I have been trying to help my wife with starting the zone this week. She however is hungry only a few hours after eating. On drsears.com it showed she was suppOsed to have 11 blocks per day. I broke this into 3 block breakfast, 1 bk snack, 3 bk lunch, 1 bk snack, 3 bk dinner.
Typical day is
Breakfast
2 egg white
1/2 cup cottage cheese
9 almonds
1 1/4 cup peppers
1 tangerine

Snack
1 oz cheese
3 almonds
Grapes

Lunch / dinner

4.5 oz tuna salad made frOm tuna steak mixed with avocado For fat
2 cup spinach
1 cup tomato
2 cup celery
Tangarinne

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you in advance on any guidance u can provide. :)

Hi John,


Try swithcing out most of the fruit for vegetables. Keep fruit to one or two blocks daily. The best fruits for the Zone are berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries). Also make sure there is a minimum of 9 g fat in each 3 block meal. By design, the block system assumes that one is eating low fat protein which contains approximately 1.5 g fat for every 7 g protein, which is half the fat needed for Zone balance. The added fat blocks contain the other half (about 1.5 g per fat block). When the protein block is fat-free,such as eggwhite, you add extra fat blocks to make up for the "missing fat". Some other common fat free protein choices are deli-style meats, protein powder and non-fat dairy products.

If your wife is still hungry after trying these changes for 4 or 5 days, then try dropping 1 carbohydrate block from each meal. Keep snacks as they are. Her meal balance would then be 3P, 3C, 3F. Let us know how it goes . There are additional things to try if these modifications don't do the trick.

Good luck to you wife. :)

John, this reply is likely coming to you pretty late, any maybe the issue is solved by now. But, you didn't state whether your wife was feeling focused or unfocused with her hunger. It actually makes a big difference in terms of how to adjust the carb balance.

Making the switch from fruit to veggies is a smart choice and may solve the problem by itself. But, if it does not, then you will need to ask your wife if her hunger is focused or unfocused. If focused, then she may not be getting enough carb. If unfocused, then she may be getting too much carb.

[quote]
Posted By Sue on 04 Dec 2011 07:40 AM
Hi John......If your wife is still hungry after trying these changes for 4 or 5 days, then try dropping 1 carbohydrate block from each meal. Keep snacks as they are. Her meal balance would then be 3P, 3C, 3F.
[/quote]


Typo correction: Her meal balance would then be be 3P, 2C, 3F.

...and just to be clear, my advice is to judge whether the hunger is focused or unfocused before adding or dropping a carb block.

CranberryCat, I'm new around here, and don't know what "focused" or "unfocused" hunger is. Can you elaborate? Thanks!

-David

Sure, no problem!

Focused hunger is when you are hungry, but you have good mental clarity, good concentration.

Unfocused hunger is when you are hungry, but you have poor clarity, feel sluggish, not able to concentrate on much.

David, some additional info. Another way to described focused hunger is that you have significant hunger, but you feel fine otherwise adn haev plenty of energy. Unfocused unhunger symptoms can also include feeling any of the following: jittery/shakey, anxious, sleepy, spacy, faint, irritable. The unfocused hunger symptoms are low blood sugar (hypoglycemic) symptoms.

However, just to add a bit more, unfocused hunger is not necessarily a result of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). The symptoms are really a result of the insulin kicking in and more sharply dropping the blood sugar from its peak after a meal/snack. The sharp drop may occur but not actually result in hypoglycemia (i.e. blood sugar under 70)

For clarification, the unfocused hunger symptoms are from blood sugar dropping too low for one's comfort level, whether or not one's actual glucose level indicates the clinical definition of hypoglycemia.

Good Job! Now you have it right, Sue!