The hardest part of any diet plan is getting started. For a long time I was of the mindset that I couldn’t weigh and measure my food. I didn’t want that much structure over what I was able to eat, and I was absolutely certain that I couldn’t live that way. I had every excuse in the book: “But I eat pretty well.” “But what about when I want to go out to eat?” “My wife loves to cook, I could never weigh and measure when she is cooking!” I’m telling you, I had ‘em all. If you think you can’t do it, come talk to me, you can!
The first thing that I think everyone who is interested in the Zone should do is to get a copy of one of 
Dr. Barry Sears books. Personally, I chose “Mastering the Zone“. This will lay the foundations for you as to how the Zone works, what foods to eat, and more importantly, how much of each of them to eat. “Mastering the Zone” is also full of recipes, and tricks to keep you on track. While these books are good, they still left me with quite a few questions and excuses.
Whereas the Dr. Sears books are a good start, I have found that real world articles are the most helpful to me. Most of the articles that I am speaking of are available online. There are several articles available in the CrossFit Journal, CrossFit’s online publication, which is available for $25/year. I would highly recommend a subscription to the journal as that with a subscription, you are entitled to access all of the archives, including the articles listed below. The Journals #15 and 21 are available for free download:
- CrossFit Journal #15 – recommendations on books to read, diet and health, diet plans, and why CrossFit recommends what it does.
- CrossFit Journal #21 – All about making the Zone work (includes block chart and meal plans).
- “Getting Off The Crack” by Nicole Carroll – A first hand review of the first two weeks of the Zone.
Outside of CrossFit, there are many great articles as well. I have found a few to be especially helpful from Performance Menu, an Olympic weightlifting website that is quite synergistic with CrossFit.
- “42 Ways to Skin the Zone” By Robb Wolf – How to make the Zone work for you.
- “The Golden Ratio” – How to get the most out of the Zone by choosing the best foods
if you start to spend time at the CrossFit Mainsite, you will see that Robb is our nutritional guru. Many of the top CrossFitters will tell you that they keep their diet on track by simply doing what Robb tells them to.
I hope that these articles are as helpful to you as they have been to me! As for me, less than a week in, I have more energy than I have had in recent memory, I have dropped a couple pounds, and had personal records in two benchmark workouts! More on my progress to come!
-Ryan
