Well, my life has completely turned upside down lately...

I just finished a project that I'd been working on for months and found out that my partner wants to split the company in such a way that I cannot possibly accept, which means I have to start a new company all over again, and taxes are due.

So, I haven't had any time for anything the past two weeks. I've excercised about twice, but most of the time has been spent trying to rebuild my life over again, wrap up some things in my old life, now I'm doing taxes, and after that I'll have to start my life all over again starting a new company.

I'm still strong on the diet. In a little over two months, approx. 2 months and a week, I've lost close to 30 lbs. I've still lost a couple of lbs a week over the past two weeks, even though I haven't excercised much. My stamina is up, too. I moved a friend in the morning and came home to do yardwork all day until evening one day and didn't even get tired.

I suspect that for the next week or so I'll be doing taxes morning to night, so I doubt that I'll be able to get my excercise in, but I plan to come back full force after that.

In 15 lbs. I'll go from overweight to the top of the healthy weight!

Hey sfwasabi,

Give yourself some credit....even if you're not exercising, you're staying on plan! That's can be a tough enough challenge in and of itself! And even though it sounds like you're under some pressure, you're not engaging in emotional eating. I think that's fantastic.

I love the whole idea of gaining some stamina. I have 2 little ones who can really knock me out!

Good luck with the tax stuff and exercise when you can for the moment, even something as simple as taking a flight of stairs vs. escalator or an extra walk counts!

Best,
NJC

sfwasabi,

Looking forward to a Zone update/progress report from you!

NJC

Wow! My life has been in a complete upheaval lately.

I did my company books for about two weeks, then ended up taking the whole thing to an accountant to do my taxes. It was my first time ever not doing them myself. It was difficult to turn over, but I felt so relieved. I found a really nice accountant who did them and handled the dissolving of my old business and the incorporating of my new one, and didn't even charge that much. In fact, I'm showing money due back, which has not happened in about 10 years!

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on the website for the new company and on figuring out the company itself.

Because of the mess, I wasn't excercising or doing yoga - probably for a whole month, but I stuck strong to the zone diet.

Since the beginning of February (a little over 3 months), I've lost 40 lbs. I'm about 3 lbs away from being at the top of the 'healthy weight' chart for my height. Just think, when I started, I was well into the 'obese' part of the chart.

Another thing that is encouraging is that I have a collection of about 16 testimonials from people on the zone diet, telling about their successes. Whenever I want a pump-me-up, I read the testimonials from people who have lost more weight than I have. So, out of these 16, there are about 4-5 who have lost more weight than I!

Yesterday I jogged for 25 minutes, and walked for 5. It was tougher than before, since I hadn't done it in about a month, but I got through. Immediately afterwards I mowed the back half of the lawn, and in the evening I did yoga. Today I did my jogging and am about to do my yoga.

I'm convinced that, dietetically, this is the way to be in control of your body. My hunger is under control. My weight is getting under control. I have more energy and my sleep is more restful.

After being very strict on the zone for a couple of months, I've become less of a 'perfectionist' about it. I don't want to be a slave to food - I want it to serve me. So I zone everything, but I'm more liberal with it now.

For instance, it was my mother in law's birthday last weekend, so I had half a piece of cake, a little bit of ice cream, and barbequed chicken as my meal. An awkward combination, but I didn't gain weight. It allowed me to indulge A LITTLE, while still being in control. Today for lunch I had some tuna with mayo and a glass of hot chocolate. Over the weekend we went to a restaurant and I guestimated my portions.

Now, this isn't my daily regimen, but it allows for me to feel like I can eat anything, but still be responsible and stay in control of my body.

I finally broke 175!!!

For my height, I finally move from 'overweight' to the top of the 'healthy weight' chart.

Boy, this was a tough month. I've been at a plateau for a month where my weight would fluctuate between 176 to 179, but never went down. It makes you wonder what you're doing wrong, if your diet is working for you, etc., but I didn't really change my eating habits.

Finally it broke 2 days ago and I've had consistent loss for 2 days. I was at 174 this morning.

That's 45 lbs and 11% body fat lost in a little over 3 months!

I broke 170 today!

That makes 50 lbs lost in 5 months!

You are doing great!! I love the way you keep adding updates. Do you know any place that people on the Zone get together and chat? Looks like here you are the only one, is there any other place to go for Zoners?

Congratulations.

this web site has a message board for zone plan
www.ivillage.com might check it out. i go to several and i like and enjoy. Your doing so good on the plan. i hear its a good one. LaDean good luck

i know.

it would be cool if more people joined in, but some people look here to see my progress and learn about the zone, so i keep posting.

it's quite funny that, for as few posts in here, there are a ton of views!

i looked at that forum in ivillage and could handle it for about 2 minutes before scrapping it. it's not very practical to have to click on every message individually to follow a discussion. it makes much more sense to have each post in sequence, like here, so you can follow the discussion.

Hello :-)

Well, reading your entries today has just convinced me to give the zone a try. I have the 2 books someone gave me a few years back, which I never read. Today, I tied to peruse the first one and just didn't have the time or energy to figure out yet another diet plan. I decided to check on our trusty 3fc's message board to see if it was working for anyone and low and behold there you were!!!

Great job! I enjoyed reading about your journey and have just checked out several of those websites you gave links to. I just printed the 7 day meal plan from the zoneperfect website and the shopping list and am gonna give it a try starting tomorrow.

I am desparate for something to work, yet tired of trying every weightloss concept out there. I have osteoarthritis in my hands and what caught my attention today were his claims that following the zone would not only diminish inflammation from arthritis, but might allow someone to give up anti-inflammatories altogether. That woud be awesome and certainly a big sell for me!!! My hands ache now, actually.

Thanks again for all of your documentaion of how it worked for you. I am very afraid of the hunger, I have to tell ya. When I get really hungry, I start to feel sick to my stomach and begin to panic. I don't know if the plan will work for me...but I am gonna give it a shot.

You keep up the good work and the posts! You are doing great!

Debbie

Hi! This is my first post here and so far I love this forum! I thought I'd chime in here about the Zone. My husband and I started the Zone back in February. I was at 216 and he was at 210. Since the Zone we've both reduced by 40 lbs each and have enjoyed it immensely. Our energy increased the first week and we haven't had to suffer through starving ourselves.

We had never "dieted" before, but both knew that we needed to do something about ourselves. There was a news story about the Zone on Fox that piqued our interest. After some research, we decided it would be the best route for us, because as I said before, I'm not a person who likes to starve. If you're interested in the Zone I'd suggest that you read, "A Week in The Zone" first to really get a good idea of what it's all about. So far, I've given away 7 copies of it to my friends. Barnes and Noble loves me!

The only thing we do differently in our house with the Zone is that we eat a little more fat than it recommends. (But, usually in healthy forms such as almonds, peanuts or other sources of monounsaturated fats). The fats help you when you are feeling the need to snack and don't want to raise your insulin levels.

I recommend the Zone to anyone who asks. My husband has people coming up to him all the time for advice and he just directs them to me. Several of the people who started after me are now more experts about it than I am. I just found a way of eating that works for me. And that's just what the Zone is--a way of eating and not a diet. It's just a different way of looking at food.

Sorry for the long post. I'm grateful for this board and to have found some fellow Zoner's. Those of you who are interested--give it a good try, you'll find that it's a great way of life!

Wow! I take a break from posting and some new friends have joined in!

I'd really like to inspire anyone who has thought about The Zone to go ahead and try it. It's not a diet, but a lifestyle change, and if you can train yourself to eat this way it will completely change your life.

About a month and a half or so ago I dropped to the top of the 'healthy weight' for my height. I punched in my measurements at some site online and it told me that I was at NO RISK for any illnesses related to obesity. My cholestrol came back at 165 and my lower blood pressure the other day was at 65. My blood pressure and cholestrol have always been fine, but this seemed pretty low to me.

I've been on a plateau for about a month or so. I think that this happens when your body doesn't want to lose weight and feels comfortable where it is. The plateau broke this week and I dropped about 3-4 lbs.

So far, I've lost about 55 lbs on the zone diet since the beginning of February this year (6 months). Everyone who has seen me is completely taken aback and has started dieting. Everyone I know is now in some sort of diet and has lost a bit of weight - people that have been obese for a long time. It's funny and encouraging!

My wife started the week after me and she has lost 50 lbs (in 6 months) strictly on The Zone, with no excercise.

The first week was tough, breaking the carbo addictions and being hungry all the time, but if you can be STRICT STRICT STRICT for the first week, and follow The Zone after that, you will rarely be hungry.

As a matter of fact, if you eat Zone favorable foods strictly, you will probably feel sick from how much food you have to eat! I have to 'resort' to fruits, because you have to eat so many vegetables to reach your required carbs that it really is too much!

The other day I had a bag of broccoli and a bag of cauliflower AND a side salad to make up my carbs. This meal was about four inches high on a 12 inch round plate!

About sacrifices... I make my meals zone meals, but about once a month I allow myself to indulge in some temptation that I've loved in the past, just so I can enjoy it and not feel that I'm forbidden anything. I always make it a zone meal, though. This month my wife and I split a small blizzard and a small chicken breast each for our indulgence one dinner. We even lost weight the next day!

And you just can't beat how much better you will feel with increased energy and stamina!

It's funny. People say I look completely different. That I look so much younger now. When I look in my closet I see shirts and mentally I say to myself 'That one was too tight. So was that one.' and then I'll put one on and be drowning in it.

In my mind, I still see a much bigger me, and people that I meet today can't even believe it when I say I used to be 50 lbs heavier at the beginning of the year.

I love it! And I'm so thankful for the changes The Zone has brought to my life. I feel alive again and both my wife and I have renewed happiness and energy!

I tried the zone diet, and was very unsatisfied. I need more "bulk" in my meals than one of those little bars. LOL I dont really eat much salads so that was probably my problem. This fish oil capsules made me very sick and gave me the burps. It was like burping up Long John Silvers. LOL (sorry, that was gross, lol)

I broke 160 today! That's 60 lbs lost in 6-1/2 months!

I've been feeling a little weak willed lately. I think it's because I feel that there is so much going on in my life that I don't feel I'm in control of everything. I'm a very controlled person and can't operate well in chaos, and so much is going on that I can't possibly take control of my life right now.

I don't know if it's a distraction mechanism from the things I have to do, or an old habit, but I found myself getting hungry at night and turning to eating, or simply eating because I was bored.

To curb this, I noticed that 1 serving of Metamucil equals 1 Carb, so I've been eating 2 Carbs of food, and 1 Carb as Metamucil, and I don't feel hungry much anymore.

I don't think that you can get more bulk in your meals than on the Zone diet - if you eat zone favorable foods, then the meals are gigantic.

Have you ever tried making a Zone salad? Or a Zone dinner? The amount of food is a lot!

As with anything, you take what works for you and forget what doesn't. Fish capsules aren't PART of the diet, just a suggested supplement. I don't take any supplements at all. No vitamins or anything.

The zone doesn't recommend any type of 'bar'. I assume that you're talking about the ZonePerfect bars - You are supposed to take 1/2 of those as a snack, not use it as a meal. Your body can't get the nutrients that it needs from a snack bar.

What I do a lot is eat fruits instead of vegetables. That way I don't have to eat so much. For instance, I will eat 1-1/2 apples as my carbs for a meal, or 1-1/2 oranges, rather than a giant salad.

I'm so glad to read you don't take it. I have bought it and been trying it but I hate burping it. Yuck Yuck Yuck! I have to admit I didn't read much of the book, just enough to figure out how the blocks work and what is legal and how to build meals. I have found that zoneperfect website very helpful for getting recipes.
With some variation in the plan, like getting off plan some on weekends...this is day 20 for me and I have to tell you, it is working! You are right, sometimes I make those big zone salads and can't finish them! I feel stuffed after a meal now. After a legal meal! That's a big wow! So many diets I have tried before, I caved b/c of getting too hungry. I think I have decided this is the plan for me. This plan has really evened me out.

I gave into a little binging episode this afternoon...the first time since beginning this plan. I was so dissapointed in myself. Reading your post made sense tho. SOme things are going on right now in my life too that I don't feel I have much control over and I have more chaos than usual in my life just recently...as well as some extra anxiety over a potential new dating relationship and I caved. I stopped mid-binge tho, with disgust and went to write in my journal, which helped me get back on track. I gave myself a pep talk and know that I can have a fresh start right now. So, I am feeling better about things.

Have a good evening all!