I have been on the Zone diet for a little over 4 months now. I needed to lose about 30 pounds and I'm hypoglycemic, so the diet seemed perfect when I started. I have only lost 10 of those pounds. I do feel better, however, so I try not to obsess too much about weight loss and focus instead on eating healthier as much as I can. As always, I work out 3 or 4 times per week and am in great shape. However, I find that it's very hard for me to stay in the zone for even a whole week. I'm 22 years old and I like to go out to eat with my friends and boyfriend, and I also like to have some drinks on the weekend. I also just LOVE food. What really annoyed me about Dr. Sears' book Enter The Zone was that it treats food, as he puts it, "as a drug that must be regulated." I can never look at food this way (nor do I desire to), and I think that's a big part of my problem with this diet. I was also just reading something on this website- Dr. Sears' article for zoning in the new year and he says that taking weight off is "relatively simple." Is he KIDDING? I guess I'm just trying to find out if anyone else out there has a problem with the lack of the human element in this diet. Is there anybody out there who has been successful not doing the Zone absolutely 100% of the time? I was reading some posts on one of the other large Zone websites and one of the facilitators of the discussion boards gave one woman the advice that she should only cheat once per month. Does anyone else find that impossible? Maybe I just love enjoying life and food more than I love having a great body. Anybody else???

[quote:ffb3ed6782="merryberryq"] ..... Is there anybody out there who has been successful not doing the Zone absolutely 100% of the time? ..... Anybody else???[/quote:ffb3ed6782] I (correction my wife and I) have been ZONING since April 2003. I lost 30 lbs from a high of 222 down to 190, simply by ZONING (more or less). (My ideal is 179 for my frame and height 5' 9".) I do little to no exercise, except for ocassionally working on the house in spurts (only as sparse finances allow) us to fix up our old 2400 sq ft (affordable though with 4 teens) dump. And during warmer weather (its -4 to 0 degrees this week), I actually walk the dog about 1/2 mile several times a week as opposed to just taking her out into the yard. That's about it for me for exercise. As far as pre-ZONE, just as a comparison, I weighed between 210 and 216 consistently since getting out of the Air Force in 1988! And even when I was playing a good hard and fast game of Racquetball 3 times per week (not since over 10 years ago, though), no matter how little (or how) much i ate, my weight stayed the same. Since then, despite several different attempts, and little to no exercise, my weight stayed the same, and only in 2003, climbed from around 216 up to 220. Then the Dr. found my Total Cholesterol at 284! Co-incidentally, my wife, who works at the library, brought home one of her many books on dieting, etc. None of which worked for hewr, accept Atkins she had tried 2 years earlier. BuT I thought it was too restrictive, and she had some trouble maintaining after she loinitially lost. The ZONE changed my whole way of thinking about eating. I still eat the foods I enjoy, but instead of eating one meal (maybe some at lunch, too) a day at dinner, with nearly a pound of steak or meat and little to no fruits and vegetables and lots of bread or/and pasta (Italian), we now ZONE. My wife is not as strict at following ZONE as much as I am. Often my four blocks of carbs at meals are often 2 unfav, though she's been getting better. I do now eat 5 (or 6 or 7) times a day in smaller meals and ZONEd snacks. I often eat more than the amount of required blocks (14 instead of 12) for my level of inactivity. (I just can't seem to digest the thought of eating only 3 oz meat at dinner, 4 sometimes 5 or close to 6, ocassionally!) But I always only balance those extra blocks of protein with only 4 blocks carbs, and mostly favorable. We often have Pizza once per week, and we often have a full 12 oz beer two or thrre times per week. YET, by mostly sticking to the ZONE, I have lost, as stated earlier, nearly 30 pounds from April to August, and I have maintained the weight loss, even through the holidays. I only gained at most 3 pounds with visits to NJ and my Italian family. Lots of bread, Pasta, and wine.) By mostly balancing and filling in the min-melas (snacks) with balanced nutrition bars. My wife does not stick as close to Zone as I do, however, she mostly follows it. She has been able to maintain about 145. (At times she bounces up to 149.) Some times due to monthly, and other because of chocolate binges. But, overall, following her main meals as ZONEd, and using balanced bars at work, she, too, has been able to maintain. (She was at 140, once, and manythought she looked too thin.) Her metabolism seems to keep her at about 145 is best. (5' 7"). So, no, we are not real strict, though I am more than my wife; however, we have been able to lose and maintain our goaled weight via ZONE!

I have had quite the same experience. I started on the Zone last year at Christmas. I had heart palpatations and this "health diet" was my alternative to beta-blockers. I have gained "a few pounds a year" and although I was not terribly overweight, I was pushing the large frame (which I'm not! :-) sizes in the height weight charts. From Christmas to April, with no exercise other than daily activity, I lost 20 pounds. After that I felt so much better I started exercising (30 minutes Nordic Track daily + occasional Pilates). I wasn't doing this to lose weight, but wow, what a nice side effect! Yes, Merryberryq, it is a drag to hear that you need to treat food as a drug, but unfortunately, it's the truth! And, cliche tho it is, life just ain't fair! You don't have to give up going out, just be smarter about what you eat when you go out. There are many suggestions on these boards, and I believe the new Zone Foods in Seconds has a chapter on eating out. Also the monthly newsletters have a Sherlock column where they find Zoned meals in chain restaurants... Nor do you have to give up drinking, just balance it (for example, when I want to do a wine tasting, I have a VERY small balanced dinner - rather like a 1 block snack - and then balance the wine with cheese. Even if I go over my blocks for the day, I try to always balance it. Of course I don't do it every day - can't afford all that eating out :wink: but I can't say I limit it to once a month, either. It's tough to have to learn all this as an adult, but look at you, only 22 and you're ahead of many of us who didn't learn it until later and life and have even more years of developing tastes for bad foods to unlearn. And once you change, you don't even want to do those things that you used to think you couldn't live without. Keep at it. You're not just after a great body, but great health. At 22, you feel invincible, but if you take care of yourself now, you'll feel much better now and a WHOLE lot better in 20 years :) Robbin P.S. You might be able to submit a day's or even some meals' menus and have someone double check the balance. Maybe you're eating the wrong balance even on the good days and so not losing the weight as quickly as you'd like....

[quote:2970a009fc="merryberryq"]However, I find that it's very hard for me to stay in the zone for even a whole week.[/quote:2970a009fc] When you say hard to stay in the Zone, are you experiencing cravings, hunger, or are there simply too many opportunities available to stray? As someone mentioned, post some meal samples and also the types of exercise--let's see if we can tweak things a bit (ie, perhaps more fat) [quote:2970a009fc]What really annoyed me about Dr. Sears' book Enter The Zone was that it treats food, as he puts it, "as a drug that must be regulated." I can never look at food this way (nor do I desire to), and I think that's a big part of my problem with this diet.[/quote:2970a009fc] Having invented numerous drug-delivery technologies, that's simply the paradigm he's working from. Just remember that there are hormonal consequences from the food you eat.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my post, especially Jon D.P. It's good to hear that it is possible to be successful and happy in the Zone if you just do it most of the time. (Hey, it's better than nothing, right!) For Robbin and Scott, here is a sample menu of what I might eat on a good day in the Zone, as well as what I do for exercise. You will notice that I eat several small meals or snacks a day. I'm hypoglycemic, so I do this to keep my blood sugar on an even keel. Besides, I usually get hungry every 2 hours when I eat limited carbs. With some meals I eliminate a carb and add a fat because this is supposed to help people with hypoglycemia with blood sugar spikes. I'm still not decided on whether or not that is true. 5:30 A.M.- 2 egg whites (1P), 1 oat bran muffin (I have a special recipe that I have made zone-friendly. One muffin has 2 carbs, 1 fat, and 1 protein.) I put 1 tsp. butter on the muffin. (1F) 6:30 A.M-Go to the gym. Do 20 min. of weight lifting, 10 min. of abs, and 35-45 min. of cardio, with a target heart rate of 165. Usually I do the elliptical, the stairmaster, or the treadmill. Sometimes I will take a spin class or cardio-kickboxing. I go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. 9:00 A.M.- Balance bar. (2P, 2F, 2C) 11:00 A.M. 1 oz. low fat cheese (1P+1F); 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce. (1C) 2:00 P.M. Chicken caesar salad (no croutons or cheese) (3 P, 4F, 1C) Apple (2 C) 5:00 P.M. Balance bar (2P, 2F, 2C) 7:30 P.M. Pork chop w/ shake n bake. (4P, 1C, 1F) Green beans, large salad w/ dressing (1C, 3F) , and 1 cup strawberries for dessert. (1C) 10:00 P.M. 1 oz. roast beef, (1P, 1F) 2/3c cantaloupe (1C) You will notice that I don't eat a whole lot of vegetables. That's because I really don't like them. When I first started the Zone I tried to eat lots of stuff I didn't like (turnips, artichokes, spinach) and that just made me frustrated. So now I stick to only things I enjoy, although I'm getting really sick of green beans. You will also notice that I eat 15 blocks a day. According to this website I should only be eating 13. When I tried to follow that I was hungry all day, so I decided to ignore that. When I do go out of the Zone, sometimes it is because of a craving. I know that those are mostly my fault. For example, some days I replace that apple with my chicken salad with whole wheat bread. And some other days I just can't resist having 1/2 a baked potato with my dinner instead of salad and green beans. (I'm sorry, but potatoes just taste better!) So sometimes when I do that, later on in the day it will come back to haunt me in the form of a carb craving. Usually though I go out of the Zone because I love to eat food that tastes good! And I know what you're going to say - there are plenty of Zone-friendly foods that taste great...try some new Zone recipes- variety is the key!...once you eat in the Zone all the time you won't want those foods... I have found that none of these tips has helped me or my taste buds to forget how much better a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs tastes than a plate of chicken and steamed brocolli, no matter how you dress it up. When I first started the Zone I was VERY strict, and while it worked, I could never keep it up at that level. My first binge lasted a whole weekend because I just missed eating foods I really enjoyed. So I think now I have found a better balance of eating things I like and staying in the Zone, at least most of the time. Of course the downside is that this balance isn't really helping me lose weight, although I do feel much better than when I eat out of the Zone all of the time, and I'm also not gaining any weight back. I guess I'm just looking to find a new balance that will work, since I don't like either extreme. I know that I will never stick to a diet that makes me miserable. I really am trying to change for life; not just go on a fad diet for a few months. So I need to incorporate this diet into my lifestyle. I guess in my post I was looking for others who had successfully done this without turning eating into a science and taking all the fun out of it because I will never survive on a diet where I can't enjoy food, at least some of the time. So I hope this information will help you guys to help me. I really appreciate it! Thanks again, Meredith

Your snack of Balance Bar is on for 2 blocks, but for me, also hypoglycemic, I've found they have too high a sugar count. I use Zone Perfect bars or Balance Bar Gold--they have less sugar and help hold me a little better than the original Balance Bar. robin

Hi Robin- I also eat the Balance Bar Gold. I like them much better than the other ones. My favorites are the Caramel Nut (tastes like Snickers) and the Chocolate Peanut Butter. But thanks for the advice! :D Meredith

[quote:d7dfbc8b4e="New2Zone"]Your snack of Balance Bar is on for 2 blocks, but for me, also hypoglycemic, I've found they have too high a sugar count. I use Zone Perfect bars or Balance Bar Gold--they have less sugar and help hold me a little better than the original Balance Bar. robin[/quote:d7dfbc8b4e] My wife and I have noticed it - more in taste - the difference between Balance and Balance Gold - The one being too sweet. Even better - we really like the Symmetry Bars from Vitamin World. Not sweet at all, but a pleasant enough taste. And I am NOT a chocolate eater, per say. I do not eat any chocolate bars. However, Symmetry has a Chocolate Honey Peanut, a chocolate Cocoanut Truffle that aren't bad. BUT I really like their Yogurt Honey Peanut. You can get a box of 15 bars for $10.41 at their stores or order on-line for similar.

I have to say that my favorites (ok, well the Honey Peanut Ginseng if I'm craving a peanut butter cup :-) are the natural Balance Bars - rather more like the old granola bars, no "coating" - so you can keep them in the car without worry of melting. They also have more texture. I don't eat fish so many of the bars are out for me (including Dr. Sears' :-( because they have fish oil. Merry, in the section on customzing the zone, I believe if you are hungry after a meal, you need to add a carb, maybe a low glycemic one in your case with the hypoglycemia. Unfortunately, those are mostly vegetables! :wink: Or maybe some barley or oats, better carbs according to the charts? Berries are also good fruits to add some variety. And this may be unique to me, but I find that eating apples makes me hungrier sooner than other fruits. They are supposed to be fairly low, but I find consistently that if I eat an apple as part of a meal or snack, it doesn't "last" as long for me. The cool thing about the Zone is that there are no "forbidden" foods, just learning how to use them. And you may find that you can customize some of your other meals to make them more Zone friendly. And it's true that you don't have to be in the Zone all the time to gain benefits - just the more that you put into it, the more that you get out of it. I had two slices of chocolate cake this weekend, as well as a large drink called a Mudslide (I have no idea what was in it, but I'm sure it wasn't in the Zone) and I knew when I got on the scale this morning I would be up several pounds, but mmmmmm, it was worth it :D P.S. nobody likes turnips! :wink:

uh oh....I LOVE TURNIPS!

...Oh oh... Count me is as a turnip lover as well!

[quote:01e399c7f3="angelrob"] Merry, in the section on customzing the zone, I believe if you are hungry after a meal, you need to add a carb, maybe a low glycemic one in your case with the hypoglycemia. Unfortunately, those are mostly vegetables! :wink: (I have no idea what was in it, but I'm sure it wasn't in the Zone) and I knew when I got on the scale this morning I would be up several pounds, but mmmmmm, it was worth it :D :[/quote:01e399c7f3] Hi, Just to remind everyone, hungry with a focused feeling means you need to add a carb block to meals. Hungry with symptoms such as loopy, tired, inability to concentrate as well, irritability, etc., means you need to drop a carb block from meals. Sue