Zone Diet

earthmother1

We recently started a zone diet challenge at our crossfit gym. I am typically mostly paleo and follow a pretty auto-immune diet, keeping my carbs low (until this challenge). I'm having a hard time and we are on Day 2. I don't eat boxed items and I'm allergic to eggs, some dairy, gluten. I feel like this is going to be a long month. Any friends out there doing Zone? What's your secret?

julie_broadhead

https://www.paleonick.com/

His site made zone-paleo much easier. You have to pay to get the recipes, but you can also fine quite a few free videos Nick did for CFHQ on you tube.

PaulaWallaDingDong

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

annacole94

So to recap: you already eat well and have a style that works for you, but your church asked you to do something more extreme and that's difficult?

Why would you want to do this thing?

Alatariel75

Why would you change a diet you're happy on to one that causes you issues, just to join in a challenge?

rileysowner

I am with those who wonder why you would do this. It all comes down to CI<CO. If paleo helps you stick to your calorie deficit, don't change. The Zone is not going to be any more effective, and apparently it is making you miserable.

JB035

@earthmother1
We did one at my gym last year.
The best advice I can give is to start putting meals together that add up to your blocks. The first week or so was tough but after that I had some staple meals and snacks to go to!

Good luck!!

Gianfranco_R

earthmother1 wrote: »

We recently started a zone diet challenge at our crossfit gym. I am typically mostly paleo and follow a pretty auto-immune diet, keeping my carbs low (until this challenge). I'm having a hard time and we are on Day 2. I don't eat boxed items and I'm allergic to eggs, some dairy, gluten. I feel like this is going to be a long month. Any friends out there doing Zone? What's your secret?

Paleo and Zone are totally compatible, you just need to get used to the "block" system. An app may help you with that.

Gimsteinn

Eh.. you have my deepest sympathy here. I haven't tried zone myself cause my box promotes clean eating but I've looked into zone and these blocks scare me away.
@uggins311 has some great things to say about zone though

StealthHealth

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

Never done zone diet, don't crossfit, and although I'm positive towards primal/paleo I'm not an adherent but - Food challenges can be interesting and very positive.

For some it's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon - It's simply a challenge during which you may learn something new about your personality or the way your body responds to different things. For others, it may be more to do with by excluding certain foods you learn about some new ones*. Then, I suppose there are some that are just jumping from one bandwagon to the next.

*Couple of years ago I challenged myself for a month to either eat a new vegetable every day, or a vegetable that was prepared in a way I'd not tried before. I came out of that month with some recipes that I now use frequently. I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of eating meat but I'm considering a short term vegetarian (couple of weeks) just to mix things up a little and see how hard/easy it is to hit my macros without meat. I'm hoping that I come up with some new meal ideas that I can incorporate into my weekly/monthly meal plans.

PaulaWallaDingDong

StealthHealth wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

Never done zone diet, don't crossfit, and although I'm positive towards primal/paleo I'm not an adherent but - Food challenges can be interesting and very positive.

For some it's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon - It's simply a challenge during which you may learn something new about your personality or the way your body responds to different things. For others, it may be more to do with by excluding certain foods you learn about some new ones*. Then, I suppose there are some that are just jumping from one bandwagon to the next.

*Couple of years ago I challenged myself for a month to either eat a new vegetable every day, or a vegetable that was prepared in a way I'd not tried before. I came out of that month with some recipes that I now use frequently. I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of eating meat but I'm considering a short term vegetarian (couple of weeks) just to mix things up a little and see how hard/easy it is to hit my macros without meat. I'm hoping that I come up with some new meal ideas that I can incorporate into my weekly/monthly meal plans.

Trying new vegetables, expirimenting with recipes and expanding your palate is one thing. Climbing a mountain or running a marathon is an accomplishment. Those things require strength, skill and endurance. The purpose of the zone diet is to help an individual control their calories and lose weight. If one is already doing that, what are they proving by succeeding or failing at an arbitrary way of eating?

JB035

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

StealthHealth wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

Never done zone diet, don't crossfit, and although I'm positive towards primal/paleo I'm not an adherent but - Food challenges can be interesting and very positive.

For some it's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon - It's simply a challenge during which you may learn something new about your personality or the way your body responds to different things. For others, it may be more to do with by excluding certain foods you learn about some new ones*. Then, I suppose there are some that are just jumping from one bandwagon to the next.

*Couple of years ago I challenged myself for a month to either eat a new vegetable every day, or a vegetable that was prepared in a way I'd not tried before. I came out of that month with some recipes that I now use frequently. I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of eating meat but I'm considering a short term vegetarian (couple of weeks) just to mix things up a little and see how hard/easy it is to hit my macros without meat. I'm hoping that I come up with some new meal ideas that I can incorporate into my weekly/monthly meal plans.

Trying new vegetables, expirimenting with recipes and expanding your palate is one thing. Climbing a mountain or running a marathon is an accomplishment. Those things require strength, skill and endurance. The purpose of the zone diet is to help an individual control their calories and lose weight. If one is already doing that, what are they proving by succeeding or failing at an arbitrary way of eating?

Never hurts to challenge yourself and experiment, if nothing else learning how our bodies react is beneficial. I'd prefer this than just going off of what someone else read or was told. Real life experiences speak louder than anything else.
Nothing is really wrong with Block Eating it's just a different way to eat. I gained solid muscle on the Block/Zone.

JB035

@earthmother1
http://www.drsears.com/resources/food-blocks-zone-diet/
I used this! It helped a lot!

PaulaWallaDingDong

JB035 wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

StealthHealth wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

Never done zone diet, don't crossfit, and although I'm positive towards primal/paleo I'm not an adherent but - Food challenges can be interesting and very positive.

For some it's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon - It's simply a challenge during which you may learn something new about your personality or the way your body responds to different things. For others, it may be more to do with by excluding certain foods you learn about some new ones*. Then, I suppose there are some that are just jumping from one bandwagon to the next.

*Couple of years ago I challenged myself for a month to either eat a new vegetable every day, or a vegetable that was prepared in a way I'd not tried before. I came out of that month with some recipes that I now use frequently. I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of eating meat but I'm considering a short term vegetarian (couple of weeks) just to mix things up a little and see how hard/easy it is to hit my macros without meat. I'm hoping that I come up with some new meal ideas that I can incorporate into my weekly/monthly meal plans.

Trying new vegetables, expirimenting with recipes and expanding your palate is one thing. Climbing a mountain or running a marathon is an accomplishment. Those things require strength, skill and endurance. The purpose of the zone diet is to help an individual control their calories and lose weight. If one is already doing that, what are they proving by succeeding or failing at an arbitrary way of eating?

Never hurts to challenge yourself and experiment, if nothing else learning how our bodies react is beneficial. I'd prefer this than just going off of what someone else read or was told. Real life experiences speak louder than anything else.
Nothing is really wrong with Block Eating it's just a different way to eat. I gained solid muscle on the Block/Zone.

I didn't say anything was wrong with it or that there aren't reasons to try a new diet if one is motivated to. It's the idea of a group challenge to accomplish something that can't be called a real accomplishment. A challenge should prove you're better somehow in the end. That's different from one saying, "I wonder if the zone diet is an improvement over what I'm doing now" and giving it a go.

StealthHealth

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

StealthHealth wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

Never done zone diet, don't crossfit, and although I'm positive towards primal/paleo I'm not an adherent but - Food challenges can be interesting and very positive.

For some it's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon - It's simply a challenge during which you may learn something new about your personality or the way your body responds to different things. For others, it may be more to do with by excluding certain foods you learn about some new ones*. Then, I suppose there are some that are just jumping from one bandwagon to the next.

*Couple of years ago I challenged myself for a month to either eat a new vegetable every day, or a vegetable that was prepared in a way I'd not tried before. I came out of that month with some recipes that I now use frequently. I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of eating meat but I'm considering a short term vegetarian (couple of weeks) just to mix things up a little and see how hard/easy it is to hit my macros without meat. I'm hoping that I come up with some new meal ideas that I can incorporate into my weekly/monthly meal plans.

Trying new vegetables, expirimenting with recipes and expanding your palate is one thing. Climbing a mountain or running a marathon is an accomplishment. Those things require strength, skill and endurance. The purpose of the zone diet is to help an individual control their calories and lose weight. If one is already doing that, what are they proving by succeeding or failing at an arbitrary way of eating?

You asked about diet challenges. That is what I was responding to - that's why I quoted you in the reply and prefaced it by saying "Never done zone diet".

The point that I was, obviously quite poorly, trying to make is that one can set a (or choose an "off the shelf") challenge with the aim to learn something, expand their palette, or add to their arsenal of tools and techniques - there doesn't have to be an end game other than that and, if picking and off the shelf challenge, ones own goals do not have to match those of the person that dreamt up the challenge.

I might, for example decide to take a break from the gym and pick an off the shelf 30 day body weight exercises challenge, does that mean I'm never going back to my gym? No. And, the writer of that challenge may have done so for many reasons:

• For fun
• Because they want to persuade people to ditch the gym and work out from home
• Becuse they have book/video/Youtube channel on the topic
• Because they want to increase their facebook likes/Instagram followers etc

Does that make it any less valid for me? Nope.
Would it be good for me? Who knows, but I might learn some new exercises which I can use when I'm back in the gym, or on holiday, or mention when posting on here.

annacole94

I have no problem with people pursuing their own challenges for any reason.

I have a problem with people being pressured to do a challenge that may actually do them harm (the stress of changing something that's actually working just fine). The cult-like aspects of Crossfit are such a huge turn-off for me.

JB035

StealthHealth wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

StealthHealth wrote: »

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't understand the premise of a "diet challenge." What's the end game?

Never done zone diet, don't crossfit, and although I'm positive towards primal/paleo I'm not an adherent but - Food challenges can be interesting and very positive.

For some it's like climbing a mountain or running a marathon - It's simply a challenge during which you may learn something new about your personality or the way your body responds to different things. For others, it may be more to do with by excluding certain foods you learn about some new ones*. Then, I suppose there are some that are just jumping from one bandwagon to the next.

*Couple of years ago I challenged myself for a month to either eat a new vegetable every day, or a vegetable that was prepared in a way I'd not tried before. I came out of that month with some recipes that I now use frequently. I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of eating meat but I'm considering a short term vegetarian (couple of weeks) just to mix things up a little and see how hard/easy it is to hit my macros without meat. I'm hoping that I come up with some new meal ideas that I can incorporate into my weekly/monthly meal plans.

Trying new vegetables, expirimenting with recipes and expanding your palate is one thing. Climbing a mountain or running a marathon is an accomplishment. Those things require strength, skill and endurance. The purpose of the zone diet is to help an individual control their calories and lose weight. If one is already doing that, what are they proving by succeeding or failing at an arbitrary way of eating?

You asked about diet challenges. That is what I was responding to - that's why I quoted you in the reply and prefaced it by saying "Never done zone diet".

The point that I was, obviously quite poorly, trying to make is that one can set a (or choose an "off the shelf") challenge with the aim to learn something, expand their palette, or add to their arsenal of tools and techniques - there doesn't have to be an end game other than that and, if picking and off the shelf challenge, ones own goals do not have to match those of the person that dreamt up the challenge.

I might, for example decide to take a break from the gym and pick an off the shelf 30 day body weight exercises challenge, does that mean I'm never going back to my gym? No. And, the writer of that challenge may have done so for many reasons:

• For fun
• Because they want to persuade people to ditch the gym and work out from home
• Becuse they have book/video/Youtube channel on the topic
• Because they want to increase their facebook likes/Instagram followers etc

Does that make it any less valid for me? Nope.
Would it be good for me? Who knows, but I might learn some new exercises which I can use when I'm back in the gym, or on holiday, or mention when posting on here.

Exactly.

uggins311

Gimsteinn wrote: »

Eh.. you have my deepest sympathy here. I haven't tried zone myself cause my box promotes clean eating but I've looked into zone and these blocks scare me away.
@uggins311 has some great things to say about zone though

Lol @Gimsteinn i don't have the time to weigh each individual piece of food