I am very new to this diet, but I think it's great. I have tried Slim Fast and Atkins with no luck. I have read The Zone and I also bought the Zone Perfect Meals in Minutes and Zone Food Blocks. I am having a little difficulty understanding the blocks though. Especially when it comes to converting the recipies from male to female. Any suggestions? Thanks. :)

Hi, Once you get used to blocks, It will be relatively easy. I highly suggest keeping things simple to begin. One way to simpliify the block method is to use the "Food Block Guide" in Zone Resources (see menu in left margin of home page of this site). Simply choose 3 blocks of protein, 3 carbs, and 3 fats for a 3 block meal. If you are preparing a 4 block meal from the book you mentioned, it is sometimes easier to put 1/4 of the meal aside to be eaten later for a 1 block snack, than it is to cut down the ingredients to make it a 3 block meal. Sue

Thanks, I think that putting 1/4 aside for later would be much easier. Another question and this may be a dumb question, but how do you figure out how many blocks you should have per day? Thanks again.

If you go to the Zone resources (on the left hand margin) you will see the Fat Calculator. You need to mesure your waist and hips and know your weight. Once you've entered that along with your daily activity...it will calculate it for you. There also calculations that can be made in the Zone Book. Good luck.

[quote="Slknorr"]Hi, If you are preparing a 4 block meal from the book you mentioned, it is sometimes easier to put 1/4 of the meal aside to be eaten later for a 1 block snack, than it is to cut down the ingredients to make it a 3 block meal. Sue[/quote] Well duh, what a great suggestion! Thanks Sue, I'll do this -- I've just been skipping some of the 4 block things thinking it was too much trouble to cut them down to 3. And always looking for 1 block snack, oh how great I can make little mini-meals for snacks -- do you think just 'eyeballing' portions -- like cut it in half, half again and take away the last 'half' - quarter would work? --- I'm looking for easy! Eve

[quote:321616085f="EveMoe"][quote:321616085f="Slknorr"]Hi, If you are preparing a 4 block meal from the book you mentioned, it is sometimes easier to put 1/4 of the meal aside to be eaten later for a 1 block snack, than it is to cut down the ingredients to make it a 3 block meal. Sue[/quote:321616085f] Well duh, what a great suggestion! Thanks Sue, I'll do this -- I've just been skipping some of the 4 block things thinking it was too much trouble to cut them down to 3. And always looking for 1 block snack, oh how great I can make little mini-meals for snacks -- do you think just 'eyeballing' portions -- like cut it in half, half again and take away the last 'half' - quarter would work? --- I'm looking for easy! Eve[/quote:321616085f] Works great for putting aside one fourth of a 4 block meal. Also you will probably find you are able to eyeball lots of things once you have been measuring a while. You get to know what the block size looks like for the foods you eat frequently. But it never hurts to measure iteveryonce in a while just to keep on track. Sue