Plan Z Diet Mom's Meatloaf

Plan Z Diet Mom's Meatloaf

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet




This is a ZReduction recipe. This is very close to my mother's meatloaf recipe. I used to serve this with mashed potatoes and corn when I wanted comfort food. Not anymore on the Plan Z Diet! I also used to say that if I ever ended up on death row and they asked me what I wanted for my last meal, this would be it. It’s such a BIG YUM and brings back fond memories.

One of the times my husband was out of town, I had a "meatloaf dinner party." I served this to a bunch of friends. Boy, were they surprised! All comfort food on the menu. They loved it! And the conversation through the night was all about their favorite comfort foods and childhood favorites. Try it some night. It's a fun time.

For the full recipe of my Plan Z Diet Mom's Meatloaf CLICK HERE or head to https://www.planzdiet.com/recipes/my-moms-meatloaf/

Enjoy!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

80 Grams -- A Day in the Low Carb Plan Z Diet Life

80 Grams -- A Day in the Low Carb Plan Z Diet Life

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet




There is no number set in stone that tells you how many grams of carbs you can eat per day before you begin to gain weight. It all depends on your body; your height, weight, activity level and metabolic rate. Everyone wants a number, but you can’t have one. For each of us that number is unique.

I will tell you this though. Over the past few years on the Plan Z Diet I have come to know that the average human, (male or female) can usually consume, on average, about 80 grams of carbs per day and stay in a safe zone.

Some people are fanatic and get off on keeping the number as low as possible. Nothing “carby” passes by their lips. To them I say… Bravo.

Other people find that lifestyle too restrictive and without room to maneuver.

I’m somewhere in the middle.

What I thought I’d do today is lay out what an average day of eating and carb count looks like for me NOW on the Plan Z Diet and what it looked like in the ‘old days’ (before I developed The Plan Z Diet by Zola). There are some startling differences I think you’ll be interested in and then you can do a similar analysis on your own consumption choices.

So here’s an example of my morning. I love full fat Greek yogurt. I find it keeps me full all morning and gives me an opportunity to eat a meal that looks more like dessert than breakfast. I take out a bowl and put in a cup of PLAIN yogurt. I sweeten it with about a ½ tsp of stevia and a tsp of vanilla. Stir that up and you now have sweetened yogurt without all the sugar you find in all those crazy flavors you find on the grocery shelves. Top that off with a handful of berries. I use a ½ cup of raspberries on most occasions but I do switch it up too. Then I toss on a ¼ cup of nuts. Most of the time I used roasted peanuts. I have a great recipe online for my Plan Z Diet Yogurt with Fruit and Nuts. I’m not a nut purist and I like the saltiness of the nuts in contrast to the sweetness of the yogurt. Ice water is my drink. I drink a lot of water. Over 100 ounces a day.

Plan Z Diet Yogurt with Fruit and Nuts

Let’s tally that up. In terms of grams of carbs I’m at 18 grams. Now, in the ‘old days’ before I developed the Plan Z Diet I would not have been counting carbs. I would have been totally obsessed with calories instead. I NEVER would have chosen this kind of breakfast. I’d have seen it as too caloric at 443 calories. I’d have had a heart attack! And besides it is not low fat. I thought everything had to be low fat.

In the ‘old days’ my breakfast would have been a half of a large banana, and a small glass of skim milk. My attitude was always to save my calories for later in the day. So my breakfast would come in at 207 calories.

Now look at the carbs. My old breakfast had 43 grams of carbs compared to the 18 I eat now. That’s startling! Look at how little food I ate and where the carb count came out. Every nutritionist told me to drink skim milk for my bones and that the banana was a good potassium choice. No account was made for the carb count.

Now, let’s look at lunch.

I used to consider lunch an interruption in my schedule. I’d rather drive around running errands at lunch and just chow down on something simple that could carry me over to my favorite meal. Dinner.

Power bars were a grab and go. The power bar had 247 calories and it was easy to eat and drive while I munched on it. One red traffic light and lunch was done. I could handle a 247 calorie lunch without too much guilt. Sometimes I’d drink one of those canned diet drinks. The carb count on that power bar? 47! A whopping 47!

Let’s look at a typical lunch for me now on the Plan Z Diet. My attitude has changed. I run my errands at a different time and I take time to get out of my office and go eat a civilized lunch.

Let’s say I order an 8 ounce burger with no bun. I have a slice of cheese on my burger and even a ½ cup of sautéed mushrooms. It comes with lettuce and a tomato slice. I might cut loose and splurge and let them bring the fries. I know. Fries are high carb and the purists would avoid them. Instead, I have trained myself to eat 4 full-sized fries and let the rest go. Sometimes I even ask the waitress to tell the kitchen I just want a few fries so they are not wasted on me, and can go to someone else, but usually the kitchen doesn’t ‘get it’ and they give me the basic, huge pile of fries. The waitress ends up carrying most of them away later.

So let’s tally that up. The fries give me 8 – 10 grams of carbs. The burger with all the fixins comes in about 2 grams. So my total lunch is 12 grams of carbs. The calories count is 586. Oh horrors! That would have been my ‘old days’ reaction. I’d never eat that much at a weekday lunch! I can’t risk that, would be my attitude. I might gain weight!

And, on to dinner. Dinner is when I relax and review my day. I start off by watching the news so I can catch up on national and local happenings. I might have a glass of wine while I do that. If I am a tad hungry I might munch on some nuts. Walnuts and pecans are my favorites. They help in cancer prevention too.

I’m a food writer, so my dinner might be more complex than what I am going to lay out here but if I have just a simple meal this is what it might look like. I am doing it this way because my description will be easier to relate to if you’re not a complicated cook.

8 ounces of chicken breast, roasted. I might also roast some broccoli and have a cup of that. I will, of course make some yummy cheese sauce to drizzle over my broccoli. I’ll have more wine and call it a dinner. Grams of carbs? 22. Calories? 650.

In the ‘old days’ my husband was traveling a lot, so my dinner was pretty standard. I hated cooking for myself so I would make it really easy. I’d have frozen diet macaroni and cheese that I’d microwave or I’d have a baked potato. I’d microwave that too. And of course I’d use the skinniest diet margarine I could find. Diet macaroni and cheese is 265 calories and 39 grams of carbs. To keep it even, let’s say I had wine with that too.

So let’s tally up my day of eating now on the Plan Z Diet and my day of eating in the ‘old days’.

My day of food now adds up to 1797 calories. 59 grams of carbs. I ate all that food and I’m still under 80 grams.

My ‘old day’ of food added up to 929 calories and 137 grams of carbs.

I’m eating 93% more calories. 43% fewer carbs.

Every nutritionist, diet expert, doctor and guru (even eating psychologists) could not understand how I could gain weight on 929 calories. (Truth be told, most nights I didn’t have wine so my calorie count was actually just over 700 calories per day). I worked out with a trainer 3 days a week, so it wasn’t that my activity level was too low. All weekend I was out in my garden or on the golf course too. So what was it?

Well, they never figured it out. I just kept getting fatter and everyone threw up their arms. I must be cheating they’d say. I even had them hypnotize me to prove that theory was wrong. I ate like a mouse and just kept getting fatter.

Now I eat almost twice the calories, live a fully food-satisfied life and I don’t gain an ounce. Draw your own conclusions. For my money, I’d say I figured it out. And you can too.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Plan Z Diet Shrimp Curry

Plan Z Diet Shrimp Curry

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet



This is a Plan Z Diet ZReboot recipe. This dishes coaxes out an abundance of flavor from the shrimp. Creamy, smooth, and slightly spiced your taste buds will light up with his lightened seafood recipe.

For the full recipe of the Plan Z Diet Shrimp Curry CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/recipes/shrimp-curry/

Enjoy! 

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Bring Two. Sip One.

Bring Two. Sip One. 

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet




A couple of weeks ago we threw a wedding shower for a couple of young friends who are getting married in October. We called it Bring Two. Sip One.

This couple has been together for a while now, so they really don’t need the traditional gifts. They are foodies like us, so the stocking of a nice wine cellar matches right up with their style. That led us to asking guests to bring two bottles as their gift. They could choose to bring wine, liquor, champagne or even liqueur. They could plan to open one bottle at the party and enjoy it, and the other one would head to the cellar of the bride and groom.

In the invitation they were given instructions to put thought into the bottle choice. Maybe the bottle would have a story behind it. It could be a reason they chose that particular vintage or wine. Or instead, they could plan to tell a story about the bride and groom that would coordinate with their gift. My fingers were crossed that these assorted guests, (whom we had never met), would follow through and come prepared.

Then I added another twist. We had labels made that had a heading on them. The heading on the label was “Advice for the Bride and Groom”. The labels were about 3 X 4”. Just the white labels you can get at an office supply store. Nothing fancy. They were printed off our office printer. Again, nothing overly complicated.

As the guests arrived, they were instructed to take one of the bottles they brought and get ready to attach a label. All they had to do was think of some kind of advice they thought the bride and groom could benefit from as they go into their marriage. They were to write that advice on the label and then attach the label to the bottle. This way, as the months and years go by, each time the bride and groom take one of those bottles out of their collection to drink, they can start off by reading the note of advice from the gift givers. It would give them a little marriage inspiration and also remind them of the friends who gave them that particular bottle. Again, fingers crossed that these people would not think I’m some kind of dope with crazy ideas.

The party ensued.

We gave the group about an hour to get a drink, mingle about and have some food. Then we ushered them all in one big room to gather and share their bottles and their stories. About 15 minutes into the presentations my husband whispered in my ear. “It’s working!”

The stories were all so touching. Some brought tears to my eyes and even the guys got choked up at times. I didn’t know any of these people when they came to the house, but I felt I had new friends when they left. Each couple shared their story of their bottle or a story about the bride and groom. It was amazing.

And now the bride and groom have bottles in their cellar that have words of advice and touching tidbits to go along with their gifts. It all rounded out quite well.

Feel free to ‘steal’ this idea for a party you’re having. You can do the foodie version or yours might involve something completely different. I’m sure you can riff on this in all kinds of ways. I can see a shower for a gardener and everyone brings plants. I can see a sporting goods version. A tennis version might have notes on tennis balls. (Of course a serious tennis player probably won’t use the balls on the court but they might look really great in a bowl as a decoration in the man cave). Yet another might involve recipes for a young bride who needs help with meal planning and cooking advice. Maybe the recipe was originally developed by the great grandmother of the groom. You get the idea.

And be sure to have a great party!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

It's the Best with a Buddy

It's the Best with a Buddy

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet





“Most people put all their effort into finding the right diet or exercise program, but don’t put any energy into creating a support and accountability system, and too often, that’s where the devil lies,” says Adam Shafran, DC, an exercise physiologist and chiropractor who is the author of You Can’t Lose Weight Alone: The Partner Power Weight Loss Program.

Dr. Shafran may have part of the answer, but in my opinion he’s leaving out the best parts.

I agree that to diet successfully it’s good to have structure. We built a lot of structure into the Plan Z Diet. We give people the coaching and education they need. Instead of telling people what to do, we also tell them why. That’s the most important part of the Plan Z Diet. Adults need to learn why so they can apply the learning properly and with conviction. Most of our Plan Z dieters diet alone so we have a major league support team, too.

I am still amazed at how happy people are who get the opportunity to try the Plan Z Diet with a buddy. The buddy most often is a spouse or significant other. Sometimes the buddy doesn’t live with the other dieter and in even other cases they are living across the country from each other. I get emails all the time with stories of the benefits of buddy dieting on the Plan Z Diet. So here are a few of those stories with hints on successful dieting with a buddy.

Pick recipes together. Maybe one buddy gets to choose 3 dinner recipes for the week and the other gets 3 and then you go out one night. Plan Z has over 800 recipes now on everything from comfort food to gourmet so it’s fun deciding what you’re going to eat. Get adventuresome. There’s no reason you can’t try new things and diet at the same time. And you don’t have to eat bland or boring. Just make a meal plan. It keeps you from buzzing through the drive thru at the last minute if you already have a meal planned.

Shop Together

I get notes from men who say they haven’t been in a grocery store in years; decades even. When they shop with their wives they are amazed. They have learned to read labels. They are astonished at how many things in a grocery store have sugar or high fructose corn syrup in them (the answer is over 80% of the products do). I didn’t ask them to shop together. It just happens and they are finding it to be a pleasant experience and they are even trying new vegetables!

Cook Together

Sometimes one partner plays sous chef to the other one being the master chef. In my case that means my husband does some of the chopping. He’s become quite adept with a chef’s knife and has his dicing down pat. Dinner comes together faster that way.

One guy in Colorado told me that before Plan Z he never even set foot in the kitchen until dinner was done. His wife did all the cooking. After being on Plan Z he got so into cooking that his kids surprised him at Christmas with a whole new set of knives. Now, they can give him culinary gifts for birthdays, too.

Another way to split up duty is one dieter cooks and the other one cleans up. My husband makes me sit and watch TV while he cleans up and then he brings me dessert. Most often he rustles up a bowl of Plan Z Diet raspberry ice cream. He loves that stuff and I don’t mind eating it most days either. 

Plan Z Diet Raspberry Ice Cream

Weigh Ins

This is one way to hold each other accountable. Weigh yourself and report out. I have heard of many a man doing the happy dance in his bathroom after he gets off the scale. Just the vision of that makes me smile.

Compare Water Intake

We suggest that dieters drink 100 oz of water per day. That takes getting used to for most so it’s a good idea to check in with each other around noon and see how it’s going. I try to get my 100 oz before dinner so I don’t have to drink too much too close to bedtime. Your body gets used to the water, but the first week or so you’re in the potty a lot during the night. We did an informal study and found that those who hit 100 oz consistently lost 30% more weight than those who drank less than 70 ounces. That’s a big difference!

Make Things in Batches

Many a dieting buddy pair take some time on a Sunday and cook up a couple of recipes for things that can be done in big batches. Things like chili or soup. That way you have a go-to lunch all ready to go. You want to mix things up though. Don’t let your body get bored eating the same things over and over again. If you do, you risk losing less weight. It’s weird, but it can happen. Take advantage of your freezer too. Many a recipe freezes well in small containers that can fit in your lunch box.

Rate the Food

You can both go online and rate the recipes for Plan Z. Or you can just compare tasting notes. Buddies who live cross country do this all the time. Some ladies in Canada chatted every day by email or text about what they were eating and what they recommended.

Motivate Each Other

Everyone has a bad day on the diet. You should not expect to lose everyday, so be there for each other. But no cheating. Cheating on a diet doesn’t hurt anyone except you. This is your time to make yourself a priority.

Be Public About It

Your buddy might be someone who cares about you but doesn’t live with you, so you can be pen pals of some sort. Or even consider posting about your progress on Facebook. Or Tweet your progress.

Wanna do Plan Z with a Buddy?

Give us a call in the office.You’ll get special pricing and the fun of having your own personal support network.

Share the love. Share the success. Share your dieting experiences; especially if they are good ones.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

News Flash

News Flash

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet





The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced last week that our future is fat. By 2030, 86% of Americans are predicted to be overweight and 42% will be obese.

This data was announced at the CDC’s Weight of the Nation conference.

I went to the CDC’s site and tried to find the report. The newest information I could find was from 2010. Slightly out of date.

It was reported that the data would also be published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. I went to their site. This is a peer-reviewed medical journal. I couldn’t find any published report. I could find out how I could submit an article if I were a researcher. And I could find a sample of the journal. Looks like you have to join to get any more information. Nothing available to the public; at least not yet.

It’s not that I doubt the statistics. I believe the numbers to sadly, be true.

So I went to a source most consider to be of high reputation; USA Today.

At least they reported some of what came out of the conference. They chose to follow the money. The focus of their article was all about the increases we’ll see in the health care costs. Or in some cases they see some things leveling off.

They interviewed a health economist named Eric Finkelstein, with the Duke University Global Health Institute. I should have guessed there would be a job called Health Economist. I didn’t. At least not until now.

Like I said. He’s following the money.

While I listened to him I really became disheartened. It sounds like the minds at that conference are giving up on us. Just sort of chalking it up. They say if we just stop the obesity epidemic from growing we can save billions. At the end he says he’d “put his money in the kids”. Fix them and you fix the future.

But what about the rest of us? What about those of us on the Plan Z Diet?  And what about NOW!

Plan Z Diet Cheesy Green Bean Casserole

Not so Cheerful,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Finger Lickin Goodness

Finger Lickin Goodness

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet





In June, butter hit the cover of TIME Magazine. Not some famous scientist. Not some notorious villain. Just plain old butter. A ribbon of butter. Full fat butter.

I was traveling at the time so I never got a chance to read the actual article. Shame. Since I’m a food writer I should have hopped right on that. It slipped my busy mind.

But since then, one of my colleagues gave me a link to a video produced by TIME, that covers the content covered in the article. Watch this incredibly informative video. Your butter-covered, finger-licking fingers will be glad you did.

To watch the video click here.

The guy speaking is the same guy who wrote the printed article. Bryan Walsh, Senior Editor at TIME gives us an overview on the new science of butter. Butter isn’t the villain. Butter never was bad. We just had bad information.

My family lived by the same bad information as everyone else. You’ll see lots of it in this video. My father was taken in, and as the leader in our family he set out to keep us as healthy as possible. We ate very little butter. We converted to eating oleo. Oleo is made from vegetable oil and is low in saturated fat and it’s cholesterol-free. I was a kid. I didn’t know any better. I did think butter tasted fancier but oleo spread easily on my toast. It was just so wrong, and worse yet, totally unnecessary. I lived in the dairy state like some kind of non-dairy traitor.

When I got older I fell into the low fat trap and when they came out with “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter” I fell into that plastic tub of fake butter trap along with millions of others. I loved to cook with that stuff. It melted so smoothly and I could mound it on my potato because it purported to not make me fat.

I had been duped. The entire time I could have been eating butter!

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

My Own Amazon Rainforest

The Incredible Inedible Eggs

The Incredible Inedible Eggs

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet

My sister-in-law jokingly refers to it as the Harbor of Egg. The residents of this tiny hamlet, population 217, call it Egg Harbor. Egg Harbor is located mid-way up Highway 42 in picturesque Door County, Wisconsin.

For those not familiar with Door County, it’s the finger-shaped peninsula that juts out into Lake Michigan. Many call it “The Cape Cod of the Midwest”. I think it’s much prettier than Cape Cod.

Egg Harbor is technically a village. The village is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year so they came up with a pretty ‘eggceptional’ way to celebrate. They commissioned 50 eggs to be built and displayed throughout the village grounds. The village is pretty small so it’s easy to get a glimpse, and even get up close, with as many eggs as you can fit into your touring schedule. Click here to see some of my favorites.

And be sure to check out this news clip that describes the egg installations. This way you can see some of the moving ones!

http://www.eggharboreggstravaganza.org/

Chicago regularly does art installations similar to the Egg Harbor egg display. This year, Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs, is celebrating 100 years, so there are 100 installations of pairs of stadium seats lining Michigan Avenue. The eggs are fancier and prettier but people have a blast taking selfies while sitting in the stadium seats along the Magnificent Mile. http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-wrigley-field-painted-seats-on-michigan-avenue-photos-20140530/

I think community art installations are a great idea! They lend conversation to a stroll through a little village or down one of the most magnificent shopping streets in the world. Auctioning them off for a good cause is another wise benefit and showcasing the talents of the various artists and community groups is well-deserved.

I’ve been going up to Door County to relax during various seasons for over 30 years. This is the prettiest I’ve seen it yet.

I've also included one of my favorite egg recipes here to celebrate. Whip up my Plan Z Diet Fluffy, Cheesy Scrambled Eggs.

Plan Z Diet Fluffy, Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

Cheers,


To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Fed Up

Fed Up

By: Chris Lytle
VP of Anger Management
Plan Z Diet





Zola, Jen and I shut the office at noon on the Friday before Memorial Day. Then, we headed for the theater to watch Fed Up.

The film follows some overweight kids who are trying to lose weight using the conventional wisdom of eating less and exercising more.

It is painful to watch as one very overweight young girl tries swimming and working out to no avail.

The problem: the food they are eating at home and during school lunch. They're eating the same food that we tell you to AVOID on the Plan Z Diet.

Fed Up speaks to the tremendous amount of misinformation in the market place today. The same misinformation that makes me angry and that we try to correct on the Plan Z Diet.

Parents of these overweight kids are buying healthy, low fat food for them. Of course, since fat doesn’t make you fat and carbohydrates do, these fat kids don’t keep gaining. These misinformed parents think that low fat cereal and skim milk will help their kids lose weight. Then, there’s one mom who switches to Lite Hot Pockets from regular Hot Pockets.

If you’ve already seen Gary Taubes’ lecture, Adiposity 101: Why We Get Fat and Robert Lustig’s You Tube sensation, Sugar, the Bitter Truth, yyou’re ahead of the learning curve.

One of the saddest things about Fed Up didn’t happen on screen. An obese young man sat down behind us, settled into his reclining seat and proceeded to sleep through the film and miss the valuable information he needed.

Fed Up vilifies sugar and we do to on the Plan Z Diet. It drives home the case that excess sugar in our blood stream is the reason for the “obesity crisis.” At the end of the film, audience members are urged to do the 10-Day Sugar Elimination Challenge and document their experience through social media.

That’s a start.

Of course, we’ve been telling our Plan Z Diet clients about the evils of sugar for years and also providing Zola’s ZR50 Reduction formula for making going cold turkey on sugar a much easier proposition.

Zola, Jen and I gave Fed Up “three thumbs up” with a couple of reservations: The documentary goes off the rails a bit when the producers take on the USDA for promoting cheese after warning us in the food pyramid to reduce our fat consumption.

One part of the department is urging us to reduce fat, while down the hall bureaucrats were working on a campaign to sell more “Cheese Glorious Cheese.”

While that’s true and proof that you don’t want government in your kitchen, the producers of the film are still fat phobic. The implication is that advertising cheese promotes obesity when nothing could be further from the truth. Remember, fat doesn’t make you fat. Carbohydrates do.

Whenever, I take a phone order for the Plan Z Diet by Zola, I tell the new client that at least 60% of the value of the diet comes from the education you receive in the manual and through the daily e-mails and links to various videos we have found for you.

Fed Up rounds up the usual suspects to do short snippets on the evils of sugar and the problems in our food supply. There’s Gary Taubes, Kelly Brownell, Robert Lustig, Mark Hyman, former FDA commissioner David Kessler, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and many more. As a client, we have already introduced you to most of these characters.

Still, if you want an entertaining, educational does of righteous indignation, then you may want to watchFed Up at a theater near you or download it from Netflix.

Over the weekend, Zola and I watched an even more compelling reason to get sugar and starch out of the cupboards and out of our bodies like we do on the Plan Z Diet.

Dr. David Perlmutter’s PBS special Brain Change makes the compelling case that elevated sugar levels not only increase your risk of diabetes, but also attacks your brain and slows down cognitive function and increases the risk of getting Alzheimer’s.

Perlmutter, a neurologist, is a great advocate of eating eggs, coconut oil, avocados and and other healthy fat to promote brain health.

You may want to learn more about Dr. Permutter’s work HERE. Then, when well-meaning family and friends say you’re eating the wrong things on ZReboot, pull out the good doctor’s video and put another grass fed steak on the grill.

Stay Angry My Friends,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

That's Hockey Baby

That's Hockey Baby

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet




Saturday afternoons can be pretty boring for a young girl living in Wisconsin during a cold, long winter. That bored young girl was me.

Even if most days you can go outside and play in the snow, there are just some days when going outside just doesn’t work.

My mother, on the other hand, was rarely bored. She was raising 7 children. She barely got a moment to relax.

On the rare occasion she did get to sit and watch TV she picked some interesting things to watch.

I can remember one time going into the den on one of those Saturday afternoons and she invited me to watch TV with her. I looked at the TV screen and just wrinkled up my nose. She was watching hockey. I never had a clue she was a Detroit Red Wings fan.

I tried to watch the game. I could barely follow the puck! I had no idea what the rules were. I could see they were skating pretty fast and they had sticks. I was used to seeing boys at the ice rink in the neighborhood who skated around with hockey sticks and flipping a puck back and forth but I had never seen grown men slamming into each other in order to get the puck. The whole thing looked violent and disorganized to me. I preferred figure skating. I could watch that for hours.

So it was a bit out of character for me last night to curl up alone and watch the Blackhawks final game of the season. I sat through the whole thing; even into the overtime period. I am mesmerized by hockey now. It’s much more fun to watch than some other sports; especially baseball. Baseball is slow. Hockey is FAST.

I still don’t know all the rules. I’m catching on to the icing penalty, but some of the other nuances still escape me. Maybe next year I’ll go see a game at the United Center where they play in Chicago. I love it when they score and the horn blows and every one dances to the celebration song. I could get into that. And as they say… “That’s Hockey Baby!”

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

The Diet You Enjoy Rather Than Endure

The Diet You Enjoy Rather Than Endure

By: Chris Lytle
VP of Anger Management
Plan Z Diet




I have been married to Zola for almost 30 years. I have seen her endure a variety of diets; even extreme ones. The Plan Z Diet is a diet you can enjoy rather than endure.

I have the privilege of taste-testing all of the dishes Zola creates for each phase of the diet. Since there are more than 800 recipes on the Plan Z Works site, I enjoy a much wider variety of foods than the average dieter.

I also get to interview successful dieters for our 2nd Tuesday call. The most successful dieters always have several favorite go-to recipes from ZReduction and they continue enjoying an occasional ZReduction meal even as they “graduate” into ZLife.

On the other hand, we occasionally hear about a client who doesn’t like to eat vegetables and won’t eat fish. These kinds of dieters “endure” the Plan Z Diet until they can get back to their old favorite foods—and sometimes they gain weight back. It’s inevitable if that is to be their approach.

These are the folks who go through the whole 50 days eating a few of the foods on the list and never enjoy the amazing variety available to them. One lawyer ate lunch at Subway every day and had a chicken breast on top of Subway vegetable.

It worked. He lost weight.

But there is a larger point.


The Plan Z Diet can actually expand your eating horizons rather than limit them.

The way it works at our house on the Plan Z Diet is Zola asks me, “What kind of style of food would you like for dinner?”

One day, I might say Tex-Mex. Another day I might have a hankering for French Bistro. The next night it could be Indian food. Then Zola creates a meal from there.

I have always enjoyed being her sous chef. In that role, I prep vegetables or work on the side dishes while Zola prepares the more elaborate main course.

Cooking is Zola’s “thing.” She enjoys the process of throwing a dinner party. She enjoys “Zolafying” or making our clients’ favorite recipes Plan Z Diet ready so they can enjoy them on ZReduction or ZReboot.

If you look at cooking as a chore or another thing to get done so you can do all of your other work, it will make the diet more difficult to enjoy.

Maybe you can enlist your family members in the project of putting a meal together instead of doing it for them and hoping they like it.

Eating simple-to-prepare, delicious meals every meal makes the Plan Z Diet by Zola, an enjoyable adventure instead of another diet endurance test.
Stay Angry My Friend,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Just Go Nuts

Just Go Nuts

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet





I don’t know where they get the grant monies to do some of the studies they do, but this one caught my eye.

At Harvard they did a study on nuts as snacks. Having studied 120,000 men and women, the study indicated the more nuts people ate, the lower their risk of premature death.

Indeed, those who munched nuts daily were 20% less likely to have died during 30 years of follow-up than non-nut-nibblers.

More good news: Frequent nut eaters were also less likely to have gained weight.

Now, I read this in a women’s magazine. So I went on line to check it out. I found all kinds of write ups that reference the study. It was actually completed in 2004. Seems it took time to get traction. 10 years.

I’ve been suggesting nuts as a snack on the Plan Z Die for years. They satisfy your crunch craving. They fill you up. And they are good for you.

One ounce of nuts is a nice portion. Here’s an idea of how many that is: 20 almonds, 18 cashews or 30 peanuts. That seems like a reasonable snack, doesn’t it?

My Plan Z Diet Yogurt with Fruit and Nuts makes a great, easy way to add nuts to one of your snacks. 

Plan Z Diet Yogurt with Fruit and Nuts

I also suggest people eat unsweetened peanut butter; especially at breakfast. People complain they don’t have time to make a breakfast, when in fact, you can have a healthy breakfast ready in a flash. Grab an apple. Slice it up. Spread peanut butter on the slices. Eat. Kids will love this as a breakfast option. They get their sweet along with their peanut butter. This will keep them full and focused too; unlike breakfast cereal.

Most nut experts will tell you it really doesn’t matter which nuts you choose for your snack. They are all good for you in one way or another. Just as an example, Brazil nuts are supposed to help men prevent prostate cancer. The nuts and their benefits vary widely. When a friend of mine had cancer I used to make him nut snacks out of walnuts and pecans. Those were both supposed to be cancer fighters.

Just don’t see this as an excuse to eat all the snacky nut options you find in the store that are covered in candy or coated with sugar. If you go that direction you’re negating the benefits of nuts. Most of the time I don’t even buy nuts with commercialized salt on them. Much better to start with raw nuts and roast them yourself with a variety of flavorings. I have probably six different nut combo recipes for Plan Z snacking. I offer one up to you here today My Plan Z Diet Cinnamon Nut Granola for to try.

Plan Z Diet Cinnamon Nut Granola

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

Chives

Chives

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet




My chives were the first thing to come up in my herb garden every year. As soon as the snow melted I could see their little heads popping up through the soil. By the time it was warm enough to actually get out in my garden and clean with a rake, the chives would be high enough that I had to work around them. They’d be three inches tall already.

My patch of chives was about two square feet. That’s enough to service an entire restaurant! I sort of let my patch of chives grow beyond my eating ability to keep up. There are only so many things you can garnish with chives, or bake chives into. And since I don’t eat a lot of baked potatoes, I don’t have an excuse to sprinkle them on top of those either.

I still love my chives though. I think they are beautiful in any garden.

In early May (in the Midwest), the chives will bloom. They get little purple pom-pom flowers. They will remind you of the big purple alliums, and in fact, they are part of the same family — the onion family and garlic too. I love to use the flowers in little floral arrangements on the table. I also chop the little flowers, or pluck them apart to use them in spring salads. I garnish a lot of dishes all summer long with just a few stems of chives. They have an Asian look to them so it’s a graceful garnish.

When my chives get overgrown and start to droop and get unruly, I get out a sheers. For a small patch it might just be a scissors. For my big patch I used to get out a long bush-trimming sheers. I chop the tops off and take them down to about three to four inches high and just let them grow up again. I call it giving them a haircut. The scent they send off into the garden feels herbal to me, but not like an overpowering onion scent. It just feels like garden to me and I love that smell that lingers for a few days.

If you do a little internet search you’ll find out about all the amazing properties of chives. Things like: they are a powerful anti-oxidant so eating them will help you prevent cancer. They are good for bone health and improved circulation. They are an anti-inflammatory, will help you prevent bruising and help heal wounds faster. All these things from eating chives. Eating chives will help you improve your skin so it’s more radiant and they will help you clear up acne. If you puree chives you can use them as a face mask. Just smear them on your face in the pureed form, let set for 30 minutes, wash and then put on moisturizer.

I might do that this summer when my chives grow too tall and I have to give them a haircut. I’ll have plenty of the cuttings, so I can make my mask.

When cooking with chives it’s best to put them into the dish toward the end of cooking. They are delicate in stature but their flavor will disperse through the dish quickly. So if you are adding them to soup or stews add them at the end.

Chives are not only sculpturally beautiful in the garden, their usefulness abounds.

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

The Critical Difference Between Successful and Unsuccessful Dieters (and People)

The Critical Difference Between Successful and Unsuccessful Dieters (and People)

By: Chris Lytle
VP of Anger Management
Plan Z Diet





I have two jobs.

You know me as VP of Anger Management for The Plan Z Diet by Zola.

And at the same time, I’m also a professional speaker and author. My book, The Accidental Salesperson: How to Take Control of Your Sales Career and Earn the Respect and Income You Deserve, is a business best seller. Over the years, I have conducted more than 2200 seminars on three continents.

I was working on a project for my “other job” and ran across an article I want to share with you:

“How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want to” is by Heidi Grant Halvorson. It was posted on the Harvard Business Review website on February 14, 2014.

Halvorson describes how this applies to the commitments we make to ourselves at work. As you read the next two paragraphs, just think about your commitment to weight loss instead of work.

“In his excellent book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman points out that much of the time, when we say things like “I just can’t get out of bed early in the morning, “ or “I just can’t get myself to exercise,” what we really mean is that we can’t get ourselves to feel like doing these things. After all, no one is tying you to your bed every morning. Intimidating bouncers aren’t blocking the entrance to your gym. Physically, nothing is stopping you – you just don’t feel like it. But as Burkeman asks, “Who says you need to wait until you ‘feel like’ doing something in order to start doing it?’”

“Think about that for a minute, because it’s really important. Somewhere along the way, we’ve all bought into the idea – without consciously realizing it – that to be motivated and effective we need to feel like we want to take action. We need to be eager to do so. I really don’t know why we believe this, because it is 100% nonsense. Yes, on some level you need to be committed to what you are doing – you need to want to see the project finished, or get healthier, or get an earlier start to your day. But you don’t need to feel like doing it.”

“In fact, as Burkeman points out, many of the most prolific artists, writers, and innovators have become so in part because of their reliance on work routines that forced them to put in a certain number of hours a day, no matter how uninspired (or, in many instances, hung over) they might have felt. Burkeman reminds us of renowned artist Chuck Close’s observation that “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

So if you are sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it. There is nothing stopping you.” (End of excerpt)

See what I mean? This is a powerful concept.

You don’t feel like eating the burger without the bun? You don’t feel like skipping the bagel a co-worker left in the break room? You don’t feel like going back on Z-Reduction and losing the last 30 pounds?

That’s okay. Feeling like doing something has nothing to do with whether or not you do it.

There is nothing stopping you.

I have been doing an exercise routine called Super Slow for the past nine years. Every Thursday at 10 AM, I have a standing appointment. I pay $57 for the privilege of doing 7 exercises agonizingly slowly—each exercise to the point of failure meaning I can no longer move the weight.

I never “feel” like doing it. I do not enjoy it. It is not fun. It is very hard work. I do it anyway because I want to maintain muscle mass and bone density into my old age. (I’ll be 80 in 17 years.) I don’t have to like it or feel like doing it. All I have to do is show up and get the work in.

When I started the program I used to dread it. I would think how hard it was going to be or how sore I would be the next day. Now, I don’t think about it until I’m at the gym. I just go, do it and leave.

I’m always glad it’s over. And I’m always glad I did it.

I don’t have to feel like it or enjoy it to do it and benefit from it.

What a liberating idea!

Think about the implications and the power of this idea in taking charge of your own weight and health.

You don’t have to wait until you feel like taking control to take control. – of anything.

Stay Angry My Friends,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/

My Entertainment Life

My Entertainment Life

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet



My entertainment life has had a lot of variety lately. In the last week I have been to an opera, a play, a wrestling match and to Second City. May I just say, I love living in Chicago?

First up, the opera. We saw La Comenza di Tito. This was the last opera Mozart wrote before he died.

We saw a play called Into the Woods. Stephen Sondheim collaborated on all of the music and lyrics. He’s like Mr. Broadway when it comes to musicals.

Then, a client of ours owns a wrestling network called Ring of Honor. The production came to Chicago and they were taping a live broadcast of the event. We were asked to attend and took some guests.

Lastly we took one guest and saw a matinee performance on Sunday of Second City’s, Incomplete Guide to Everything.

Talk about variety.


The funny thing was when one of the guests asked me which of those productions I liked best.

I told him I could not answer.

Why?

They are all so different.

When you go to the opera you go for more than the story. The fact that this story included everyone alive at the end of the opera is unique. Most operas are usually so full of intrigue, betrayal, and sex, someone usually dies. But you also go for the grandeur of the architecture that is the Civic Opera House. You go for the staging, the lighting the amazing music and of course the vocal performances. The whole dressing up and being fancy is all part of the experience.

Compare that to going to a wrestling match on a Saturday night and there is really no comparison. The wrestling makes you laugh and cheer. We all know it’s staged. Some of the punches are so far off it has to be nothing but laughable. But those guys really do prep. They are in fine shape; their physiques chiseled. Their costumes are over the top and the audience who’s there as loyalists really get into cheering on their guy.

A Sondheim play you can recognize as soon as the first performer opens up their mouth to sing. The rhyming in those productions is so creative. And the lyrics advance the plot like no other play style. This particular play is a ‘mashup’ of lots of fairy tales we all read as kids. There was a Broadway production run, this one is in Chicago for a time, but there is also a movie in the works staring Meryl Streep. The odds of the movie producing an Academy-worthy performance are doubtful in my prospective opinion. The creativity in pulling parts from several fairy tales (that have nothing to do with each other) and then melding them into a wholly other, creative production was delightful. As an aside it was also a treat to watch the faces of the youngsters in the crowd. The play was 3 hours long with one intermission. The little girl who sat in front of me was about six years old. She had a bright pink outfit on and little red glasses. She reminded me of myself. (I got my first pair of glasses when I was just 18 months old). She curled her feet up into her seat and sat mesmerized for three hours. That’s an amazing feat for a six year old and a tribute to the playwright and the performers.

And lastly, who can go through life without seeing at least one performance at Second City. It was not my first time, but it was the inaugural visit for our guest. By the end I was laughing tears. I walked out needing a new makeup job. I think it was funnier than anything I’ve seen on Saturday Night Live and I started watching that show when it first came on air. We all know so many famous Saturday Night Alums that got their start at Second City. Gilda Radner, John Belushi, George Wendt, OMG… Mike Meyers, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Martin Short, Tina Fey and Steve Carell. And more. I could go on for another paragraph!

Sinatra declared Chicago his “kind of town”. I have to say I agree with him. It’s my kind of town too, for the variety of entertainment, as well as so many other reasons.

Cheers,

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog/