sleepiness. Getting more sleep will do that. However this can help. See supplement section; take in the morning.

4. Phosphatidylserine can lower cortisol, in addition to magnesium. Both links to these are in the supplement
section of this book

5. Add in 200g raw weight potato/sweet potato in your evening meal to help with sleep. Bake/steam/mash (no added fat). Carbohydrate helps you produce serotonin, which is a precursor to melatonin (sleep hormone). Do not feel like this will stall your progress. The benefit this will have to your sleep will more than compensate for any added calories. Remember that sleep is our greatest recovery tool.

If you don’t like eggs and can’t or won’t want protein powder, this isn’t the plan for you. However, if you like
feeling satisfied, delicious meals, if you recognize some level of restriction is required to help get you the results you want, if you like the idea of tackling this with group and expert support (I’m truly quite accessible!) then this is going to suit you