Facebook Comments

20 thoughts on “Wed, Jan 21st”

1. Ok, since no one commented on my brilliant link about hunger the other day, and prompted by the discussion with Big Shane on Monday, I’m curious to know for everybody that has tried zone what their experience with hunger is/was.

   It seems that most folks fall into two camps (as described by the often quoted Robb Wolf): the DIHEAT (do I have to eat all that) crowd and the AHCCZ (always hungry carb crash zombie) crowd. I’m definitely the latter. I would guess it’s due to 1) my severe lack of consistency and 2) my overuse of fruits and underuse of veg but man, can it really come down to that? Where’s my props for replacing the Mars bar with an apple?

   Anyone else care to add their thoughts?

2. I’ll chime in for a bit.

   I think that when people change their diet, there’s a lot of psychology involved. And maybe for the constantly hungry crowd, it’s because when they eat they’re thinking ‘this is all I can eat for another x hours’. That way they’re concentrating on lack, on deprivation.

   Also, I find boredom a big factor. If I’m in work, I could really be counting the hours until I eat. If I’m coaching/busy, I have to remind myself to eat.

3. I fall into the first camp I think, even on a 15 block day I’m eating more quantity than I was pre-zone, plus I’m eating more regularly which contributes to this feeling of being full.
   I think the changes I made to my diet before going zone helped a lot. In the past 4 months I have cut way back on bread rolls, snacks, spuds, rice. I dropped coke a few months ago, cut out processed sugar in my tea so zone hasn’t been to much of a shock to the system. the only hassle is I’ve had to learning a lot of new recipes

   With zone, especially until you get used to it, you spend a good deal of time thinking about food, trying to remember how many tomatoes can I eat, what does a cup of broccoli look like, where will I get my fat blocks from. Focusing like this makes minor things a bigger deal. If I’m hungry now, I think I need to adjust my timing or blocks at lunch etc, before I used to think, man I’m starving and just eat something.

4. Guys. Sorry to go OT but anyone know is thre are any plans for CF level I certifications in UK or Ireland this year ?

   Or the barbell cert ?

   Cheers,
   Brian.

5. Well I’m hoping to go Zone/Paleo next week so I’ll let you know how it goes, gonna spend the next few days putting receipes and a plan together and working out my block allowance etc. Might run all that by WIll if he allows?

6. That’s probably quite a big and very overlooked issue that Colm’s raised, i.e., the mental aspects of dieting.

   I could probably make myself hungry right now if I wanted to by obessively thinking about a giant, raw as blazes chunk of sirloin steak seared to absolute perfection on the outside, with some crispy brocolli lightly sautéd in olive oil and garlic…

   Really, If you’re sitting there thinking “man, what a tiny, miserable meal I just ate, I’m going to be starving in about an hour…” the overwhelming likelihood is that you’re going to be starving in about an hour.

   Now that’s quite apart from the effects of eating too much high GI stuff and not enough vegetables (which is goign to make you hungrier), but trying to seperate the ole mind from the body is a bit of an artifical manouver.

   Brian – At the last cert Coach was talking about maybe coming back over this side of the pond in spring time, so we’ll have to keep our ears to the ground and see what happens there. Nothing confirmed as of yet as far as I know.

   Pixie – Eggs and fruit for breakfast, giant salad for lunch, meat and huge pile of vegetables for dinner. You meal plan is now done, go buy some food and get started! Adjust as neccessary as you go along.

   Oh, and mad props on giving up the shmokes!

7. I’m working on cleaning up my diet as well. The plan is to work on a clean diet + milk for the remainder of SS. Then when I switch to CF (when the clocks go forward an hour) I will be in a good position if I decide to give zone a try.

   I’ve started with eggs & fruit for breakfeast since last week. Anway my question is..which type of nuts/seeds should I be eating?

   Also where do you lot pick up your fish oil from? I signed up to the CF Journal last week when i had the flu..If reading about hyperinsulism wasn’t bad enough I watched that video about toxic fat posted the other day. I now have two new boogie men out to get me

8. Eamonn,

   You and Tom are in that lovely position of doing SS and getting to eat tremendous amounts each day. So while you’re eating clean, make sure you eat a lot of it.

   Nuts, I usually go for Almonds, Brazils, Hazelnuts or Cashews. I don’t know why I capitalized them. If I could find Macademia nuts I’d eat them too.

   http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=2796&at=0

   The very best in fish oil.

9. Will do Colm.

   How long does 500ml last..How much would you take per day?

10. Eamonn–on the nuts I’d say you’re pretty good on any that you can find in the shops except for peanuts (and watch those cashews; while tasty they pack a serious carb whallop).

    For fish oil the classic test is to start at 5mil (is that a teaspoon?) and every other day or so add another 5mil until you reach your limit. And there is no mistaking your limit.

    I’ve heard that fish oil goes bad so make sure to keep it in your refrigerator and use as quickly as possible.

11. Anyone interested in a group purchase of this?
    I take Solgar capsules at the moment,

    I am eating a fair bit but must admit am conscious of putting on fat, however I reckon a few weeks of crossfit and that will rip off,

    Mostly fish, eggs, greens, apples banana’s and fair bit of cashew nuts, a 500gm bag a week anyway. Cant stand almonds,

    Might try and get up for the squats tonight after dinner, shoulders a bit sore but wont affect the squat,

12. I’m gonna order a new stockpile of magic potions from iherb soon, anyone who wants anything, lemme know.

13. Thanks Will I will get in on that,

    Eamonn there are 100 servings in a bottle so it depends on how many times a day you take it,

    While were at it is there anything else anyone else recommends we might take, for general health and for fitness,

14. The only place I saw Macademia nuts in this country is in M&S and aldi. They’re bagged in with some processed, dried cranberries. Might check the health shops. I’ve a glorious vision of throwing a kilo of the suckers into a blender.

15. They used to have macs in superquinn out my way, sadly not anymore. Macadamia nut butter is a disgrace, I used to blend up a whole pile of them thinking it would last ages, seldom survived for more than a day or 2. Nothing like accidentally chowing down 3500 calories…

    I’d be surprised if one of those stupidly big tescos like clearwater or drogheda didn’t have them though, might go exploring at the weekend.

    Anyway, supplement-wise: Vitamin D3 is fecking great. I’m a big fan of zinc and magnesium too.

16. I’m not sure if I’ve asked this already but did anyone buy Everett’s oly DVD’s along with his book? If so are they worth the price?

17. I’m in on that as well Will.

18. Macadamia nuts: The health store on the top floor of Dundrum town centre does bags of them, and I’m pretty sure other health stores do as well. They’re a good choice if you’re sick of almonds.

    On the whole Zone and hunger thing:

    The only days where I feel hungry is if I’m on nights. I wake up at about miday to 2pm and then I know I’m going to be on my feet until 6am. Now, thing is, you might have trained yourself to eat 16 blocks and be fine with that and in bed by 12am. So when you’ve got to do an extra six hours unless you’re careful you can have scoffed all your blocks leaving your starving that night. So I sometimes do feel a bit stretched if I only have 9 or 10 blocks in what feels like a full day and then maybe a 3 block and 2 block meal to keep me going during the night shift. Then when I come back off nights it can be jarring to be back to eating my complement of blocks all in the daytime again. Don’t know if that makes sense to anyone, but I guess its one more way that nightshift fucks with the body in addition to cutting down on much-needed testosterone production.

    Personally I find that if I eat four or five meals in a day, of 3 and 4 block meals then by the time I’m getting a little hungry then its probably already time for the next one to come around. And if I am really really craving a snickers bar or whatever then rather than have that snickers bar I’ll move my next meal forward and eat that instead of it.

    I wouldn’t say that I’m eating more food than I did before I went on the Zone because I suspect even when I was paleo it was more like there were days where I took in practically no protein and dozens of carb blocks (literally) and then other days where I ate all protein and practically no carbs. There was a degree of randomness to my diet that is absent now.

    What I also wonder is if someone has the sense that they are eating ‘too much’ and they are a CrossFitter doing 5 WODs a week and of average body type and are on 16 blocks… Then should they drop their blocks? How accurate a gauge is a feeling on whether or not you need X amount of food to fuel you through workout and recovery?

    PLZ.

19. Good point Ruairi,

    In the CFJ on Zone Meals it seems they give one block more per person than necessary. I’m wondering if this is through their own experience or they wanted to get more people on the Zone so they gave them more to eat. In a way that Robb Wolf didn’t mention IF for quite some time, as he was having enough trouble getting people to go Zone.

    Ruairi: 100-105-107.5-110(2)-100(2); 24,15,11

    Kyle, The: 120-125-130; 30,13,3L-Seat Pull Ups
    Deirdre: 45-50-55-55-55; 5,3,2
    Shane 1.0: 80-85-87.5(U)-85(1); 17,19,6
    Sue: 25-25-25-30-25-25
    Brian: 60Kg across
    Damien: 50Kg across

20. Cheers for the support on the smoking front Will, yeah it was one of my few good decisions, next in line is sorting out the diet and getting rid of the ol excess weight, I think I’ve underestimated both the amount of weight I need to lose and how difficult it is going to be do it. Oh well, like the smoking, one day at a time.