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snickers 
Posts:82
Aspiring
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| 12/14/2007 7:01 PM |
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So, I had a long meeting today. The supervisor scheduled a 6 HOUR meeting to get a few of us together and discuss a throughput analysis of one of our work systems. The meeting started at 9 and ended at 3, and lunch was included.
Since they were feeding us, I curiously asked what was for lunch. PIZZA! Well, being an experienced zoner, I felt that this would not be a good choice for me, especially since I would still be at this meeting 3 hours after eating. So, I planned ahead and just brought my own lunch. I felt a bit like I "stood out" and there were eyebrows that went up when I brought in my lunch bag. However, I just made a few comments on how I was going to be eating out later and didn't want to expend a huge amount of calories at lunch time. I should also mention that there were several who also brought other treats, like candy kisses and those mustard-flavored pretzels. I passed on all of that, too.
So, as we worked through the afternoon, we got our topics discussed. At the end of the meeting, I saw a lot of tired-appearing people who were saying that they just didn't have the mental energy to continue the discussion. My supervisor said to me in the elevator that she felt so tired!
I, on the other hand, felt NO lethargy, and felt mentally alert, totally able to continue, and I made the comment that I felt fine and wished we could have continued. "I was just getting started..." is what I said, laughingly!
I owe it to the Zone lifestyle for giving me the energy to continue to be mentally productive while others around me are suffering from their carb hangovers!
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snickers
Posts:82
Aspiring
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| 12/14/2007 7:14 PM |
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Now for the question (I felt that my previous post was such a positive statement, that I didn't want to muddy it with a question!)
I feel somewhat confused at times with how I have adjusted for carb sensitivity. Today, for example, I had a bowl of steel cut oats with protein powder and nut butter, which came out to 2 carb, 3 protein and 6 fat blocks. I had made this adjustment and apply it to all my meals for carb sensitivity. The breakfast that I had today was VERY effective. However, at lunch, I don't feel that my lunch was quite as effective, and I was hungry right around 3.5-4 hours. Actually, I felt kind of "unsettled" as far as hunger goes for the better part of the afternoon. My lunch was a thick lentil soup, made up of the right proportion of ground turkey meat cooked into the soup, 6 blocks of fat, and my carb was a mixture of lentils and veggies: carrots, onion, celery. I had so many veggies in there that you could not even see the lentils. Anyway, the carb blocks were calculated out as 2 blocks, veggie heavy and lentil-light. Definitely, I would think that this meal was a lower glycemic load than the oat breakfast that I had earlier.
So, why would I be hungrier after a lower glycemic load meal than I am after a higher glycemic load meal, assuming that the ratios of carb, protein, and fat are exactly the same?
Also of note, hunger sets in earlier with this type of meal, but I do not experience "fogginess" as I explained in the previous post. I am totally alert and mentally focused.
This type of reaction happens to me all the time, it is not just a fluke thing that happened today. Meals with lower glycemic load do not control my hunger like meals with higher glycemic load, like the oats.
Any opinions out there? |
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Colin
Posts:157
Zoner
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| 12/15/2007 1:23 PM |
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I can't comment on the oats as I never eat them, I keep meaning to give them a try. Generally, if you are hungry but alert, it means you have had a protein heavy meal and should up your carb intake for that particular meal a bit in future.
As for your first post, that's a great story. A few months ago I went to my brothers stag party. As we're all getting old, it was a whole day of outdoor activities at a grown up adventure centre (hover craft racing for example). The lunch was: Baked potato, Baked beans and Cheese. That was it!
So to zone it as best I could, I had half a baked potato, a single table spoon of beans, and 3 table spoons of grated cheese. By 3pm *everyone* was complaining of being tired and lethargic and knackered "After a hard days fun." Everyone except me of course, I was bouncing around, full of energy. It made a great way of introducing the Zone to my brothers! ;-) |
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Down from 30% Body Fat to 18% in 6 months.
Read how on my: Zone Diet and Crossfit Blog |
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Leena
Posts:14
Aspiring
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| 12/16/2007 11:46 AM |
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Regarding your first post, I completely know what you mean!
We often have working lunches: meetings or trainings, and the menu used to consists of pizza! However, due to my own personal interests I proactively took over the responsibility of ordering lunch which has given me the power to opt for something else than Pizza Hut.
I usually pass around a menu for a cafe that sells sandwiches as well as salads (impossible to expect all men to eat salad, my work group of 12, only has 3 women - including myself!) which gives me the opportunity to have a salad.
Last time, we ordered from Go Green, which is a salad bar and they also have wraps, so majority of people got a salad and they loved it. I received comments afterwards how the salad was great and they felt so full of energy after lunch. So I think next time, Go Green it is again! :)
Well, my coworkers joke about me becoming a mean mom one day. That instead of a chocolate bar I will only give my kids apples. Well, IMO that would be a responsible, caring mom rather than a mean mom. :) |
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Sue
Posts:4177
Zoner
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| 12/16/2007 12:02 PM |
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[quote]Posted By cabbage patch kid on 12/14/2007 7:14 PM
Also of note, hunger sets in earlier with this type of meal, but I do not experience "fogginess" as I explained in the previous post. I am totally alert and mentally focused.
quote]
This is a text book description of a meal that contains too little C for your needs. Try adding a small amount of steel cut oats to this soup recipe. It'll probably help.
Also, you might want to double check the fat in your ground turkey. The amount of fat in the ground turkey available where I live varies greatly between brands from basically fat free to about 7 grams a block.
About your qn as to why two meals yield different results for you, one with the C composed mostly from low GL carb, the other with C all from a higher GL carb, but both with the same proportions of P,C,F, and unexpectedly it's the meal containing the higher GL C which works better. While they look the same on paper, they are not the same to your body. Though in theory, it would appear that the greater the percantage of C from a lower GL food used in a meal, the better one will always stay in the Zone, in reality some people need a mix of foods of differing GL's in a meal to maintain low insulin levels. What works best for one person, may not work at all for the next. This is why it's encouraged to keep a food diary in order to tailor meals and snacks to meet your specific needs.
I'm a prime example of how something which seemingly flies in the face of Zone logic, actually keeps me in the Zone. To give a little background, I've been in the Zone for about 13 years. I'm very C sensitive, and my usual balance is 3P/2C/5 or 6 F. I eat mostly veggies for C, very little fruit, and mostly berries when I eat fruit. I've only found a couple varieties of apples which allow don't take me out of the Zone. Now here's the one piece which wouldn't seem to fit. I eat the same breakfast almost every morning, a tweaked version of a shake irecipe found in a couple Zone books. For C it contains 1 block of banana (unfav, meaning 50% of the C in the meal is from unfav C), and 1 block of dark cherries. It keeps me in the Zone very well for up to 6 hours (though I usually eat at 4 or 5 hours later). This is not merely a subjective result. It's proven objectively with blooodwork. My fasting insulin blood test result is 5 and my AA/EPA (SIP test) is also excellent. Just goes to show that what's on paper doesn't always exactly correspond to what goes on in the body. |
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sue
lost 100 lbs 13 yrs ago, off BP meds, thanks to the Zone diet and Zone fish oil!
for more photos, scroll over this photo and click when the link appears
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snickers
Posts:82
Aspiring
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| 12/17/2007 10:49 AM |
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Thanks for all the replies...
Colin, sounds like you have had the same experience that I had! Isn't it great!
Leena, I wish I could be the one to make the decision on the menu! It isn't a usual occurrence to have a long meeting like this, and I really wish we had a Go Green in our area!
Sue, what is confusing to me is that I have some symptoms of carb sensitivity, which is why I made the adjustment that I did. I dropped carb and added fat, very similar to what you are doing. However, I have never been able to make a meal work for me if the meal is lower glycemic veggies at the 2 block level. I get hungry early, perhaps within 2-3 hours. But, if I use low-moderate glycemic load carbs, then I can make the meal last.
On the other hand, when I first started zoning, I was hungry 3 hours after eating a zone balanced meal. I don't get mentally foggy or anything, just hungry way too soon. I only get mental fogginess if I use an abundance of unfavorable carbs, or eat out of balance.
So, I made the adjustment by dropping the carb and upping the fat, so that I could get longer satiety out of a meal. This has been for quite a while, but really have never found comfort in this at all, only when using the moderate GL foods.
And, as far as my progress, well, I haven't had much progress over the past year, and have even gained a few lately (and I would not say that I am gaining LBM, either, since I don't feel as if my clothes size has changed).
Over the past few weeks, I have been working out, and I will be getting my 2 week measurement today, so will see if I have changed in the LBM or bodyfat categories.
So, in essence, I am not really sure what to do with my balance. My first inclination was that I was carb sensitive, with early hunger. However, I still struggle with lower GL carbs, in that I still get hungry too early.
What if I kept the meals at 2C using low-mod density GL foods, and increased to 3C if using low density C? Would that work? |
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Sue 
Posts:4177
Zoner
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| 12/17/2007 2:07 PM |
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Hi,
There's not much use in comparing things now to how they were when you first started the Zone, beause that was years ago.
I understand your current carb sensitive tendencies, as well as your inability to gain 4 hour satiety with meals composed of all very low GI carbs. These experiences are reasons why a food diary will be your best bet. You need to learn exactly which foods work best for you, and keep tweaking the combinations you use to make up your C to get the desired result. You're most likely going to have to be very compliant to the Zone diet once your figure out your best balance, as well as need to pay special attention to exactly which C foods work best, not just categories of C's (like low GI/GL as opposed to medium or higher), but specific foods, such as tomatoes as opposed to celery, or green beans, etc; or grapes as opposed to strawberries.
You may want to consider getting a fasting insulin blood test done, for objective measure of whether you're really in the Zone.
In regard to your final question about using different numbers of blocks of C depending upon the density of the C you choose in a meal, I think a better direction to take would be to make small changes to your present meals, on a meal by meal basis. I'd advise that you stick with your current balance. Try using mostly very low GI/GL carbs, with 25% to 33% of the C in your meal from medium to higher density favorables (black beans, berries, etc.) Be sure to eat the same number of P blocks daily, as determined by yoru LBM adn activity level. Don't change the number of P blocks you eat from day to day. Another thing you might try is having 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 blocks of C from low density carbs (mostly veggies) veggies and 1/4 to 1/2 block C from an unfavorable whole grain, such as few hearty baked corn chips. Here's an example of how I do it. I make a veggie soup of 2 blocks onions, 1 bl. celery, 1 bl carrots, 1 bl bok choi, 1 bl zuchini, and 2 blocks steel cut oats (with chicken broth, olive oil and seasonings). This makes eight 1 block servings of veggie soup. For a meal I'll have 1 block of this soup to which I add 3 blocks P (usually cooked turkey or chicken) and some F, and with that, I eat 2 or 3 whole grain sesame corn chips and 3/4 block of strawberries. I'm not saying to make it a habit to eat grain with each meal. I happened to be having this for lunch today, and thought it might be a way to tweak your turkey soup meal to work better for you. If you'd like to post a samplo of some of the very low GI/GL C meals that don't work for you, I'll be glad to offer suggestions as to how you might consider tweaking them.
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sue
lost 100 lbs 13 yrs ago, off BP meds, thanks to the Zone diet and Zone fish oil!
for more photos, scroll over this photo and click when the link appears
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