I'm looking for a online partner who wants to help hold each other accountable by posting our daily eating logs each day.

I've tried to start the Zone a few times over the past couple weeks, but I'm having trouble with the lifestyle modifications (change is always hardest at the beginning). I've read a few of the books and have a pretty good handle on the program, but would love the added support/accountability of sharing my daily eating log with another Zoner.

Any takers?

sure i am game. i dont know if i can post every day but i can post some of the ones i come up with.
My name is teri and i live in tennessee. My email address is twildes@frontier.com, if you send me
an email, make sure you put on there who you are and where you got my email from, ok ashley?:P

Let me know if you want another participant. I find that my food journal is more complete when I am held accountable to sharing it!

CranberryCat - I will be your pal. Will you be mine?

Sure!

Do you want to share eating logs here? Or via email? Or FB? Could even do an online journal like myfitnesspal, or nutritiondata (don't know if they have that capability).

Let me know!

I registered for myfitnesspal to see how it works, and I usually go by the fit of my clothes, and don't usually weigh myself. I will have to get a battery for my scales that also calculates BMI (just for comparison to measurements). The BMI will probably become a catalyst for me to actually exercise! Can we share logs on it?

Nutritiondata has email capability as an excel spreadsheet, although it does not have meal types/times, or water consumption fields.

I am using myfitnesspal today and will compare it to nutritiondata calculations. So far, it has the foods I usually eat, and I even added the Omega Rx capsules to the database for everyone else to use as well.

I have got to plan my meal times better. Today, we woke up at 6:15 a.m. and then I fed the girls around 7:30 a.m., and then I began eating at 8:30 a.m. and finished at 10:00 a.m.?!? because of "multi-tasking." This is why I like to keep track of these types of things, it really helps you to see the entire picture and make adjustments for improvements. And having other opinions really helps also.

Is there a way for me to add the girl's t

ohhh - something happened . . . is there a way for me to add the girl's meals under my account as well? I want to make sure they are eating enough calories, but not too much. One of the girls is a little underweight, and the other one is more 'healthy', so it would be good to track and also make better nutritional choices for them.

A tip, under most circumstances omega 3 concentrates are not considered for determining Zone balance.

Thank you Sue. I just want to track my overall calories for the day of anything that I consume, which will encourage me to choose better carbs with less calories and more vitamins.

Ayesha, I don't know how you can add your girls without creating a separate account for them, unless you break it down into different meals.

Ahh, heres an idea... you can set up your meals, so for each meal you could make a meal for yourself, and one for each of your girls, then do the same thing for snacks.

I don't know how to add you as a friend on that site, can you give me your username or email address? My username is cranberrycat (of course), and my email is cranberrycat@hotmail.com.

That is a good idea. Although, we don't always eat the same foods. Even the girls are beginning to choose different fruits or proteins at each meal. I posted the question on the forum boards for tech support. My log this week will just be what I typically eat, although I am beginning to compare food choices in order to meet the calorie goal of 1100 total per day. It will gradually improve. We heat and eat a lot because it is convenient and efficient, and mostly in the Zone (if my math is correct - I think we are eating more calories than I realized.)

I also figured out how to add friends and sent you a request from my id as ZoneMom. and my email address is ayesha_nicole@yahoo.com, so you will recognize the email I sent you.

Ashley and Teri. Are you going to join us? Come on! Yellaaaa (as the Arabs say to mean, "come on. let's go!")

You're welome Ayesha. :)

Sue,

Are you on myfitnesspal?

Ayesha, no, I'm not.

Cranberry Cat,

I set my goals in myfitnesspal and am confused on how it is calculating the grams for protein, carbs, and fat?

DAILY NUTRITIONAL GOALS TARGETS
Net Calories Consumed * 1100 calories
Carbohydrates @ 40% > 110g / 9 = 12.222 zone blocks
Protein @ 30% > 83g / 7 g = 11.857 zone blocks
Fat @ 30% > 37g / 3 = 12.333 zone blocks

Is this correct?

and Sue? what do you think?

Ayesha, I'm not sure what you're asking me.

Sue,

Sorry about that. For the myfitnesspal site, I input my goal for calories as 1100, and adjusted the percentages for protein @ 30%, carbs @ 40%, and fat @ 40% and it calculated the grams for me, but it seems to be a block off?

DAILY NUTRITIONAL GOALS TARGETS
Net Calories Consumed * 1100 calories
Carbohydrates @ 40% > 110g / 9 = 12.222 zone blocks
Protein @ 30% > 83g / 7 g = 11.857 zone blocks
Fat @ 30% > 37g / 3 = 12.333 zone blocks

Is it correct?

Thanks.

Thanks.

The difference (11 blocks vs 12) is because you are asking it to calculate precise numbers of calories. The number of calories in one block will will differ from one food to the next because some foods considered protein for the block system also contain a little bit of fat and/or carbohydrate, some considered carbohydrates may also contain a little protein and/or fat and some fats also contain a bit of protein and /or carbohydrate. Dr Sears referred to this as the "slop factor in one of his eariler books if I remember corrrectly.

My tip, the Zone Food Journal in Tools is more appropriate for tracking success with the Zone Diet (http://www.zonediet.com/tools/food-journal)

Ahhh. Should I change the calorie goals to 1200 per day, because I am including the Omega Rx capsules (8 per day) that total 70 calories and 8 grams of fat which are factored into the daily goals calculation?

I for the purpose of Zone balancing you meals I wouldn't include the fat grams in Omega Rx.

I prefer not to use the Zone Food Journal for several reasons:
1) it is set up to be geared more towards using the baked foods rather than real food.
2) it has to be copied and written down, rather than electronic input.
3) it does not track calories
4) it does not give me enough room to write

I can do just about everything that the Zone journal does on myfitnesspal, and some of the food labels for the zone products are in the food index on that website, too (not that I use the products, but they are there). I can take notes about how I feel after meals, I can still track my water intake. I also like the convenience of using the mobile app to record my food journal, although I seem to forget that I can do that!!!

I have my profile set up to track protein, carbs and fat in the same percentages as the Zone, 40-30-30, but honestly I eat more of a 30-30-40 balance to adjust for carb sensitivity. I may go ahead and change that one. I also track fiber and calcium intake. Generally, I do look at each meal to see if I have hit a balance, just keeping in mind that a meal should have around 27g carb (less for carb sensitivity), 21g protein, and 9g fat (and sl more than this if dropping the carb due to sensitivity). But, it is more important to concern yourself with the foods that make up the ratios, rather than the ratios themselves.

If you are concerned about counting calories, I think you definitely should account for the fish oil intake. Calories DO count, even if we don't necessarily count them in the Zone.

Great to see you on myfitnesspal! I haven't been using it much lately, so I do feel that it will be good to get back to it and be more accountable.

Thank you ladies. By writing/typing down my food intake for the last two days, it has been an eye opener for the amount of calories I am eating. Especially today due to higher fat content in my breakfast selections, that it forced me to get on the treadmill to eliminate some of them, and I have not walked on the treadmill since expecting! Although, I am not quite willing to give up that coffee creamer with a bit of coffee in the mornings just yet, but I am now thinking about it a little differently after seeing the numbers. This is forcing me to rethink the meals/family menu for healthier choices. For me, it is all in the planning. Since turning 40, I have this fear that I am going to rapidly gain weight, and I cannot have that! However, I am confident in the Zone principles and just have to be more conscious in my selections, and myfitnesspal site and phone app really helps.

Today, we received an email from our dentist, who is also a close colleague of my husband's, about "chronic inflammation" that "is like a fire inside the body." It reminded me of several years ago when my husband had some extensive dental work done and I told him that it is a precursor for heart disease, as I had read in one of the Zone books. And then a few years later, he had shortness of breath and feel a little strange that prompted him to visit the cardiologist, another close colleague of his, and was diagnosed with heart disease and had stents put in his arteries, and was told to eat a low carb diet. He also just recently developed "morning heel pain" or " plantar fasciitis", that is also related to inflammation of that ligament. I wonder if the Zone would help it?

At any rate, I am curious what Dr. Sears and his wife Lynn typically eat in a week? And I wonder if they would post their food and exercise diaries, along with lab results.

Have either of you been on a Zone cruise? They look like fun!

No, I haven't. No Zone cruises (or any kind of cruise) for me. I get massively seasick! :)

Nope, I have never been on a Zone cruise, let alone any cruise. I think it would be awesome to do it, but with 3 kids and husband has been in/out of work, it just hasn't been in line with my financial planning lol. Oldest daughter started high school, and each one is 3 years behind her. I imagine after all are sent off to school, then maybe a cruise might fit into our lives!