Hi Zoners,


>>>A note to CoCo, I've been trying to submit this posting all morning, but I'm having difficulty using this site today. I just finally managed to submit it only to see you've already addressed the same issues. :-)


The suggested SuperZone diet for a woman provides a little over 70 grams of protein daily, before any grocery additions. That’s SuperZone foods alone. Each SuperZone breakfast, lunch or snack item contains 2 completely balanced blocks, that’s 2P, 2C and 2F in the 1-2-3 Zone balance. Each SuperZone dinner item contains 4 balanced blocks of P, C and F in the 1-2-3 Zone balance.

Here's the protein and block breakdown of the suggested day for a woman in the SuperZone, when no other foods are added:

Breakfast: 14 grams protein, 2P, 2C, 2F

Lunch: 14 grams protein, 2P, 2C, 2F

Snack: 14 grams protein, 2P, 2C, 2F

Dinner: 30 grams of protein, 4P, 4C, 4F


It's not necessary to count blocks with the SuperZone. That's part of the ease of the plan. Simply following the easy instructions is all that's needed. Following the simple directions allows you to stay in the Zone without paying any attention to blocks and counting. Its’ brilliant and very easy!

Just as with the original Zone, there is no one single right way to eat in the Super Zone. There's room for tweaking the plan to your preferences and needs. I've been in the Zone for 15 years. I lost 100 pounds of fat my first 2 years in the Zone, getting down to down to my ideal weight. Since then I’ve been maintaining it, staying between 22% and 26% body fat. I started the SuperZone a couple months ago, expecting to keep the status quo. To my surprise, I began dropping body fat with each passing week, and I’ve gained a little over a pound of LBM since November. Yeah! :-)

I’ve been following the plan as it’s presented in the SuperZone literature and in the SuperZone tab here. I have not been counting blocks or grams or trying to maintain a P, C and F balance. Simply following the SuperZone instructions assures you will maintain the Zone 1-2-3 balance needed to stay in the Zone. The design of the plan has already taken the balancing into account, so you don‘t have to think about it.

Here are some more details, for those who might be struggling with tweaking their SuperZone plan. My protein requirement has always been 12 or 13 blocks, a little more than the average woman, a little less than average man’s. To tailor the SuperZone to my unique needs, I’ve been adding 1 snack daily. Also, I usually eat ½ package of the pasta or pizza at a time (keep in mind each package of pasta and pizza contains twice as much as the other SuperZone food selection), and then I eat another 2 block size selection for an evening snack. Most of my grocery additions are carb and fat selections rather than protein, because SuperZone foods provide all the protein you need. When I add any significant protein to a meal (keeping it no more than 1 oz, per the directions), I usually eat only ½ a SuperZone selection for one of my snacks that day. It amounts to eating the equivalent of 3 2-block meals and 3 2-block snacks on most days, with 3 block meals with 1 block snacks once in a while. It’s working great!

Well, who knew that dinner was 28 grams of protein? I don't see that listed anywhere! I guess this would only be, assuming that one would choose to eat a pasta dinner (which I have not chosen to do). There is no information on the literature that suggests that I MUST eat a pasta dinner, and so therefore this is another example of how misinformed I am about this eating plan.

Had I not been so anal about it, I would have likely totally missed this little fact.

I disagree about Sue's point on balancing. You DO have to count, you DO have to balance. Whether one does it via blocks or via 1-2-3, it is still counting and balancing (by the way, I have not seen any info in my shipment regarding 1-2-3). You HAVE to make sure you are getting your 8 servings of veggies, 1 serving of legumes, 2 servings of fruit, and a dairy serving (there's one of the missing protein blocks).

I called Zone Labs and I talked with Dave Shreck and sorted this whole thing out. I told him that I have worked with blocks for years, just so that he would know my perspective.

I discussed with him about my concerns about the meal plan, he didn't make any indication of how dinner was a 4 block meal, and that was where my missing protein was hiding, either, but that is fine. I told him what products I had purchased so that he would know what I was working with. I discussed my protein concern, and he told me that he saw my concern of only 56 grams of protein, and said that I could add in extra protein if I felt like, or do 5 meals/snacks and the dairy to get the adequate protein count.

I also discussed the meal plan, many days on there just don't add up in terms of how many servings of veggies and other grocery add-ins. He agreed with my concern and said that they would be taking a look at that, and that they were planning on making some adjustments to the literature.

WOW! And just think if I had gone into this without any knowledge at all? I would be missing out on gobs of protein, and not getting my veggies!

(I have had problems posting today, too--think they are working on web upgrades)

Hi Zoners,

There's no counting needed to achieve 1-2-3 balance in the SuperZone because it's inherent in the plan. Just as the Zone is inherently a calorie restricted eating plan and you don't need to count calories, the SuperZone inherently has a 1-2-3 balance and you don't need to focus on counting blocks or grams.

Hi! I am doing better now that I have added another snack but I must say that over the last few days, I am eating every couple of hours because I am hungry. I guess my body doesn't want to be full for 4 hours at a time!! Thanks for your help once again! Do you think the carbs in the Hummus could be making me hungry after I eat it with a Superzone food? I hope not because I love my Hummus! I can't believe how carb sensitive I am. What makes us this way? I hate it. Is there something we can do or take (vitamin) that would reduce the sensitivity?

For those waiting for their order, it takes days to get my order and I have no idea why. Also, I wish they would send us confirmation emails to let us know when they ship etc. Be careful if you have an auto order. They messed mine up three times and I hope they get it right the next time.

Quote from Sue: "Also, it's not my understanding one has to eat all those additions every day."

Sue, maybe you can do some investigating on that . I was specifically told to make those additions. You can look at the grocery additions online (if you can get to it) or look at the document that comes with the shipment.

Non-starchy Vegetables: 8 servings
Legumes: 1 serving
Fruit: 2 servings
Dairy: 1 serving (optional)
Condiments: no more than 3 servings per day

I asked Dave Shreck about this, and specifically asked if it was ok if I only had 4 veggie servings one day, or is it recommended to have 8 full servings? He specifically told me that it was recommended to have 8 servings, not less.

So, I also imagine that if I choose to have less veggies and more legumes, that probably wouldn't be a good idea (as legumes are more dense than veggies).

No, I don't agree that achieving balance is inherent in the plan. With the loose guidelines that they have given, anyone could come along and eat a veggie, legume, and a fruit all in one meal (along with their SZ food) and be totally whacked out of the Zone, because it is not clearly stated to NOT do that.

Sue, I am really trying to "have fun with it", but I find it difficult to do that when there are more questions than answers, and the questions are not being answered consistently from one person to the next. I want this to be a good food trial, and I want to be able to state an honest opinion based on personal experience.


Kimberly, take a peek at my Food Trial thread, I am not having the best of days on this, either. But, I will keep trying, to see if there is an adjustment.

I will check that thread out. I really want to see how others are doing with these foods.

I was also under the impression that we can add those other foods but it was not necessary. I haven't been adding too many of the foods listed such as the veggies etc. I worry about adding them with the super foods because I am so carb sensitive, I am worried that it will throw me off the zone. If I ate the blueberries for example with a bagel and peanut butter, I can almost bet my life that I will be out of the zone. Cranberrycat, it is very confusing and at times frustrating but I will continue to try to fine tune it. I had a hard time staying in the zone with regular foods. With the superfoods, it is a bit easier but I am not where I would like to be yet.

Kimberly, I hear you, girl!

I am carb sensitive, too. I hear your concern about adding to the foods, and I was feeling the same way about it. Hang in there, we will get this all worked out, hopefully with Sue's help, as I hope that she can clarify the added foods issue.

Hi kimberly,

You're welcome. :-)

Re your hummus qn, keeping a food dairy, including in it how you feel a few hours after the meal, and any exercise activity, can be a big help in figuring out if certain foods don't work as well for you.

Re "I can't believe how carb sensitive I am. What makes us this way? I hate it. Is there something we can do or take (vitamin) that would reduce the sensitivity?"

It's in your genes kimberly. Eating in the Zone isn't going to make you less carb sensitive, but it's the way to prevent the yucky stuff that results form carb sensitivy and stay healthy.

Keep at it and you'll get there. Some of us just need to do a little more detective work with the foods we eat.

kimberly, more hummus info...

In my daily food diary here you’ll note that I use hummus and fruit sparingly and infrequently. I do that specifically because of my increased carb sensitivity. In almost 12 weeks of doing the SuperZone I've only had one meal that didn't work very well for me, and it was 1/2 package of fusilli with 1/4 cup of Trader Joe's Bean Salad (in a can). I'm assuming it was simply too much carb (too many legumes) for my needs. And, believe me I won’t be eating that combination again! :-)

You might like to try my Mediterranean Dip recipe and see how it works for you. It contains hummus (2 Tbsp), and I do very well with it. You can find it here: http://www.zonediet.com/Community/F...fault.aspx

Sue, that is interesting info regarding your questions previously.

I wonder if another email might be in order. I could send it to Dave, get it in writing and post here. Seems as if the zone chat function is missing today, so I guess I can't use that anymore. I will put in the email what he told me today, along with what you had learned previously. Hopefully we can get this cleared up.

Truthfully, with my first day, I think I did better on meals that had additions, opposed to the ones that did not. You can check out my thread for the details (as soon as I finish the post-lol!).

Cranberrycat, please leave me out of your emails. I do not need further clarification. Thank you.

Hi Zoners!

My day today in the SuperZone...


B: Medwell 1-2-3 Peanut Butter Granola, yogurt and peanut butter sundae
Vestibular PT exercises

S: 1 M&M cookie

Lunch: 1/2 white pizza crust, sliced open like a pocket bread, freshened in the microwave and filled with lots of Trader Joe’s fat free marinated mushrooms, sliced, and 2 or 3 T of Trader Joe’s Tzatziki

S: Medwell 1-2-3 brownie, frozen

Took a walk on the trails...50 minutes

Dinner: ½ serving of Cashew “Rice”. The recipe’s in my SuperZone recipe thread here: http://www.zonediet.com/Community/F...aspx#52448

Vestibular PT exercises, session 2

50 minutes of yoga

S: toasted multigrain bagel with garden veggie light cream cheese

Posted by Sue:
"Cranberrycat, please leave me out of your emials. I do not need further clarification. Thank you.:

In the interest of clarifying this for ALL zoners, I will be sending an email to Zone Labs regarding the conflicting information that has been offered by the literature, as well as public discussions that have occurred here on this forum. I will respect the authors of the posts and leave the names off of the content; however, I do feel that it is important to point out that conflicting information is being passed on to customers when we have questions about how to use these products.

Whether or not Sue is interested in knowing what is the recommended way to do this, I think others may feel differently. No offense, Sue. Whatever you are doing, it seems to be working for you. But, the literature does not say "suggested" number of servings. It specifically says "8". I may be displaying a bit too much "perfectionism" and being "anal" about this, but I want it to work right for me. If there is a different Zone than what I have experienced in the past, I would like for these products to put me there.

I have copied the email and will share it with you all here:
(the copy/paste did not pick up this email in a clean format, sorry if it is difficult to read this way)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wasn't sure who to address this to, and you have all been helpful to me in the past, and so I am emailing this to hopefully get some clarification on how to properly use the Superzone products.



I participate frequently in the Zone forums, and have participated in many discussions. When I finally considered trialing the products, I wanted to learn more about how to incorporate these foods into my meals. I started to look for a sample meal plan, but I did not find one on the website. I did, however, find the grocery additions page. Not really looking at it that closely, I was told via the forums that I could add unlimited amounts of veggies if I wanted to, but that I was not required to add anything to the meals, as the foods themselves provide for all of my needs (again, this was advice from the forums, not from the zone literature or you).



When I got the shipment, I was able to take a look at the meal planner that was included in the shipment. I compared the meal planner to the grocery additions list, and then the confusion again set in because I felt that the 2 tools did not mesh together.



Here are some of my concerns, hopefully you can address and clarify:



The grocery list, with the list of foods, has "servings per day" listed behind each category. Nonstarchy vegetables (8 servings per day); Legumes (1 serving per day); Fruits (2 servings per day); Dairy (1 serving per day, optional); Condiments (no more than 3 servings per day); proteins--these foods supply all your protein needs, however you may add 1 oz. of lean meat or 2 egg whites (no yolks) to any meal. My concern with this is that I am not sure if the servings per day are optional or recommended? For example, is it recommended to eat only 2 or 3 servings of veggies on one day and maybe a bit more the next? Or should we aim for achieving 8 servings every day? Basically, same question with legumes or fruits, but those are much easier to obtain. I put in a phone call to Dave today and he said that I should aim for 8 servings of veggies per day (we did not talk at all about whether or not I take Sea Health Plus. However, a post from the forums offers a different take on it: "I was informed the fruits and veggies provide polyphenols for those who are not supplementing with polyphenols. Polyphenols are one of the three important parts of the SuperZone. The three important parts are 1. SuperZone Foods, 2. Omega RX, and 3. Polyphenols. For more info about this, refer to the SuperZone box at the upper right of the HOME page of this site). They went on to say if you are supplementing with Sea Health Plus, technically there's no need for the added fruits and veggies, and you can simply eat SuperZone foods by themselves. I have been consuming Sea Health Plus daily for many years. As you can see from my daily food diary here, I add the grocery additions here and there, for my enjoyment. So, as you can see, I am still not clear regarding how to handle the additional servings.

Again, with the grocery list, it is stated that no additional protein is necessary. But, it does also suggest that additional protein can be added, but there are no guidelines given to decide when protein is necessary. If I go by the directions, I could actually be adding 4 additional "blocks" of protein, which may or may not be appropriate. In addition, today I found through a forum discussion that the serving size for pasta is doubled, so there are essentially 30 grams of protein. I did not choose the pasta in my shipment, so if I did not, and was not aware of the protein differences, how would I know if I was getting enough or even getting too much protein? I don't want to wait until I start losing lean body mass to discover that I didn't get enough protein.

The 2 week meal planner does not go along with the grocery list. On any given day, there are not up to 11 additional veggies/legumes/fruit servings. This leads to confusion regarding how to best follow the program and incorporate these foods.


I think that basically covers my questions/concerns. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on it, and give me some more guidance. I tried the foods today, and to be honest, I didn't feel that well using these foods. I felt just fine right up until today. So, I could really use some straightforward advice.

All of the suggested dinner items (pasta, pizza crusts) contain 30g of protein. These are essentially double the size (or approximately) of all the other items

Mike

Here's yesterday's entry from my SuperZone food and exercise diary.


B: Cinnamon bun, warmed in the microwave with a touch of butter melted on top

S: Cinnamon bun

Vestibular PT exercises

walk

Strength training (core and upper body)

Lunch: ½ serving of Cashew “Rice”, two bean salad (green beans, a few chick peas and a dressing of oil and vinegar and seasonings). The “rice” recipe’s in my SuperZone recipe thread here: http://www.zonediet.com/Community/F...aspx#52448

Vestibular PT exercises

S: Medwell 1-2-3 Chocolate Brownie, frozen (my favorite way to eat these)

Yoga

Dinner: Orzo with asparagus and seasonings

Vestibular PT exercises (UGH...this is not a fun thing to do...)

S: 2 milk chocolate chunk cookies