Anyone starting Zoe in November?

[alloutofcareunits]

Not just about weight loss but thought this might be the best place to post the thread. I've just signed up and should be starting in November, wondering if anyone else is and wants to share experiences?

@Greenthread what were your scores like? And your recommended foods?

I mostly managed mid 70s eating mainly salads, veggies, lentils, meat, and mixing lower scoring with higher scoring foods. For example I have an apple most days, on its own it would score 60 odd, but if I add some peanut butter or a handful of Brazil nuts to the snack it scores much better because it alters the way my blood sugar responds (and therefore prevents a blood sugar crash in a couple of hours time).

I am feeling way better and using nuts as my main snack.

Just had my dinner - panfried basa fillet, spinach and some tomatoes spicy lentils. Very nice and scored 90+ overall. Going to have some Greek yoghurt with berries now and that will finish me for the day :)

Really interesting to see how people a bit further ahead are managing and some inspiring stories. I am day 2 of food logging and it’s a bit tedious logging all the ingredients
i have a busy few days coming up so rethinking my blood sugar challenge as I’m not sure about sourcing boiled rice and bacon if I’m away for work 😭

I have bad blood sugar and good fat. My gut boosters are mushrooms, bean sprouts, cucumber, lentils, beans, nuts, houmous, salmon and trout. I don’t eat fish.

I am vegetarian and eat loads of veg and beans normally but I also eat a lot of chocolate, ice cream and ultra processed biscuits. They are the things I am missing. I didn’t realise how often I ate rice. It really lowers the score of my meals so I’ve not been having any. I always have brown rice but even that scores poorly for me.

Does Zoe suggest any alternatives to rice for you @Greenthread ?

Kind of, there’s a section called ‘pasta and grains’ where they are all scored for me. Pearl barley scores the highest at 80, then bulgar wheat. Quinoa is 40. White rice is 2.

I make a kind of ice cream by whizzing up frozen berries into Greek yoghurt. It's really pleasant and instant.

I got cookies in my snack section that score well (attaching screenshots, these score 82 for me). My intention is to make a batch soon to try.

I make keto bread a lot, using ground almonds, chia seeds, egg, baking powder and butter and microwaved for 90 seconds, then slice and toast. Lovely with guacamole or hummus?

Oh, I also use konjac noodles/rice/ pasta which score high for me :)

Oh I should make some cookies. I need something to distract me from chocolate.

I also eat chocolate Brazils - 3 every day with a coffee. I bought grape tree chocolate Brazils which score 49 for me which is not too bad. I just try to eat them quite late in the day (4-5 pm) so that if they do cause a blood spike it's not impacting the whole day. No idea if that is logical!

Just removed my sensor this morning. I must say I'm feeling a little low. It seems as though I cant eat any carbohydrate. I would like to lower my numbers but am struggling to understand how. I weight train 3x per week, am active otherwise and I never ate sweets, biscuits or cake and my BMI is 20, yet the numbers suggest I am pre diabetic. I ate chicken cooked with puy lentils last night and I still topped 8mmol/l :-( Also my average went up as time went on. Did anyone else find that? It felt like the stress of seeing high numbers was making things worse.

I think your bloods going up after eating is normal? It's how quickly they then come down, and numbers they are at on waking.

Omg... Day 1, I'm grimly trying to finish my blue cookies.
Pretty sure this is going to act as aversion therapy for me. I don't think I'm going to be able to face a biscuit or cake for a long time! DH just asked me what I want for dinner.

My kit has come, but my friend has asked to me to wait and do it with her. I was under the impression I’d be waiting for weeks to get sent the kit.
On cookie day, is that all we eat??

@ErrolTheDragon I've not had a biscuit since the dreaded cookies so I share your pain 😁

No - you fast until first cookies, eat first, eat nothing for four hours, eat second batch of cookies, eat nothing for 2 or 3 hours, I forget, then do blood test. After that you are free to eat what you like.

And more to the point, drink a proper cup of tea.

Thank you @TerribleWoman

Hi has anyone had their results back, how long did it take after posting them?

Posted mine on 12th Nov and got my results through last night - much sooner than I expected.

I got my results back yesterday. Annoyingly I messed up my blood tests, as I forgot to put it into the plastic bag, so they didn't analyse it. My glucose response was good on the app, but they've predicted me to have bad fat clearance, presumably just because I'm a few kilos overweight? I'm very annoyed with myself, can't belief I ate those bloody cookies for nothing. Took about two and a half weeks for the results to come back.

I seem to have a very non diverse microbiome which I'm surprised about, but maybe that's because I'm vegetarian? But of the colonies that are in there, it's mostly 'good' ones according to current research. I eat a varied diet, have pets, am not very clean, travel a lot internationally for work, and haven't had antibiotics since I was a child, so I thought I'd be brimming with bacteria!

Results took just under 3 weeks.

I got my results:
Blood sugar control - poor
Blood fat control - good
Microbiome - excellent
diet assessment - good

My microbiome was actually not that diverse (probably due to antibiotics) but I have good numbers of good bugs, supposedly.

I need to read all the stuff in depth, as I'm still a bit confused about the individual food scores. The cynic in me thinks "well of course spinach and blueberries are good for me, they're good for everyone".

And doughnuts get a very poor score - duh! (doughnut with jam - 1)

I'm glad the results on blood sugar match what I thought. But from there to figuring out how to eat .... that will take some trial and error. I anticipate hunger if I can't eat all my usual staples (sandwich at lunchtime, rice with curries...) I get a score for brown bread of 15! Is this lower than other people? I'd love to know if any of you can share your score please!

DH started on this a couple of months back and has similar results to you, @hippospot , though I think his blood sugar control might be worse than 'poor'.

Probably some foods score as good for everyone and others bad for everyone. I'm not sure if blueberries are rated as 'good' for DH.

He's worked out a few useful food swaps. One is that he makes a sort of pitta which is 80% oatbran, 20% wholemeal flour. The other is a quick cook pearl barley mix that we reckon is nicer than rice and only takes 10-12 mins.

Thanks that's really helpful everyone, it's fascinating! My husband started a week after me, it'll be interesting to see how his results compare

I am first day of blood sugar challenge and already confused. My blood glucose crashed 3 hours after eating the white bread (something I wouldn’t usually eat) at which point I had some bacon with cheese (don’t ask). Followed by a massive spike. Wondering what it all means….