DozenDiets.com

 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!! Go see some fireworks tonight!

Weight today 187.2! Woo hoo! Loving the Zone right now. Weight is dropping like a stone. I’ll be honest, the food is not fantastic, but I am looking for alternatives. Today I had:

• My Zone Smoothie (Look back a couple of days for my recipe) (4 blocks of protein, 4 blocks of fat, 3 blocks of carbs)
• 1/2 cup of grapes (1 block of carbs)
• 1/2 a Zone BAr (1 block of each protein, carb and fat)
• 4 oz Pork BBQ (not great) 4 proteins
• tossed salad (4 carbs)
• 4tsp Oil and Vinegar Dressing (4 fats)
• the other 1.2 of my Zone BAr (1 block of each protein, carbs and fat)

So I am at 10 of my 15 blocks which leaves me 4 for dinner and 1 for a snack this evening. Drinking plenty of water. Today is a light weight training day. I will do that in a bit right before dinner and then after dinner it is time for fireworks!

 Weight today: 189.0

Whew. Broke 190! That is huge for me. I haven’t weighed less than 190 since a record year in 2000. I was at 190 then. I am getting close to my high school weight. It feels great. I hope I can hang here or go down. Hopefully I will drop another pound or two and be safely in the 180’s.

Today I did something new. I took what I learned from The Abs Diet and combined it with The Zone friendly stuff from the Zone book and made myself a breakfast smoothie. I used the following ingredients:

The Zone Meal Smoothie by DozenDiets:

• 1/2 cup of oatmeal (1.5 carbs)
• 1/4 cup of yogurt (0.5 carbs and 0.5 protein)
• 1 cup of milk (1 carb and 1 protein)
• 23 gram of Protein Powder (or 5/6th of a oz) to get 2.5 proteins
• 1 tsp of peanut butter (2 fats)
• 2 tsp of flaxseed (2 fats)
• 2 cups of chopped ice (free)
• 4 packets of splenda

That left me at 4 proteins, 3 carbs and 4 fats and weighed in at 500 calories. I added (on the side)

• 1/2 grapes (1 carb)

To get my total of 4 blocks of each component. It was ayummy breakfast and I am pretty full. It worked pretty well. I will probably do that again on this diet.

Lunch is:

• 4 oz of chicken (4 protein)
• 1 apple (2 carbs)
• 1 cup of grapes (2 carbs)
• 4 tsp of almonds (4 fats)

I will still have to suck down 3 snacks as well as dinner at some point today. Today is a running day and we will be out late at a 4th of July celebration (on the 3rd?). So I will have plenty of chances to eat.

My snacks turned out to be

• 1/2 zone bar (1 block of each protein, carbs and fat)
• 1/2 zone bar (1 block of each protein, carbs and fat)
• 1/2 zone bar (1 block of each protein, carbs and fat)

Then for dinner I had:

• porkchop  (4 oz) (4 proteins)
• 1/2 cup of green beans (1/2 a carb)
• 1 cup of celery (1/2 a carb)
• 1/4 cup of hummus (1 carb)
• 1 apple (2 carbs)
• 12 olives (4 fats)

I ran my five miles so I felt pretty good about this day on The Zone!

 Weight today 191.8

Seeing some drop off, which is good. It is typical for me at the first of the month to start high since I take a diet break on the last day of the month. I am getting better about not gorging myself on those days “off”.

The pic at the top of this post is me running with my nephew in Pigeon Forge. I held him when he was born and now he towers over me. To give you a frame of reference, I am 5′10″. He’s a big guy. It was fun to run with him though. He is an athletic trainer and a personal trainer so I felt pretty good about being able to keep up (I think he sandbagged a little to make me feel good, but I will take it).

Anyway, yesterday went well on the Zone. I did a little research today to find out if my beloved smoothies would fit in the zone diet. Turns out that they will with just a little modification. I got the smoothies from The Abs Diet. I kept them all through Weight Watchers and The Mediterranean Diet because I love them and they are very diet friendly. They will fit in the zone with minor modification. Notable the portions change a little and the oatmeal goes from instant to slow-cooked. I will try them soon and let you know how it works out. Right now, breakfast is oatmeal (which I love). Of course there are also Zone shakes and bars that I will try eventually to see how those work.

So, thus far today I have had:

• 1 cup of oatmeal with 1 oz of whey powder (3 carbs and 3 proteins)
• 1 cup of milk (1 protein and 1 carb)
• 20 almonds (4 fats)

That has me at 4 blocks of my 15. Right now I am about to eat

• 5 almonds (1 fat)
• 1 cup of milk (1 protein and 1 carb)

So I will be at 5 of my 15 blocks for the day. I’ll let you know how everything else goes. I am scheduled to go out for lunch today. I am hoping I can talk myself into a chicken caesar salad or something like that. Very Zone-friendly.

So lunch was

• Grilled chicken caesar salad. I only ate about half of it as I think that approximate 4 blocks of protein, 4 blocks of carbs and I added a little dressing to get the 4 blocks of fats

Then, this afternoon I had

• 1 cup of milk (1 protein and 1 carb)
• almonds (1 fat)

So that gets me to 10 blocks of my 15 for the day. This evening I will go for 4 for dinner and then have the 1 zone-friendly snack before bed. I ran yesterday so tonight it is weight-training.

Okay for dinner I had:

• The rest of that caesar salad from lunch along with oil and vinegar dressing I made myself. Even I can follow that recipe. 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil. 2 tsp of vinegar (balsamic).

So I am done for the day except for a 1 block snack tonight. Probably yogurt and almonds or milk and almonds. I will do my weight training in a bit and make sure I get my last 16 ounces of water. I may get more than that, but I hope that is okay on The Zone.

Later

 Today’s Weight: 193.8

First day on The Zone (or should I say “in” The Zone?). Anyway, we will see how it goes. Here is my plan: I intend to eat a Zone friendly diet for a couple of weeks and then I might add in some of The Zone supplements (shakes, bars, etc) to see how they work or if they work. The book by Dr. Sears has The Zone sounding like the best thing since sliced bread (sliced bread, by the way, is not really allowed on The Zone.)

Anyway, daily I am supposed to eat 15 “blocks” of protein, which means 15 blocks of carbs and 15 blocks of fat. The book makes it really clear what constitutes “a block”. For me, breakfast looked like this:

• 1 cup of slow cooked oatmeal with 1 ounce of Whey protein powder (3 blocks of protein and 3 blocks of carbs)
• 1 cup of milk (1 block of protein and 1 block of carbs)
• 24 peantus (4 blocks of fat)

That has me 4 blocks into my 15. I will basically be eating 4 blocks per meal with 3 snacks of 1 block each. Hopefully by tomorrow I will feel like a new man! Okay, so that was said a little tongue-in-cheek. I will be more objective than that and I will let you know if I do feel better, more energetic and more mentally acute. I did weight training last night so tonight is a running night. I will run 5 miles (it is a beautiful day - how about taking a walk?) Then we’ll see if there is any difference tomorrow. In actuality, The Zone, similar to the Mediterranean Diet from last month, only promises a pound to a pound and a half per week so we might not see a rapid change, which is okay with me. I am now a firm believer in the slower weight loss is easier to maintain if done in a healthy fashion. Of course after one day “off diet” I am 2 pounds up so maybe if I stoppped dieting I would be back where I started in no time. I guess I will just have to keep on keeping on!

I’ll let you know how lunch goes.

Lunch consisted of:

• 1 apple (2 carb blocks)
• 1 cup of grapes (2 carb blocks)
• 4 tsp of almonds (4 fat blocks)
• 6 oz of Turkey (4 protein blocks)

So that has me at 1000 calories for the day and I have eaten 8 of my 15 blocks for the day. I feel pretty good, but I don’t know if it is diet-related or if I am just in a good mood today. I have 1 snack to eat before dinner which I will do when I get close to running. I’ll post what I eat in a little bit.

I had an afternoon snack that consisted of:

• 1 oz of deli ham (1 block of protein)
• 1/2 cup of grapes (1 block of carbs)
• something like 10 almonds (1 block of fats)

So that had me at 9 of my 15 blocks. I then got home and ate:

• 1/2 cup of yogurt (1 block of protein and a block of carbs)
• 7 or 8 almonds (1 block of fats)

DInner was then:

• 4 oz of grilled chicken (4 blocks of protein)
• 1 cup of green beans (1 carb block)
• 1/4 cup of hummus (1 carb block)
• 1/2 an apple (1 carb block)
• 2 cups of celery (1 carb block)
• 1 teaspoon of live oil (on the green beans) 3 fat blocks
• 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter (1 fat block)

SO that left me with one snack for tonight . I just jad that. It was:

• 1 cup of milk (1 protein and 1carb block)
• 8 almonds (1 fat block)

SO that is it for the day. I didn’t feel too hungry today. I haven’t planned out my food for tomorrow, but I will modify a bit (that was A LOT of celery) but it’s not so bad. I ran my 5 miles as well and I also had my 8 glasses of water (8 oz). All-in-all a good day in “The Zone”

 Starting the Zone tomorrow! (click the book for an amazon link)

July was supposed to be Nutrisystem, but I don’t want to lay out the $355.00 for one month of food right now so we will go with The Zone instead.

So far I have read the book and enjoyed it. If the book is to be believed then during my month on The Zone I should

1. Lose weight
2. increase my athletic performance (very interested in seeing if this is true)
3. increase my mental acuity (no one will probably notice this. Let’s be honest, I am probably about as acute as I can hope for at this stage in my life)

The diet, in general, prescribes a specific ratio of protein to carbs to fats. It is all based off of your daily required levels of protein which is, in turn, based on your weight, body fat percentage and level of activity. For me, for example, my body fat percentage right now is 18% and my weight is 190 and I am reasonably active so my protein level, daily, comes out to 107 grams according to The Zone. The book then tells me what ratio of fat and carbs to eat to get “In the Zone” where I will reap the benefits listed above.

One thing to note is that the carbs on this plan are divided into “good carbs” and “bad carbs” based on Glycemic Index, which is basically just a term that means how easily your body converts the carbohydrate to energy and thus spikes insulin and thus causes you to store fat. The book goes into GREAT detail on all of this so I won’t even try to regurgitate it here. Basically you want the right GLycemic Index from your carbs so most of the carbs will be fruits (certain fruits like Apples) and Veggies and only a few breads and when you do it bread it should be high fiber (whole grain).

So, I will be eating this ratio of protein to fat to carbs to achieve my 107 grams of protein daily. That, along with my exercise regimen, which seems to meet The Zone recommendations, should get me into The Zone. I did a little preliminary work and just put together a sample diet for a day on The Zone Diet and I was relieved to see it hits right at 1975 calories. Now I know that will fluctuate some based on what foods I choose, but after my success on The Mediterranean diet and focusing on 1900 calories, I am relieved to see the Zone is close in calorie numbers. The food choices are also somewhat similar to The Mediterranean Diet and The Abs Diet though what The Zone really reminds me of is The South Beach Diet Phase 2. On The South Beach Diet, Phase 1 is very low carb and I have often wondered if that was not to get the dieter to see the rapid weight loss associated with Low Carb dieting (which I believe is usually water weight). South Beach Phase 2 is more balanced and designed for long-term, 1-2 pound per week weight loss and it reminds me a lot of The Zone.

We’ll see how it goes. Today I am basically off dieting and getting ready for tomorrow. Drop by and read about Day 1 “In The Zone”.

 Weight today 190.0

Well, the AMD is behind me. It was a fun diet to be on and pretty easy and now I understand better what a “Mediterranean Diet” consists of. Monounsaturated fats, lots of fiber, lots of fruits and veggies, lean meats. Pretty darn yummy stuff. I felt really good for the whole month. No real downside other than the need occasionally for a cheeseburger and a beer, but that is pretty much the same on any diet and cheeseburgers and beer should be a limited thing anyway (as I have learned in m y older years)

So, here is the summary:

On The Advanced Mediterranean Diet I lost 7 pounds. (I started at 197 and ended at 190). My body fat went down significantly. I measured last night at 18% and I started at around 25%. Not the most effective in terms of weight loss, but still quite effective and right in the range that the diet promises, which seems to be a healthy weight loss rate AND a rate that makes the weight easier to keep off. It was, I think, the most effective in terms of body fat percentage drop which is, to me, even more important than the weight number. I also went down a pants zie (I bought a pair of 34 inch waist pants last night. Wearing them right now. Haven’t been that small since 1999. They are comfortable and it feels great!)

• For “Ease of Understanding”: I give it a 10 out of 10. It is very easy to understand by reading the book.
• For “Forgiveness of a Cheat”: I give it a 10 out of 10. It figures a cheat right in and even an additional cheat here and there is easy to recover from.
• For “Ease of Execution” I give it a 7 out of 10. It does require some tracking, but it is pretty easy to do as it is mainly calorie related and large category related so it is easy to figure where things go. This ranked very similar to weight watchers, but is superior in terms of price. Weight Watchers has a monthly cost, but the AMD only costs the initial price of the book so it got a couple of extra points there. It could easily work as a long term plan.
• For “Results” I give it a 9 out of 10. It didn’t exceed expectations, but it met them as promised. Between 1-2 pounds per week. 

That gives the AMD a 36 out of possible 40 points. That might be as close to a perfect score as we will see on Dozen Diets. This one was easy to stick to, encourages physical activity, has some guidance on how to maintain after reaching your goal weight. I think what strikes me as that this diet is designed to achieve goals of fitness, longevity and weight loss. It’s goal is not to sell you another book or a supplement or a “specially formulated snack bar”. The AMD is designed to help people. That in itself puts it head and shoulders above many, many “fad” diets.

Next month is The Zone.

 Weight today:190.4

Well, not the vacation weight loss I had hoped for, but I still have one more day. I actually managed to stick to my diet on vacation. I was shocked. I had my one diet “vacation” meal late Friday. I kept up my running and logged 17 miles while on vacation. I did miss 2 weight training sessions, which was a bit of a bummer, but I still stayed active and hiked a little, walked a lot, played a few rounds of golf. It was a lot of fun and I posted a 6/10ths of a pound weight loss while on vacation which, for me, is unheard of.

So, back on it today, but this is the last day of my Advanced Mediterranean Diet. I will do my last weigh in tomorrow morning and then take it pretty much “off-diet” for the day (without going too nuts).

On July 1st, I will start my next diet. I had originally scheduled nutrisystem, but with it being $355.00 for the month, I am going to put it off and jump to The Zone instead. More on that later.

Today I will stick to my AMD and we will do one last weigh in tomorrow along with my post-diet summary. I’ll give you a preview: The AMD rocks! It might not be the highest scoring diet, but it will score nicely, I can tell that already.

Today I have eaten:

• a smoothie (half at breakfast and half at lunch) 630 calories
• grapes (80 calories)
• granola bar (100 calories)
• Bowl of cheerios (200 calories)

So I am at 1010 calories. I will let you know how the rest of the day goes.

 I figured I would use the ant-head picture for this post.

Here’s the deal - I am going on vacation tomorrow (6/21) and I will be gone for a week. Just FYI, spending a week in the Smoky Mountains. We’ll be hiking, fishing, camping. Of course we will do some “haunted houses”, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, The Aquarium of the Smokies. All of that jazz.

Here is the kicker. I will do my best to stay on the AMD throughout the week. I know I will be able to keep up my exercising, but vacationing and dieting is hard.  I intend to treat it as a good challenge of the AMD, but if I drop off completely, I won’t count those days in my AMD evaluation. I may have to add some days when I get back to make up for it and to prevent me from having to normalize the weight loss data.

ALSO - I am unclear as to my internet access in the Smoky Mountains National Park. I will try and sneak out and at least make a post or two to the site to let everyone know how it is going.

Wish me luck! Talk to you soon!

 Weight today: 191.0

I wanted to use the slam dunk picture again. This place we went was a blast! (Wiibounce in Cary, NC). It is awesome for a kid’s b-day party!

Today I have eaten:

• oatmeal (200 calories and 2 grains)
• Coffee
• Diet soda

I took it easy early as I am supposed to go to the Mexican place for lunch with friends. Obvioulsy Mexican does not equal Mediterranean so I will do my best to focus on the calorie number and focus on the components such as grains, proteins, veggies, etc. We’ll see how I do.

Well, Lunch consisted of

• 1 taco (beef) (I am counting as one protein and one grain) - best guess 300 calories
• 1 enchilada (beef) (I am counting as my second protein and second grain) - best guess 300 calories
• Nacho chips and salsa (I am counting as a veggie and a grain) - best guess 100 calories
• refried beans (Counting as a fat) - best guess 200 calories

That puts me at 1100 calories for the first part of the day. Pretty much on par with a regular day. I am not sure what I will do for dinner. Where I am deficient is fruits and dairy today. I don’t really fancy fruit and milk tonight. I will see what I can cobble together. I should be able to stick to the 1900 calories ok. I am concerned about the selection of categories. We’ll see how I do. 

Evening update

Okay - recovering pretty well from the non-AMD lunch. Dinner was like this:

• non fat vanilla yogurt (~100 calories) my dairy
• banana (80 calories) 1 of 4 fruits
• steak 5 oz - 300 calories
• vegetarian chili (all 3 of my veggies) 250 calories

So, I am at around 1820. I have about 80 left and unfortunately, I am short on fruit. My snacks tonight will be all fruit, and I may go over by 80-100 based on fruit. We’ll see. I will try and keep it close to 1900 or 1980 calories. I did my weight training today as well. Of course if things get really dicey I could munch on some celery as well. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Well, my night consisted of a single banana so I am right at 1900. I am a little short on fruit for the day, but I will opt to stick to my calorie numbers.

Talk to you later!

 Weight today: 191.0

Up a little from yesterday,  but that seems to be somewhat typical after a weight training day. Today is a running day so we will see what tomorrow looks like.

Just 12 more days on this diet. I have lost 6 pounds over all so it is going pretty well.

Today I have eaten:

•  
  • #1 and #2 of my 3 fats (in the whole smoothie)
  • #1 of my 2 proteins  (in the whole smoothie)
  • #1.5 of my 2 milks (in the whole smoothie)
  • #1 and #2 of my 4 grains (in the whole smoothie)
• coffee
• diet soda

I am going on vacation next week. I intend to try and stick with things. I don’t know how regularly I will be able to make entries. I don’t know about internet access in the mountains where we are staying. Hopefully I can make a few entries anyway.

FOr Lunch I am having:

• the second 1.2 of my smoothie (315 calories)
• Banana (80 calories) - my 1st of 4 fruits
• Grapes (80 calories) - my 2nd of 4 fruits
• Low Fat Ham Sandwich on whole grain bread (150 calories) - the rest of my grains and some more of my protein for the day

I’ll let you know how the rest of the day goes. So I am at about 960 calories for the day. I know I have some grapes for a snack this afternoon which will get me to dinner with 1040 calories and I will still need to eat 3 veggies, 1 protein, 1 fruit and 2 fats. In fact I will record my afternoon snack now

• grapes (80 calories) and the 3rd of my 4 fruits

So that gets me to 1040 calories. I’ll keep you posted as to dinner. Of course tonight is a running night as well so I will knock out between 4.25 and 5 miles. Somewhere in there.

Looks like dinner will be:

• 1 - 5 oz New York Strip (300 calories and the rest of my protein)
• Horace’s Veggie Chili (250 calories) and all my veggies

That will have me at 1600 calories. 300 left and still need to eat 2 fats,1 fruit and half a milk. I know the dairy will be yogurt (80 calories) which will leave 220, which would be nicely taken up by 1 oz of Almonds (200 calories and my last fat for the day) and another banana (80 calories) for a grand total of 1960. Hopefully I can stick to all of that.

Well - scratch the whole dinner plans

Here’s what actually happened -

I went home and ran 5 miles, then ran a combined hill workout/interval training session. THEN, my significant other decided that we should have my 2nd diet vacation night and since I was in my third week, it did fit. NOw it just puts the pressure on for the next 11 days not to cheat.

Anyway, my diet vacation consisted of

• 4 pieces of cheese pizza
• 2 lite beers
• ice cream
• small white chocolate candy bar

Not all-in-all too bad for a single diet binge. I felt okay with it since I had the run. We’ll see what happens.