General Diet Plans and Questions General diet questions, support for various diet plans other than those listed below.

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Old 02-03-2003, 06:06 PM   #1  
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Default Has Anyone Tried The Zone Diet?

HI EVERYONE! I AM NEW HERE AND I AM IN NEED OF LOTS OF FRIENDS AND SUPPORT AND ADVICE <IS THAT AKSING TO MUCH > HEHE I JUST CANT SEEM TO DO IT ON MY OWN..I EXCERCISE ONE NHGT AND GET ALL PUMPED UP FOR THIS AND THE NESXT DAY ITS LIKE ALL MY ENERGY JSUT DISAPEARS AND I GIVE UP
I WATCHED A TV SHOW THE OTHER NIGHT AND IT TALKED ABOUT THE THE ZONE DIET AND THE NEXT DAY I WENT TO THE BOOK STORE AND SAT THERE READING THE BOOK AND IT SOUNDED REALLY GOOD..BUT BEFORE I INVEST IN THE BOOK I WANTED SOME FEED BACK..I AM REALLY DEPRESSED AND I JUST CANNT STAND IT NO MORE...I HOPE TO HEAR FROM SOME NEW FRIENDS SOON THANK YOU .
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Old 02-11-2003, 06:52 PM   #2  
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I came here looking for others who have been on the zone diet. I'm starting week 2 of being on the diet.

I started it last week. So far I'm amazed at the side effects! Not in weight loss as much as in how I feel.

I feel alert during the day - I don't feel a surge of energy at 9 am then a crash of energy at 11 am. I feel alert consistently through the day.

I have clarity and energy when I wake up - I used to wake up tired and groggy. Now when I wake up, I'm awake. Also, I sleep well throughout the night - no tossing and turning.

According to the book, initially you will lose a lot of water weight, after which you will lose weight consistently at about 1 lb/week. My scale says that I'm down 8 lbs from the start, so I believe that 7 lbs were water.

I felt the way that you do about the book. I bought 'A Week In The Zone', instead of the expensive "Mastering the Zone'. You can find it at Barnes and Noble for $7.00. This is all that you need. It gives you a summary about the biology, teaches you how to eat, and gives you information about almost every food you can imagine. You can get EVERYTHING ELSE that you need from zoneperfect.com. Recipes, Scientific Studies etc,

If you go to http://www.zoneperfect.com/Site/cont...terthezone.asp there is a 66 lesson tutorial which give you ALL of the biology, ideology, how to eat right in a bind when you're out, etc. I read the entire thing, and it had everything in the 'A Week...' book plus more.

The book explains that, as a culture, we're addicted to carbos, and once we start eating right we'll experience the hunger pangs of breaking the carbo addiction. For about 3 or 4 days I was hungry between all meals. Now I barely notice the time going by.

If you eat the proper foods, the meals are HUGE! Mostly veggies. You can eat almost anything, but bad foods get MUCH SMALLER portions.

The only tough thing about the zone is the calculations. I bought a calculator just for the kitchen and I have an electronic scale to measure the food.

I TOTALLY think that the tediousness of weighing and measuring food portions is worth it, though, if I can get back to a healthy weight. I already feel great!

The zone diet isn't a diet, but an education on how and what to eat and its effects on your body. Once you learn and follow it, the results should be everlasting. I wish I could give a testimonial, but I just started myself. I'm sure that you'll find it's worth much more than the $7, though.
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Old 02-14-2003, 07:18 PM   #3  
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HI SFW GLAD TO HEAR FORM YOU AFTER READING YOUR REPLY TO MINE IT REALLY GOT ME GOING..I WOULD LOVE TO CHAT MORE..SO PLEASE CONTINUE AND MAYBE WE CAN CHAT ALSO ..KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK..HATE TO RUN BUT IM GOIN TO GO TO THE WEB SITE YOU TALKED ABOUT YEEEE HAAA
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Old 02-17-2003, 08:48 PM   #4  
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hey boo boo, I'm glad I could help!

I've really been amazed at all the changes in the way I feel!

If you can master the zone 'blocks', you'll be doing ok.

Another thing that I've been doing is tracking all of my meals and excercise at Fitday.com. This is one of the most amazing resources I've ever seen in my life. You can put in your meals and it will tell you the calories, the protein/fat/carbo ratio, the vitamins and minerals, etc. You can put in your excercise and it will tell you your calories burned from the excercise versus the amount you burn per day just from being alive. It's amazing.

Today starts my third week in the zone. Over the past two weeks I've lost 7 lbs and 4% body fat.

I hope to see you around and see your story, too! I'd really like this to be a place where we can all share our experiences and spur each other on.
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Old 02-24-2003, 12:33 PM   #5  
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Today starts my fourth week in the zone. In the past 3 weeks I've lost 10.2 lbs and 2.3% body fat.

My clothes fit better now. About 2 months ago I had a meeting and my belt was a little big, so I had to put a new notch in it. I wore it again on Sunday, and realized that it was big again! I'm going to wait a while before putting in a new notch, though.

My meals have all been zone meals, even when dining out. I went to Red Lobster the other night, skipped the Cheddar Bay Biscuits and appetizers, ate my salad with about 1-2 teaspoons of vinaigrette dressing, had the small salmon with all veggies, and when I came back home and totalled it all, I was very close to the zone. I've been able to do the same at Boston Market. I get the Oriental Grilled Chicken, throw away the noodles, use about 2-3 tsp of dressing and I'm close to the zone. Even at a family party, my spouse and I built a double burger with one bun, put a slice of cheese and some lettuce and tomato on it, cut it in half so that we had 1/2 bun, but 2 halves of a burger. Then we had some grapes and strawberries. I totalled it up when I came home and it was all close to the zone. The zone doesn't need to be perfect, just close, and you can eat in the zone anywhere at any time!

I'm averaging 1200 - 1500 calories a day and I excercise 30 minutes a day. I've been doing yoga almost every night.

This week I stepped up my excercise regimen. I went from jogging 15 minutes and walking 15 minutes to jogging for 20 minutes and walking for 10 minutes. I hope to eventually jog for 30 minutes, and then I'll work on increasing my speed. I'd eventually like to be at a point where I can run 3 miles in 30 minutes.

I got some encouraging feedback today! I've been taking my front and side pictures every Monday, then I compare my shape now to my shape over the past weeks, and you can DEFINITELY see how my belly has shrunk.

I did yoga every night this week except Saturday night. The changes in me over the past month have just been incredible!

Before I started this regimen, I was tired all of the time. It was very difficult to get out of bed because my back hurt. Every time I got up, I felt like my back was going to snap in two. I was always hungry. It was tough to get out and do things because I didn't feel motivated or energized. In addition, I've been a chronic insomniac and restless sleeper for over 20 years.

• The Zone:
Changing my eating habits has been a little tough, simply because I've always eaten what I wanted, when I wanted. I started The Zone, and now I try to eat the best foods for me. I have to eat only at my designated meal times, and I have to eat the right sized proportions of protein, carbs and fat for each meal and stop when eating when the food is finished, but the side effects have been so incredible and so fast that I never want to go back again!

The Zone teaches you that you can eat anything, but that some things are better for you than others. If you eat something bad for you, chances are that you can only eat a little bit to fill up your meal requirement for protein, carbs and fat. If you eat something good for you, you usually can eat a ton of it before meeting your protein, carbs and fat requirement. For me (a 3 Block Person) it means I can have a tuna fish sandwich (1/2 can of tuna, 1 teaspoon of mayo, and 1-1/2 pieces of bread) or I can have a gigantic salad (a large mixing bowl full) with fruits, veggies, 1 tsp to 2 tbl of salad dressing, depending on the dressing, or some nuts, and 3/4 cup of cottage cheese or a chicken breast. In other words, I can have a gigantic, healthy meal, or a small unhealthy one (bread and mayo being the sandwich culprits), and both are ok. If I choose the unhealthy meal, I'll still lose weight, be focused, have energy, burn the calories I eat - I just wont get all the health benefits of the healthy meal and my portion of food will be much smaller. If I'm really hungry, I can have a large, healthy meal.

I've been losing fat and weight and my clothes fit better. After the first week of junk food withdrawals, now I'm rarely hungry between meals. I'm focused during the day. I don't feel drained. I don't have a surge of energy at 9 am, then a crash at 11 am, then get tired at 1 pm - I'm focused and alert all day. I go to sleep at night when I go to bed (it used to take hours, now it takes minutes) and I sleep through the night, only getting up occassionally to use the restroom (and then I fall right back to sleep). I find that I'm full now not because of the amount of food I eat, but that I'm eating the right food in the right proportions. Instead of needing mashed potatoes, or a plate of pasta, or bread rolls, etc. to fill me, now I fill up on much less food. I can be equally full with a gigantic salad and some grilled chicken as I can be with a sandwich, or a taco and a side salad - although most of my meals are large, delicious salads with some protein and either dressing or nuts. I've come up with zone variations of my favorite salads: taco, greek, bistro, strawberry-kiwi and oriental chicken.

• Excercise:
I can't even believe the progress that I've made and how my body has adapted. I've never been athletic or developed any athletic routine, but my daily walking-jogging has been great. When I started out, walking slowly, I never thought that I'd be able to pick up the pace, or even do it again the next day. My body has been very resilient. When I stepped up from merely walking for 30 minutes to jogging for 5 minutes-walking for 25 minutes, I thought I was going to die! I didn't think I'd be able to finish the other 25 minutes of excercise. I did it once, and I was exhausted. The second time I was tired. The third time, I knew I could do it. The fourth time, I was used to it. Now when I step up my jogs for longer times, it's very tough the first time, a little tough the second time, by the third time my body is used to it and I can feel my heart and breaths for hours afterwards! I'm sure that it's having a great effect on my heart because I don't feel tired living daily life now, and my blood pressure is great.

• Yoga:
This has just been amazing. I'm only doing beginning yoga, but my back pain is gone! I had trouble walking, my legs would hurt when I'd be in bed. I felt like I was going to double over when I got out of bed. I never thought that my back would be free from pain. EVER. I used to hang upside down from gravity boots for my back, but it was so difficult and dangerous getting my body inverted on the bar. Then I would roll around on a soccer ball and use my weight to align my back, and that works really well, but my muscles would often be sore the next day. Now that I've been doing yoga for about a month, my lower back pain is gone. In the morning I can get up without any pain. My muscles have become flexible to the point that when I do have back pain, I can usually do a couple of quick yoga poses and it's back in place and the pain is gone. Sometimes I still need to roll on my soccer ball, but instead of every day, I do it every couple of days. I suspect that once my lower back/groin are flexible that I will be able to align myself strictly with yoga poses.

I'm really happy with how this diet and the other things in my life have changed how I feel. It's amazing! I just really hope that I can keep it up, because the real challenge is making it your daily life forever.
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Old 03-03-2003, 09:59 AM   #6  
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I just finished month 1 of being on the zone and the results have been amazing!

In the past four weeks I've lost 12.8 lbs and 3.9% body fat!

Clothes that have been tight for years are falling off me now, and I can wear clothes that I previously didn't wear because they were a little tight and uncomfortable.

My regimen this month has been: eating zone foods at home, when I'm out I estimate my zone portions so that I'm close to the zone even when I'm dining out, daily excercise, and daily yoga (for back and stress relief more than excercise).

My son was in town from Thurs. to Sun., and it was a whirlwind, so I only got to excercise once those days and I didn't do yoga at all. I see the consequences already - I lost 2 lbs this week, which is good, but my average for the 2 weeks before was about 2.5. Those 3 days without excercise cost me half a pound.

But it's no big deal. We had a wonderful time and it was totally worth it. I'll make it up sometime in my life!
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Old 03-07-2003, 11:36 AM   #7  
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I just completed week five in the zone and am just amazed at the changes in my body in this short period of time!

When I started I was at 218.8 lb., 28.9% Body Fat.
Now I'm at 203.6 lbs., 25.1% Body Fat

In five weeks I've lost 15.2 lbs and 3.8% body fat.

I never knew that I didn't know how to eat. I always thought, juice is natural, so it must be good for me, and pasta has no fat, so that must be good for me, and 100% whole wheat bread has nutrients, so it must be good for me, and potatoes, carrots, bananas, etc. are all natural, so they must be good for me, and you can't get any more natural than being a vegetarian, so it must be good for me.

I'd been eating low-to-no fat, no red meat, as close to nature as possible for years. I gave up sodas years ago. No drinks but milk (skim), juice, herbal teas, an ocassional cappuccino indulgence, or water ever touched my lips. I could not understand how I could be obese, when everything I ate was 'right'.

I am so thankful to Dr. Sears so much for culminating the evidence in The Zone to teach me how to eat.

What's amazing is that we, as a society - even obese people, don't usually overeat in volume. My meals were normal sized meals, even smaller than my zone meals. A typical meal would consist of a sandwich, maybe a half sandwich-half soup, or a bowl of pasta with fat free cheese, or some fish, corn and mashed potatoes.

The real problem was that, for my height (5'10''), any more than 1.5 pieces of bread was all the carbos my body required for the meal. Any more than that would be converted to fat. Any more than a 3/4 cup of pasta would be all the carbs I required for a meal, any more would turn to fat. 8 oz of juice was all the carbs my body required for a meal, anything else would turn to fat. But I'd have pasta (carbos), cheese (carbos), maybe a breadstick (carbos), juice (carbos), etc.

You see, very small portions of certain 'natural' foods can be much more than our body needs. The excess, in turn, becomes fat. Juices contain so much sugar (carbohydrates) in such a small volume, that you can easily overeat carbos in a meal by drinking more than a glass. How many times have you had juice (carbos) with a piece of toast (carbos) or an english muffin (carbos). Certain fruits (a whole banana, for instance) contain all the carbos we need in one meal, yet we put a whole banana (carbos) in a bowl of cereal (carbos).

Certain things, such as bread and pasta, have so much carbos stuffed in such a small space that it's nearly impossible NOT to overeat them, and these are part of our daily staple. We sprinkle some fat free cheese on it (compare fat free cheese carbos with regular cheese carbos sometime - guess what, they replace the fat with more carbos) and, we have carbos, upon carbos, upon carbos.

Add to this that, many times, we don't eat enough protein with our carbos (protein helps counteract the effects of the carbos on the body), or fat (fat tells your body that it's full), and we have bodies that are a complete mess.

Now, the size of my meals is normally larger than my meals were before but, since most of my carbos are low density (less carbos in a small space) - as opposed to high density carbos as breads, pastas, juices and certain fruits, and because my carbos, protein and fat are balanced in every meal, my energy level has changed, my body is shaping up, people are noticing, and I'm feeling great!

I'm so saddened by the millions of obese people out there who really, truly have tried sincerely, and given up, by following what the media has told them is the right food to eat. I've been one of them for a while, and this was sincerely my last attempt to do it, once and for all, do or die, because I desperately felt that I was dying inside. It was do this, or give up. I felt no motivation to get out of bed in the morning. My back was in agony every morning. If this didn't work, I'd deal with my body aches and pains, eat what I wanted, and give up hope on being healthy and lean ever again.

But now, five weeks later, I can't remember a time when I felt so energetic, able to get around, able to jump out of bed, and able to sleep!

I can't remember a time when I wasn't starving at lunch or dinner time. Now I have to remind myself to eat, because my hunger pangs are so few and far between.

And I've never been able to jog more than for a couple of minutes in my whole life. Yesterday I stepped up my excercise to 25 minutes of jogging, then slowing down to 5 minutes walking. Soon I'll be jogging for half an hour, and I'll be able to increase my speed.

In short, this has really changed my life and I hope that it encourages some of you to give it 'one more try' and live and love your lives!
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Old 03-07-2003, 11:50 AM   #8  
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Wow you are doing great...I am doing the low carb plan. It is working for me. Good luck to you. ~Rachel~
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Old 03-13-2003, 06:43 PM   #9  
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Question Fish Oil & Zone

sfwasabi,

You seem to be doing great on the Zone...I have just starting reading through one of Sears' books and he seems to put a lot of importance on taking fish oil that's been molecularly distilled. Are you taking fish oil or any other supps and what brand?

Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your progress!

Take care,
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Old 03-17-2003, 03:38 PM   #10  
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RE: Fish Oils... Yes, I've been taking them every day since I started. I take five 1000 mg tablets a day. Since that is a bit, I take 2 at breakfast, 2 at lunch and 1 at dinner.

I take Sundown (available in Publix supermarkets, and many other places) because they are owned by Rexall, who (at least they say they do) have strict testing standards to ensure that all of their products work and get disseminated into the body. FYI... MANY supplements are 'too tough' to be broken down, and thus go straight out of you without ever being absorbed, so it's good to research the ones that you take.

I know that many supplements don't get absorbed from my brother who is an extemely health conscious, vegetarian doctor, and I know about Rexall's quality standards from family members who sell their products.

According to Dr. Sears, pharmaceutical grade fish oil is what everyone should be using, but his fish oil costs $50/bottle, whereas Sundown costs about $9/bottle and I go through about about half a bottle a month. That would be very pricey to do with Dr. Sears' fish oil.

Wow, what a week!

The middle of the week before last my left knee and right ankle each had a little sprain. It happened, get this, doing yoga!

The funny thing is that they didn't hurt when I'd walk, or when I'd jog, but only when I'd lift my knee up high (which I rarely do).

Not wanting to stop my stamina, I continued jogging, hoping that every day it would get better. And it didn't seem to get any worse, it just didn't get better. Finally on Monday I decided to take the week off and try to let it heal.

They feel much better now. I think I'm going to try jogging again tonight to see if they hurt in the morning. If they do, then I'll take another week off.

Then on Friday I got notice from my partner that he's splitting the business, which means that I get to start my life all over again with a brand new business. It was stressful, overwhelming, painful - but now I'm really excited about it. I have a friend working on an identity package for me for the business and I have a ton of ideas to hit the ground with.

So, I was unable to excercise or do yoga last week, but I was strict with my zone diet and I was able to break 200 lbs for the first time in about 6 years or so! And that, about 2 weeks before my goal!

Right now I've been weighing in around 197-199 for the past couple of days. I just can't believe all the changes in my energy and my body!
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Old 03-18-2003, 11:10 PM   #11  
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sfwasabi,

Congats on meeting your goal earlier than anticipated! Hope your sprains are on the mend! You have inspired me to look through my Zone book again. I don't know why but I am finding reading it a bit confusing, with the blocks concept and all!

Sears really seems adamant about the fish oil being phamaceutical grade and molecularly distilled though! I looked on the web site and wow it is pricey. I guess I'll have to keep investigating that one.

Be well,
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Old 03-19-2003, 01:30 AM   #12  
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Hey NJCyster,

Thanks for the encouragement. I did jog Monday and a couple of hours later my knee was in excruciating pain all over again, so I guess it's more down time for me. I was encouraged that I was still able to do a 25 minute jog/5 minute walk, so my week off didn't hurt my stamina.

It's funny that you mention not understanding the blocks, because I didn't understand them from Dr. Sears' explanation, and almost gave up on the block method entirely because of it.

Then I stumbled upon zoneperfect.com, which has a 66 lesson tutorial called 'Mastering The Zone'. It has everything in my 'A Week in the Zone' book, plus it explains the science and goes into more detail. It even seemed a little more friendly to me.

It wasn't until I read their block tutorial that I understood the block method. Now it's the only method I use, unless I'm eating out and have to eyeball it.

Here's how I do it at home. I weigh or measure all of my foods. My recipe book has a list of just about everything that you can imagine and their blocks, and whatever it doesn't have I write in.

I have the same breakfast every day, because it's easy that way. For lunch I have 5 salads that I really like. I make one a day. I put the recipes in my recipe book, so I just have to prep - now that I've done all the math. You have to do the math the first time, but if you write it down you don't have to do it again. If I'm busy at night, I usually have a frozen dinner that comes close to the zone, and I add to it whatever is needed. Otherwise I cook a zone dinner. Usually my dinners are on the fly, so I do have to spend some time doing math and measuring - but most of the time I do the prepared thing for dinner. So usually my only time consuming meal is lunch, unless I cook dinner too. I don't fret if my percentages don't come out perfect - I just try to be close.

It's very helpful to have things that are small that you can use to round out things. For instance, I have Steel Cut Oatmeal, which I use A LOT to sprinkle on things to make up the remaining carbs. I have a lot of different nuts, salad dressings that I make myself, or plain olive oil that I can add to things to make up reminaing fat, and protein powder can be sprinkled on things to make up the remaining protein.

I have a book in my car with restaurant meals and their blocks so I know what to order when I eat out. I'll also look up nutritional info online for the restaurants I don't have and decide what I'm going to eat before I get there. I take little baggies with me if I need to add any extra carbs, protein or fat. I put my recipes in this book to help me make up my grocery list, and I have a list of frozen food dinners and their blocks so I can buy some convenience meals that are easily converted to zone meals.

The lessons are at: http://www.zoneperfect.com/site/cont....asp?offset=60

The block lesson is at: http://www.zoneperfect.com/Site/cont...ail.asp?id=862

Re: the strictness of things. I'm a very strict kind of person, but I take everything with a grain of salt, too. It seems to me that our grandparents drank real cows and goats milk, real butter and cheese, and lived for quite longer than the generations since - probably without taking as much fish oil as I am, eating as healthily, or excercising as often.

Just as I'm not going to die if I eat something unhealthy, I'm sure that the 'grade' of fish oil that I take probably wont harm me. If I don't get enough Omega 3, oh well. I'm sure I'm getting a bit. I usually have salmon a couple of times a week.

I would need sufficient evidence that the Sundown Fish Oil doesn't work and the Sears Fish Oil does, and that the benefits are worth spending the extra $90/month on a supplement before I'd really worry about it. Dr. Sears is a scientist AND salesman, so he has a reason for selling his fish oil. I'll wait for his paper to be published about the need for fish oil to be medicinal grade in order to be beneficial before I'll fret about it!

I take Vitamin E, Baby Aspirin, two multivitamins, Fish Oil, Calcium and Magnesium every day, and I'm feeling pretty good. My grandparents lived into their 80's and I never saw them eat a healthy meal or excercise once in my time with them!
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Old 03-23-2003, 06:00 PM   #13  
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This was a tough week!

My diet was fine. On Monday I tried jogging again and I was able to keep up my stamina, but my knee was in excruciating pain, so I stopped for the week. I'm going to try again this Monday and see if it's healed yet. It hasn't hurt in days, but it wasn't hurting on Monday, either.

Since I couldn't do my daily excercise, I tried to be more strict with my diet. Today I've been weighing in the 196's, with 25% fat. I started off at 218.8 on February 5, 2003 and 47 days later I'm at 196. That's almost 23 lbs in less that two months! Not too bad.

My whole life feels different now. I feel stronger, more energetic, more lively and more confident and to boot my old business is coming to a close, so I'm about to start a whole new life with a new business!

I'm scared and excited at the same time, but I'll be totally in control and I wouldn't have it any other way!
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Old 03-23-2003, 10:59 PM   #14  
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sfwasabi,

Thanks for the interesting links! The Zone really seems to be working for you. I'm curious, what do you eat for breakfast? I'm not doing the plan yet, but do you find you get hungry on the Zone?

Thanks,
NJCyster
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Old 03-24-2003, 11:33 AM   #15  
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NJ,

Here is an excerpt from my journal of my fourth day on the zone.

&quot;This is day 4 in 'The Zone', at least as close as I can be to it, since I'm still learning how to change my dietary habits. I'm definitely feeling the effects. I'm DEFINITELY hungrier, all the time - in fact, but my mind is more clear and focused. I feel better and more energetic, but I'm also feeling more depressed because my work is being neglected because my life is out or order. I think that my hunger is due to my carbohydrate addiction - and also because we have so many foods that we have to consume before they go bad that I haven't been able to eat completely zone healthy foods yet. I expect that when I can eat zone healthy meals (tons of low density carbohydrates) that my hunger between meals will diminish.&quot;

For about a week, I was starving every day. The first week your body is breaking its addiction to carbohydrates and adjusting to your change in diet. You really have to incorporate your diet into your life, and it's time consuming learning to measure out your portions doing the block method, but it has an amazing affect on your body once you get used to it.

An excerpt from Day 10

&quot;I am SO loving 'The Zone' so far. It's tough measuring and preparing eveything, but I wasn't hungry all day, and I didn't have to eat until I 'felt' full - I just ate my portion and the fullness would come later. I don't get hungry between meals. I've never felt so alert and I've never woken up without being tired before. My sleep has never been so solid. I'm sound asleep around 12 am every night. I used to fight until 2 and 3, but this change of habits has really helped me be tired at night and get a good night's sleep.&quot;

Now, I'm rarely hungry. I usually don't get hungry unless I just happen to be away from home at meal time. When I'm home, I have to remind myself to eat, and I get full really quickly. My breakfast is relatively small in volume, and it feels challenging to get through it all. In fact, my journal doesn't even mention the word 'hungry' past day 16 in the zone, so I guess it hasn't even crossed my mind in a while.

Here's my breakfast:

I take Multivitamins, Vitamin E, and Fish Oil, not because my diet is deficient, but because when I check my nutrients for the month on Fitday.com I am usually well over 100% on everything, except a few trace nutrients, so I use a supplement for these few nutrients.

3/4 cup 4% milkfat cottage cheese (3 P)

9 Cashews (3 F)

1 misc. carb. (1 C) This depends on what I need to eat before it goes bad. It is usually fruit and I usually put it on my cottage cheese.

1 block steel cut oatmeal (Available in health food stores.) (1/3 cup) (1 C). I boil 2 cups of water, put it in a thermos, add 1 cup of oatmeal, shake it and let it sit overnight. In the morning I pour it out into a 1/3 cup measuring cup. Then I put each portion in sandwich bags and freeze them for the week.

1/2 Apple (1 C) I cut it up and put it in my oatmeal. I use an apple corer, because it cuts them up in slices quickly and removes the core.

Since I freeze the oatmeal and make more the night it runs out, I don't have to cook it in the morning. Everything else either needs to just be measured and added, or cut and added, so I can put this together relatively quickly.

I hope this helps.

Last edited by sfwasabi; 03-24-2003 at 11:36 AM.
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