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Subject: Eyeballing the Zone

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Dan User is Offline
Posts:2
Newbie
Newbie
01/07/2008 9:41 AM Alert 
I want to follow the Zone but don't have the time or resources to calculate blocks for every meal I eat. I'd like to just choose Zone favorable foods and follow the 1/3 plate rule referred to on the home page. Has anyone done this and can share any advice on pitfalls or words of wisdom toward success.

Thanks
Cranberrycat User is Online
Posts:2004
Zoner
Zoner
01/07/2008 2:34 PM Alert 
Eyeballing the zone is an effective way to zone. It is very useful to learn this, as I am sure that you will get into situations (eating out, or at someone's house) in which you will not be able to calculate blocks.

The only pitfalls on doing it this way is that salads don't work well using this system (since it takes a huge amount of lettuce just to get one block of carb). Also, fruit doesn't work as well, and if you load your plate with fruit, you will probably have more than what you should have.

If I were in your shoes, I would familiarize yourself with the block list and get an idea of the volumes of foods that you eat. You don't have to measure, but just keep in mind that foods differ with regard to densities (beans are higher density and low volume).

Cranberrycat

We don't own the earth; we borrow it from our children.

Sue User is Online
Posts:4177
Zoner
Zoner
01/07/2008 6:12 PM Alert 
Hi Dan,

It's not necessary to calculate blocks (nor to count grams) to be successful with the Zone diet. The plate method works very well for most people. I did exactly as you propose to do, and I lost 100 pounds over a two year time, about 13 years ago. I didn't pay any attention to blocks during that time, nor did I count grams. Salads are not a problem. Load your salad withfavorable veggies in addition to lettuce, and choose skinless chicken breast, or low fat cheese, or shrimp, etc. for your protein. A simple oil and vinegar dressing assures you that you're not getting a lot of extra hidden carbs in the dressing. Fruit is fine as long as you follow the Zone guidelines. You wouldn't necessarily want to use fruit for all of your carb on a regular basis, but a meal of with all the carb from favorable fruit would be fine once in a while. My tips would be one, to very literally follow Dr. Sears' advice to treat grains and other high density carb as contiments, and two, make sure you don't skimp on the heart healthy monounsaturated fats you add to the meal.
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

Sue, Zone Snack
Cranberrycat User is Online
Posts:2004
Zoner
Zoner
01/07/2008 7:14 PM Alert 
Sue,

Well, I would agree that one can up the carb content of a salad by loading it up with veggies. However, most people assume that the main ingredient of a salad is the lettuce. At least, I do (perhaps I should not assume what others think!).

In any case, the point that I was making was that the plate method does not work well for constructing meals made up of salad.

In Mastering the Zone, Sears gives an example of a zone meal as a large dinner salad with 2 tomatoes and 2 peppers, 1 cup of steamed veggies and 1 piece of fruit as the carb content (then of course chx breast for protein and olive oil/vinegar dressing for the fat). Now, if I were to put all that on my "plate", the meat would take up about 1/3 of the plate, and the rest of the carb would not even fit on the plate. The tomato and the peppers alone are 3.5 cups in volume. My dinner plate would not fit all of that on 2/3 of the plate. In addition, that would only account for 2 of the 3 (or 4) blocks of the meal. Certainly, another 2 blocks is not going to fit on the plate.

Cranberrycat

We don't own the earth; we borrow it from our children.

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