Confusion in The Zone November 3, 2008
Posted by kimayars Uncategorized
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Holy crap, I am way confused. I started planning out my food for the week using principles in The Zone. Hoo boy.
So here is what I know: According to what I read, I should be consuming 11 blocks of protein, 11 blocks of carbohydrates, and 11 blocks of fat. A block of protein is 7g, a block of carbohydrates is 9g, and a block of fat is a “smidge”. Fair enough. Sounds pretty straight forward.
Of course there is this list in the book of what foods are “best”. In general lean meats for protein work well (turkey, chicken) and non-starchy fruits and veggies are acceptable as well.
Here’s where I am having problems: I can find out by reading the packaging how much protein I need to eat. But calculating the carbs is getting kind of tough. It seems to be a HUGE amount of food. For example, if I were to eat 3 blocks of cucumbers, I’d be eating a cuke and a half. That does not sound appealing to me.
I decided to try and plan this out one day at a time. For tomorrow, this is my plan:
Breakfast: Egg beaters and strawberries
Snack: Kashi Bar
Lunch: 3oz of tuna salad (tuna, mayo, & celery), cucumbers, and oranges
Snack: Kashi Bar
Dinner: 3oz of pot roast (I’ll try and trim off as much fat as possible), and a spinach salad
Looking at this I feel like I’m gong to starve. I so don’t want to be hungry. However, it appears to be a necessary evil. If you have done The Zone before, please feel free to comment on my food plan. I don’t have a lot of confidence in it.
Comments
Kim, If it really bums you out….have a “smidge” of chocolate!
A couple of items stand out to me.
First, I don’t see any fats in your breakfast. How about some cheese for that omlette? Or maybe there are in the Egg beaters, there are several options for those.
By contrast to Zone Bars, the Kashi bars look light on the protein, by half (at least based on my look at the GoLean Crunch bars v. the Chocolate PB Zone bars). Or, another way, too high on the fats & carbs. Bars are hard to figure out, though. They all tend to have way too much sugar, even the Zone bars. I still eat them, though, convenience is a big deal.
Are you drinking water all the way through this? What about 2% milk? Wine? Diet soda is a big fat no-no, btw.
Most of the Zone practitioners I know have a few things in the house to help augment/supplement their diets. Like Almonds & peanuts. Sausages of various types. With the focus on ‘low fat’ diets, it is sometimes hard to get the necessary fat (I noticed you wrote a ’smidge’ of fat, which is not a measure I’m familiar with, and is a little concerning), and these little snack items help out when you need to stretch things a bit. Like when hubby comes home late for din-din.
For example a slice or two of salamie just before you go to sleep will help w/any night-time cravings you might have.
The cucumber thing seems to be a bit of a red-herring to me. It does illustrate a point that the Zone makes, which is that different foods have different nutritional weights. Cucumbers are mostly water, so you gotta eat a lot of them to get something out of them. Personally, I go w/denser greens, like fresh spinach, or the darker green lettuces.
The timing of your meals is super-important. Don’t try to stretch the time too far or you’ll get out of the Zone. Better to eat a bit at the time and stay in the Zone than to drop off all the way because your body won’t like it, and neither will anybody you’re around.
Last thing, and I hate to tell you this, but it will help you get through things for this first bit. You’re going to have sugar cravings. They suck. But, stick to it, and you’ll get to a point 4 - 8 weeks out where you won’t crave it anymore. Seriously. It’s weird when you recognize that it’s happening, and it’s great. I got through Halloween fairly well, except for a couple of those tiny dark-chocolate milky way treats, and normally, Halloween is a big pot hole in the road of health for me!
Good luck with all this! It’s a shift, but you can do it, and the results are pretty spectacular.
kim, feel free to e-mail me with a phone number if you want to talk. i think you’re more than a little off. i don’t think it’s humanly possible to eat 3 blocks of spinach salad. you’d be better off with one block of spinach with a pepper, and a 1-2 block fruit like an apple or orange.
remember the fat isn’t a “smidge,” it’s 7 g. also, when you really look at how he describes insulin rsponse, fat appears to have no bearing on it. so as hardly said, keeping peanuts, almonds, macadamia nuts around is a good idea and there seems to be no problem with eating more than 11 blocks per day. I should add, as long as you’re not over-doing it :o)
i agree with hardly that you should try to eat the highest value veggies (lay off the cucumbers) and lay off the sports bars. the whole idea of the program is to eat real foods. if you’re going for sports bars go with balance or zone.
for snacks think about a string cheese or two (they’re one protein block each) and a piece of fruit. i don’t like milk but full fat whole yogurt is a perfect block. so i buy stoneyfield farms and put a little cinnamon on it it’s yummy!
dinner ideas - only 1/4 cup per block, but a half cup of red beans with some spice is a nice when you need something more than a fruit or veggie.
breakfast ideas - slow cook oatmeal for your carb. we usually make enough for a few days and it sits in the fridge.
dessert - my traditional dessert is to save 1 or 2 blocks for sliced apple with peanut butter.
the first time i went all out and i my sugar cravings were out of control i could have cried! my suggestion is go hard core for 2 weeks to break the habit then give yourself a day to have a few out of the zone snacks. i used to give myself sundays as my “off” day and it was surprising how little junk i ate.
Andrea, this is great, hope Kim read it!
I forgot to mention that one way I stay on top of my sugar cravings is Ice Cream. Yup, it’s allowed on the Zone, and none of that weirdo low-fat crap, either. The key on ice cream is portion control!
I don’t know nothing about Zone… But from what I just read from Andrea and Hardly… I have to chime in with this…
If I was going to eat this diet… and I was worried that I wasn’t getting the right about of fats….
I would DEFINITELY favor:
1) Nuts! Avocados! Olives & Olive Oil! For my “fats”.
2) Chicken WITH the SKIN… Protein and FAT! Yum!
3) Big DARK GREEN Leafy vegetables… Personally I love spinach, but how about: Asparagus, Kale, Collard Greens! These are very hearty vegetables, and if you don’t have to worry about fat, then grill them up with Olive Oil and Garlic… YUM! I could eat that 6 times a day!
4) Whole Fruits: Apples, Pears, Plums, yum, yum, yum…
Oh… and you know what… I’d stay away from any thing packaged… I mean… seriously, sounds like you just got a license to eat a bunch of yummy home cooked meals with lots of flavor… Stay away from anything that came in a box.
Ok… enough of my ranting.