What is Karen's Kitchen? Why is it here?

It started in June 1996 when Dr. Dave, a chiropractor and old friend of mine and the one who started me Zoning, gave me a call. I had been in his Zone Support Group here in San Diego, and was telling everyone how easy I found Zoning, even in my attempts to do it as a Vegetarian. He had been inspired at 2:00 in the morning, but waited to call until 8:00 a.m., thank goodness. "You know how to do the practical part of Zoning, the actual cooking and recipes, better than anyone I know," he told me excitedly. "Why don't you open a web site and call it Karen's Kitchen for anyone who needs this kind of practical help, especially for the lacto-ovo vegetarians and other folks who want to Zone using fewer animal protein sources?" Coming from the man I consider an expert on the biochemical aspects of Zoning, I decided this was a compliment and, like all little ideas he gives me, it grew to gigantic proportions!

I got a book and learned to program in html (hypertext mark-up language), and up went the site. Much more complicated in practice than in theory, however!

At first I just gave out advice and free charts that helped others, put up new recipes each month , sold a handy poster of block food portions and started working on a cookbook.

The focus of the Kitchen has always been that ANYONE can follow the Zone Diet . Yes, it requires more pre-planning if allergies or choices prevent you from eating animals, wheat, dairy or even un-kosher foods. But ALL Zoning requires a little pre-planning, and I have tried to take some of the pre-planning hassles out of it for you by presenting Sources where you can find good and tasty alternatives, not just pre-packaged foods (although I have found some good choices in those, as well). Recipes accommodate both lacto-ovo vegetarian and meat eater alike.

By the fall, requests for various products I mentioned had become so great, I decided that I could use the new technology on the web and open a cyberspace kitchen shop and offer these products conveniently to anyone in the world.

Four years later, I have seen the site grow from a few pages to MANY pages, and while I have not always used the BEST language as learning to do my own web pages, I have never followed through in my threats to pitch this computer OUT THE WINDOW! When it goes well, there is nothing more delightful that sharing with all my friends online through this media of the Kitchen.

I think we can all benefit through shared experiences, and that is what Karen's Kitchen has always been: shared experiences. Add to that a B.S. in Home Economics from a vegetarian University and a love of cooking and writing, and this was the job that has always been waiting for me!

So please take the time to share your experiences with me, because they are often experiences I can share with others trying to make this wonderful but sometimes challenging lifestyle change. Karen's Kitchen is supposed to be a relaxing, friendly, helpful place. Call it what you like, I hope you just decide to call it a nice place to visit--often!

Who is Karen?

"Who is this Karen chick anyway?" Well here is a picture before and after Zoning (Lauren is my 12 year old daughter who took off 10 pounds and grew 1" taller while zoning). What is missing in the after picture? A couple of chins, if you look closely, and a nice soft tummy...

It all started in May 1996. As a 43 years old mother of a 3 year old and a 12 year old, I had pretty much given up on ever wearing a bikini again. I am 6' tall, and even when I hit 200 lbs., no one believed it. I "carried it well" they said. Even my doctor. "I can't believe you weigh 200 pounds..." he kept saying. "I can't believe you weigh 200 pounds..." After the third time, I promised to hit HIM if he said it once more!

It was May 17, 1996. I had just had my yearly physical. That night I went home and talked to my 12 year old daughter Lauren. We had gone through a couple of rough years, starting with my dad dying and troubles at school for her and a new baby brother and deciding to home school her to get her out of a bad situation. We comforted ourselves with food. She had started to complain that she couldn't wear a bikini with all this extra weight she was carrying, and that is when I realized that even if my bikini days were over, hers were just about to start, and if I didn't do something, she'd be sitting on the sidelines in a one piece and a t-shirt through her teen years.

My best friend Molly's brother, Dr. David Brown, D.C. had been on the diet for a number of months. He had lost 30+ pounds and looked great. When Molly said he was doing a support group. If I were to attend, we would be supporting David and we would get to see each other each week. Great, I thought, maybe this is the answer. Lauren and I went to a meeting, bought the book and became true "Zoners" (or Zonies?) the next week.

3 months later and Lauren has lost 5 lbs. and gained an inch in height! By November I had lost 35 pounds and regained the admiring looks of strangers that I thought I had grown too old for. It was done painlessly, though not without a little anxiety. I'll tell you about it:

The first anxiety was WHAT ABOUT PASTA??? For the first 3 days of the diet, Lauren and I went to the store twice a day, spending $60-$80 on food, we were so afraid of not having the right foods around the house when it was time to eat. It was all panic buying, but we came up with a Shopping List for the Beginning Zoner, which should take care of your own panic buying when starting out.

Next, we had to figure out how many blocks of food we were supposed to be eating each day. We found that the worksheet provided by Dr. Sears wasn't as clear as we needed, so I made up my own Worksheet for Women and Worksheet for Men. I make a copy of it and recompute our food requirements once a month. Recently I discovered Zone Manager, a really cool program that has a module in it for computing daily nutritional needs for up to 10 people at a time, and a 5,000 plus food database as well. Makes recomputing nutritional needs a breeze, and now you can find it in Karen's Kitchen Shop.

The funny part was when I decided to put all the food block measurements on little tiny block shaped pieces of paper. Green for carbohydrates, pink for protein and blue for fat. Thought I could pull the little pieces out and lay them into meals. Walked out of the room, the wind came in the window and about 300 colorful little pieces of paper ended up on the floor like the leaves of autumn. That is when I came up with the concept of my block poster which you can find in Karen's Kitchen Shop for only $8. It has all the most commonly used foods listed by nutrient and by best, Less Favorable and Poor Choices, measured by commonly used portions (cups and teaspoons and all that crazy American measurement system) and by grams. People ask me for my best advice for following this diet, and I swear, I STILL use the chart more than any book or software. It is there, posted on your refrigerator, ready to help you before you even open the door.

And if you are always on the run, I have my poster in planner size, laminated, with a "Fast Food Resteraunt Guide" that is great for most Ameriaan Drive Thru's as well as cafes, salad bars in grocery stores, and casual dining locations.

We found that we were spending a lot of time measuring and converting recipes to fit the zone requirements, so I made up the most complete Weights and Measurements Equivalency Guide that you have ever seen! I also went out and bought some dishers (ice cream scoops) from the restaurant supply, #70 (.5 oz.=1 Tbsp.=1/16 cup), # 20 (2 oz.=4 Tbsp.=1/4 cup) and #08 (3.88 oz.=8 Tbsp.=1/2 cup) which made measuring a whole lot easier. We got a simple ounce scale but decided we need a gram scale as well. Why? Because our eyes are bigger than our stomach and our stomachs were bigger than our designer jeans! Don't try to eyeball your measurements!!! These are available in Karen's Kitchen Shop.

35 pounds lighter, I now write to you and tell you that the planning and the searching and the discipline are well worth it. Yes, it can be a bit overwhelming at first to start to "think in blocks", and after you have that figured out, you realize there are a lot of people "thinking in grams". Believe me, spend a few hours in Karen's Kitchen and I think the haze will clear up. It is a painless way of eating, it parallels real life so you won't feel like you are dieting, and it becomes a lifestyle change that allows you to lose the weight and KEEP IT OFF. You WILL lose those cravings, and you WILL SUCCEED. If you have any questions, you can always write to me. I'm glad to help!

Karen

You like the Kitchen? Me too! It used to be smaller, but one day I came home and decided that the wall over there was in the way. By the time my husband got home, the drywall was missing, the refrigerator moved, and my dad was on his way over with a 12 long beam! Really opened up the view, didn't it? Other women arrange the living room furniture. I just happen to rearrange the walls and cabinetry!