Hi~
I am new to the Zone and am really just doing some research to decide if this is for me or not. Counting blocks seems like alot of work, but of course, I dont really know what Im doing at this point!:crazy How do you figure blocks when you make a recipe? Alot of times when I cook something that has several different ingredients in it, its hard to know exactly how many and how much a serving will be. Do the Zone products have block info on them? I really want to find an eating plan that will work for me, but I dont want to be unrealistic either. I appreciate your help and input!

Corinna

Hi Corinna,

Why not try the "Zone at a glance " method for your Classic Zone meals? There's no block counting involved, it's easy and it works. I lost 100 pounds with this method, never counting a single block. You can find the simple instructions here: http://www.zonediet.com/tools/zone-classic

When you make a recipe simply use the food block guide (http://drsears.com/ArticlePreview/t...ault.aspx) to determine the number of blocks in the entire recipe and then divide that by 3 to determine how many 3 block meals the recipe contains. For instance, if the recipe contains a total of 12 blocks protein, 12 blocks carbohydrate and 12 blocks fat, it contains four 3-block meals, If the reciepe happens to contain 12 blocke protein, 8 blocks carbohydrate and 24 blocks fat, you'd cut the amount of fat you use in half (to match the 12 blocks of protein, and you could serve a block of berries with each meal to make up for the missing carbohydrate. If your making a dish from scratch without a recipe it's even easier becasu you have total control of how much ot each food you choose to add.

Good luck!

Corrina,

Counting blocks is easy!

Many of us dieters have tried all kinds of ways to count our food intakes, some people track every single calorie, some people use WW points, and lets not forget Richard Simmons and his diet cards (am I dating myself?)!!

I think of the block method as just another way of counting my food intake. It may seem hard at first, but it really is basically just selecting a protein from the protein list, selecting a carb (or a combination of carbs) from the favorable carbs list, and selecting a fat from the fat list. And, since each block is worth about 100 calories, it does assure me that I am not taking in too many calories (not that we count calories in the Zone, but sometimes it is nice to verify calorie amounts).

If you are working with a recipe, just use the food block list to calculate the blocks in the recipe. I have many recipes that I have printed out over the years, with my "chicken scratch" notes on it to calculate out how many blocks of each ingredient, and then I break down the blocks per serving (based on the recipe serving size) and write it on top.

I totally agree with you CC. The Zone is one of the easiest diets to follow - plus the best one to keep you from being hungry. It is just a matter of choosing your protein, carb, fat for the meal or snack. I did WW many years ago and it was so frustrating counting the points. If you got to the end of the day and were hungry then had something to eat you would feel bad because you gone over your points. The other silly thing was that you could save up points from each day and then add them to your weekend for a treat. Strange.