Margaret, I have never thought of adding cottage cheese to a soup. That sounds like a really good idea!

The mention of adding fat to protein powder if it contains none, bring a question to my mind. I use Horizon organic non-fat plain yogurt and often have 1/2 cup for my afternoon snack. I've just been adding 1 fat block (usually a madadamia nut). Should I be adding two fat blocks instead?
Janice

The mention of adding fat to protein powder if it contains none, bring a question to my mind. I use Horizon organic non-fat plain yogurt and often have 1/2 cup for my afternoon snack. I've just been adding 1 fat block (usually a madadamia nut). Should I be adding two fat blocks instead?

The mention of adding fat to protein powder if it contains none, bring a question to my mind. I use Horizon organic non-fat plain yogurt and often have 1/2 cup for my afternoon snack. I've just been adding 1 fat block (usually a madadamia nut). Should I be adding two fat blocks instead?

Yes Janice!

I deleted my post which was not appropriate for this thread.

Hi,
I am using a zone diet food delivery service.
The food is fantastic, and you dont have to worry
about figuring out your food every day.

Janie,
I have heard some good, some not so good things about the food delivery. I don't think that there are any that are endorsed by Sears, at least not in my area. However, I don't think it HAS to be endorsed by Sears in order for it to work for you. Some people have really great success with the service!

Please keep us posted on how you are doing, and how you are enjoying your meals!

I used to visit a forum in which there was one gal who started zoning by using one of the food delivery services, and the meals she had sounded delicious! She posted her daily menu every day. And, she had good results from it!

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I like to take a couple sticks of string cheese and an apple with me when I know I won't be able to get home for a regular meal. A couple peaches, a pear or any of the other favorable fruits could be used instead of the apple.

Does the tuna have to be "albacore tuna" or can it be other "light and canned in water" tuna?

these forums are great for tips.. i've known about the zone and believed in Sears' principles for a good dozen years, but though i am frequently close since i started trying more earnestly in the last 6 mos or so, i don't really maintain a strict zone diet or schedule.. and i *don't* need to lose weight.. i have both tips and questions - thanx in advance! :)

tony & bridget: as for planning shopping trips, im not sure where you are, but a lot of grocery and other store websites these days have some helpful tools in that regard, like click-to-add to a list from the weekly ad, plus notes of your own entered online or after printing, and meijer very recently started a new thing they call mealbox - it lets you plan meals from their recipes or yours, and automatically builds a shopping list (well-organized, too) based on the ingredients, plus it will add coupons if there are any... they have good deals and products in general around here. if they are near you, id recommend checking it out. frankly, i could see it being useful for what it does whether you shop there or not... have fun!

i've always liked halvah, but can't find anything on it here, nor much on sesame seeds. i use it to add fat, particularly for snacks or 'dessert' but am not certain how this form would be considered zonewise...many bars are about 9 blocks and some brands are organic, which means 1/3 bar can be dessert for a fat-free meal or cutting it into 1 block pieces (wrapped in tin foil worked well; i kept them in an ice tray in the fridge for easy grabbing) makes a great alternative to nuts for snacks - e.g., string cheese, halvah piece and favorite carb (fruit, usually). if it's berries, i can put all three in a snack-size ziploc and just take it with me.

i would also like to use dried/roasted soy nuts more for protein and in snacks but have found i can't eat more than a bite or two by themselves, no matter the flavor. they are an excellent way to add protein to otherwise carb-heavy and fat-adequate commercial snack mix or granola. my favorite, though, is one i made myself - soy nuts are very dry, but i found the green, roasted kind, which are bigger than the brown nuts. i split the bag into 1 block portions and put them in snack-size ziploc bags. then i checked the total carb and fat grams in a package of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds (much smaller & better than m&m's or chocolate chips!) and added a little less than 1 block to each bag - just a pinch, really, thumb and two fingers. a pinch of dried blueberries, cranberries and macadamia pieces topped them off, and i instantly had grab-and-go 1 block snacks, a little salty, crunchy, sweet, and not too dry! great to keep me from munching on something else on a long drive or to take on an airplane. the bags fit anywhere, keep well and don't melt easily. i know it's not exactly the best, but i'm much more likely to snack better if i have something easy already with me, and i'm sure most of you know it's easily modifiable to include whatever you like!

particularly for those who need tips for traveling, on the go, in the car, no time - this kind of mix and zone bars are the easiest to keep with you at all times, and to have several for a trip just in case. they pack small and easy and aren't liquid, which i think about since i don't check luggage anymore if i can help it. i keep bars in the fridge if i plan to take them on a trip, so they don't melt so fast. snow peas are an easy carb to go - i'm not certain, but i think a snack-size bag stuffs full with about a block. cold edamame is good too. blueberries and string cheese are good - and i love cherries as well. for car trips, i grab a bag of soy chips, which means at least 3 blocks worth of basically balanced snacking i don't have to think about. if i make up the whole package of turkey bacon (3 slices between paper towels on a plate for 2 min), the slices can be folded or broken in half and portioned out in those snack-size ziplocs (can you tell how cool i think they are for making up stuff to go?) for easy protein to go.. they don't really need to stay cold to go. also, the single-serve size deli meat packages are good if you will be eating it quickly or can keep it cold..

this is long - ill continue with another post..
:) adrien

(cont) - sorry, i know this is long too. guess i had more to offer than i thought.. :)

i, too, find whole flaxseed easy to mix into smoothies, yogurt or on other meals. ive also discovered that if i scramble it into my eggs (i like them dry to start with), they add such (texture?) i can make practically an egg pancake or patty which is then easy to stack with sausage or cheese, make into an open-faced sandwich (or use for the "bun") or use in a wrap. i first used it in an omelet, then tried with just eggs and had to cut back on how much i used because of the way it added bulk/form. i just bought a bag of ground, thinking it would be easier to add to some things, but after sue's info, won't get it that way again.

i am taking fish oil. i'm not sure i can take as much as i'd like to consistently (at least 4-5g/d?), but with capsules (3), i've been managing about 1 gram of epa and 822 mg dha a day, but i just got a bottle of liquid to try. is there a minimum good dose to aim for? do i calculate on epa knowing the dha comes with, total epa+dha, total omega-3? if the last, does it count extra to get more from flaxseed, or other omega-3 enriched foods?

i do enjoy soy chips as a ~balanced snack. sometimes i have to keep from eating too much, but i feel better about them, since i've considered them pretty even on blocks... what, exactly, do folks usually add to these if they are not truly balanced alone? i also found tortilla chips with soy and flax that are nearly balanced and are quite tasty. for a fun snack, i'll put some on a baking sheet, cover with shredded mozzarella and pop in the oven just till it melts..

i'll wrap up for now, but aside from the above, i hope the suggestions keep coming, because i _don't_ eat/like a number of the most commonly used foods that make the zone easy....specifically:
oatmeal, olives (have/use oil, just don't eat them), tofu, beans other than green/waxed/jelly/soy, cottage cheese;
i can't stand plain yogurt, so i only use vanilla or fruit, and i do have protein powder, but i don't add it every time. for milk, i use almost exclusively chocolate soy milk, but will sometimes keep vanilla or DHA- or fiber-added (not sure if they are plain or vanilla) for mixing. i have been counting one serving of yogurt or soymilk as 1P and 2 or 3C, depending on the label info. does that sound reasonable? does anyone have tips for blending protein powder in yogurt or milk? i have been using a magic bullet and it always sticks to the sides and clumps...whether i put it in first, middle or last. if i try mixing with a spoon a bit beforehand, it sticks to that... any tricks? it ends up being enough effort, i don't make as many mixes as i would if it were easier.

by the way, most of my meat is salmon, tuna, chicken or turkey - some of the best and most convenient things i've found are tuna and salmon in single-serve cups, pouches and marinated, cooked, microwaveable salmon/albacore/ahi steaks in pouches - they taste great!

thanx for any input. hope something here can help someone else!
:) adrien

(and i know i'm a bit late to the discussion, but i'd be interested in either/both of those excel sheets from april - i have a couple templates some folks might find handy just for planning or recording as well... ajkant@gmail.com)

Hi adrien!

It's always interesting to hear what someone else is doing. Thanks for telling us about your meals and snacks!

Halvah isn't a better choice for the Zone because it's loaded with carbs. You really don't need to be eating all the sugar that's in it, on a regular basis. Sesame seeds are ok, even though they're not primarily a monounsaturated fat, because they contain some anti-inflammatory properties.

The fish oil recommendations in regard to the Zone are expressed as the sum of EPA and DHA in the dose. The basic dose is 2.5 grams of combined EPA and DHA. Dr Sears recommendations are for an ultra-refined fish oil with a 2 to 1 EPA to DHA. No, don't count other types f omega3 (flax, for example, contains short chain omega 3, not the same as fish oil's long chain).

I'm not familiar with soy chips.

Try Zone Protein Powder. It mixes right in. Others I used to use did also (Jay Robb's and Designer Whey).

Good luck!

I have been stuffing little Zone bars in every travel bag I own. I always have something when that little pange of hunger comes upon me. I will be in the middle of teaching a class and as long as I have one of those Zone bars I can easily get through the class until the break or end of the class. I have been preparing meals on days off and freezing left overs for meals during the work week. This has helped me stay in the Zone on those rush around kind of days.

Cheril, in a REAL pinch on the road (hungry, nothing packed, etc), I'll have some nuts...not any honey/sugar coated but plain ol nuts, which most gas stations have. I figure it gets me some whole food calories and isn't TOO far off base...like, say, a granola or candy bar.

My Little Black Book-Daily Food Diary helps keep me on track, they also have a Personal Choice Menu template that is a FREE download to carry with you everywhere.

The tip that is key is to have that list of your chosen "Yes Foods" with the serving size and calorie count so you make a good choice for you when you are on the fly!

This gets you past that..."What the heck I'm in a hurry I will just get something quick."

What ends up happening is you actually get hungry for the good choice. It works!

Adrian,

Noticed you are fond of using flaxseed in particular in yogurt.

Here's a favorite snack along those lines :


Cheap item I really like :

Dannon "Light & Fit" Yogurt combined with [ for me ] about 1 tblsp of ground flax seeds.

I don't know why but the combination of the flax's "nuttyness" and flavor with this yogurt is incredibly delicious and the nutritional balance is "right on".

Talk about convenient and easy – I mix in the flax right in the container and eat !

I found a little lid that snaps right on and often I mix up a few and have them with me for emergency “Zone Snacks” when at an “UN-Zoned” event.

First of all it is "Zero Fat" - so when you add in a tblsp of flax you end up adding in just about the right amount of “good fats” to “balance” the snack – I make it you end up with about 2 g of fat.

It gets better yet : adding the tblsp of flaxseed adds about 1 g of protein so, when you add 1 g of Protein you end up with :


Fat 2 g, Protein 6 g, and carbs 9g, "Close enough for government work to exactly one Zone Snack" [ If anal add an olive or almond on top]

*Sugar 7g


* As far as I can tell this is the lowest amount of SUGAR in any of the brands of “Lite” yogurt – some have double this amount.

So - baddabing baddabang - you have morphed an ordinary inexpensive food item into as "balanced" for Zone purposes a quick cheap delicious nutritional snack as possible !

It is also usually the lowest priced per oz !!!!! Except for the “generic house brands” which, as usual, have hyped up the sugar content.

E.Wally

ewally@verizon.net

Found this BREAD product the other day and personally it scares me ...

BECAUSE - I am a "grain junkie" and always have been and as anyone knows that's familiar with the Zone Eating Plan and "balancing" - you CAN consume grains but, and you have to understand a "grain junkies" way of thinking, the amount you can consume in an amount that would start to please ME - way exceeds that which would enable me to balance the meal.

... as in maybe 4 big fat slices of Rosemary/Olive Oil whole grain loaf !

HOwever - I have come across this product which is quite remarkable :


FLAX, OAT BRAN & WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR PITA BREAD

These are the "smaller" pitas - about 8" in diameter.

6 "Loaves" = 1 package = 8 oz total

Here's the nutritional analysis :

ONE PITA

Cal = 60

total fat =2 sat = 0, trans fat = 0

chol = 0

total carb = 8g

fiber = 4 g

sugar = 0

protein = 6g


Actually MORE PROTEIN THAN CARBS !

INGREDIENTS :

Water,wheat Gluten, Corn Starch, flax, oat fiber, whole wheat flour,Oat Bran, Yeast, Isolated Soy Protein, Soy flour, Soy Oil, Sesame Flour, Salt, { several preservatives sodium based ] Sucralose




How about that ?

Anyone have any opinions on the ingredients ?

I am always unsure about "gluten" - good, bad, both, neither ? ?

Rather not be consuming sucralose but it's the last ingredient so how much can there be ?

It is made by :

Joseph's Middle East Bakery Inc
Lwrence MA 01843

No mention of web site on packaging.

Their products are widely distributed around here in any market :

New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusettes, Connecticut.

no idea how far beyond that they go.


from the "END" Zone

E.Wally

ewally@verizon.net

Venison is a staple at the house, I also raise beef, lamb, and goats as well. Luckily I have some freinds that do a lot of deep sea fishing so I trade what I have for sea food, crab, salmon. Also keep a garden.
We have a pretty diverse menu at home.

My original point of my post was to recommend that you talk to friends or family that fish and hunt and you would have a source for the best proteins.

Really good point, Paul!

I just hope that Dad can bag that buck this year!

Personally, while I respect the fact that people actually do hunt and fish to feed their families, I prefer to think that protein comes from little packages that come from the meat counter at the grocery store. I personally buy organic meats, hopefully they are telling me the truth. I am at their mercy. If I really thought of the facts of what it truly was I am eating, I would become a strict vegetarian. ACK!

Linda wrote :

If I really thought of the facts of what it truly was I am eating, I would become a strict vegetarian. ACK!


... do yourself a favor and don't ever read the best seller Fast Food Nation.


... from the "Food Processing" Zone

E.Wally

ewally@verizon.net

Another book NOT to read: Skinny Bitch. I could not eat meat or dairy for a month after reading this book.

Unrelated tip: I found that Target carries their own brand of Zone bars. They were on sale this week for $3.50 for a box of 6. Both Zone and Balance bars were much more. My grocery store sells Zone bars separately for $1.69 with an ocassional sale of 10 for $10.00.

I tried the Target bars and they were good. Not quite the assortment of flavors as Zone, but definitely worth a try. According to the label, they are absolutely zone friendly.

Hope this helps someone,
Jill

Jill,

[You wrote]

Another book NOT to read: Skinny Bitch. I could not eat meat or dairy for a month after reading this book.

About 98% of the "diets" - and I hesitate to use that word to describe the majority that show up on a daily basis across America - come from the Diet INDUSTRY. Now we are all in trouble when we have something called an "industry" that has GROWN IN PARRALEL WITH THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC in America, which, that "industry’s" sole purpose for existence is to ELIMINATE , REDUCE, OR , ONE WOULD HOPE, AT THE LEAST, KEEP FROM GETTING WORSE - OBESITY.

Ironically the % of clinically identified "overweight" population is about 70% in America - AND RISING.

The Diet "Industry" is about a 60 billion $ business - and GROWING.

SOMETHING SMELLS FISHY HERE - DOESN'T IT ?

The ZONE DIET - and for totally different reasons I also hesitate to use the word "diet" to describe The Zone Eating Plan because in the sense of what the word "diet" has come to be perverted to mean in the U.S. over the last 20 years - a "DIET" IT IS NOT.

Dr.Sears and his Zone nutrition concepts was NOT aimed or designed for the "world of diets" at all. It was the product of extensive biochemical research into, among other things, the control of the blood chemistry of diabetics WITHOUT THE USE OF DRUGS - that is - through the use of diet ALONE.

The attempt was to control their blood insulin levels in a ------------- ZONE.

Not too high, not too low. [ Get the idea of where all this "ZONE" business comes from now ?

Remarkably - he was able to do it !

Just as, if not MORE, remarkably, it was later found that by controlling people WITHOUT diabetes' insulin levels in a "ZONE" - a whole array of positive health benefits followed, and, perhaps much to people's disappointment who come to The Zone for "weight loss" - it was found that one of the "SIDE EFFECTS" of following The Zone Eating Plan was - CONSISTENT, CONTROLLED, PERMANENT, [ if you STAY on The Zone ], WEIGHT LOSS.

[ We encounter those who "fall in The Zone door" looking for the weight loss on a daily basis - and we welcome them. Why shouldn't they come to us this way ? The multi billion $ Diet "Industry" spends millions and millions of $ every day in every way to attract people to the latest "miracle" diet that will do ONE THING - TAKE ALL THEIR EXCESS WEIGHT AWAY WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST INCONVENIENCE OR EFFORT.]

As I said - The Zone Eating Plan comes from a TOTALLY DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT - the world of biochemical research by respected members of the medical research community aimed at overcoming a most common disease.

This world bares no resemblance or connection with the Diet "Industry".

This is WHY the FIRST BOOK was aimed at the medical community - specifically a general practitioner. Sears thought he was really on to something [ and he WAS ] and being a member of the medical research community.
It was natural for him to pursue that direction. This was a medical research finding - NOT yet another version of some "magical" combination of foods that promised INSTANT weight loss that that come to the "diet" scene in a constant unending stream.

I've had college level chemistry and I found it difficult to read that first book. I thought what he had to say about "insulin regulation" was fascinating but kept wondering why he was going into so much detail about the biochemical reactions - I could barely follow them.

The book was literally going nowhere when per chance he was interviewed on an L.A. radio program where he innocuously mentioned that in addition to all the wonderful health benefits of his "diet" you would also experience constant regulated weight loss.


All of a sudden book stores in the L.A. area were taking his book off of the "sale" table and putting it "out front" on the "you heard about this on radio _ _ _ _" - the rest as they say is history.

If you read the first book you will note that at times it gets very technical. This is because it was not aimed at the person on the street but at someone with a medical background to be reading it.

The "medical community", specifically the general practitioners, were not interested. They weren’t' then - and they are still not now. The Zone Concepts are all about PREVENTION through NUTRITION. Unfortunately for you and I the nature of how medicine is practiced in North America is INTERventional - NOT PREventional - and that is how our medical professionals are thoroughly educated and trained.

INTERventional medicine -by the way - is NOT all bad. I suddenly had a heart attack one night with no warning signs. INTERventional medical procedures saved my ass.

However, when it came time for me to figure out how to PREVENT one from happening again - I soon found out I WAS ON MY OWN - until I found : The Zone.

Interestingly - I also "stumbled in the Zone door" for reasons other than what it was intended - I was teaching myself al about nutrition and what was good and what was bad AND WHY to prevent another heart attack. I had discovered that such PROTEINS as egg whites and soy were very good for you. I went to Barnes and Noble looking for information on Soy. Sitting on one of the shelves was The Soy Zone by dr.Barry Sears. I took it home and soon found out there WAS A LOT MORE THERE THAN JUST WHAT WAS SO GOOD ABOUT SOY !

... and I consider that day one of my most fortunate in life.

Perhaps you will find the same rewards too.

... from the "COMFORT OF THE" Zone

E.Wally

ewally@verizon.net

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've pasted in below just a SMALL TINY SLIVER of the biochemical process involving the processing by our bodies of glucose - which occurs as the result of you and I ingesting carbohydrate.

A plan of nutrition designed to in some way control this process is FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, removed from some half baked "diet" [ and I cringe when I use the word in this way ] that in the mere span of a couple of weeks will, among many other things, remove every trace of unwanted fat.

OK - here you go - there will be a quiz on Friday after the class lecture.


Structure and biochemistry


Glycogen is a highly branched polymer that is better described as a dendrimer of about 60,000 glucose residues and has a molecular weight between 106 and 107 daltons (~4.8 million).[citation needed] Most of Glc units are linked by α-1,4 glycosidic bonds, approximately 1 in 12 Glc residues also makes alpha-1,6 glycosidic bond with a second Glc, which results in the creation of a branch. Glycogen does not possess a reducing end: the 'reducing end' glucose residue is not free but is covalently bound to a protein termed glycogenin as a beta-linkage to a surface tyrosine residue. Glycogenin is a glycosyltransferase and occurs as a dimer in the core of glycogen. The glycogen granules contain both glycogen and the enzymes of glycogen synthesis (glycogenesis) and degradation (glycogenolysis). The enzymes are nested between the outer branches of the glycogen molecules and act on the non-reducing ends. Therefore, the many non-reducing end-branches of glycogen facilitate its rapid synthesis and catabolism.


Synthesis
Main article: Glycogenesis
Glycogen synthesis differs from glycogen breakdown. Unlike breakdown, synthesis is endergonic, meaning that glycogen is not synthesized without the input of energy. Energy for glycogen synthesis comes from UTP, which reacts with glucose-1-phosphate, forming UDP-glucose, in reaction catalysed by UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase. Glycogen is synthesized from monomers of UDP-glucose by the enzyme Glycogen synthase, which progressively lengthens the glycogen chain. As glycogen synthase can only lengthen an existing chain, the protein glycogenin is needed to initiate the synthesis of glycogen.


Breakdown
Main article: Glycogenolysis
Glycogen is cleaved from the nonreducing ends of the chain by the enzyme glycogen phosphorylase to produce monomers of glucose-1-phosphate that is then converted to Glucose 6-phosphate. A special debranching enzyme is needed to remove the alpha(1-6) branches in branched glycogen and reshape the chain into linear polymer. The G6P monomers produced have three possible fates:


G6P can continue on the glycolysis pathway and be used as fuel.
G6P can enter the pentose phosphate pathway via the enzyme Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase to produce NADPH and 5-carbon sugars.
In the liver and kidney, G6P can be dephosphorylated back to Glucose by the enzyme Glucose 6-phosphatase. This is the final step in the gluconeogenesis pathway.