Zoe 2024 - a clean slate

[thinkofablinkingnamewoman]

Hi all - new year, new thread 😁 Will try to link to this from the previous one but not sure if I can do it from the app.

In keeping with good beginnings I am off to have berries, nuts and yoghurt. Could murder a load of toast though!

Yeah work travel is my downfall too. I’ve not travelled much this last month so it’s been a lot easier to keep on the straight and narrow.

Does anyone know of any high-scoring Zoe meals that use cheese??

Somehow we keep being given cheese and I am really accumulating lots of odds and ends. I find feta and goat's cheese easy to use with lentils or in salads but there is nearly a whole camembert I'm struggling to figure out what do to with.

That may depend on what your score for cheeses is. They're mostly in the 60s for me so they're fine in combination with other foods (salads, beans, soups) or on the high scoring 'breads'. Some combinations can score higher than individual ingredient scores. However the quantities/proportions matter - too much fat at once can dent a score.

I discovered that eating silver skin pickled onions with cheese significantly improves the score for me (compared with cheese alone)!

I don’t feel well, have stomach pain where my gallbladder was. Having eaten what I want post gallbladder removal I think I may have generally tended to lower fat and all the nuts, oil and avocado isn’t going down well. I hope it’s that.

Shame as weight loss has been going well. I need a bit of a rethink. Chicken and veg for me today whilst things hopefully quiet down a bit .

That's very interesting as a lover of both. Thanks!

Agggghhhhh I was having a great week, I’ve been not eating until about 11am, I’ve been scoring over 75, I’ve done over 12000 steps every day and I’d lost 1kg. Great - things are finally moving in the right direction.

I went out for dinner last night and chose the healthiest option - it was seriously healthy though, it was a vegan place, all salads etc. My meal was fine for Zoe, plenty of veg, beans and houmous. Washed down with kombucha (one that scored 56 in the app). I resisted wine. Today I am 1kg heavier than I was yesterday 😭😭😭😭😭

Probably most of that weight is just passing through, I don't think you can gain anything like a kilo of fat in one day!
Make sure you drink plenty of fluid today... I had a temporary weight rise when I started eating a lot more fibre.😬

You’re right. Of course I can’t have put on that much fat overnight. I’ve just filled up my water bottle!

We have a body scanner at my gym. I’m a kilo heavier this week than last week but all my measurements are down. It’s helpful having something other than scales to keep you on the right track. I mostly try to avoid microscopic scales readings and just focus on the general trend every month or so. The water mass must fluctuate massively.

Just done my cookie tests. The teeth I have left after eating the 2 breakfast rocks or as they call them "cookies", are now bright blue.
Im not even mentioning the stool collection as I think I may have mild trauma.
This Zoe test day is the gift that keeps on giving.....

I've had my results back. Blood sugar and gut biome both good. Blood fat and diet assessment both poor. I have a lot of work to do!

I got my results on 22 January and started "the plan" two weeks ago. My blood fat was excellent, gut biome and diet good, but blood sugar was poor - I knew my blood sugar was poor.
When I first started eating the super seeded bread my weight shot up by 2lb temporarily, but that soon went and overall in 2 weeks I've lost about 4lb (2kg) which is unheard of for me. I've got less than a stone that I'd like to lose but I never can.
I'd already been on a bit of a healthy eating drive since early January but I am a permanently hungry person. The Zoe thing is working extremely well for me as I'm not feeling hungry!
I'm having friends round for dinner tonight. Usually I feel stressed about having dessert because if I have sugar it messes up my metabolism for days but if I have almonds with it and don't go crazy it seems ok. Made a New York cheesecake and it scores 45 so I'm going to have a slice (with a few sneaky almonds)!

Well done @PinkyBlueMe I am always starving in the afternoon and i am hoping changing up my lunch options will mean i feel less hungry and less inclined to snack. I'm looking forward to cracking on with it.

@ApolloandDaphne I am really pleased. One thing it's done is almost completely remove ordinary bread from my diet (I only eat wholemeal anyway) but I really like the super seeded stuff and keep a loaf made (once I knew I liked it I bought the ingredients in bulk from Amazon) which is great for snacks with marmite, cheese, or hummus or something else.
When are you starting "the plan" eating?

I'm starting tomorrow. Bread is awful for me so I will need to work out some good alternatives. My DH is now thinking of doing it too. He isn't overweight but he is a runner with a terrible diet. It will be good if we are both on the same page with food rather than him scoffing all the chocolate and crisps. I need to lose a fair bit of weight but I also need to boost my energy levels. I'm hoping it makes a difference.

@ApolloandDaphne I'm finding it better for me than I hoped. So far so good!
My DH has the same evening meal as me so is doing it then whether he likes or knows it. I also buy some Gousto boxes which seem to score well if you pick the right meals. Breakfast and lunches and snacks though DH does his own thing and I can't imagine he'd do Zoe - he'd be a right pain and I'd end up organising all his tests, breakfasts and lunches and I don't have that sort of time

I’ve made the Zoe almond cookies today. They score 83 for me. They are ok. Good for a sweet treat. I think they’ll be good for the ‘I need some chocolate’ craving I get every mid afternoon.

@Greenthread I've just looked at some of the almond cookie recipes but have no idea how to measure 0.021 or 0.042 of a cup! Why can't they just use grams!

Yes, I sometimes get odd measurements like that and sometimes get better ones like 200g. I’ve not figured out how to get the latter one all the time.

The Zoe almond cookie recipe I can see is measured in tbsps and grams.

There's an Italian Almond chocolate cookie recipe that uses cup measures - easy if you have a set of measuring cups. It's a bit unclear as it lists white sugar twice (.67 cup ie 2/3 and later 1/4) - reading the method the second should be powdered ie icing sugar. More sugar than I want (even though it scores 76 for me) and definitely wouldn't suit DH.

This was the one I wanted and these measurements are bizarre. What is 0.083 of an egg?
I've got a set of cup measures but none go as small as 0.021.

Ah! Got it! If I change serving size to 12 I get more sensible measurements.

Ok, so I was totally fed up of the scales not moving in spite of me doing intermittent fasting, eating 1500 cals a day or less, and getting Zoe scores of 65 + per day. So I joined weightwatchers this morning and I am going to try to do Zoe alongside WW. I can see that foods that score high for Zoe also score high in WW points so no wonder I’m not losing weight. According to Zoe, I’ve had 1050 calories today, 52g fat and scoring 65 so far. On WW, I’ve used 31 points so far and I’ll still have to add in an evening meal. My daily allowance is 23!

I'm curious, what have you eaten today with those scores/cals?