Paleo?

[star sparkle]

I'd actually never heard of it; I just looked it up and it seems like the difference is the intake of fish oil or other healthy fats. What made you chose that diet over Paleo? And congrats on your weightloss!

Thanks!

The Zone also promotes the intake of fish oil and healthy fats, so I'm not sure where the difference in that respect comes in. TBH, the only reason we chose it over Paleo is because I knew a bunch of people who had converted to it with huge success, and I'd never known anyone doing Paleo. I prefer that the Zone allows dairy, as I love my Greek yogurt for breakfast! I also do low-fat cheese as part of my snacks on a daily basis.

 

[Indylady]

I'd actually never heard of it; I just looked it up and it seems like the difference is the intake of fish oil or other healthy fats. What made you chose that diet over Paleo? And congrats on your weightloss!

Thanks!

The Zone also promotes the intake of fish oil and healthy fats, so I'm not sure where the difference in that respect comes in. TBH, the only reason we chose it over Paleo is because I knew a bunch of people who had converted to it with huge success, and I'd never known anyone doing Paleo. I prefer that the Zone allows dairy, as I love my Greek yogurt for breakfast! I also do low-fat cheese as part of my snacks on a daily basis.

That's exactly what I meant--that it seems the Zone puts an emphasis on good fats, whereas Paleo does not. Sorry for the confusion! I do really like the idea of getting to keep dairy in my diet. How do you manage the getting the right proportion of fat to protein and carbs? I do imagine that it becomes second nature after a while. Do you have any tips for the Zone?

 

[star sparkle]

That's exactly what I meant--that it seems the Zone puts an emphasis on good fats, whereas Paleo does not. Sorry for the confusion! I do really like the idea of getting to keep dairy in my diet. How do you manage the getting the right proportion of fat to protein and carbs? I do imagine that it becomes second nature after a while. Do you have any tips for the Zone?

My biggest recommendation would be to get one of the bajillion books by Barry Sears about the Zone - it will provide the roadmap, plus I think all of them have recipe ideas and such. But in a nutshell, your meals are broken into "blocks," and this is how you figure out the proportions. You need 7 grams of protein for one protein block, 9g of carbs for a block, and 3g of fat for a block. A whole meal for the average female is 3 blocks of each (so 21g of protein, 27g of carbs, 9g of fat). You'd eat three such meals per day, plus two snacks that consist of 1 block each of protein/carbs/fat.

The book will give you a list of how much of certain foods make up a block, and that is like your lifeline when you first start. It'll tell you how much of any given thing constitutes a block - for instance, it'll tell you that 1oz of chicken is equal to 1 block of protein, 1/2 cup of grapes is equal to 1 block of carbs, 1/2tsp of olive oil is equal to 1 block of fat - and you use that to build your meals.

There's a learning curve, definitely, but it truly does become second nature. I think the book pretty much lived on our kitchen counter as a reference, but after 3-4 months we had mastered it enough to do it on our own. Our meals were admittedly not very exciting at the start because we didn't really know what we were doing (so everything was basic), but now we're able to create meals on our own by following the proportion guidelines.

 

[ame]

This "whateverIamdoing" is working so far, because i was down 5 as of this morning. I am far less of a raging bitch now though, at least in regards to sugary stuff. I found some great treats that "qualify", some from Hail Merry (the miracle tarts OMG) and then some stuff from Urban Remedy which is a juice company mostly.