Hollywood diet comes North, and this food-aholic is hooked

Westender

In the Zone

- By Robin Mines

Charlie Sheen dropped 30 pounds on it. Jennifer Anniston owes those long, telegenic arms and legs to it (and do you think that hubby Brad sculpted that Fight Club six-pack with sit-ups alone?).

The Zone. It's the eating regime of the Hollywood stars, and it's arrived in Hollywood North with a strictly-controlled, protein/carb/fat-balanced vengeance. Skeptical? Of course you are. You're used to assuming that every new Lose Weight Quick scheme is just another Get Rich Quick scheme for some sleazy diet huckster with a book and an energy drink to flog, and usually you're right.

Not this time, though. Take it from me, diet skeptic extraordinaire: since I got kick-started into The Zone by a local meal delivery service called The Specialty Gourmet (www.specialtygourmet.com, 604 983-8511) I've become nothing less than a totally Zone Girl;and at the risk of sounding like a cheesy infomercial, I'm a Zoner for life.

Three weeks ago, I wasn't. Three weeks ago, I was your typical carbo junkie, caught on an endless roller-coaster ride of dizzying blood sugar highs and crashing lows, battling hunger pangs between desperate hits of Starbucks and fits of Oscar-winning crankiness before my 3 p.m. chocolate fix.

Then I signed up for five days? worth of Zone meals with The Specialty Gourmet, starting on a Monday. They took my height, weight, food allergies and address. Every morning there would be a cooler waiting on the doorstep filled with three nuke-able Zone meals and two Zone snacks. Overnight, they?d exchange my empty cooler with the next day?s supply. No muss, no fuss, no thinking, and one fork to wash.

For the first two days, I was miserable. I missed my morning muffin. My 3 p.m. bourbon balls. My suppertime mashed potatoes. On Tuesday night, I made the mistake of opening the freezer, where a full container of Ben and Jerry?s beckoned. No, I didn?t succumb?but let me tell you, I came this close.

Then, a funny thing happened. Wednesday rolled around, and I started to feel good. Unusually good. Perky. Confident. Mentally sharp. Even-keeled, even. Three o'clock came and went, and I completely forgot to have my usual chocolate tizzy. No spud cravings at supper, either.

Suddenly, I realized I?d make the breakthrough. I was In The Zone.

What did they feed me? A lot of vegetables. A lot of fresh fruit. A lot of lean protein: skinless chicken breast, tofu, cottage cheese, some excellent salmon. Strawberry-blueberry cheesecake, even. The Specialty Gourmet people got the most important thing right; they enlisted local bistro/caterer Lazy Gourmet to do all the cooking, and you probably already know about their reputation for freshness and quality.

Thanks to The Specialty Gourmet?s crash course on The Zone, I?m now an expert do-it-yourselfer. I went out and bought the book (Mastering The Zone, Barry Sears, PhD, $20.95), stocked up on low-fat mozzarella and Zone bars, and, three pounds lighter, I'm still feeling like a million loonies. I did suffer a small relapse last weekend (damn that Ben and Jerry's) but what the hell; even a Zone disciple has her moments.

• ‹ previous
• 37 of 38
• next ›