Week 5 - Enter the Zone — Weekly Change

This change is big. Since this site has been a great motivation so far, I have decided to push the envelope a little bit this week.

This week, I am committing to live 30 days in the Zone. No, this does not mean I will be camping in auto parts stores for the next month. It means that I will become zealous about eating according to the Zone diet for the next 30 days.

This will be a longer post, because I have learned a ton about dieting, fitness, and how I react to strict diet plans. I think I have quite a bit to share on this topic, so hopefully you will learn a ton from this post. In this post, I will also be interviewing myself (because I couldn’t think of a better way to organize this information).

What is the Zone?

The Zone diet was created by Barry Sears and is best described in the book Enter the Zone. I highly recommend this book. While the science behind it is somewhat complex, the practical day-to-day stuff is pretty simple. If you don’t want to read that much, Crossfit Journal Issue 21 put a great PDF together a few years ago. Read these!

Why such a strict diet?

I am an all-or-nothing type of person. I can’t just eat right some of the time, because I quickly drift towards eating crappy food. Before long, I am back to old diet habits. I need something like this to give me structure and discipline.

Why limit it for 30 days? I thought these were supposed to be permanent changes.

The goal of this 30 days is to “reprogram” both my mind and my body to eating healthy food. 30 days is not too bad. You can do anything for 30 days. After 30 days, I want to continue to eat healthy, but have an occasional cheat meal/day, especially in social situations. But, as a rule of thumb, I want to eat healthy most of the time after the 30 days pass. Jeff Barnett’s discussion of eating healthy 75% of the time is probably about right.

Isn’t it expensive to eat these types of food?

Not really. Buy fruit in season. Don’t eat out much. Don’t eat 30 different kinds of meals, stick with 5 or 6 for a week. You can keep it on the cheap if you want to.

How do you have time to eat this way? I am too busy.

Honestly, it isn’t very hard. It doesn’t take that much time. It only takes about 15 minutes to plan out your meals for the week. I don’t plan meals for each day, I just plan 3/4 meals and 1/2 snacks for the week and eat them multiple times. For example, this week I planned 3 meals and 2 snacks (and rely on my wife to make a favorable dinner):

Meal 1 - 5 blocks - Grilled Chicken Breast (5 oz), 2 cups lettuce, couple cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 cup black beans, 1/2 cup kidney beans, 2.5 Tbs dressing.
Meal 2 - 5 blocks - 4.5 oz of deli meat, 2 oz cheese, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 plum, 15 almonds
Meal 3 - 5 blocks - 1 cup egg substitute, 1 whole egg cooked with olive oil, 1 can pineapple, 1 grapefruit, 5 macadamia nuts
Snack 1 - 2 blocks - 1 cup milk, 1 Tbs protein powder, 1 cup frozen strawberries, and one small scoop of cashews
Snack 2 - 2 blocks - 1/2 canteloupe, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 6 almonds

If you want some tips on how to live in the zone on-the-go, I suggest you read the Diet Secrets of the Tupperware Man. Keep some healthy snacks with you. Zone bars are OK (just glorified candy bars though), or you could try some Paleokits.

What do you hate about the Zone diet?

By far, the thing I miss the most is eating/drinking at night. I am a sucker for beer and salty food (I don’t much care for sweets), and I get really hungry around 7pm. I think this is because I have trained my body to eat that way for 20 years.

I also hate the fact that I can’t eat much rice/bread. I have become quite the bread snob these days, and I love a good slice of homemade, fresh bread. I have to limit this quite a bit on the Zone.

What other tips have you learned over the years?

I have started many 3-month eating challenges over the last 10 years. Most notably, I completed a full Body-For-LIFE challenge and I was very strict for the entire 3 months. I ended up losing around 35 pounds. However, I have also started many other food challenges that I didn’t complete. Here are two main things I have learned:

Day 3 is the hardest. For me, it is easy to make it through days 1 and 2. I am a little bit hungry, but overall I feel good. There is something about day 3 that always tempts me to quit. Maybe it is a carb craving. Maybe I start to question why the heck I am doing this (after all, I am happily married, reasonably healthy, etc.). Getting past day 3 is killer. Just so you know, I started this challenge on Monday just because I knew that I would have to write this post on Wednesday, giving me a little extra motivation!
Week 3 is the second hardest. I don’t know what it is about the 3’s. Week 3 is when I start to forget how much better I am feeling and am tempted to have a couple of cheat meals. Trust me, I have made it to Week 3 a number of times, only to be back eating with old habits in Week 4.

How will you know what improvements this diet will have on your body and energy levels?

It is pretty much common knowledge that eating properly and exercising is good for your brain, energy levels, and overall health. But, I took some measurements so that I can at least measure the body changes over the 30-day period. As of April 12, 2009:

Weight: 203 lbs
Body Fat: ~21% (measured by Accumeasure 300 - not the best, but good enough for this experiment)
Arms: 14 in.
Shoulders: 46.5 in. (widest point)
Belly: 37.5 in. (measured at belly button)
Chest: 43 in.
Neck: 15.5 in.
Quads: 25 in.

So, that is it for this week. 30 days in the Zone. Anyone want to join me?

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Tagged as: diet, food, health, nutrition, paleo, Zone