Trying the Zone

Starting Oct 1 Daniel and I are trying the Zone diet.

I have many reservations about this. My last food based experiment (the no dairy) did not go well. I already have weird OCD tendencies about my food. I get overly invested in systems that let me find excuses to strictly control what I eat. I am afraid that I'll become somewhat obsessive about weighing and measuring my food. I'm relying on Daniel to keep me 'on the level' about this aspect. In many cases I'm just going to rely on him to do the counting and measuring. It means more work for him, but this was his idea, so - he can manage ;-P. If it gets overwhelming I can stop.

I only get 11 blocks/day. Technically, I should only get 10, but I made Daniel round it up. It just seems like hardly any food at all - or at least it does if you're eating high density/high GI (glycemic index) carbs. Once you start factoring in lower GI carbs the volumes of food get kind of ridiculous. Which is the other thing about this diet that I am finding so strange. Eating large volumes of carbs - much larger than we have been.

The thing that makes me the very most sad of all is that this will really restrict my milk consumption. Since milk is a combo food, one cup of milk = a whole protein/fat/carb block. If i stuck to my normal 16oz PWO milk and 16oz with dinner, that would only leave me 7 blocks for the rest of my food for the day. The size of my daily cottage cheese snack has been cut in about half, too. After hearing repeatedly and often that the key to good performance is to 'eat more food', this feels almost as foreign as the need to eat more carbs to meet the required ratios.

If it seems at any point like it is negatively affecting my performance, or I am getting obsessive about the weighing and measuring, the diet will go, and I'll go back to the low-carb, whole food, solid portion size way I was eating before that seemed to be working just fine. All that said, though, I have heard and seen enough positive results from following this diet that I do feel it is worth trying. So - here goes.

Beginning Stats:
Weight: 125
Waist: 29"
Hips: 37"
Body Fat: 24%
LBM: 95#