Viking CrossFit's "Zone" Central

Zone Quick Start Guide

2010-01-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

For this information and more go to the Quick Start Guide on the Zone's website.

Basic Zone Rules

Eat a Zone meal or snack within one hour after waking.
Eat every 4 to 6 hours after a meal or 2 to 2½ hours after a snack, whether you are hungry or not.
Assess your hunger level and mental focus before every meal or snack. Lack of hunger and clarity of mind are signs you are staying in the Zone.
Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day.
Start every meal or snack with low-fat protein. Next add low glycemic-load carbohydrates (i.e. vegetables and fruits) and good fats (i.e. olive oil). Remember, a typical serving of low-fat protein fits in your palm of your hand and is no thicker than your hand (about 3 ounces for most females and 4 ounces for most males) A typical snack contains 1 ounce of protein for both women and men. At first, a kitchen scale may be helpful for measuring. Don’t worry. You’ll be able to eyeball it in no time. If your plate looks like this, you’re on the right track:
Supplement daily with a highly purified Omega-3 concentrate like OmegaRx^®.
Don’t beat yourself up for straying here or there. Your next meal or snack can get you right back on track.

Lina's Recipies

2009-01-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

Blackened Salmon

Mix:
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
2 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cayan pepper
3/4 tsp. white pepper
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. thyme leaves
1 tsp. oregano leaves

Spray griddle/frying pan with Pam and heat on high for several minutes. Dip fish (red side down) in seasoning. Remove just enough seasoning to pie plate so you don't contaminate your batch. (This recipe will last you a while.) Cook spice side down first until black (about 3 - 5 minutes) then turn over and turn down heat. I covered at this point and let it heat through til done - maybe another 5 minutes.

I served with asparagas and "Salad on the Wild Side"

Ok, here's the recipe for the salad....

Toss:
1 cup California wild rice (Cook in 3 times amount of water covered about 33 minutes in microwave.) It stinks. Cool
cucumbers, finely diced
celery, finely diced
purple onion, finely sliced
Orange and red peppers, finely diced
few slivered almonds
grapes
mandarin oranges
freshly ground peppercorns

Dressing:
Olive oil
Kozlowski Farms Red Raspberry Vinegar

I used this same dressing on a salad earlier in the week, which I thought was pretty tasty - a good flavor combination.

baby spinach
red onion
pear
few almonds

Dresssing:
olive oil
Kozlowski Farms red raspberry vinegar.

Hope this can help someone...

Oh yeah, another treat I liked (3 blocks)

Mix:
1 cup Mountain High plain yogurt
1/8 tsp. Stevia

Add:
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1 cup sliced strawberries
9 chopped almonds atop

A bit windy. Loves, Lina

Tips for Getting Started

2009-01-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

Tips to get you started on the Zone Diet...

-Make a goal of how long you are going to do the diet for. Commit to it and keep a food diary if needed. 2 weeks is a good start. You will probably see results and feel better within 1 week, but to fully detox it could take 2 weeks. Be prepared to possibly feel tired, hungry and cranky the first week as your body gets used to a new way of eating. These side effects occur in 25% of the population due to the release of Aracidonic Acid (AA) is released from your cells. This is the "detox". It's only temporary.

-Make sure to stock your house with Zone favorable foods. It's much easier to stay on track if you have the right foods available. There is a Zone shopping list you can print out online to take with you to the market.

-Keep the Zone book in the kitchen where it is readily available to look up how many blocks is in each food you want to eat. There is a list on page 227 which makes it very easy to figure out a meal or snack.

-Pick 2-3 favorite breakfasts, snacks and meals that you know have the right amount of blocks you need. That way you can just rotate these and know your meal is in the Zone without having to make one last minute. This helps when you are in a hurry or hungry and don't want to think up a meal.

-If you don't have time in the morning to make a meal, i.e. eggs, canadian bacon, etc. Make it the night before and just warm it up. Make your lunch ahead of time too.

-Plan your meals in advance. When you go shopping, shop for 1 week of meals and snacks. Costco is a great place to get bulk meat, fruit, yogurt, etc.

-Make sure to eat within 1 hour of waking and be sure to eat all 5 fives per day. (3 meals and 2 snacks)

-Take 2 1/2 grams of fish oil per day, as recommended by Dr. Barry Sears.

-If you feel hungry after meals, look at what you are choosing for your carbs. Instead of a slice of bread (2 blocks), you can have 1 cup of broccoli or 2 cups or cauliflower, and 1 cup of strawberries instead. (also 2 blocks)

-Start the diet with someone else. It's much easier to stick with a diet when you have support. All the trainers here at Viking Crossfit are on the Zone, so feel free to ask us questions or advice.

What I Had for Dinner?

2009-01-16T18:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had to throw something together for just me. Hmmm, what to do with little effort? I know, I have frozen chicken. Ok, throw it in the pan, a little olive oil, medium heat. Now, what to eat for my carbs that’s easy? Look in my pantry, looking, looking. Ok, grab a can of pineapple, that’ll work. I need about 2.5 servings of this=about 40 grams of carbs.(thats a cup and a half) I’m hoping that the chicken breast I’m cooking is about 30 grams of Protein (thats how much I need, and I don’t have a scale). Good, chicken is cooking, have my carbs just need my fat. Back to the pantry, look, look, there, cashews. Grab a hand full (this package doesn’t tell me how many nuts I need, so I guess) Sorry Garcia’s this one has nuts. I’m thinking I’ll just eat them on the side, then I wonder how they would taste with the chicken, So I throw them in. All I need now is flavor. Add my typical salt and pepper, then wonder, what would be good with chicken and cashews? Back to the pantry one more time, and right away spot the honey. Ok, honey is carbs, so take away a couple of pineapple chunks and a tablespoon of honey to cooking, bits now, of chicken. (I chopped them up) Finished cooking, drizzle with one more tablespoon of honey, eat all Macronutrients (with fish pill), drink my water, satisfaction. I have to say, it wasn’t half bad.

Think this is crazy, lets see what you had for dinner.

Snacks in the Zone

2009-01-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

We’ll start with proteins.

Costco has a great lunch meat selection, which tells you how many slices to grams of protein. So its easy to measure how much you need without a scale. My favorite is the kirkland honey ham.

String Cheese about 1 block per string of cheese.

Cottage cheese, I know some people don’t like cottage cheese, I am very picky about the brand. My favorite is Cream of Weber lowfat in the blue container. Once again easy to measure how much to eat.

Carbs:

I also buy fruit cups form Costco, but I think you can get them anywhere. Peaches and Mandarin Oranges in the little cups. These are about two blocks per cup.

Costco also has pink grapefruit in a cup (about two blocks). These take all of the work out of eating one in the shell. They rock.

Fats:

I keep Cashews, Almonds, and Pecans around. You can throw them in a zip lock and have them with a fruit cup and string cheese and you have a Zone snack.

If you need a protein that doesn’t have to be refrigerated grab some Jerky.

These are Just a couple of things I keep around, If you have some favorites that are really good or easy let us know. I’m no Zone expert I’m just sharing what works for me, as a Zone “Slacker”. Lets here some other snack ideas to help us all stay motivated and eating in the Zone.

Cody

Zone Breakfast

2009-01-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite Zone breakfast so far. It feels like I get a lot to eat which helps. This is for a 3 block meal.

2 eggs or 4 egg whites cooked with olive oil

1/4 c. low-fat cottage cheese with
1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries

1/3 c cooked Oatmeal sprinkled with Cinnamon. I put some of the blueberries in my oatmeal and some in the cottage cheese.

I usually have to add about 6 olives to get all my fat. But for those who can eat nuts, you could add almonds or walnuts to your oatmeal or cottage cheese.

Pineapple Chicken

2009-01-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

Fresh or frozen chicken 1 breast per person, or weigh it. I use Costco frozen chicken breasts.

1 can pineapple, again use as much as each person is supposed to have.

Fresh or frozen broccoli

Slivered almonds

Olive oil

In a non-stick fry pan, with a lid, add a couple Tbs olive oil and frozen chicken breasts on Med heat. Cook until slightly browned on the outside, then with a sharper plastic spatula chop up chicken into bite size pieces and add some pineapple juice from can. Salt and Pepper to taste, and cook until bite sized pieces are browned on all sides. Add slivered almonds broccoli and seal with lid. Allow 5-10 minutes for broccoli to steam, then add pineapple. Cook until pineapple is warmed, them weigh and serve.

I typically don’t take the time to weigh, but you can eyeball it and get it close, if you know how much chicken you usually need. Another great thing is that my kid loves this one, which is a feat for our 3 year old.

Fruit Smoothies

2009-01-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

I’m going to talk about my old standby and favorite thing to have for breakfast, the fruit smoothie. Many ways to make these, but I will tell you how I make it work for my lazy butt.

Once again love to spend my hard earned money at Costco. They have a good selection of frozen fruit that is easily measured. The label will tell you how much to measure out for a certain amount of carbs. I also get my Protein powder from there as well.

Its as easy as:

add a cup of water or more depending on how many blocks you need. (the more fruit, the more water you will need for proper consistency)

add frozen fruit in right amount ( for my four blocks this is usually 2 cups depending on fruit)

Blend some,

add protein powder (use your math to figure how much you need) 28 grams, or 2 scoops for me.

If you’re using fresh fruit add some ice as well. You can also add 1% milk for flavor (you would want to adjust your fruit and protein ratios. 1 cup of milk=1 block of protein and carbs)

Don’t forget to eat your fat blocks with your smoothie. You can toss some almonds into the blender with your smoothie, if you dare. 3 almonds per block.

Use the fruits you like to make your favorite smoothies and enjoy the fact that you are getting a large serving of fruit and eating in the Zone.

My favorite flavor is Blueberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry with vanilla Protein powder.

I hope this helps you stay motivated.

Is anyone reading this? Do you have a good smoothie recipe?

Eating out in the Zone

2009-01-16T18:10:00.000-08:00

I went to Goodwood Smokehouse and it was pretty easy to eat a Zone meal. Here is what I had...

I ordered a pulled-pork sandwich and took off some of the pork and estimated 3 oz (3 blocks protein) of meat. Then I cut the sandwich in half so I only had 1 bun (2 blocks carbs). Then I ordered extra veggies instead of fries. So I got the rest of my carbs with the broccoli and cauliflower.

I did order a salad, which probably put me over on my carbs, but I think I stayed pretty balanced. I ordered salad dressing on the side and that was my fat.

Has anyone else found a good Zone meal when eating out?

Breakfast Tart and Fruit Salad

2009-01-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

This breakfast will help you balance your hormones In the Zone™ for maximum anti-inflammatory effects. Get the proper nutrients your body needs for long term health. This recipe is full of tomatoes which are packed with the phytonutrient, lycopene, known for its antioxidant potency. Antioxidants help repair the stress that comes from oxidation by scavenging damage causing free-radicals. Olives are plentiful in this recipe and are rich in beneficial monounsaturated fats and low in pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. Olives contain a phytochemical, hydroxytyrosol, which inhibits enzymes that produce pro-inflammatory eicosanoids (hormones controlling the inflammatory process). This recipe balances three macronutrients (low-fat protein, low-glycemic carbs, and heart-healthy fat) to help control hunger and maintain hormonal balance.

This recipe is direct from our Zone Partners in Italy.

Colazione con Torta Salata e Insalata di Frutta
(Breakfast Tart and Fruit Salad)

12 blocks, 4 portions of 3 blocks each*

Ingredients:
1½ cups peeled chopped tomatoes
½ cup finely chopped onion
6 ounces skim milk mozzarella
18 pitted olives, cut into small pieces
olive oil spray
3 large eggs
6 egg whites
1 tsp. dried dill
1 tsp. dried basil
pinch of black pepper
salt

Fruit Salad
1 pear
2 cups grapes
3 kiwis
1 cup pineapple
juice of ½ lemon

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a non-stick oven proof sauté pan, spray with olive oil. Add half of the chopped tomatoes, half of the onion, all of the mozzarella, and the olives. Put the remaining tomatoes, onion, eggs, spices, salt and pepper in a blender and mix until smooth and even. Pour into the pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until mixture is puffed up and golden brown. Fruit Salad: Cut fruit into small pieces, adding the lemon juice, toss. Note: The cheese can be substituted with 5 ounces of lean ham.

*The savory tart and the fruit salad can be divided into 4 portions of 3 blocks each or in 3 portions of 4 blocks.

Pregnancy and the Zone

2009-01-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Can you follow the Zone if you are pregnant? What adjustments do I have to make?
For pregnant women, increase your daily blocks by three, adding one block to each of your major meals. This increase is to ensure adequate protein for both mother and child. Be advised, regardless of your calculations, a pregnant woman should eat a minimum of 14 blocks a day.

Miklk is a great snack you can add when you are pregnant. It is 1 block of protein and 1 block of carbs. You should drink 3-4 glasses per day.

How should my diet change now that I'm pregnant?

If you are eating a healthy diet before you become pregnant, you may only need to make a few changes to meet the special nutritional needs of pregnancy. According to the American Dietetic Association (ADA), a pregnant woman needs only 300 calories a day more than she did pre-pregnancy. The ADA recommends that pregnant women eat a total of 2,500 to 2,700 calories every day. These calories should come from a variety of healthy foods.

But what pregnant women eat is more important than how much. A pregnant woman needs more of many important vitamins, minerals and nutrients than she did pre-pregnancy. To get enough nutrients, pregnant women should take a multivitamin or prenatal vitamin and eat healthy foods from the four basic food groups everyday.

Click here for more dietary guidelines for a healthy pregnancy: http://www.4woman.gov/pregnancy/pregnancy/eat.cfm