Hi, everyone. I am an oldie but newbie. Have been eating in the Zone and sometimes not for I don't know how many years. I have drifted and am trying to get back. Never have gone back to red meat or high glycemic load foods but I have let my protein amounts drop and raised the amount of (whole) grains I eat. Way too much fat (olive oil, avocado, olives). No real issues, I have done well for the most part in terms of blood sugar and weight gain BUT I have struggled forever (both on and off the Zone) with body fat percentage. Measured by caliper and Tanita scale it is 32-33. By the Zone site it is 25.5 (go figure). Had it done once by water dunking and it was 21 but I think that was an inaccurate testing. I have a benign but annoying heart arrythmia and went looking for information and the only suggestion I found was fish oil so that lead me back to the Zone. Now:

Questions: How to count Bragg's Aminos and some other odd things that I eat. Braggs lists 1/2 tsp at 310mg(3gms, right?)P and 100mg (1gm)C. Does that mean 1 tsp would be a block? I found Daikon in a recipe in the Soy Zone but not listed on the block list in any of the books. Can't find Jicama anywhere. BTW, Jicama is supposed to have a good effect on blood sugar. It would help to have the measurements for some things when they are raw as when they are all cooked together it is hard to measure the cooked volume of each component.

Problem: I am having far more trouble with blood sugar than before I started this. I have been getting painfully hungry at the end of the 4 hours after a meal(sometimes sooner) and have the shakes. In my experience that is hypoglycemia which I think is from too few carbs, right? I don't get brain fog no matter what so can't tell from that.

I am thinking it is adjusting to less fat. I seem to be experiencing this after lunch in particular. For instance: 6 oz. firm tofu, sort of stir fried with a small amount of olive oil, 1 head bok choy (2 cups uncooked, and does the measurement on the block list include both greens and the white crispy part?)1/2 carrot, 1/2 onion , and 1/2 fruit).

Any thoughts?

Welcome Anna!

Re Braggs Liquid Aminos, no 1 tsp. is not 1 C block. I'm looking at my bottle of Braggs right now. 1/2 tsp is 100 mg carb, which is 1/10 of 1 gram of carb (1000 mg = 1 g). 1tsp Bragg's would be 2/10 of 1 gram of C. One C block is equal to 9 grams of insuinstimulating carb. There's no need to count teh P or the C in Bragg's. I 've been using it in the Zone for many years and never count it.



I consider both jicama and daikon to be favorable carb.


Your hypoglycemic symptoms are either from too much carb in relation to protein in your meal (not too little carb); OR from too little fat in the meal (fat helps to control the rate at which carbs you eat enter the blood stream as glucose). In a nutshell, it's like this. When carbohydrate gets into the blood stream too quickly it spikes the blood sugar. Blood sugar spikes stimulate extra insulin to be produces. More insulin is procduced than is really needed to deal with the blood sugar spike. The result of the excess insulin is that it takes your blood sugar bit too low and you feel hypoglycemic symptoms.

Yes, the bok choi block measurement includes the greens and white part. It looks like more fat would help. A change in the type of fruit may help, too. As Dr. Sears suggests, keep a food diary form the meal and keep tinkering with it until it works for you.

I'll be glad to help if you'd like!

Thank you Sue! I could use some help. I am obviously metric system challenged! I think my post last night was not very clear (I am thinking I have brain fog after all since I am having trouble coming up with words and did not make sense last night). I have been doing the Zone for about a week and have had several days when I had symptoms late in the afternoon. Yesterday I did fine for four hours but realized on my way to Yoga that I had forgotten my snack(Duh, I NEVER forget my afternoon snack so the good news is I was not hungry and obsessing about when I get to eat again but the bad news is I forgot it). By the time I got home and made food I was literally doubled over with hunger, shaky and apparently brain fogged. I did not recover the rest of the evening in spite of a good dinner and 2 block snack to make up for the missing earlier snack. I never stopped feeling hungry and did not sleep all night.(This is the menopausal not sleeping but I have not had it in months so I think it was a part of this response). Wow! Two weeks ago lunch would have been a 1 block salad with 1/2 avocado and a grilled cheese sandwich with maybe an oz. of cheese and two slices of whole rye (Mestemacher). Or brown rice, beans and veggies. I would have been hungryish all afternoon but not this crashing hunger.

I agree with you, this is obviously the too many carbs crash. Have not felt like that since having pancakes for breakfast when I was a kid and felt so awful I never ate them again. But why when I am ADDING protein, am I having so much trouble? I read a thread this morning somewhere else about being carb sensitive, which I am sure I am, that suggested dropping one block of C and adding fat. Should I do this and if so should I keep it up forever or until I am solidly in the zone? Thank you again for your help, that experience yesterday scared me.

Oh, yes, and does this mean I am not converting to burning fat? If not, why not. I just reread Entering the Zone, Soy Zone and am part way through Anti Inflammation Zone. Still have not completely digested it I guess, sorry if this is a dumb question. I have relearned so much over the past week but it is difficult to get solidly into this way of thinking again.

You're welcome Anna!

No questions are dumb! Questions are a great way to learn. You're correct that you probably haven't totally switched to fat burning yet. That will happen when you gain better blood sugar/insulin control.

Your hypoglycemic symptoms are happening because you still haven't consistently acheived quite the balance you need. Published studies show it takes only 4 days of consecutively eating Zone balanced meals and snacks in order to lower insulin into the range of the Zone.'

I wouldn't begin adjusting blocks until you've eaten in the Zone a little longer. But that said, it wouldn't hurt to go easier on the carbs, making sure it's from the best sources (mostly veggies and some berries) and a little bit generous on thea added monounsaturated fat.

BTW, I love yoga! I do 2 Hatha Yoga classes a week and and a couple more shorter sessions on my own at home each week.

Thanks again, Sue. I added some fat at lunch because I was having symptoms again about 3 hours after breakfast. Breakfast a week ago was 1/2C blueberries, 1/3 C steel cut oatmeal, 1/2 C nonfat yoghurt. I have added 4 oz. tofu and 9 almonds. How could that make it worse? Just so surprised at this!

I love Yoga too! Do four hour classes a week. Luckily my gym membership gives me unlimited access to classes and different instructors. One is Iyengar, others are Hatha. I think it addresses strength training, flexibility and stress control. Can't go wrong with that!

You're welcome Anna!

You were short on fat at breakfast because you chose non-fat yogurt. Fat controls the rate of entry of the carbs into the blood stream. Too little fat in a meal and the blood sugar will spike, untimately resulting in hunger a few hrs later. Most Zone protein choices are low fat. They contain about 1.5 grams fat per block (1.5 g fat per 7 g protein). 3 grams of fat is needed for every fully balanced block of P, C and F. The added fat blocks contain 1.5 grams fat each. Together, the fat in the P block and the fat in the F block provide the 3 grams of fat needed for balance (1.5 + 1.5 = 3). For every block of choose a fat free protein you eat (e.g. fat free dairy, protein powder, egg white, some deli meats) you should double the number of fat blocks you add to make up for the fat missing in the protein block.

Wow! I missed that completely although my instinct was that it had to do with fat. That should help!

Anna,

I am a bit late jumping into your discussion, but I want to tell you that I have had similar problems as you in the past. In the beginning, it was difficult to determine whether or not I needed to drop carb or add carb, because I never really got that brain fog that Sears writes about. I would just get insatiably hungry within 4 hours of my last meal, sometimes much earlier.

So, I ended up dropping carb and adding fat, and so I generally eat 3P-2C and 5-6F per meal. It does seem to help.

Also, I seem to do poorly with meals that are really low density, for some odd reason. So, if I add some moderate density carbs to my meals, like beans, I do much better with satiety.

BTW, I got a bit OOZ (out of the Zone) today, as I forgot my breakfast! I guess my mind was a bit preoccupied with it being the first day back to school for the kids, and also making sure that my DH took his zone meal with him to work (his first day back since mid-December). I whipped up my smoothie, and then proceeded to leave it in the blender after I drove to work! By the time I realized what I had done, it had been way over my first hour of waking!

Sometimes these things have a rebound effect, like my breakfast mistake really didn't make me too miserable during the morning, but I really had difficulty with satiety at lunch time, and was hungry within 3 hours. Yes, I did stop and eat breakfast, but because it was so late, I guess I was OOZ without even realizing it.

Anyway, that is my story for the day, we are all human!

Sorry that happened, CC, but sometimes it just does even with the best of planning. Sorry you got hungry (I hate that feeling), but it's great you got back on at the next meal. GFY!

Happy Zoning!
Karen

Thanks CC. It always helps to know I am not the only one who does absent minded things! It is very helpful to hear that you also had that crushing hunger experience and have your advice on adjusting the carb ratio and the high density carbs. I have been eating a couple of tablespoons of barley risotto and a couple of tablespoons of black beans I had made before and had left over with my dinner each night and have had no problems in the evening or morning so that may be a clue. I made garbanzo beans yesterday and added them to lunch today and did much better so that may be another clue. Does fruit(apples and pears) count as high density?

BTW is the Zone block book useful? I seem to have constant trouble trying to find things in the limited lists in the backs of the books. I do have a complete food count book, but I think Dr. Sears sometimes counts things a little differently because of absorption rate, or is that only plant proteins? For instance, he mentions roasted soybeans as a snack but nowhere can I find the block count.

Hey, I think you are getting the right idea about what is working for you. Keeping a food journal with notes like this will go a long way in helping you to find effective zone meals.

Everyone is different, but fruit just doesn't work as well for me. Pears are especially good in fiber, so you might have some luck with that.

When I can't fin a food on the block list, I generally use this website: www.nutritiondata.com. You can get a lot of information regarding each food item that you look up.

Thanks again! All of this is helping. Had a much better day today!

You're welcome Anna! Glad to hear it helped and that things are improving for you!

A couple more questions. My schedule is a bit odd. I have breakfast at 8:30 or 9:00, lunch at 12:30 or 1:00. All is well to that point. I snack at 4:30 or 5:00 but often things interfere and we don't have dinner until 8:30 or 9:00. So I have been having a 2 block snack and 2 block dinner and that is sort of ok. (I don't go to bed until 12:30 or so). Don't see how else to work it. Here's the question. I think I am doing ok in the zone because I get "normal" hunger feelings after about 4 hours from breakfast and from lunch and two hours after snack. Sometimes sooner, but I am watching that to see which combos work and which do not. But in that long stretch after the snack I am hungry for a while. Is that ok? I think hunger means I am out of the Zone. (I am so used to being hungry much of the time I did not even notice it at first!)

Second question. If I have fruit as part of my dinner carbs, I like to wash the dishes first and have it with decaf espresso when I can sit with it. It separates that part of the meal from the rest by 20 minutes or so, is that ok?

Hi Anna,

Overall it sounds pretty good. I agree that you are probably going out of Zone when you're hungry in the evening. You should be able to gain better hunger control by further tweaking carb. Be sure to judge the kind of hunger you have in order to determine how to tweak the carb. Sometimes a little extra fat is helpful, too. A couple extra blocks of monounsaturated fat will give better insulin control and will not prevent stored fat loss. Eventually you'll probably be able to get to the point where you are never really hungry.

Yes, saving a portion of carb to be eaten 20 minutes after the meal is OK.

Anna, sounds like you are doing a good job of tweaking and finding ways to make it work for you!

Anna, I don't recommend the zone blocks book....it sounds like a great idea, but the way its laid out and the many, many name brand prepackaged foods get in the way of the info I'm looking for, that's not the way I eat.

I'm with janet, re the block book, because I don't eat that way either. For those people who do, that book might be of more use.

Thanks for the help as always. And thanks for the review on the book. I always cook from scratch, never buy packaged food so it sounds like it would not be of much help. I was just trying to find a few odd things like Jicama and celery root that other people don't seem to eat often enough for them to earn a place on the lists (including the Complete Food Count book).

Hi Anna!

Celery root, trimmed, is approx. 3/4 cup to 1 carb block. Jicama, sliced, is about 1 cup to 1 C block. This info is taken from THE COMPLETE BOOK OF FOOD COUNTS by Corinne T. Netzer, 5th edition, copyright 2000.

Sounds like that is a more complete book than The Most Complete Food Counter that I have. Can't tell a book from it's title I guess!

Yes, it has a lot of foods in it. I posted the edition and date in case anyone wants to try to find that specific one onilne. Barry Sears recommmended that book many years ago, I think it was mentioned one of the early Zone books.

Have a good weekend!