2025 Challenge
2025 Challenge: Write the book
Most people don’t know this, but 10 years ago I wrote a book.
With the 10-year anniversary, it’s time to re-visit this Challenge and put the culmination of my nutrition research into a new book, The Human Diet (you can read the Introduction here).
It’ll be a journey through history to uncover the human diet from the perspective of the mouth.
Right now all this research lives in over a thousand pages of notes that I got semi-organized in 2024.
Now I just need to write it.
Title: The Human Diet
Subtitle: (work in progress… )
- Option 1: “What your teeth say you should eat”
- Option 2: “The lost wisdom hiding in your teeth”
- Option 3: “The Biting History” or “History’s Bite” or “The Biting History” or “The Bite of History”
- Option 4: “Tooth be Told” or “Teeth Tell the Tale (or Truth?)” or “Teeth Don’t Lie”
- Option 5: Still taking suggestions!
2025 Challenge Book Writing Process
The goal is to write 2,000 words/week.
This is ~1 hour of writing per day.
Since I usually wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m., I activated a browser extension called “StayFocused” to block all social media until 9:00 a.m.
This will give me the dedicated time I need to avoid distractions, prioritize this work, and get the writing done.
Wish me luck!
P.S.
I’ve decided to release some chapters, maybe all of them. I’d love to have you join the community of early readers and critiquers.
To read The Human Diet first and get other exclusives, you just need to subscribe to my free Saturday 7 newsletter where I’ll announce and post the chapters (like the Introduction here).
Accountability Log
- Week 1: 1,963 words
- Week 2: 2,111 words
- Week 3: 2,114 words
- Week 4: 3,396 words
- Week 5: 3,291 words
- Week 6: 2,042 words
- Week 7: 2,157 words
- Week 8: 2,934 words
- Week 9: Introduction Edits
- Week 10: Finalized Intro Edits + 1566 words
- Week 11: Chapter 1 re-write (50%)
- Week 12: Chapter 1 re-write (90%)
- Week 13: Chapter 1 self-editing (25%)
- Week 14: Sent self-edited Chapter 1 to Editor
- Week 15: Started Chapter 2
- Week 16: Implemented Editor’s Chapter 1 edits an sent back to Editor
- Week 17: Finalized Chapter 1, continued Chapter 2
- Week 18: Posted Chapter 1, continued Chapter 2
- Week 19: Continued Chapter 2 (currently at 4,642 words)
- Week 20: Continued Chapter 2 (at 6,621 words)
- Week 21: Continued Chapter 2 (at 10,989 words)
- Week 22: Continued Chapter 2 (rough, rough, rough draft)
- Week 23: Continued Chapter 2 (writing / editing)
- Week 24: Continued Chapter 2 (rough, rough draft)
- Week 25: Continued Chapter 2 (writing / editing)
- Week 26: Editing Chapter 2 (rough draft)
- Week 27: Finished Chapter 2 (finally!! just proofing then sending to the editor)
- Week 28: Submitted Chapter 2 to the editor! (went back and edited Chapter 1 a bit)
- Week 29: Took the week off (some Chapter 3 outlining) while editor works on Chapter 2
- Week 30: Same as last week
- Week 31: Editor returned Chapter 2, but I took the week off (SnoreBuds 80+ hours)
- Week 32: Same as last week (SnoreBuds getting close)
- Week 33: Took all of August off, re-starting full steam ahead in September
- Week 34: Implemented / Edited Chapter 2 feedback from Editor
- Week 35: Chapter 2 finalized (posting this coming week)
- Week 36: Work on Chapter 3 narrative and outline
- Week 37: More Outline Work
- Week 38: Travel, a bit of outline work
- Week 39: Outline ready, now organizing content with sub-sections
- Week 40: All section/subsection content organized
- Week 41: Finally started writing Chapter 3!
- Week 42: Finishing up section 1/10 in Chapter 3
- Week 43: Mid-way through 2/10 in Chapter 3
- Week 44: Still on 2/10 in Chapter 3
- Week 45: Mostly finished up 2/10 (next week is SnoreBuds preorder launch, but need to start 3/10)
- Week 46: Off week, SnoreBuds launch, Thanksgiving/BFCM
- Week 47: Back at it. Progress / re-organization
- Week 48: Still working on Chap 3 3/10
- Week 49: Little work – updated plan for 2026 productivity
- Week 50: Break before New Year
- Week 51: Break
- Week 52: Restarting!
Q1 Update
All was going well until Week 9. That’s when I realized I messed up.
Before starting this Challenge, I did the math. If I wrote 2,000 words a week, that would be about 100,000 words by the end of the year. I’d likely edit it down to 75,000 from there for a traditional ~300 page book.
Before I announced my New Year’s Challenge of writing these 2,000 words per week, I asked A.I. if that was a reasonable goal for the time I could allocate, 1-2 hours/day or 10 hours maximum per week. The A.I. said 2,000 words a week would take about 1 hour per day. Perfect. So, I announced the Challenge and turned on the “StayFocused” Chrome extension, blocking me from anything but research and writing until 9:00 a.m. every morning, giving me at least 1-2 hours a day of uninterrupted work.
The first couple of months it mostly worked. Even though I’d spend 30 minutes trying to figure out the best way to format a single sentence, I was still getting my 2,000 words in. It didn’t hurt that my motivation was still high like most bright-eyed, bushy-tailed resolutioners. The honeymoon phase hadn’t worn off yet. I completed the Introduction, a 30-page Prologue, and Chapter 1. I was on track. That was until Month 3.
In March, I decided I need to do a rough edit before pushing on to Chapter 2. This was both a good and bad idea.
The Bad
My A.I. must have forgot to mention that editing takes longer than the actual writing. While editing this month, I cut the Introduction in half, completely deleted the Prologue, and I’m in the middle of all but re-writing Chapter 1!
The 2,000 words per week just flew out the window.
In retrospect, instead of a “word count” goal, I probably should have made the weekly goal time-based, more like my 2019 Challenge when I set out to learn to draw by practicing 5-minutes a day.
I like to stick to what I say, so I’m going to continue to shoot for 2,000 words a week with the recognition that “editing weeks” will be closer to negative 2,000 words those weeks.
The Good
In a newsletter, I wrote: “No more meat. No, more meat. Grammar matters.”
Steph Spector replied: “I’m a writing coach who also follows an animal-based diet, so I very much appreciated this email.” She went on to offer her expertise in editing the book. To feel good about my start, I took her up on it. I sent her the Introduction.
Less than 48 hours later, I got the Introduction back. I thought there must have been a mistake. It was like a red pen exploded. However, going through the carnage edits, I agreed with just about everything she said. I axed half the Introduction.
Then I sent her the Prologue. This time it was different. Instead of cutting some of it, I axed the entire thing.
I didn’t have it in me to send her Chapter 1. I just went straight to re-writing it and hired her for the full book project. Just knowing I have to submit my work to her helps me write better. If you write anything, whether a book or business memo, I highly recommend consulting with a professional like Steph.
What’s Next
Now that I have an editor, we are working to clarify the overall book structure. Of course, I thought I had this all figured out, but now I’m re-figuring it out. I want to strike a balance of scientific rigor with engaging prose. I want you to enjoy the book, otherwise the message will never get through.
Then I’m going to continue to shoot for 2,000 words a week or roughly one chapter a month to get the full draft done by the end of the year. This feels a bit overly ambitious, but I guess if you shoot for the moon and miss you still land among the starts (or something like that 🙂
In the meantime…
(please let me know what you think!)
Q2 Update
A few weeks into the second quarter, I realized that there was no way I’m was going to be able to finish a complete draft of the book by the end of the year. Nonetheless, I started implementing one “Writing Day” a week where I block out my entire schedule and just write. No email, no meetings, no calls, no social media. These have been a gamechanger. I get more writing done on a Writing Day then the rest of the week combined. Alas, to complete a full draft by the end of the year, I’d probably need three Writing Days a week, and my schedule just doesn’t allow it. Plus, Writing Days are grueling, I could see doing two per week, but their kind of like an insanely intense workout that require recovery.
I’m on the tail end of finishing Chapter 2 now—really excited to get this one to you! Then, I anticipate having Part 1 (of 3) complete towards the end of summer.
In the meantime…
Here’s Chapter 1: The First Human Diet!
Q3 Update
I submitted Chapter 2 to my editor at the end of July.
Aptly—writing it felt like eating an elephant. Grueling. It took over 3 months. During this time I wrote 1-2 hours/day and had at least 10 “Writing Days” of 10+ hours. I probably over-obsessed about this chapter, but I think it’s one of the most important ones. (I reserve the right to say this about future chapters 🙂
This chapter gets to the heart of what most everyone gets wrong about “ancestral diets.” I wanted to gset the record straight, which meant fitting a ton of complex information into a digestible read, without losing nuance and maintaining scientific accuracy, while still somehow still being enjoyable to read.
I took most of August “off” making editor edits, and pushing full steam ahead into the SnoreBuds launch.
The goal now is to write Chapter 3 and conclude Part 1 “Early Human Diets” by the end of the year. I’d like to turn it into an ebook for you and maybe a video series too. Then next year I’ll write Part 2, “Revolutionary Diets,” (chapters 4, 5, and 6). Then, yes, I think it’ll take until 2027 to write Part 3 and publish. But good things take time, right?
Thanks for following along and cheering me on!
Here’s Chapter 2: The Foundation of The Human Diet
Q4: End of Challenge Update
In reviewing my 2025 writing, I give myself an A+ for the first 6 months, but a C- during the second half.
What happened? Did I lose motivation?
Not really. I realized halfway through the year my priorities switched. SnoreBuds was getting close to launching. And the way my brain works is that it needs to focus on the highest priority thing first.
The Problem
But my schedule was to write first thing in the morning. This conflict in priorities caused me to cut writing sessions short, be distracted when trying to write and thereby block “flow state,” and slowly eroded consistency.
The Solution
One writing strategy I used during the summer was to have a dedicated “Writing Day.” It was effective. Deep work requires singular focus.
Those days, while grueling, routinely resulted in 4-5 pages. Multiply that over 52 weeks and I could make a big dent toward finishing the book.
So that’s my writing plan in 2026. Schedule a dedicated writing day 1X/week so I can focus on SnoreBuds the rest of the time. Once daily SnoreBuds’ priorities are done, I can do light editing and ongoing research on the other days.
Coming Soon
I will finish up Chapter 3 and Part 1 in early 2026 and organize it into a nice downloadable eBook.
If you haven’t already, you can sign up here and I’ll send it your way when it’s ready!
Thank you for following along on this writing journey!
Kevin