Life in the Kitchen

Firstly Id like to mention that Im not a large person at 54kg, but am at a weight where Id now like to remove the last remaining kilos to look lean. Ive previously lost approximately 8kg on Weight Watchers, which I found extremely easy to follow, and most importantly, it worked!

Secondly, please note that Im in Australia and have no access to any of "the zone" specially manufactured foods, diet bars, shakes or whatever they make.

Mastering The Zone is relatively easy to read and follow. I found doing the calculations for the Carb Protein Fat blocks extremely irritating, and found myself eating either massive bowls of salad (carb block), or a tiny amount of plain pasta/rice (carb block) either too filling, or not filling enough.

I eat regularly, but try to keep it to when my body is hungry (every 2.5 hours - and that includes snack type foods that I purchase and leave at work - dry biscuits etc), however, it is not very conventional having to cart around three meals to work (I travel on public transport) let alone having to prepare each of those three meals prior to going to work or the night before whilst preparing meals for that day - you end up almost constantly in the kitchen either cooking, preparing or cleaning up the mess in the kitchen.

Breakfast could also be considered a nightmare - who has time to cook a three of four egg white ommlette in the morning? And the size of the ommelette after adding the carb block (a large amount of tomatoes, zuchinis and mushrooms) made it far too much to squeeze into my stomach, leaving me with a tummy ache, but still with the sensation of hunger!?

I dont disagree with the principles of eating carbs, protein and fat in the same meal, but this just gets a bit much for me to handle.

I made several of the recipes provided and I personally did not find them very tasty or appetising. Sometimes they were, but the meals were too small.

Shopping was a nightmare. I live on my own and spent my fortnightly food 'allowance' on just one weeks food to be in the 'Zone'. Let alone my fridge being almost full! I feel sorry for those in families - it pays to have an extra large fridge!

I don't consider myself a lazy person, as I have managed to easily shed 8kg before. I am very aware of my health and eating habits, but the zone was very difficult to stay on for a long period of time (I didnt even last a week).

Perhaps if your wealthy enough to hire a cook and kitchenhand would make this diet alot easier. Too hard for someone working full-time! Being in the zone is a full-time job.