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!

Errol, it’s iPhone iOS. Really strange. I’ve not had any updates to my scores either. I’ve sent them a message to ask. Tried installing uninstalling but no luck.

Maybe they've not rolled out all the updated scores yet? I had a survey emailed to me yesterday which said 'you were one of the first ZOE members to get updated gut microbiome insights '

The app is a bit of a weak part of Zoe in my opinion.

Yes the app can be frustrating. I wanted to add a yogurt the other day but the bit to add the quantity would not pop up. It worked if I wanted to add anything else - just not the yogurt I was having 😫😫😫

I’m feeling like I’ve wasted my money at the moment. I am hungry all the time and I feel guilty if I eat any foods that normally fill me up (chocolate and cake!). I’ve not lost any weight since I started. I’ve fluctuated by a few pounds but I’m pretty much where I started.

Is anyone finding it useful to monitor/reduce cholesterol or is it not used for that?

I'm eating less cheese and meat now so perhaps will help with that.

The app mostly seems to be working ok for me except once when it couldn't do scores for a while (jan 1st, my guess is a lot of people had all started then and their servers were overloaded)

@Greenthread how long have you been doing it?
I find the scoring system is really, really opening my eyes to what a healthy diet is. Before I would have found it easy to excuse a couple of biscuits here or a sandwich there. I notice on other threads where people list their meals they are eating so much refined carb and so few vegetables.
However, I too am struggling. No matter how much garlic or chilli I add, it's just so many plants! I am missing sweetness and chewy textures of meat and pizza.

I got my results on 25th nov so I’ve been trying to follow it since then. My breakfast was porridge that I’ve swapped to oat bran to increase the score so that’s not changed much. My lunch was often houmous and a whole meal wrap so I now add more veg or something fermented to boost the score. My dinners are often some form of vegetable curry/stew/bake so they haven’t really changed except I add a side salad or more veg on the side and I often don’t have a carb with dinner now.

My downfall is snacks. I used to eat loads of chocolate every day. It wasn’t unusual for me to eat 100g over the day. Now any milk chocolate seems to bring my whole day score down by loads. I’ve tried having dark chocolate but it’s not the same! I would also grab a few biscuits now and again. I had hoped that by following Zoe, all these cravings would magically go away but they haven’t yet 🤣

You can make cookies - I made some from the app, I think they were Zoe almond cookies - I had them in lieu of breakfast for a while. Calorie wise they were horrendous but scored 85.
They were delicious though!

I've done my 3 days logging meals now. The blood sugar charts baffle me though, I've no idea whether they are good or bad - I guess at some point they provide you with some analysis?
I have noticed that I have low blood sugar overnight every night and reading around it seems like that might be why I wake up in the night every night.

Thanks, I’ll check out the recipe. I need to try something. I made some energy balls with cashews, dates and cacao but they don’t cut the mustard. My aforementioned Diet Coke addiction isn’t helping either. I miss it so much if I try to cut down or not have any.

I have (allow myself!) one diet coke a day.
I am sure that stuff is literally addictive.

Here's the recipe. It's actually 82 it scores for me.

https://joinzoe.com/mobile-app/open-recipe/f2152ffa-f60c-4c78-82f0-2a3b5f729954?recipe_name=ZOE+Almond+Cookies

I've done my 3 days logging meals now. The blood sugar charts baffle me though, I've no idea whether they are good or bad - I guess at some point they provide you with some analysis?

I didn’t get any analysis other than on the poor, good, excellent scale.
I’m not sure about your low scores over night. Is it because you are lying on it?

DH made those cookies before I'd started with Zoe, but with montezuma 100% chocolate because that's all we buy now (over a period of years we've gone from any and all chocolate to 70% plain to 85 and have genuinely reached the '2 squares of pure chocolate stage!).

It was very moreish, if we make it again we need to divide it into smaller pieces than he did. Scores 85 for me with the published recipe.

I just made some pearl barley, lentil and veg soup... I found a recipe at random to try to get an idea of quantities, it said it made 4 portions... nope, 12, and very thick. Good thing I've plenty of soup&sauce bags and room in the freezer. It's ok for a winters day but I won't be recommending it. I do like the pearl barley though (normal, not the quick cook for this).

Ugh! The cookies you have to eat for the test. First few bites, ok, as I have a sweet tooth anyway. But a struggle to finish them!
The lunch cookies felt like I was eating blue play doh!
I feel like my next few weeks will be spent recovering from a sugar high!

Ok, slight penny drop moment. I had a chicken breast and chickpea salad for lunch followed by some nuts. NO MOVE on the blood sugar compared to the peaks and troughs after previous meals. So THAT'S the point, right?

👍It's one of the points, for sure!

Definitely!

I have to confess to buying more glucose monitors. It's my new obsession!

I have also bought another. How many have you used so far? I’ve not put the second one on yet. Been waiting for the kids to go back to school and Christmas to pass so I don’t fail too badly!

My last one did fall off nearly by day 14 and I stabbed my self twice 😬 so slightly put off!

And yes Baileys, my diet consists a lot more now of chickpeas, beans and lentils instead of bread, potatoes and rice.

I’ve not measured my blood sugar since changing these items over though so will be good to see how the new FGM goes.

Where did you get your blood sugar monitors? Maybe I need to get another one. I didn’t really try to flatten the curve when I had mine on, I carried on with my normal diet cos I wanted to see how that affected it.

I’ve got a score of 60 today. That’s with 45g of dark chocolate. I would like to get a run of 75+ for a few days to see how I feel.

I've been using them since I started at the beginning of December. I know they aren't cheap (far from it) but my blood sugar was poor and I really get a lot from using them

I get mine from Amazon