_{Mon. 6.21.10}

B:  Zone peanut butter granola topped with red raspberries and soy milk

S:  Zone cinnamon bun with almond butter

Lunch:  Zone orzo tossed with fresh herbs parmesan and extra virgin olive oil; 3 bean salad on the side.  This was a very simple orzo dish, but delicious.  It's comfort food at my house. 

Vestibular exercises.1

Dinner:   Zone multigrain bagel with hummus tomatoes and Kalamata olives

Finished vestibular exercises after dinner

Sue,

I haven't looked through all the pages of this post, but I looked at this one since you recently posted it.

I'm curious how you're following the Super Zone foods - are you going by the grocery additions, or just adding as much as you think is okay?

I'm asking because I see that you had Soy Milk, and Parmesean in the same day and the Grocery additions only allows 1 serving of dairy.  Do you count the soy milk as something other than dairy? 

I'm just curious because I am really struggling with the lack of dairy and meat with the Zone Foods.  I miss having 3oz. of chicken rather than just 1oz., and I miss being able to have Greek yogurt in the morning, and have a cheesestick and some applesauce for a snack later on in the day...Ha ha

Any guidance is appreciated!

Hi Jennifer,

I'm using the Grocery Additions; staying within it the limits it sets.  I'm in a hurry at the moment but will give you more info here later.  Also, soy milk is not dairy even though it carries the name "milk" and the amount I use is far less than a 1 block serving.  I consider it as falling into the grocery additions category of the 1 oz protein you can add. My brand, "West Soy Unsweetened Soy Milk" (I use various flavors...it comes in 4 flavors) is basically soy protein and fat because it contains only 1 gram insulin stimulating carbohydrate (total carbohydrate minus total fiber) carbohydrate to a cup. The parmesan I used is about 1 teaspoon; no need to count it as a dairy selection because it is such a small amount. 

Have a great day! 

Hi Jennifer,

As I mentioned, I don’t crave sweets, bread or pasta, but I’m enjoying the Zone foods very much.  I switched to ZoneFast 1-2-3 because of the improved inflammation lowering it offers.  It contains no AA.  I was almost scared to try it at first because I’m very sensitive to the carbohydrate I eat.  It was a huge surprise to me to find out I felt better eating these foods than I did with my classic Zone meals and snacks.   Even a bigger surprise was when I started dropping more fat after maintaining at close to ideal body fat for years.    

  Re: I'm curious how you're following the Super Zone foods - are you going by the grocery additions, or just adding as much as you think is okay?

What I do is eat whatever I feel like having, while staying within the limits of the info on the Grocery Additions page.   If you look through my journal entries you’ll see what I mean.  By a week after switching to the ZoneFast 1-2-3 plan I had a good  sense of how much to eat for an appropriate balance (been in the Zone for 15 years) I do not measure foods because I know how much to take by sight now, but I do always keep the Grocery Additions info in mind.

Here’ some info about my meals that you probably wouldn’t pick upon from reading my journal entries:

1.      I usually never eat a full serving of fruit at one time.  When I add berries to granola, it’s a little handful.  Berries for dessert are also smaller amounts.  I recently bought some peaches, but only ate part of a peach at a time.  By doing this I am not stimulating my blood sugar too much (I’m very sensitive to carbohydrate) and it also eliminates the need for me to keep track of how many servings of fruit I ate.  When eating 1/3 to ½ serving of fruit at a time, I’m never going to be going over the max of 2 fruit servings a day, so I don’t need to keep track.

2.     With veggies I don’t really bother to measure or count servings either, because with the types of veggies I eat it would be impossible to eat too many to upset my balance.

3.     With fats (aka condiments for the ZoneFast plan) I’m not closely measuring either.  I eat moderate amounts, a generous “dash”, of monounsaturated fats.  I have always needed a little extra fat to stay in the Zone and it has never affected fat loss.

The only time I had hypoglycemic symptoms after a Zone fast meal was when tossed a little bit of a canned 3 bean salad with Zone Fusilli.  The canned bean salad contained too much carbohydrate for me; I had missed that it had a sweetener in it when I’d read the ingredients.  I keep my legumes mostly to hummus and it works fine.   I love a hummus, olives and sliced tomato sandwich.  It’s also good as a dip for torn pieces for flatbread, toasted flatbread, bagel chips and pretzels.

 Re:  I'm just curious because I am really struggling with the lack of dairy and meat with the Zone Foods.  I miss having 3oz. of chicken rather than just 1oz...

You could add more meat if you cut back on the portion of Zone food in your meal and balance the extra protein with carbohydrates and fat.  For example try ½ package of orzo with 2 oz chicken breast and a couple servings of veggies drizzled with olive oil.    Lunch could be ½ turkey sandwich using a few ounces of deli-style turkey (drizzle the bread with olive oil to add enough fat for balance), a bowl of veggie soup and some berries.

Think out of the box while staying within the limits of the Grocery Additions and see what you can come up with.  And please share your meal discoveries with us.  I’d love to hear some new ideas!

_{Tu. 6.22.10}

B:  toasted Zone cinnamon bun

walk

S:  1 Zone Heath bar cookie

Lunch:   Zone orzo tossed with fresh herbs parmesan and extra virgin olive oil; 3 bean salad on the side

S: Zone herb pretzel with hummus dip  

Vestibular exercises.1

Strength training

Dinner:   Greek salad with toasted flatbread

Vestibular exercises.2

_{Wed. 6.23.10}

It was kind of a tough day for me today.  I had to visit the oral surgeon in the mid afternoon for the extraction of a broken tooth, and didn’t realize it would become as big a deal as it turned out to be.  Knowing I would not be able to eat solids afterward, my plan was to experiment with some Zone shake mix combinations for dinner and my evening snack.   I made my dinner with the orange Zone shake mix and it was beyond delicious!  It was very chocolaty with a big hint of tangy orange flavor to it.  I love the combination of orange and chocolate (I like most anything together with chocolate ).     I shook all the ingredients well in a Zone shaker cup and then let it rest for about 5 minutes.  It became so thick I ended up eating it from a bowl with a spoon.   My plan had been to combine some shake mix and yogurt for my evening snack, but dinner was so good that I’m going to skip the yogurt for tonight and try something similar to dinner instead, using the cherry Zone shake mix.  Then tomorrow it’s on to...not sure, I have to sleep on it, but it’ll be something new and semi-liquid because I’m not allowed to eat solid food until tomorrow night at the earliest.  I’d love to have one of my Brownie Batter Shakes, but I’m all out frozen cherries and bananas. L        

B:  Zone original granola and soy milk

walk

Vestibular exercises.1

S:  Zone cinnamon toast chips with cream cheese

S:  1 Zone heath bar cookie

L ate lunch, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat a snack in after my dental procedure later in the afternoon: 3 BL ¾ Zone pizza crust topped with Trader Joe’s Bruschetta, Kalamata olives and a sprinkle of grated parmesan

Dinner:  2 scoops Orange Creamsicle Dr. Sears Zone Shake mix mixed with 1 cup Westsoy Unsweetened  Chocolate Soy Milk and 1 heaping tablespoon of Navitas brand raw chocolate powder. That chocolate powder is soooo good.  It’s available at some Whole Foods stores on the super foods shelf in the “Whole Body” section of the store, by the supplements.

_{Mon. 6.28.10}

 I'm still not quite able to chew certain foods, due to last weeks procedure, and the Zone foods are making it much easier to deal with.

B: 2 slices toasted Zone cinnamon bread 1 spread with a little light cream cheese, the other with almond butter

walk

S: 2 slices toasted Zone cinnamon bread 1 spread with a little light cream cheese, the other with almond butter

Lunch: Zone Fusilli and mushrooms

S: 1 Zone chocolate chunk cookie

S: 1 Zone Heath bar cookies

Strength training

Dinner: Zone Orzo with Veggies and olive oil

Vestibular exercises.1

S: 2 Zone Heath bar cookies