A Full Day on the Zone: Sample Meal Plan

You know what a block is and how to put together a meal. But what does a whole day look like? Here's a sample menu with ZoneIt recipes that you can repeat or use as a template.

How the day is structured

A Zone day is made up of three meals and two small snacks. You eat breakfast within an hour of waking up and never go more than five hours between meals. Every meal has equal blocks of protein, carbs, and fat.

The menu below is for 11 blocks, the minimum for women: 3 blocks each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and 1 block for each of the two snacks. If your daily total is 14 blocks, bump the three main meals up to 4 blocks each. You can see your own number of blocks in your Profile in ZoneIt.

Breakfast (3 blocks): ground beef toast

The ground beef toast is a Zone take on strandzhanka, a Bulgarian open-faced toast topped with ground meat: whole-grain sourdough bread, lean ground beef, egg whites, and a little kashkaval (a Bulgarian yellow cheese). The whole recipe is exactly one 3-block meal and takes about 20 minutes.

Lunch (3 blocks): chicken doner wrap

This homemade chicken doner wrap comes with lavash flatbread, chicken breast and thigh, tomatoes, cucumber, and a sauce made from skyr, olive oil, and garlic. The recipe makes 12 blocks, so a quarter of it is a balanced 3-block lunch. The rest covers lunch for the next few days, or the whole family.

Afternoon snack (1 block): tzatziki

Around 4 or 5 p.m., when hunger usually kicks in, it's time for a small snack. Tzatziki made with strained yogurt and skyr takes 15 minutes and makes three snacks like this, so a third of it is about 1 block. Keep it in the fridge and eat it with a few cucumber sticks.

Dinner (3 blocks): chicken soup

Chicken soup with potato, carrot, and vermicelli, finished with an egg-and-yogurt thickener, makes a light, warm dinner. A quarter of the pot gives you about 3 blocks of protein and fat but only 2 blocks of carbs. So round it out with a fresh salad or a piece of fruit for dessert, and the meal is balanced.

Bedtime snack (1 block)

You don't need a recipe to end the day. Something small and balanced is enough, for example a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese with a piece of fruit and 2 or 3 almonds. You'll see the exact amounts for 1 block in ZoneIt when you add the foods to your Diary.

How to build your own menu

• Start with your daily blocks and divide them up, most of them across the three meals and 1 block for each snack.
• Cook one bigger recipe and split it into portions for several days.
• If a dish is higher in protein, add vegetables or fruit; if it's higher in carbs, add protein.
• Log your meals in the ZoneIt Diary, where you can see right away whether each one is balanced.

For more morning ideas, check out quick Zone breakfasts, and for lunch and dinner, try Bulgarian classics, Zone-style.