ZReduction Quiz
Think you've got ZReduction down to a science?
Here's a pop quiz to test your ZReduction skills.
Jimmy Moore Talks With Drs. Mike & Mary Dan Eades About An All-Egg Diet
Low-carb blogger Jimmy Moore interviewed Drs. Mike & Mary Dan Eades in April 2008 at the American Society of Bariatric Physicians/Nutrition & Metabolism Society conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
During the conversation, the subject of eggs came up and Jimmy talked about doing an experiment where he would only eat eggs at every meal for an entire week to see what would happen. Dr. Mike explained there was published evidence of an elderly man in a nursing home who consumed two dozen eggs a day for many years with no negative impact on his health.
Exercise isn’t the best way to lose weight
Why working out is great for health, but not for weight loss, explained in five minutes.
The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup
The average American consumes an astounding 2-3 POUNDS of sugar each WEEK. No lie!
Prior to 1900, the average consumption was only 5 lbs of sugar per person per year. Cardiovascular disease and cancer were virtually unknown.
Since then, we have steadily increased our sugar consumption in the US at an alarming rate. In the last 20 years, our annual sugar consumption increased by 26 pounds a year. We now consume an average of 135 lbs of sugar per person per year!
Today we can point to sugar and high fructose corn syrup (and corn sugar) for not only cardiovascular disease and cancer but high blood pressure, diabetes, and dementia. Yep. You read that right.
Since I'm assuming that (even before you started Plan Z) you weren't pulling up to the sugar canister with a spoon and digging in, you've got to be wondering where all that sugar is coming from...
It's more than just table sugar. Sugar comes in lots of different shapes and sizes.
Highly refined sugars in the forms of sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar) and high-fructose corn syrup are being processed into so many foods it's crazy; and those foods include bread, breakfast cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, crackers, ketchup, canned soup, spaghetti sauce and a plethora of microwave meals.
You'd be hard-pressed to find any processed meal in a box in the freezer section that does not contain some kind of sugar. It might say meat and potatoes on the box, but there's sugar in there. You can't even find cough syrup these days that doesn't have sugar or an artificial sweetener in it. It's everywhere, and the names for sugar just keep on coming so every time you think you know all the names for sugar, they come up with a new one.
In an effort to sneak out from behind the demonization of the descriptor “high-fructose corn syrup,” the corn refiners got together and thought they'd fool us by re-naming it “corn sugar.” They thought if it sounded more natural we wouldn't notice.
I wanted to get you a quick overview of what all that sugar is doing to your body. And I'm not just talking about getting fat. It's killing you from the inside out.
WaterCure TV Debate
In a recent Beta test, we had our dieters carefully track their water intake in their first week of ZReduction.
- Dieters who drank more than 100 oz of water per day lost an average of 11.1 pounds on their first week of ZReduction.
- Dieters who drank between 60 oz and 100 oz of water per day lost an average of 8.7 pounds their first week.
- Dieters who drank less than 60 oz of water per day lost an average of 7.4 pounds their first week. That means they lost 33% less weight than the folks who drank more than 100 oz of water per day.
This video is a conversation about water with the author of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water. It's an older clip (that's why the quality isn't the greatest), but what they're talking about is important information that we don't often hear.
The big idea is to drink one ounce of water for every two pounds that you weigh. You can watch the discussion on why the doctor says that water works so well to help us heal. There are other videos that say this is impossible, but our dieters who drink at least 100 ounces of water per day lose 30% more weight than people who drink 70 ounces or less.
How much water did you drink today?
Glug,
Aleese Lost 45 Pounds
In July of 2011, my husband took a picture of me that made me stop in my tracks and think, “Is that really me?” Sure, I knew I had put on a ‘few pounds’…and that I had been buying larger sizes of clothes…and been out of breath walking up a flight of stairs…and been told my blood pressure was getting a bit high…but I just didn’t realize how much I had let myself go.
Thankfully, I found Plan Z and made a life-changing investment in myself. I lost the weight (45 lbs. in all) and I have been able to maintain that weight loss for over a year now. This is truly the first time I’ve been able to lose the weight and keep it off. The best part is that I’m not worried about gaining it back because the education I received with Plan Z has taught me what was really keeping me fat!
Thank you to Zola and the entire team at Plan Z! Having my daughter hug me and say ‘Wow, Mom! I can put my arms all the way around you now!” was worth its ‘weight’ in gold (pun intended!). –Aleese
Dorien Lost 125 Pounds
Dorien had almost given up hope. She did Plan Z after losing 110 pounds with gastric bypass surgery and gaining most of it back. Now she’s lost 125 lbs while on Plan Z. Listen to what she said to new dieters after her first 50 days on Plan Z.
“When I first called to order Plan Z I was in a terrible place; unhappy, unhealthy and disillusioned with dieting, but I figured even I could make it 50 days, and no exercise sounded great to a nearly 300 lb me. I lost over 30 lbs my first round and more than 125 lbs to date.
Before Plan Z, I didn’t realize that so much of the information I’d been given about a “healthy diet” was just plain wrong. Plan Z was a total revelation. I got things right in my head for the first time in a long time and I ate better than I had for years. The recipes are delicious and easy to make which makes meal times quick, tasty and fun. I feel empowered because the education I received from Plan Z helped me discover why I gained weight and how to KEEP IT OFF!
I am living proof that Plan Z Works! Plan Z is a total lifestyle change and it is something that I’m willing to live out for the rest of my life. I don’t deprive myself, but I do make better choices every day, and because of that I’m healthy, happy and able to do things I haven’t done for years. I wear dresses and high heels, I ride a bike and work out, not because I have to, but because I want to.
I love that Plan Z has given me the confidence to LIVE MY LIFE! I’m not hiding in my house (or in the back row of the photograph) anymore. I’ve embraced the me that I’ve become and along the way I’ve transformed into the woman I always envisioned myself being, I am strong, proud and confident.”
–Dorien
The Weight of the Nation Part 4
To win, we have to lose. The four-part HBO Documentary Films series, The Weight of The Nation explores the obesity epidemic in America.
This is part four.
The Weight of the Nation Part 3
To win, we have to lose. The four-part HBO Documentary Films series, The Weight of The Nation explores the obesity epidemic in America.
This is part three.
The Weight of the Nation Part 2
To win, we have to lose. The four-part HBO Documentary Films series, The Weight of The Nation explores the obesity epidemic in America.
This is part two.
The Weight of the Nation Part 1
To win, we have to lose. The four-part HBO Documentary Films series, The Weight of The Nation explores the obesity epidemic in America.
This is part one.
Bingeing Revisited
The anticipation of this binge has been interesting. I have been SO looking forward to it, not because I would get to eat like a pig, but because after this is over I’d get to start losing weight again.
I have to say that I have truly loved my six weeks of ZReboot. This diet is such a wonder because of the structure. Taking six weeks off really helps you keep from feeling trapped in diet mode. Nothing seems too long.
My metabolism really did get re-set! I can’t scream this loudly enough. When I went off ZReduction my job was to eat at least 2000 calories a day and work my way up until I found my capacity and then back off. I found out I can eat almost 2600 calories per day, without gaining weight. I was dumbfounded. In fact, I found it a real challenge to do it (at first)! That’s more than twice as much food as I was able to eat before. I got used to it, and I even adapted so well that I started to get hungry in the morning again. I could go on and on about this miracle. I hope you experience the same.
So as my next binge got closer I was looking forward to it. Then, as it got really close, I started to get the heebeegeebees. I thought about the limited number of ingredients I’d have to work with again. Could I face another cucumber? Could I do it for 50 days again? Would it work as well? Or would I have to work just as hard for less loss? It’s all still out in the future, but I will tell you that after ZBinge Day One I can’t wait to get back to 800 calories.
I must be one of the few that cannot handle ZBinge very well. I loved thinking about what I was going to eat and making jokes about it, but now that I’m doing it, my stomach is so full that I am uncomfortable. I haven’t eaten so much as to get sick but I’ve been eating enough crap that I don’t really want anymore.
I know, from watching those that didn’t do a very good job of their binge how important this will be to my first week, so I trained my brain to know this is important and to follow through.
My first day I gained 3 pounds eating carbs. I started my day with French Toast and bacon. Six wedges of French toast. 6 pieces of bacon. I could not eat it all. I was at a breakfast meeting with a thin executive and found myself lamely trying to explain how I HAD to eat French Toast for my diet. It was not appropriate for me, in that meeting, to describe Plan Z, so I held mum, but I could see the judgmental look, once again, as he ordered his oatmeal with banana. This guy is uber-thin. He’s a triathlete. We are talking about doing business together and I had to dig my way out of a credibility hole because his idea of health is not eating French toast. Oh well. Maybe someday he will become enlightened.
We talk to you about how you have to face divergent opinions about what you are doing – every day. Everywhere you go. People think they are being helpful when they are not. They can’t understand why you are doing this diet and eating this way when the majority of dieting information all around you (and them) casts a contradictory position. My best advice is just to smile politely (for now). Keep doing what you are doing and when you reveal your new self, a new self that is not only a healthy thin, but full of vigor and confidence, they’ll start asking you your secret and you can remind them of the time you kept your mouth shut because they so vehemently disagreed with your behavior. Your time will come. My time will come too. And for once and for once and for all, WE will be finished with diets because we’ll have a new metabolism and a new spirit. We will have a lifetime plan for eating that will give us the opportunity to eat within our means, with very little feeling of deprivation. I might not be able to eat mashed potatoes 3 nights a week going forward but you know what? I’ll be better for it.
Getting back to ZBinge. When I went to eat lunch I had to decide what carbo-laden/fried lunch I wanted. I chose a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. I thought when I bit those fries I’d have a mind-numbing sensation in my mouth. I thought it was going to taste like a reunion with a best friend. I am here to tell you that it was NOT the case. The taste didn’t launch any “Oh I missed that flavor” reactions. I really thought it would. So, I have discovered another magical element of this diet. I have discovered that if you DO NOT cheat, that your body rids itself of those cravings. Other things taste better now. A great English cheese with a bit of port and a few juicy berries taste much more satisfying to me now than French fries. You’ll have your favorites too, and when you are finished with your 50 days you’ll be able to enjoy many things and not have to “make up for them” the next morning. No longer is eating equated to something sinister that you have to pay the price for. And now I don’t even miss so many things. I thought I was missing them. Now I realize my body has changed my mind. Interesting. Before my head had to fight my body’s urge to regain. Now we’ve changed sides. Very interesting.
Yeah, I’ll admit that the brownies I ate for my mid-afternoon snack tasted really fine. The mushy textures that squished between my tongue and the roof of my mouth were a joy. The glass of milk I washed them down with was good too. I really thought I’d miss milk more than I do. The ZR50 formula took care of that for me. Any other time I went on a diet, the loss of milk drove me crazy. This time I was fine. That’s a big deal for me.
Dinner was lasagna. Southwestern chicken and red pepper lasagna. One of my husband’s favorite dishes. I thought the taste would let the pasta really stand out and I’d find that I had missed pasta too. Nope. I could have tossed ALL of the other ingredients from the lasagna into a casserole, left out the pasta, and I would have been happy as a clam. In fact, I think I’ll do that during my next ZReboot. I’ll be sure to write up the recipe so you can try it too. All the cheeses and meat and the tomato sauce are all perfectly combined to present a flavor that doesn’t need pasta to hold it together.
Dessert was the highlight of the night. I was short on time, so I had to forgo the crust I was going to put in my chocolate peanut butter tart. Instead, I just made the filling and put it in champagne glasses and topped it with shaved chocolate. The portions were generous. I didn’t think they’d finish it after all the lasagna and garlic bread (that’s another story) but they licked every bit. I’ll write up that recipe too, cuz it’s perfect for ZReboot. Plenty of calories. Lots of taste. No repercussions. Bliss.
The story on the garlic bread is another eye-opener. I didn’t have time to make my own, so I bought the bakery’s bake-it-yourself garlic bread. I had been off of “processed” foods for so long that I could taste the chemicals they put in there as a preservative! I couldn’t believe it. It actually made the bread and the butter topping have a sour taste. I’ll never do that again. I put that bread down and swore I’d never revisit that ugly combination. I’ve graduated to a new deserve level. I deserve not to treat my body like that. Done.
Day One done too. I’m almost at the mid-morning of Day Two. I can’t wait to find out what new revelations I’ll have today. Maybe the revelations will make it worth eating all the “once favorite things” I have in mind. We’ll see, and I’ll be back to discuss with you again tomorrow.
Cheers,
I'm Gleeful for Ghee
When I was in my early 20’s I spent a fair amount of time working in restaurants. I always had at least one part-time job that took me to a restaurant after my regular 9 – 5 job. I worked in everything from a pizza joint that made the thick, double-crusted Chicago-style pizzas to some of the finest French restaurants or high-end steakhouses. Each job presented challenges.
Most of the time I worked as a waitress. In one place, one night a week I was the sommelier. I really didn’t know that much about wine at that point but they were in a panic and at least I knew the list well enough to make recommendations.
I never held a full-time position cooking but I did help a couple of restaurants with menu and recipe development. And I did do a two-week internship working on “the line” in a restaurant as part of my management training.
I took up a serious appreciation for people who work in wait staff positions as well as those that cook behind the scenes. Both of those jobs are HARD.
One restaurant I worked in had a chef that took a liking to me. He let me work Sunday mornings in the kitchen helping him with brunch. This as a French restaurant so brunch was pretty fancy. One thing the chef liked me to do was “decorate” the salmon. He’d put out a full-sized salmon on the buffet and people could serve themselves chunks of it. The salmon was decorated with all kinds of sliced veggies and then there was a lot of cream cheese piped along the edges. The salmon always looked like it was dressed. Sort of like it was wearing a fancy outfit. Really pretty. I was good at squirting cream cheese.
One thing I observed anytime I was around the restaurant in the early morning was the prep work. I watched as the chefs made themselves ready for the big crowds to come in later. A necessary project every day was to make clarified butter.
The chef would pull out a fairly large soup pot. Then he’d put in blocks of butter. We’re talking probably 12 – 15 POUNDS of butter were loaded into the soup pot and the heat was turned on fairly low. All he was doing was melting butter. Seemed kinda crazy to me, until later. When the butter was fully melted there was an almost white foam on top that the chef would skim off and throw away. I didn’t get it. I just observed. The result was this huge soup pot full of golden liquid.
When the chef commenced cooking, he’d take each order and prepare it. Most of the fish, chicken and even the steaks were prepared in the sauté pans. The first thing to go into the pan was a small ladle full of the golden liquid (clarified butter).
There were a few reasons the chef used clarified butter. The first reason is it’s the purest butter taste. The bad fat was removed with the skimming of the foam. All that was left was the purest part of the butter. Clarified butter also has what’s called a higher flash point. That means the chef can cook at a higher temperature and the butter does not burn. That’s who so many dishes in a restaurant have the buttery, crispy crust on them.
The people of India take it to another level. They make a thing called ghee. Ghee is clarified butter that has been processed another step so it can be shelf stable. I had never made it. I bought some at Whole Foods and love it. The problem I noticed was the price. Compare butter to ghee and you’re talking about $13 for ghee. Ouch.
So I thought about making my own. I knew from my restaurant days that clarified butter didn’t last. The chefs tossed any that was left at the end of the night. They didn’t take any chance that it might have been contaminated while sitting on the stove. I supposed it would last a few days but not long.
I told my doctor I was thinking of making my own ghee and not long after he sent me this link. This is a guy with an Indian heritage. His family knows well how to make their own ghee. So he was kind enough to pass this lesson along over the internet on how to make ghee. I think I’ll always make the version that has to be stored in the refrigerator. I don’t have to have it fully shelf stable, but this is really a great idea. You will also learn in here how good ghee is for you. It’s MUCH better for you than butter. You can use it in so many ways. Anytime you see a recipe that includes butter you can substitute ghee; with the possible exception of baking. I have not tried backing with ghee yet. I just thought I’d open up a new bit of the world of cooking for you today. Here’s how to make ghee.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Good Morning, Omelet!
You’ve just started ZReboot. For many of you, it’s kind of scary. How can you possibly increase the amount of food you're eating and not gain weight? Will you just pile it all back on? It came off so fast. Will it go back on that fast?
Not if you do this right.
I have to caution you. This is the hardest part of the diet. You thought getting the weight off is a challenge. Now you’ll have a whole new set of challenges!
But you are READY.
This is where most diets just “dump you off.” You lose some weight and are then just set free to go back and do what you did before. No behavior changes. The bad habits and weight return.
Not on Plan Z.
You’re in ZReboot. Two things will happen now. First, you will find out your new set point. Your hypothalamus has been re-booted. Now you have to give your body the coaching it needs to help you find out where your new set point lies. Your body is going to tell you some things but this is your chance to have a conversation with your body and your brain.
Here’s how that goes.
Your body will be asking you how revved up you want your metabolism. You tell your body what you want by starting to eat more. Start by aiming for 1600 calories a day (if you can) and slowly work your way up over time. I gave you hints on how to calculate what you’re eating by using the calculators on www.myfitnesspal.com or on the MyPlate app. Again, here is why you want to use it. You start with 1600 calories and then start to inch it up. You are asking your body with each increase if it’s okay to keep going. Your body will tell you where your new setpoint will be. Some people get to 2500 calories, some can slowly inch up to 3000 calories or more. It’s your JOB to find out the maximum; not because you want to eat that much every day, but because you want to be able to cut loose once in a while and not suffer the consequences.
Women resist this more than men. They tell me since they can now eat 1500 calories, and they are comfortable with that, why push the envelope? They are just thankful they can eat that much. That’s more than they’ve been able to eat in decades and not gain weight. But that’s not the point. You want to find out where your real top is. Your body is giving you the opportunity, so why not take it? It’s good to know your maximum and exercise it once in a while so when you go to a special party with a big buffet your body won’t be shocked if you want to go back for seconds!
If through your eating behavior you tell your body that 1800 calories is okay, then your body will accept that and your set point will be plotted. No going back. This is your Once-in-a-Lifetime Do Over. Find the comfort point that works for you.
You’ll know pretty well in 3-4 weeks. Track every morsel you put in your mouth for that amount of time and you’ll know. Then just calculate an average. Bingo. Your new normal.
If you need a protein day (and that’s NOT a bad thing) follow the directions for a steak day and get back where you belong. Don’t mess this up or skip a steak day when you need one, or getting it back off will be a hellacious battle.
Another thing can happen during ZReboot. Your body can Reshape.
Reduce. Reboot. Reshape.
You get all three on Plan Z.
Amazingly, you don’t have to do a thing for the reshape part to come true. Just wake up every morning and be conscious of how you feel. Some days you’ll wake up and feel lighter. You go get on the scale and you haven’t lost any weight. But you go to put your pants or skirt on and for some reason the waist is looser. Dance. Celebrate. That’s the magic of reshaping at work.
It won’t happen every day and for each person it’s different.
Guys are the last ones to notice. If I ask them, or I tell them to look for it, they say “Oh yeah…that did happen.” Otherwise, it’s not their front-and-center focus. Women notice every little bit of it. Women will notice the legs of their pants seem to be growing, or their legs are thinning out. Which is it? Must be the shrinking legs. Their butt seems to be shrinking too. It’s easier to button a blouse. And no weight has been lost.
So during the six weeks of ZReboot, don’t think you are just waiting, passing time because you aren’t allowed to lose more weight yet, or that you just have to go through the motions until you can get on with ZLife. ZReboot is a critical phase in Plan Z.
And besides that, you get to EAT! You get to eat like a real human being again. For many, this is more food than they’ve been able to eat in decades without gaining weight. For some guys, they have to remember back to when they played high school or college sports to remember when they could eat like this and not gain weight. Women, in a lot of cases, can’t even remember when they were able to eat this much without the guilt and pain of having to get that extra weight back off again.
I say it’s like a food amusement park and all the rides are free! I love ZReboot! I hope you savor it.
Here’s the challenge. So many things are open to you now. Your vegetable list has grown immensely. Your allowed meat list grew overnight! You can now have dairy. You can eat fat. You get your oils back. It’s almost overwhelming for some.
People email me and ask me if they can just have a list that fits on one page again. They reveled in the tight discipline of ZReduction. I said, “You can only eat this”, and it worked. Now, they think I’m sending them out into a world of dangerous choices. Fear not. It’s not true, but this is just the beginning of getting used to what this is going to be like when you no longer have parameters; when no one is watching over your shoulder, when no one is selling you remedy to keep your fat in check. Every other diet dumps you off. Not this one. Over the next six weeks, you will learn how to eat AFTER the diet is over. You will have your new set point, and you’ll find out you can eat again without the angst. You’ll reshape. Your body will revel in this new feeling. You’ll be proud of what you accomplished.
Then it will be time for you to set another goal. Will the next goal be to lose another chunk of weight using Plan Z? Or are you ready to face the world of ZLife? You’ll decide and we’ll be there to help you every step of the way. But most importantly, you’ll learn what’s right for you and this six week period gives you the time to set new habits and put yourself first for once. Only you control what goes into your mouth. Only you control the destiny of your weight and health. We are here to give you the keys to success and you unlock your future.
I wish you much success in ZReboot.
Cheers,
Zola's Tips for a Successful ZReboot
The miracle of ZReboot is right in front of you. You can almost smell it at this point.
I must, however, caution you that the keys to a successful reboot are important to follow. Just remember that with every other diet you have GAINED THE WEIGHT BACK, and sometimes, more. This time you will be given the keys to settle into a new set point (or metabolism reboot). I went from being able to eat 800 calories a day to over 2500 without gaining weight. You can realize your version of that too if you just follow some simple steps.
There will be a lot more temptation. Your horizons will be opened so wide it will be tempting to go a bit nuts, but don’t.
I am going to outline my perspective on this phase and give you the hints that I set up for myself. Those guidelines turned out to be successful so I am looking forward to sharing them with you.
First of all, I knew that I was going to go back on ZReduction so I never planned to transition to ZLife. I was looking forward to losing more weight and was more afraid of gaining than I was of losing more and having to go back on ZReduction. If you feel the same, follow my lead. If you are going to ZLife as your next stop, I’ll give you a few hints (later on) for the transition. Let me warn you…if you jump from ZReduction into ZLife you will gain the weight back just as fast as you ever have.
The time you spent on ZReduction was to LOSE. Your body is READY to reset your metabolism but the process is NOT COMPLETE yet. Your opportunity to solidify your new metabolism starts the first day of ZReboot. DO NOT mess up the first three weeks. Those are the most critical. That’s when you hit the fork in the road and decide if you are going to go back to ZReduction or if you are headed to ZLife.
Eating in ZReboot is a whole new experience. It’s not just ZReduction with another name. Your list of vegetables and fruits will increase immensely. Your fats and oils will come back – not only will they come back but you will be able to consume them in what feels like mass quantities. Your protein can increase because you are now eating three meals but don’t go over the six ounces in portion size unless it’s a very special occasion.
Everyone asks…what can I eat? How do I start?
On your first day, you will want to consume a minimum of 1600 calories (or get as close as you can). Keep in mind this is about twice as much as you have been eating for the last seven weeks. This is cause for celebration in itself. Don’t launch day one with 3000 calories. You are going to slowly ramp it up. So keep track of every meal to see where you are.
I am going to give you a link to an app so you can count your calories. You will also be able to keep track of your carbs and your fat intake. It’s free. This is the only time we will ask you to count calories. For most, it’s not to make sure you don’t consume too many. It’s to make sure you consume enough and so you can get an idea of where your new set point is. I calculated out every morsel I put in my mouth for the first three weeks of ZReboot. That’s how I found out I can eat between 2300 and 2600 calories a day without gaining weight. You might find another site that works for you. We have no vested interest in this site but it does give you the accurate information and even graphs your progress if you are into that sort of thing. *The graph is my favorite part so I hope you enjoy it.
https://www.myplate.gov/resources/tools/startsimple-myplate-app
All calorie tracker apps are based on the old calories-in-calories-out theory, so I wouldn't advise taking their weight loss advice. But app is simple, fast and easy to learn.
Now that you have that tool, I am going to give you an idea of what I ate and give you some side notes.
BREAKFAST:
I ate one of three things.
- I ate an omelet (3 eggs even) with veggies and cheese. I sautéed the veggies in oil and butter first if I thought they needed to be cooked. I expanded my veggies to include things like mushrooms and broccoli.
- Sometimes I made a large crustless quiche. This way I could dip into it over a few days rather than having to make something new each morning.
- With the egg dishes, I might have a couple of strawberries on the side. Sometimes even a bit more cheese, like a piece of brie. Bacon, ham, Canadian bacon, etc. NO TOAST or bread of any kind.
Try using coconut oil to make your eggs. You can get it at places like Whole Foods.
We also gave you a recipe for fluffy, wonderful scrambled eggs using unsweetened coconut milk. And no, your eggs will not taste like coconuts. This is just a perfect fat for you to eat at this point.
Be sure to stay organized enough that you leave time in your schedule for breakfast. This was an adjustment for me since I bolt off to work every morning. I needed to pack in 20 minutes extra. Don’t be rushing off to Starbucks for breakfast. BAD idea. Cooking things (as much as possible) on your own is important right now so you can make sure no sugar or flour gets involved.
If I didn’t feel like hot food I ate an apple cut into small wedges with UNsweetened peanut butter. Lots of gooey peanut butter. Six tablespoons even! MAKE sure you get unsweetened, organic peanut butter but this is readily available now too, and it’s emulsified so it’s not that old-fashioned oily stuff. Some people like the oily kind and you can have that too. I just dislike it immensely.
If you have to eat at your desk because you are on a deadline, this is a perfect idea. You can eat things like full-fat yogurt now too.
You will begin to be hungry in the morning so I want to stress again. EAT.
Snacks: You can snack anytime you want. Just be sure to make the snacks things that fit in the parameters. Nuts come to mind. I ate a handful probably twice a day. Or a wedge of brie. Something like that.
Drinks: I stuck to water, carbonated water, coffee, and tea. This is NOT the time to start drinking diet soda again. Hopefully, you will have convinced yourself that you NEVER need diet soda again. I only drank it when I was at Five Guys for a burger (with no bun and no fries). When it was my only option, I drank soda. Otherwise, it’s just not good for you.
BIG MESSAGE: You have cleaned out your system and rebooted more than your metabolism! You’ve detoxed your system. Your body wants healthy, fresh, food now. No processed, boxed, or otherwise altered food. This is just like you came out of the womb. You are fresh again. This is a lifetime opportunity to keep it that way. We hope you have your mind right now, and feel like your body deserves to be treated properly.
LUNCH:
I ate almost the same way I did before. I just switched up the ingredients. For the first time in my life, one day I sat down to a grilled pork loin chop, a salad and cheeses. I felt so French! I ate a real, large, home-cooked lunch and drank my sparkling wine out on the patio. Very Parisian.
Other times I just grilled up a burger, slathered cheese all over it and ate, even more, cheese on the side. I had other veggies. Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and more.
A NOTE ON VEGGIES: I stayed away from all veggies that are high carb. Corn comes to mind first. Corn would be a bad idea if you plan to go back to ZReduction later. You don’t want to kick up your insulin and eating corn will do that. No potatoes. No squash. Check carb levels if you are not well aware of which veggies are good and which veggies will hurt. You can find carb levels for foods on MyPlate or email me and I’ll help you.
I could easily eat lunch out if I wanted. I could order a grilled Caesar salad. The cheese is now fine. A few croutons are fine too, cuz you can have the same amount of bread you did before. I just stuck to grissini, or Melba toast for the most part. There are few other brands of crackers you can have now. The oil in crackers is now a good thing. Sugar is NOT. So continue to read labels on everything. I had club soda with lemon or lime. I was good to go. Sometimes at lunch out, I’d have grilled tuna or a burger with no bun. Just tell people no bun, no fries and they don’t even look at you cross-eyed anymore. They are used to it. You can negotiate all kinds of cheese and veggies/salads as substitutes. They even volunteer options
And don’t forget dessert! You are now accustomed to eating dessert twice a day. Why stop now?
Mascarpone cheese should be your new best friend. This is Italian cream cheese that comes in cartons. Mix mascarpone with a bit of Truvia and vanilla and your mouth will swear you just bit into a cheesecake. NO CRUST. Check out my recipe for crustless cheesecake and have at it. Even if I didn’t want to make four portions at once I could just dip out a big dollop of mascarpone and add chunks of fruit. I didn’t even need to sweeten it. That’s just icing on your cheesecake. You can now add pears, peaches, plums and more. At breakfast, I might have a piece of cantaloupe. I still stayed away from high carb fruits. PLEASE stay away from BANANAS! They are so high carb. I ADORE bananas but they will now be saved for eating about once every 3 – 6 months. So many other fruits will taste so sweet. The first time I bit a piece of pineapple my mouth went NUTS! Don’t eat much pineapple, and shy away from really high carb fruits like watermelon and even grapes. If you eat them to eat a couple. Not a bunch.
For other desserts, I learned to love soft cheeses like brie. You will feel so European eating cheese for dessert. Cheese with a bit of red wine is an amazing experience.
Speaking of cocktails…let’s transition to cocktail hour.
Yes, you can have cocktails. Refer to your allowed foods list often. The rule on cocktails is moderation and as straight as possible. Martinis are good. Manhattans are good. Anything with straight liquor. It’s not liquor that has carbs; it’s the mixers! A pina colada is murder. Stay away. Margaritas are a big bummer. If you want a margarita, go to the website and find the lemon-lime dessert recipe. Melted, this makes perfect no-sugar margarita mix. You can have that kind of margarita at home.
Beer is a BIG NO. Way too many carbs. Beer can come in at ZReboot 3.5 after your new set point is solidified. And drink low carb beer. You’ll get used to it. I hear Budweiser Select 55 and Michelob Ultra taste pretty good! Gin and diet tonic would also be ok. Vodka and soda is great.
Keep in mind that all cocktails will go directly to your brain. You will get drunk very quickly; no matter how large a frame you have. Your body is completely detoxed. It might not even want alcohol. Don’t be surprised if you don’t feel like drinking.
Wine. Be careful. I did allow myself a glass or two. Wine does have carbs though. Do not have creamy after dinner drinks or other sweet cordials. They will spike your insulin and send your body crazy. It’s not that you can’t have them forever. Just, please, do not have them for at least three weeks and if you have them after that, be careful.
DINNER:
You saw my column on the escargot, roasted duck breast, haricot verts and cheese and fruit for dessert. This was straight from a restaurant. I had to ask them to substitute lentils with the green beans. Not a big deal. I loved my meal. If you want to go out for dinner, order a steak or a lobster or a fun fish. Don’t dive into a plate of fried chicken or sugar-coated ribs! Be lean and conscious and you will be fine. You have so many choices now.
When you go to the website for ZReboot recipes you will be overjoyed. There are so many options there I hope you dance with glee. Everything I ate had a cream sauce. Or a cheese topping. You can continue to contribute your favorite recipes that fit ZReboot and we will post them.
Have another dessert after dinner. Wait ‘til you see my recipe for Peanut Butter Dream. No crust. Just the wonderful middle. This is so decadent.
Rule of thumb. Eat meat, veggies, cheese, and fruit. NO potatoes or pasta.
A NOTE ON POTATOES AND PASTA: We just have to get used to the fact that potatoes and pasta are not good for us. Some folks can process them. We have proven with our weight gain that we cannot. C’est la vie. For me, potatoes will be reserved for Thanksgiving and my birthday. Well, maybe two other times a year. Pasta will be about the same, so if I eat each of them 4 times a year, that’s almost once a month. Not bad. I can live with that. I can live SKINNIER and HEALTHIER with that.
MILK: Milk from a cow is not good for most humans once they are more than 2 feet tall. Switch to coconut milk if you want milk. I have had to come to grips with this. I loved milk more than any other liquid. It’s gone for me now. I use cream in my coffee. I use cream in recipes. I can live with cream. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but high fat is better for you. Go figure.
As you get to week 4 of ZReboot, if you are going to go on to ZLife, you can begin to add things like pinto beans and other higher carb elements; even a few bits of whole grain. Just take it easy. This is what we call ZReboot 3.5. I never did this because I was going to go back to ZReduction. I didn’t miss those things so why bother? Even if you are going on to ZLife you don’t have to feel obligated to start eating watermelon, bananas, ice cream or bean burritos. We hope you have become accustomed to eating healthily.
WATCH YOUR WEIGHT: You are expected to gain 2 – 3 pounds in ZReboot. That’s normal and you have to accept that for your health and stability of your weight. Just STAY within that 2 – 3 pound range! If you hit the 5 pound mark (2 lbs over the 3pounds you can gain), you MUST STOP IN YOUR TRACKS AND PERFORM A STEAK DAY! Do NOT pass go, STOP right then, no matter what you planned on eating that day. You must not eat anything that day. Drink all the water, tea and coffee you want. Down a lot or you might get hungry! Keep a water bottle in your hands at all times; or on your desk. Then, at dinner time eat the largest piece of steak you can handle. You choose the cut. I had a 15-ounce sirloin once. No problem eating it ALL. Then you can also have a raw tomato on the side or an apple. Eat that, and go to bed early. Wake up the next day and your two extra pounds will be GONE. I even lost 3.5 one time. I had to perform 2 steak days before I settled into the 2300-2600 calorie zone (more on this later). If you travel, take your scale. Leave out a pair of shoes if you have to, but take your scale! If you travel a lot or want to go on vacation, invest in a travel scale. I had one that was just bigger than a hockey puck. I could balance on it and put my hands on the wall to steady myself. It worked GREAT. Use it a few days ahead of vacation so you know if it reads out slightly different than your home scale.
These are the guidelines for a healthy, successful ZReboot. If you think of any topics that I may have forgotten before you get to ZReboot or even after you are in the middle of it, please email us and we’ll address them.
Cheers!
Helios Homeopathy
You’re probably wondering about that stuff you’re squirting under your tongue four times a day.
The ZR50 Crave Control spray is unique to Plan Z. I teamed up with one of the leading homeopathic pharmacies in the world to make it. Last January, I visited Helios Homeopathy and met with their owner and head pharmacist. He has been a huge help to me in developing the formula.
In 2013, I applied for and got a U.S. Patent on the ZR50 Crave Control spray. It really does relieve the discomforts of dieting.
You can learn more about Helios here and my strategic partner, John Morgan in the video above.
The ingredients in the ZR50 Crave Control spray are all natural and work in concert to maximize your weight loss and keep you as comfortable as possible during the process of detoxing. What happens is when you follow Plan Z and start taking the ZR50 Crave Control spray you begin to correct your insulin response problem.
On Plan Z, your body is releasing stored fat into your blood stream. That stored fat is nourishing your body from the inside. The other elements in the formula are included to give you energy, support your system and lessen the side effects associated with detoxing.
There is another remedy you can take on ZReboot.
We call that one the ZR42 Reboot spray.
The ZR42 Reboot spray is optional. It is designed to speed your digestion and increase your metabolic rate. This speeds digestion. Some people report they get a bulging stomach when they add back certain foods. This went away with the ZR42 Reboot spray.
I recommend you try it.
But know you can do ZReboot without it.
Again, try it and see if you like it. You can take it on a regular basis during ZReboot. After ZReboot, ZR42 can be taken for a month at a time with one-month breaks in between – one month on and one month off.
It’s $57 per bottle. The dosage is only two squirts, twice daily. So a bottle lasts 3 times longer than the ZR50 Reduction spray. You only need a couple of bottles to get you through your 42 day ZReboot phase.
You can order ZR42 Reboot formula by calling 1-800-255-9853.
Dying for a Good Night's Sleep
By T.S. Wiley
“I have only a bare working knowledge of the human brain but it’s enough to make me proud to be an American. Your brain has a trillion neurons and every neuron has ten thousand little dendrites. The system of intercommunication is awe-inspiring. It’s like a galaxy that you can hold in your hand, only more complex, more mysterious.”
“Why does this make you proud to be an American?”
“The infant’s brain develops in response to stimuli. We still lead the world in stimuli ...”
—Don DeLillo, White Noise
America is home to the brightest and the best and the sickest people in the world. We hold the lead in productivity, eating disorders, SAT scores, diabetes, cutting-edge technology, heart disease and cancer. What do all of those accomplishments have in common?
Well, it’s certainly not a high-fat diet or a lack of exercise.
In our culture, people boast how little fat they eat and how little sleep they can get by on. These two accomplishments are an outward declaration of our ambition and stamina. Our national motto is, “You snooze, You lose.” The word “overtime” is now archaic. In order to apply such a measure to time, we would have to acknowledge a stopping point in the workday. It’s the notion of “quitting time” that’s the real artifact.
We’ve invented sound-bites over the decades to describe the stress of success, from the relatively benign “Type A” personality and “a real Go-Getter” to more disparaging terms like “burnout case” and “success freak.”
Europeans have never called each other names like that.
In this country, we work at least 10 hours a day, try to exercise a few hours a week, and suffer. Deepak says love will keep us together and the government now even agrees we should take a toke or two for medicinal purposes. In this culture, when we’re young, we take drugs to relax; when we’re old, we take drugs to survive.
Has it always been that way? Only for baby boomers.
By the 1940s, postwar America was describing our uniquely driven lifestyle as “keeping up with the Joneses,” “climbing the corporate ladder,” and our successes to the self-congratulatory “good old-fashioned hard work,” as though we were the only people on the globe trying to accomplish anything. To acquire the worldwide lead, Americans have, metaphorically speaking, pulled a century-long “all-nighter.”
We live in cities that never sleep, in a country that rocks 24/7.
It turns out that acquiring the lead in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer was just a bonus. Of course, golf had to go and those Sunday picnics with the family. It would appear that Americans only have time for only one serious hobby in the year 2010—worrying about dying. Now that maintaining our failing health has usurped whatever time we had left after work for our spouses or children, something as negligible as sleeping is truly unthinkable.
Americans have all but given up sleeping. At most, we get a solid five to six hours a night. We all believe we’re doing fine on that. We set alarms on smart phones, use Starbucks or Red Bull as our drug of choice, and, in some circles, coke, the real thing, not the beverage. The anti-sleeping prescription drug - Provigil has replaced Ritalin in the ivy-covered cloisters of Academia.
We might be tired, but we’re not showing it. Or are we?
According to studies on work-related incompetence, it seems we’re starting to crack. Ten years ago the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) estimated that the annual direct cost to employers was $15.9 billion back then, and they were only talking about money. Twenty-eight years ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of “Project Sleep” from the Association of Sleep Disorders Center declaring that seventy million Americans reported trouble sleeping. That was almost three decades before we all began to have private lap dances with our laptops at two in the morning. The most common disease state was the “disorder of hypersomnia,’ or excessive sleepiness. Forty-two percent (or close to half) of America back in 1982 were, literally, too tired to stay awake.
And, ironically, another 26 percent couldn’t get to sleep or stay asleep. That means for Baby Boomers, like us, we’ve been sleep deprived at least half of our lives. It’s no wonder we’ve missed the possibility that —that alone, could be why we’re all so sick.
So why let sleep loss keep you up nights? Because when you sleep less than you’re meant to, melatonin isn’t the only hormone affected. There are at least 10 different major hormones, as well as many more neurotransmitters in the brain and immune-mitigated cytokines, that go sideways when you don’t sleep enough. Lost melatonin is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It is all the other hormonal shifts resting on the melatonin “timer” that change appetite, fertility and mental and cardiac health that will kill you.
As a nation, we are sick because we don’t sleep. We are fat and diabetic because we don’t sleep. We are dying from cancer and heart disease because we don’t sleep.
An avalanche of peer-reviewed scientific papers supports the conclusion that when we don’t sleep in sync with the hours of daylight and dark and the seasonal variation in light exposure, we fundamentally alter a balance of nature that has been programmed into our physiology since Day One. This cosmic clock is embedded in the physiology of every cell in every living thing that exists. This new approach to illness is humbling and unsettling, but that’s the cost of the truth.
When extended day length, created by artificial light-and-dark cycles, became the norm a short 90 years ago with the widespread use of the light bulb, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer suddenly became the official causes of death on the coroner’s reports, instead of the usual infection or injury common before the advent of the light bulb.
Ever since these diseases began to surface as major killers, the efforts on the part of science and medicine to explain the startling rise in the “diseases of civilization” never bothered to examine any other overwhelming environmental change except diet.
And all these years later, as Americans continue to die in droves, the doctors and the researchers all continue to fish in the same pond.
Maybe it’s time to see the light for what it really is.
The biggest change human beings have lived through in the last ten thousand years happened less than a century ago. There has been no time to adapt to chronic short nights, even if it was possible; which it may not be. Electricity and the widespread use of the light bulb qualify, along with the discovery of fire, the advent of agriculture, as a point of no return in human history. One hundred years ago, in 1910, the average adult was still sleeping approximately ten hours a night. Now the average adult is lucky to get a solid six.
Most of us don’t. Those numbers add up to an extra 1,460 waking hours a year.
In nature, we would sleep 4,370 hours out of a possible 8,760, or almost exactly half of our lives. Ninety years ago, we were down to 3,650 hours. Now we are lucky to get a measly 2,190. If nature keeps a light and dark score, and you can bet she does, that means we only get to live about half as long because we come into this world with just enough hormones for the ones we use in the day light and the ones we need for night. And when you take two days in one by staying up till the wee hours, they come off the end of your, physiologically speaking, as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, some sort of cancer or a heart attack because you run out of hormones.
We may have bought back a little time against injury and infection, the major killers at the turn of the last century with surgery and antibiotics, but think how long we might live if we slept, too. In the 1970s, Americans devoted 27 hours a week to “leisure” time. In the 1990s, we’re down to 15. And we work at least 48 hours a week, compared to 35 for the average worker in the 1970s. Then we had hobbies, we were players of baseball and builders of model ships, members of the garden club and Boy Scout troop leaders. Now, although, the number of hours in a day are approximately the same, the ratio between work and everything else has shifted considerably.
In the forty years since 1970, we’ve found new passions to add to the old duties—exercising, going from doctor to doctor, commuting through ever-increasing traffic, watching 950 channels on TV or the computer, and the most recent time bandits—Email, eBay and Twitter. No wonder there’s almost no time time left to sleep or take care of the children. So why didn’t the guardians of our health look at stress and lack of sleep before they placed the entire blame on food?
Once upon a time we existed in sync with all of the biophysical cycles and rhythms in nature. Now, not only do we control the food supply, but we have pushed back the night and the weather. There is a price for playing God.
And now here comes the bill: the unending artificial light and heat we live in registers as the long days of an eternal summer on that internal sundial because night never falls and winter never comes.
As mammals, we are hardwired to store fat and reproduce when exposed to long light days and then to sleep it off or at the very least starve ... for awhile. But now we don’t sleep and we don’t starve, either; at least, we don’t starve for carbohydrates, ever.
That’s why we’re fat and getting fatter. It’s endless August in our bodies and minds.
While fire, with its illumination, extended our day enough to evolutionarily effect intellect and reproduction, limitless electricity may just put us under for good.
A Simple Way To Break A Bad Habit
Can we break bad habits by being more curious about them? Psychiatrist Judson Brewer studies the relationship between mindfulness and addiction — from smoking to overeating to all those other things we do even though we know they're bad for us. Learn more about the mechanism of habit development and discover a simple but profound tactic that might help you beat your next urge to smoke, snack or check a text while driving.
Pumpkin Spiced Whipped Cream
Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReboot) recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of whipping cream
- 2 tsp of vanilla
- 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
Instructions:
Mix with your mixer until still peaks form; just like regular whipped cream. Serve this on your pancakes instead of syrup. Or if you want some syrup just do a teeny bit; like a capful. And use REAL maple syrup. No diet syrup. A bit of the real stuff is better for you. I served my pumpkin pancakes with the whipped cream and a very teeny drizzle of syrup. It was WAY YUMMY!
Enjoy!
Cheers,