One Full week on the zone diet as of yesterday, and I feel... ok. I have decided not to keep track of any measurements like weight until the full two weeks have gone by. many times during the middle of the day I feel lethargic and in need of a nap to keep going. While this could be just a result of a lifestyle change, like moving home from college and trying to start a gym while planning a wedding and working another part time job, I feel as though my performance in the gym has suffered. This could also have another explanation in that I now work out on my own and do not always have the luxury of another athlete in the gym who can push me or a coach yelling in my ear making me go to the dark place. I feel as though there has been a drop in performance since starting the Zone challenge more than when I started working out on my own, which happened a few weeks before I started the Zone. Looking back I believe it is because I made a mistake in my eating habits. I am eating too little. The estimated block requirement for a male of my size working out five times a week is 20 blocks. For a few different reasons I decided to eat only 17 blocks to start off with. (You will remember an earlier post in which I stated that I did not think I could eat all the required food so I would stick to a lower number). However a week in and I have adjusted to eating five times a day I find my self wondering if it was a good choice to eat less. The lethargic feeling during the day and the drop in performance are two big signs that I am doing some thing wrong in the Zone. So for the next week I will up my block count to the full 20 blocks and see if that makes a difference .
On another note today was an interesting day in my Zone challenge journey. For the first time in a long time I was up before 6:00 am and out of my house for the majority of the day. I was working an estate sale and because of poor planing and a lapse of judgment on my part found myself across town with no prepared meals and no way to get home for breakfast or lunch. ( thats right I left the house with out eating breakfast) So today became a venture into the fast food arena while trying to remain in the zone and I am happy to report that having read "Enter the ZOne" by Dr. Sears I was prepared for it. For breakfast I had an egg mcmuffin which according to the book is a 2 block meal, and then another one a few hours later. For lunch I had a 3 block chicken sandwich from A&W and then another 3 block snack a few hour late in the form of half a cheese burger. At midday then I had eaten 10 blocks and felt confident that my protein to carb ratio was fairly good and accepted the fact that I had consumed at least 2x if not 3x the required fat for the day. I made it home fore a few minutes just long enough to have a measured out 2 block snack getting me back into the zone and bringing me to 12 blocks on the day. For dinner my biggest challenge awaits as I am being taken out to a local mexican restaurant which means resisting the temptations of the chips on the table and ordering a zone friendly meal on a very empty as it has unfortunately been more than 5 hours since my last meal. However today has shown that it is definitely possible to eat out and stay in the zone by just practicing a little self control and not giving in to the offer of double cheeseburgers and fries with super-sized sodas.
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