Well it won't be long now before my Zoe subscription runs out. Although I shall miss it, I won't be renewing because it's expensive and I've learned enough now to keep going on my own. So how did it go? In short, very well. Would I do it again? Yes , absolutely I would. Is it for everybody? No. You need to want to learn and understand and commit to following advice and making changes. It's not a quick fix.
I've read a lot of comments about Zoe now. It's getting quite a high profile, both hype and criticism. Quite a lot of the comments show that the person writing is clearly misinformed about the process, the measures and the science so take 'em with a pinch of salt. Reading through the previous posts in this blog will be as close as you'll get to the truth about how it works.
For a more detailed report of how I found it, read on.
1. Learning
With a short lesson every day for 4 months, you do pick up a lot of learning, not only about nutrition, but also sleep, exercise and mental health. I think a lot of it could have been learned from watching the weekly Zoe videos on YouTube so I recommend them. What you can't learn from those videos though is the scoring of individual foods and how to know what is good and not good for your health, especially as an individual. Food packaging and labelling is often misleading and stuff that looks or claims to be healthy really isn't. I now have a good grasp of the kind of things I should eat regularly and those I should limit.
Sadly I think that when my subscription runs out, I lose all the data in my Zoe app -all the food scores etc. A bit naughty that I think. So I've been busy doing screen dumps of all the lists and wotnot to keep for later. I'm going to put hem all in a spread sheet for easy reference. Here are a couple of examples.
First one of many many pages on individual ingredients
Then another, rating individual recipes I have collected
I'm going to put them all in a spreadsheet for quick reference. Remember these are scores for my metabolism as tested, not necessarily for yours.
2
. New food experiences
We've enjoyed rebalancing our diet and trying out some new foods, but the main difference has been eating more of some things and less of others.
More -
Beans of all types - good for protein and fibre and low in fat and sugar. Butter beans in a stew or a part substitute for spuds in mash, mixed bean in a salad or a curry etc
Cheese - we always liked it but used to think it was a bit naughty because of the fat. Now we eat more of it, especially blue cheeses
Salads - having at least 7 or 8 ingredients plus olive oil and vinegar and a bit of feta. We now eat these regularly as a lunch starter, and they are delicious
Nuts and seeds. Nuts have become our evening snack in place of crisps.
Lentils - especially as dhal but also bunged in stews or casseroles
Fruit and Vegetables of most types - the more the merrier
Full fat Greek yoghurt (in place of our old low fat) and also Kefir which we were surprised to like very much. We also have tried Kombucha (fermented tea soft drinks) some of which are delicious although quite expensive.
Eggs
Frozen veg and fish, which are just as good as fresh and cheaper, especially fish.
Processed foods of all types.
Less
Red meat and processed meats - e.g. today we're roasting a big turkey thigh which is cheap and healthier.
Low calorie drinks like Pepsi Max in fact I've cut them out entirely. This is a big change for me.
Bread -this is a bit hard because I'd got good at making delicious white sourdough loaves. Now I bake sourdough with rye, spelt, wholemeal wheat and seeds, still very nice but I do miss the white which unfortunately gives me a real blood sugar spike. We also eat about half the quantity we used to. Bagels are a big no no sadly.
Also we've done some of the recipes suggested by Zoe. This has been good for getting us out of the rut of our old stock habits. Some we've liked more than others but that's ok. Here's a high scoring meal we really liked and will definitely keep making.
3. Shopping
We now actively look for more variety in our choice of food, often trying out stuff we hadn't had before. We've also made good use of the Zoe app scanning tool which lets you scan a food packet bar code and get a score. This has been particularly useful in looking at so called healthy breakfast cereals, particularly mueslis and granolas, most of which turn out not to be.
4. Exercise
Of course exercise is good, but taking a walk soon after a meal is something we didn't understand the benefits of until now.
5. Timing
Not only what you eat, but when you eat. Zoe has a lot to say about this. One main things is to have a long break between your last meal of the day and your next morning meal. Early dinner and late breakfast. I won't go into the details here but it's all explained. Also timing of fat intake, which because it takes a long time to disperse, you shouldn't follow up with more fat too soon or it accumulates.
6. The big question - how do we feel?
Generally less tired, less food cravings, more alert I think. This time of year I always used to feel low, but I feel better this year. I've lost a little bit of weight but not a lot. So nothing startling, but all good.
7. Was it worth it?
Undoubtedly yes. We've enjoyed the widening of our meals repertoire and feel a lot more confident in knowing more about what is and isn't good for us (that's so hard with all the fads and diets and supposed health foods out there).
I wasn't aware that I was not getting nearly enough protein and fibre and too much blood sugar and now I'm scoring a lot better on those things. My daily overall scores have increased markedly (higher Zoe score is better).
I'm now regularly scoring in the 70's on a weekly average, which is a lot better than when I started. Here's the last week, not my best, but still very good
At the start I was in the 50s and low 60s
I'm still allowed to have the occasional naughty meal like our monthly steak, or a biscuit when people come in for a cuppa, so it's not a hair shirt regime.
As an aside, the knowledge has also been useful in combating Kath's type 2 diabetes, as we know a lot more about carb control.
So that's it folks. I might do a final post when the course is finally complete, especially if something unexpected happens.
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