I started the Zone diet as part of a February Crossfit challenge. When I first started the Zone, I ate mostly Paleo purely because it meant I got to eat more food. Yes, I have a very large appetite for a girl, maybe it's because I'm half Italian? I probably lost about 3kg in that first month. That's when I started elimnating pasta, bread and rice.
After I had a Chronic Fatigue relapse, my doctor put me on iron supplements, and medication to help me digest my food so I would absorb the nutrients. A few months later a nutritionist came to talk to our Crossfit group about Paleo Zone. I wanted to find out more about the Zone, honestly I wasn't too interested in the Paleo. What he said made a lot of sense, so I started seeing him about my Chronic Fatigue, and to help get me off the medication as I was starting to depend on it. That's when dairy went.
Firstly I'll explain what Paleo Zone is.
Paleo is "paleolithic" foods, foods that cavemen would eat. That is vegies, some fruit, little starch, meat, fish, nuts, seeds, eggs. These are all low GI foods. There is actually a lot of conflicting information about how strict Paleo needs to be, so at first I was approximating it. I'd still eat potatoes and chickpeas, but not many. As a general rule I think Paleo foods are foods that can be eaten raw, although you can cook them if you want. That means no chocolate :(, dairy, grains, rice, pasta, etc. For me it also means no alcohol, red meat and eggs...for now (just because I find them harder to digest, but that's just me!).
Zone determines how much of the food you can eat. A "block" is a balance of 9g carbs, 7g protein and 1.5g fat to control insulin levels. In short, if insulin is released then you can't burn fat, when glycogen is released then you can. Carbs essentially increase insulin, so it's the fat and protein that you need to balance it out. I've learnt that it's fine to have double or triple the amount of fat (it helps with digesting the food) and that having a bit more protein is fine, but never overdo it on the carbs! If you do, have some more protein, or another way is to have fibre and fat as it lowers the GI of the food.
For me, eating Paleo Zone means that I can digest the food much more easily. I am getting way more nutrients, so I have so much more energy and Chronic Fatigue isn't really a problem anymore. I used to be such a night person and crawl out of bed in the morning, now I get up early and clean the house (we got rid of our cleaner and it's never looked better!). I'm so used to feeling good now that I really notice how crap I feel when I don't eat Paleo Zone, my tummy feels a bit ill and I get a bit...bleh. I also get way more hungry and tend to eat everything. Another awesome benefit of Paleo Zone is that I've lost a ton of weight, I don't even feel like I'm trying anymore. I cheat on fat all the time (have maybe double the blocks) and I've started eating about 11 or 12 blocks on some days, and still I've gone from an average Australian size 10, to a size 6 - 8!
The more I learn about the benefits of Paleo Zone, the easier I find it to stay on the diet. The other day I read about how the fibre in grains is processed in the body. It's similar to cigarettes or alcohol - your body sees it as a poison and tries to get rid of it. That's great for moving things through your bowels, but what it does along the way is scratch all through your digestive system and that really ages it. I guess that might be fine for some people, and they'll never have a problem, but for others when they're older they'll start having digestion issues because of it. I'm only 25 and already having these issues, so for me it's a deal breaker.
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