Hello and welcome to the Intermittent Fasting Gems with Jen Podcast.

I'm your host Jen, a middle-aged Michigan mama, wife, and teacher who

in 2021 stumbled upon this crazy cool thing called intermittent fasting.

And before I knew it.

I've lost 46 pounds in four months and gained an incredible lifestyle

filled with complete food freedom.

If you're hungry for unique, no nonsense fasting tips that actually

work, you're in the right place.

So whether you're walking the dog, folding that last load of laundry or cruising to

your nine to five, let's start fasting.

Our way to freedom together.

Hello there, my fantastic fasting friends and happy 2026 to all of you.

I know that I am ready for a fabulous year of fasting with all

of you, and I hope that you are too.

January is the Month of Hope and New Beginnings, which is why for

my first three podcast episodes of the month of the new year.

I wanted to bring my intermittent fasting jumpstart plan to you.

So if you are ready to start 2026 off with a bang, and finally do this intermittent

fasting thing, this is the episode.

For you, perfect for those who are brand new to intermittent fasting,

and also for those who've been around a while, but have kind of gotten away

from fasting for a bit and need a quick kick in the butt along with a

simple step-by-step plan to get things moving in the right direction again.

Alright, so in today's episode, part one of the three part series, I'll be

giving you four tasks to start with.

Then I'll be back with part two on January 20th.

And a few more tasks.

And then the final part three on January 30th with, again, a few more final tasks.

Ready?

Set.

Let's do this.

Alright, so task number one for this week, i'd like you to start by getting some

sort of intermittent fasting tracking app.

It will keep you accountable and keep track of your fasting

hours, maybe your water intake, stuff like that, but mainly your.

Fasting window.

There are a ton of apps out there.

I have tried out several over the last five years of fasting.

I think it's important to find one that you like and if free is your thing.

There are plenty of apps like Zero and Fasting that are great.

My personal favorite free app is Easy, fast, which I will leave the

link for in the show notes below.

There's an AI powered fasting app that I've tried and really like,

it's called lightly, but I just keep going back to easy, fast.

At this point, it's been working for me.

The most important thing is that you pick one that you like that

works for you, and then begin using it every day without fail.

Moving on to task number two for this week.

As uncomfortable as it may be, I'm gonna need you to take some before and after

pictures and body measurements and then record those numbers and measurements in

a notebook or a spreadsheet of some kind.

Please, please, please do not skip this step.

It really is that.

Important.

Taking your photos in a bathing suit or a workout outfit is great.

Uh, be sure to take front, back and side photos.

And when measuring, I recommend measuring.

Five different areas.

First waist circumference taken at the narrowest part of your torso or

around the belly button is easy enough.

Um, this is really important to keep track of because this fat right here

is strongly linked to the visceral fat and all of the health risks.

So we definitely want to, uh, keep track of our measurements.

Around the waist.

Okay, so one was waist circumference.

Hips measure around the widest part of the hips.

Uh, three, your chest or your bust around the fullest part of the chest,

your thigh around the widest part of one thigh, and your upper arm

around the biggest part of the bicep.

Alright, let's move on to task number three for the first

week to 10 days, basically.

Start by skipping just one meal a day and clean fasting for 16 hours each day.

This means that all your food should be consumed within an eight hour period.

Here are a few tips to help you with this.

One.

Tip number one, if you absolutely can't handle starting with a 16 hour

daily fast, then I want you to start where you feel comfortable and then

gradually bump up your fasting time, 30 minutes every two to three days

until you can get to that 16 hour mark.

Tip number two, clean.

Means eating absolutely no food and drinking only black coffee, water, plain

unflavored, sparkling mineral water, and or unflavored herbal, green or black tea

during your 16 hours of fasting each day.

That is considered.

A clean, fast, nothing else.

Those drinks only.

So it is very important that you don't add anything with flavor to those drinks.

We definitely do not want to, create an insulin spike.

So that means no lemon in your water, no cream in your coffee.

All right, tip three.

If you are struggling to drink your coffee black, you can simply add a sprinkle of

sea salt or pink Himalayan salt to it.

It works.

Awesome.

It's called the Alton Brown Trick.

And what it does is it cuts that bitter taste right out, um,

until you can get used to it.

Eventually after a week or two, you probably will realize that you

don't even need it anymore, but that little salt trick can really,

really make a big difference.

I know it definitely helped me.

And finally, your fourth and final task for this week is this.

You might not like this one too much, but absolutely no

alcohol and no processed sugar.

It will absolutely slow down your progress for sure.

But don't worry because I will be giving you a recipe to cure your

sweet tooth and rub your metabolism at the same time in week number three.

So the third part of this plan, um, I'll be doing that.

So those are the four simple tasks that I want you to begin right away.

Number one, find yourself a Fasting Tracker app.

I find it's easy to just download it right to your phone.

Number two, take before and after pictures and body measurements.

Number three, pick just one meal a day to give up and skip.

And begin clean fasting for 16 hours each day.

And finally, task number four, cut out all alcohol and all sugar.

You have totally got this.

Now, if by some chance you get going into the plan and you're feeling like total

dog crap, you're getting headaches, or you're feeling weak and lightheaded, tired

first, know that it is completely normal.

Kind of sucks, but it's temporary and it really won't last for too much longer.

However, if you are really, really struggling with this.

I highly suggest taking a raw, unflavored, electrolyte supplement element.

LMNT is my absolute favorite.

I talk about it a lot on many of my podcast episodes, but

I use the unflavored kind.

Because it is the only one that won't break your fast and you can easily add

it into regular, or I like to add mine into plain sparkling mineral water.

This stuff helped me out a ton when I first started along my fasting journey.

I will leave the link.

For Element, the supplement packets that I use.

I'll leave that link for you in the show notes, and it will also be on my

podcast resource and recommendation page.

All right.

That's all for part one of the plan.

I'll be back on January 20th with part two of the plan.

Until then, if you wanna get your hands on the PDF of this whole jumpstart plan,

that also includes a few bonus items.

You can snag it for just $9.

And of course, if you are ready to take your intermittent fasting journey to.

The next level you can get my six weeks to sexy full intermittent fasting and

weight loss masterclass video course for just $39 when you use the discount code

GEMS 10 at checkout GEMS 10 at checkout.

I will write my fabulous fasting friends.

Get out there and get your fast on.

I am so, so excited for you and I can't wait to connect

with you again very, very soon.

Have the best day ever.

Hey, thank you so much for choosing to spend part of your day listening

to this episode of the Intermittent Fasting Gems with Jen podcast.

If you think these tips could help a friend or a family member, please

consider sharing this episode with them.

And if you really enjoyed the show, taking a minute or two

to leave a positive review.

Would be so appreciated.

Tune in for new 15 to 25 minute episodes released on the 10th,

20th, and 30th of each month.

Episodes will feature solo shows filled with if F hacks that

have worked for me, as well as episodes where I get to chat with.

Fun folks of all ages who've experienced incredible success

with intermittent fasting.

If you have questions or want more unique intermittent fasting health and

weight loss tips, tricks and recipes, please visit my website and blog at.

So what if with jen.com?

Finally, we'd love to welcome you into our free intermittent.

Fasting Facebook support group.

So what if with Jen?

Find all of these links in the show notes below.

And as always, I hope you spend your day loving without fear and

laughing until your cheeks hurt.