Hi, I am new to the zone. I am in my last cardio rehab class at the moment and I need to lose belly fat. Before I had my heart attack, I had been watching protein, carbs and basically consuming little or no fat. After a month, I had lost 4 lbs., then I had my blockage, I was told to diet to hopefully control diabetes and prevent going on insulin, which now I am categorized as pre-diabetic. My fatigue has been linked to acute sleep apnea and an underactive thyroid. I eat lots of veggies,a little red meat, fruit, oatmeal and such, I exercise, but I do like sweets. By reading this book, I am seeing that I still am doing things wrong and I am trying to correct my mistakes. I am also a cancer survivor and under the age of 60.
My needed proteins are 77/day so this would be the equivalent of 11 blocks. For breakfast I ate 2 egg whites, 3 strips of turkey bacon, 1/6 cup of reduced fat cheese, 1 apple with 1 1/2 tsp of natural peanut butter. Does this sound about right? I can eat a crueller right after I have exercised (cardio) and be safe, right? I need to only lose 10 more lbs,I have lost a total of 10 lbs. For lunch, I have mixed greens, pineapple, tomato and chicken breast, onion with an olive oil and dijon mustard dressing, dinner will be the curried cauliflower soup. Thanks for any help.

Hi Elaine,

You're on the right track and making a good start.

The cruller question; the answer is no. One of the ways the Zone is helping you is by changing your hormonal responses for the better by providing stable blood sugar levels 24/7. To maintain the stable blood sugar levels you need to eat lean protein together with low density carbohydrate, such as veggies and berries, and some monounsaturated fat at every meal and snack. When you eat a cruller, all bets are off. The cruller is basically mostly high density carbohydrate, called unfavorable carbohydrate in the Zone. One cruller contains probably more carbohydrate than you would eat in an entire Zone meal, and because its very dense in carbohydrate, when you eat it you spike your blood sugar and you're no longer "in the Zone". The Zone rule is that unfavorable carbohydrate should not make up more than 25% of all the carbohydrate in the meal. If you want to indulge, Dr. Sears' suggestion is to eat one high carb meal a month.

Thanks for the tip on the carbohydrates, I will remember that one. I do use the glycemic index, which has helped getting my sugar down. Also, I found out by decreasing the amount of slow cooking oatmeal ( from the zone) I was eating I kept my sugar from spiking. I am advised to control my portions but according to the box it would be 1/2 cup cooked and according to the zone it is 1/3 a cup and along with protein and some fat and I add cinnamon, no spike. I don't know if I need to reduce the blocks to lose weight or watch the calories but will continue to exercise.