The key to this eating plan is to eat in total balance. That means a balanced intake of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, at the same time, every time you eat, because often the body needs one to absorb the other properly.
Eating in balance does not mean eating the same amount of each macronutrient each time. It means keeping the ideal, healthy, proportion between the three. That is, for every 7 grams of protein you eat, you must eat 9 grams of complex carbohydrates and 1.5 grams of good fat.
That would be quite difficult to work out by ourselves, because most foods have all three in them in different quantities. But luckily for us, Barry Sears, the author of ‘The Zone’ has done it for us, rating foods and portion sizes dependant on which macronutrient they have the most of.
His is the eating plan I followed, to lose just under 20lbs in 60 days. I stuck to it as religiously as possible. I had a few slip-ups! I picked out the whole foods I liked from the lists, which are provided in the book, and are reproduced on this website, for your convenience. I gave up all refined sugar, all processed foods, all additives and preservatives, and certainly anything marked ‘zero sugar’, which is a fallacy. Most sugar substitutes are poison. I also eliminated all seed and vegetable oils, except olive oil and coconut oil. Avocado oil is also a good choice.
The difference in my body, from my complexion to my weight, has been nothing short of remarkable.
You can read about my journey in my book, ‘Turn Back Time: Why chocolate is GOOD for you and rice cakes are BAD’ or follow my day-by-day podcast series here, or on Tiktok.
Have a look at the lists below to choose your macronutrients, after you have worked out how many blocks you need to eat, by using the measuring chart, taken from ‘The Zone’ book. You can assemble your personalised eating plan. You can even follow exactly what I ate, day-by-day, to make it even easier.
Remember if you eat one choice from the protein list, one choice from the carbohydrate list and one choice from the fats list, that counts as ONE BLOCK in the Zone diet, NOT THREE BLOCKS. Depending how much you weigh, and your measurements, you will be allocated a specific number of blocks to eat per day, spread over the day. (This will go up each week as your weight falls!)
Don’t FAST. Eat often. If your calculations tell you to eat 10 blocks a day, that is 10 blocks of fat, 10 blocks of carbs and 10 blocks of protein.
Enjoy!