…Because Our Customers Are Getting Smaller
Van
Lost 30 lbs.
Van Stoutt, a sports announcer and radio salesperson for WTSO in Madison, WI, began Plan Z in January. Fifty days later, he is thirty pounds lighter. Congratulations, Van!
“I’ve been a junk food eater all my life. That’s probably why I’ve had some issues putting on excess poundage, but bottom line for me is, I have the ability to say no. I’ve been tempted…we had a nice SuperBowl party,…I was concerned about that because there were a lot of tempting things that we put out for our guests, but I was able to stay within the realm of the diet and I lost a pound that day.” – Van Stoutt
Click the Play button below to listen to Van Stoutt talk about his Plan Z experience with Chris Lytle, VP of Anger Management at Plan Z by Zola.
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We’re celebrating Van’s weight loss with a special sale!
Click here to save $235 on Plan Z: www.planzdiet.com/van
Brian
Lost 120 lbs.
Brian started Plan Z on his birthday in March 2012 at 342 lbs and in 8 short months has lost 120 lbs. In this interview Brian discusses the emotional strain of being overweight and how he had started to abandon all hope, but thanks to plan Z he has finally started to reclaim his life.
Listen to Brian’s story below:
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Mike
Lost 107 lbs.
Mike started Plan Z at 332 pounds. Working as a funeral director he constantly sees diabetes-related deaths. After reflecting on this and the fact that he had a family history of diabetes, Mike thought that this was his wake-up call. Even Mike’s wife has lost 50 pounds on Plan Z by Zola.
Listen to Mike’s story below:
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Nancy
Lost 100+ lbs.
At age 62, I believed there was no hope of ever getting back to the 115 pounds I weighed in my 30’s. I felt bloated, lethargic, and disgusted with myself. Then, I learned about Plan Z by Zola, the “un-diet” in my opinion. This is less like a diet than I could have imagined, with so many delicious, easy recipes available. I have lost over 100 pounds and the cost per pound is minimal, considering how quickly I lost the weight.
The education and support that I have received have been the most valuable tools needed in order to maintain my weight loss. I now know how to forever eat properly in order to maintain my loss with so little effort.
I went on this venture for myself! I was determined to feel better and stayed 100% per plan. The benefit is that I no longer take any medications and I feel awesome, mentally and emotionally! I can never express enough thanks to the wonderful Zola team who are always there to give moral support and advice and for giving me back my health and life!
John
Lost 46 lbs.
I joined the Zola diet after hearing radio host Mitch Henck talk about it for nearly two years. I joined out of desperation. I had been diabetic for three years. My doctor told me last fall that I should start insulin shots.
I was desperate when I contacted Plan Z by Zola. I was also skeptical.
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Read more of John’s story here:
First, I tried dieting on my own following what the diabetic nurse told me to do. That was useless. Then, I joined Weight Watchers, which turned out to be twice as useless. Next, I tried a ten week “extreme” kickboxing club and followed their diet. Get this, I beat myself up six days a week for ten weeks and gained four pounds. I felt better, but all my numbers got worse.
So I really had nothing to lose by joining Zola.
Using the ZR50 Reduction spray was easy. Not exercising was even easier. I started Plan Z on June 24, 2011. I weighed 233 pounds and my waking blood sugar read between 150 and 160. The first two days are “binge” days so my numbers went up of course. However, on Day 6 of the diet, my waking blood sugar dropped into the 140s. On Day 9 I woke up and it was under 100. I stopped my diabetes medication altogether on that day. The numbers continued down until I woke up in the 80s and 90s, which is a normal level.
Think about it: I went from taking maximum doses of metformin and glipizide to zero—no medication at all—in 9 days. When I started Plan Z by Zola it was simply to stave off having to take insulin shots but here I was 9 days into Plan Z on zero medication.
Needless to say, I was hooked.
Three weeks into the diet, my mother saw me and couldn’t believe my quick results. Within two hours she was on the phone with Plan Z ordering the diet. At age 73, Mom lost 17 pounds after years of trying things like Weight Watchers and TOPS.
Here I’ve dropped to 201 from 233 in 40 days. I’m not smiling because I’m not finished. But I am glad I found Plan Z by Zola.Back to my story. Remember, I started on June 24 and I have done two ZReduction cycles. That means I have actually reduced for 74 days between late June and November 9th. I weighed 233 on June 24th and was down to 201 in 40 days. I started my 2nd ZReduction on September 21 at 206 having kept within two or three pounds of my low weight until bingeing again.
On November 9th, I weighed 188 and I am stabilized there. Like Zola says, the closer you get to your goal, the slower the weight comes off. But even so I lost 46 pounds (19% of my body weight) in four short months! For the first time in years, I won’t be making a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. I’m at my goal of 187 pounds.
And yes, I am still completely off all diabetic medications. They tell you when you start that 60% of the value of Plan Z by Zola is the education you receive. They teach you how to keep the weight off as it’s melting away. I have learned an immense amount about food, the food industry, the diet industry and the powerful role of hormones in weight gain and loss.
For me, insulin control has been the key to my success. I’ve learned that insulin not only has a role in lowering blood sugar, but also that it’s the hormone that tells our bodies to store excess sugar in the blood as fat. Without that knowledge, losing weight is extremely difficult. Plan Z by Zola promised to connect me to new information. And boy did they ever. And now, I’m angry about all the misinformation out there about food. For most of my 49 years, I lived the low-fat, high-carbohydrate lifestyle. It was that diet, recommended by the so-called “experts” that made me fat, depressed, and diabetic.
When my friends would order eggs Benedict, I would order one plain boiled egg with six pieces of dry toast. When my friends drank eggnog, I drank beer. The whole idea was to avoid fat and replace those calories with carbohydrates. I would even eat extra spaghetti and skip the meatballs! You see I followed the common wisdom and like so many Americans I got fatter, more depressed and diabetic.
Bad advice is everywhere. The diabetic nurse told me to eat 45-60 grams of carbohydrates at every meal. Now that’s 240 grams a day. The crazy kickboxing diet was six small meals a day – protein the size of your palm and carbohydrates the size of your fist. I argued that it was way too many carbs for a diabetic. They assured me, “Don’t worry, your body will use them.”
And don’t get me started on Weight Watchers. Their weight meetings work like AA. You discuss food for forty five minutes and then the salesperson tells you to buy their special low fat, high carbohydrate food. I followed that low-fat high-carbohydrate formula for years, so I have it down cold. Want to lose weight? Here’s what they’ll tell you:
- Eat a baked potato (no butter) before bed.
- Cheerios for breakfast.
- Three glasses of skim milk per day.
- Snack on granola bars with a handful of raisins.
When my stepfather got his diabetes diagnosis, the doc prescribed Cheerios and half a banana for breakfast. Insanity.
How could a smart guy like me have gotten it so wrong? Before Plan Z by Zola, I skipped the fat and felt holier than thou. Now I can see that all of those carbs were causing my insulin to skyrocket and then come crashing back to earth.
The Plan Z by Zola educational component exposed me to new ideas that quite frankly I did not believe. At first. It took 4-1/2 months, a forty-five pound weight loss and my new found ability to eat 3000 calories a day and maintain my weight loss. Today, I’m a believer. Why don’t you just go ahead and call me a Plan Z by Zola Zealot, because that pretty much describes how I feel.
Here’s what I believe today that I would never have suspected before:
- The USDA is not a trustworthy source of information on food, nutrition and diet. It’s mission is to sell our country’s commodities. Think it through: The food that stores the easiest and longest is carbohydrates. The most profitable food is carbohydrate: Food processors can take ten cents worth of wheat or corn and with 50-cents worth of processing make and sell a $4 box of cereal.
- Insulin control is vital. You get hungry when your insulin level drops. So keeping it low to begin with automatically controls your hunger. And Plan Z’s emphasis on whole foods means that insulin levels stay down naturally, eliminating my need for medication. As you recall that was one of my goals.
- The conventional wisdom about fat and cholesterol is just plain wrong. The fastest way to fatten a pig (and a person) is to feed it corn.
- The Japanese know how to make a man fat enough to be a Sumo wrestler. I finally connected the dots. Skip breakfast. Work out hard all day. Eat an unlimited amount of rice and beer for dinner. It’s a low fat diet that creates very fat men.
- Exercise is not the key to weight loss. I tried the exercise-it-off route and it failed. Exercise can improve your mood, increase your bone density and muscle mass. All good things. But exercise also increases your appetite. At first, it was counter intuitive to me to quit exercising while trying to lose weight, but it worked.
Your body will regulate its weight as long as you feed it the right calories. Here, I am down 45 pounds and am maintaining that incredible and incredibly healthy weight loss. But I’m eating MORE calories every day than I have in years—3000 calories a day. And my weight is stable. How can that be? My brain (my hypothalamus) gave me a new set point at 3000 calories with my very low insulin level. Turns out that cutting back calories and eating a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet is what made me fat in the first place. And kept me hungry, depressed and diabetic.
So you see Plan Z by Zola has transformed my body and my brain just like they said they would on their website, www.planzdiet.com.
By the way, I’m a lawyer by profession. The very first time I spoke with Zola I demanded the Skeptics Guarantee figuring I would try the plan for 9 days and fail. I only took me four days to come to the conclusion that everything Zola promised was true.
Plan Z by Zola is real. It changed my life. And it was easy. I enjoyed my ZReduction phases. I was never hungry. I was one of those who didn’t want it to end. But the ZReboot phase is fun, too. I am shocked at how much I can eat. I can eat steaks and hearty soups, peanut butter, eggs and cheese, anything I want actually without fear of gaining back the weight.
I am over oatmeal, Cheerios and toast.
My doctor is on board with it too.
Listen to John’s story below:
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Camille N.
Lost 57 lbs.
After 9 years of marriage my size 14 pants were too snug and I went to get another pair but I couldn’t even fit into 14s anymore. I was going to a 16-18! That’s when I decided enough was enough and I wasn’t going to go through the rest of my life feeling bad about myself because I couldn’t wear the chic clothes I used to…I could have gone back to the diet that I did before, but it was a LOT of work and I felt too tired to do that again especially since I have more to lose. That’s why I told my husband that no matter what, we were going to find a way to join the Zola Diet and I was going to lose this weight for good!
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Read more of Camille’s story here
While I thought I knew about good nutrition, I was fooled by the low fat – lots of grains, diet soda myths. I knew HFCS wasn’t good for you but I never thought it was as bad as it is, and how we are being fed a lot of dangerous misinformation. Thanks to Zola and her team, we are learning things we never would have found on our own. It’s more than weight and looks, it’s health and well-being.
By participating in Zola’s diet, Plan Z, we are changing our outlook, looks and our lives. My weight, and more importantly, my health, affects my outlook and my attitude toward home, husband and everywhere else. Is it vanity? I don’t think so…
This morning, as my husband was getting ready for work, I noticed his breakfast on the counter, (he eats it in bites). It was Greek yogurt with strawberries, non-HFCS brown bread with egg salad (a quick way to have an egg in the morning), and a little cheese. This was from a man who used to pull out the Sugar Pops or Frosted Mini-Wheat’s every morning because he was in a hurry! Now he has seen the light. He says he sleeps better and feels less tired by mid-morning.
We also got rid of our old pancake syrup and got some real maple syrup from a friend who makes it on their property.
Getting back to Our New Weight + Life…
Because of the weight loss, I have taken to reading fashion mags and actually liking shopping for shoes. Before Zola, I though a few utilitarian shoes were enough for anyone but now, I love trying on new, fashionable platforms and other fun shoes. I also love running to my upstairs instead of walking. While I never had trouble walking upstairs, I now have fun and run up. It feels so much easier, too! Thanks Plan Z!
I am so encouraged!
Listen to Camille’s tremendous success here:
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Ron M.
Lost 43.9 lbs.
Dear Chris & Zola,
I hardly know where to begin–but here goes.
My weight problems began a couple of years after returning Stateside from Vietnam in May 1970, weighing in at 148 lbs & 5’8” tall, and in great shape. I started putting the weight on after switching from farm work to factory work. I have always been very active throughout life but still began to pack on the lbs. When I asked my doctor about a good dietician at 168 lbs all he said was that it looked like I was handling it pretty well!! Not what I wanted to hear. That was in 1972 or thereabout, but I didn’t know who to talk to or trust at that point, so I just forgot about it. Tried to reduce intake and get more exercise on my own but always felt like I was starving & tired all the time – so I just gave up.
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Read more of Ron’s story here
Fast forward 36 years to 2008 and another 52 lbs gained. Still at the same GM factory. Working 3rd shift maintenance with 2 of my brothers, all 3 of us in different areas of the plant. One is a slim 6’1” and 1.5 years older than me, the other 5’ 9” and 6 years older than me, but another 25 lbs heavier than me.
I received word from a close friend of ours, shortly after our 2AM lunch break, that my oldest brother was at the plant nurses’ station–and that I should get up there immediately. I had one of the worst rides of my life as we transported my unconscious brother, by ambulance, to Mercy Hospital that morning. He never regained consciousness due to a massive stroke. God, how I miss that guy and his cheery personality – he was always up to some kind of trickery.
He had confided in me that he had been fighting high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat and borderline diabetes. Two years prior he had open heart surgery (5 by-passes).
He had tried & struggled over the years to lower his weight, also.
It still took me another 3 years after my brothers passing to finally get involved with a plan to get it right, because I feared I was heading down that same highway–a picture of him burned in my memory, lying there so motionless, with the paramedics struggling to keep him breathing.
After listening to 1030AM talk-radio host, Mitch, talk about his success with Plan Z by Zola, on “Outside the Box”, I felt, just maybe – and at last, I had found an answer. Yes indeed I had. A big “Thanks”, to Mitch, for using & promoting your Plan Z!
Beginning my first binge on our 42nd wedding anniversary my wife, Jean & I celebrated in style, with me weighing in at 223.5 (portly) lbs before the binge. Two days later I was an even more portly 227.5 lbs on Z Reduction Day 1! Little did I realize that two days prior to Thanksgiving Day I would be down 41.9 net lbs & on my 1st day of ZReboot. My goal was to crack the 200 lb barrier—and here I was at 181.6 lbs. These numbers just amazed me! From a starting weight of 223.5 down a whopping 41.9 lbs—all I can say is WOW!! My wife & I had all of our children over for Thanksgiving Dinner as usual. We put together a wonderful healthy meal for me. It didn’t bother me a bit to see others eat things I used to partake of, but can’t or won’t, unless or until approved of by Plan Z. After 42 days in ZReboot and many, many delicious 3 meals a day using ZRecipes I weighed in down another 2 lbs at 179.6 lbs, or 43.9 lbs down from 84 days earlier on Oct. 11th. My new set point was between 2800-3000 calories per day to maintain my new weight.
Early on in ZReduction, within less than a week from Day 1, I’d say, things began happening which were surprising to me. From what I had read and studied in the Z Plan notebook I figured some of this would happen but didn’t know for sure if, how soon or how much. Such as—heartburn, which I struggled with for years, GONE! My right ear ached (very painfully) nearly daily, GONE! Knees ached daily, GONE! Huffing & puffing climbing stairs or even tying my shoes, GONE! Headaches & neck aches that came on occasions, GONE! Other things that have disappeared for me are: Pain pills (Acetaminophen-Extra Strength) 6-8 tablets a day some days, anti-acid tablets daily.
Now, I have finished my 2nd ZReduction (and my last) as of today, Feb. 14, 2012. My Dr. had taken me off of 3 prescriptions (as of last Mon. Feb. 6th). All 3 were for high blood pressure and are now permanently taken away. On my previous August 2011 Dr. visit, my Dr. told me I would probably be on another prescription for controlling my sugar count if I didn’t do something about my diet/weight. So in actuality I have eliminated 4 prescriptions (really Plan Z by Zola made it possible).
Not only is all of this great for me health wise & psychologically but financially, too. Prescriptions alone cost me $212 last year, (I got an annual printout from my pharmacist), let alone any other over the counter meds mentioned above. Minimum saved for me alone is easily $250 per year and then fewer Dr. office visits, for more savings. What a major bonus!
I just can’t thank Zola & her team enough for helping me get my health back.
Your strong support was and is critical and much appreciated,
Sincerely yours,
Ron M.
Woody
Lost 138 lbs.
This is the “impetus” picture initiating the call to Zola for help. It is a picture of me getting fitted for my tux before my son’s wedding last June 10th (2011) at 388#’s and 57″ waist. Today, I am 250.2#’s and 40-42″ waist. Down 138#!
Gilbert Brown of the Green Bay Packers and I were the same size – and I’m no football player! I got up to 388# eating double cheeseburgers, fries and a large chocolate shake with a brownie sundae for dessert. After Plan Z I am a new man. I STILL get to eat food; it’s just better and smarter stuff now – without a guilt trip. Life is fun again!
Dieter Woody
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