CathyM

The Sonoma Diet has 10 power foods that are chosen because they are rich in nutrients with few calories. Strawberries are one of these foods. There are only 45 calories in a cup of strawberries and they have 4 grams of fiber. Strawberries have more vitamin C than citrus fruit and are believed to be anti-inflammatory. They are also high in folate, potassium and antioxidants. They also offer some protection against cancer and heart disease. For more information on the healthful benefits of strawberries, visit the LSU AgCenter News on local strawberries in Louisiana.

I am fortunate to live in California where we also have fresh strawberries. I can get them year round at the local farmer’s market but this time of year is the peak season. I picked up a 3 pack yesterday for $5. The strawberries are incredibly sweet! They are very ripe and should be eaten soon, I will probably finish them up tomorrow. Buying locally is good for the economy and also good for getting the freshest produce.

I heard a snippet of a talk on the early show this week. I would quote the speaker but I just didn’t catch his name. He said something to the effect of, “The speed of weight loss is not important. What is important is the amount of weight loss and the durability of the loss.” I have to agree. When starting on a weight loss program, the weight tends to come off quickly in the initial weeks and then the plateaus and even small weight gains might kick in. These could be because the body has adjusted to the reduced calories by not requiring so many calories. They also can be because we just can’t follow the program religiously and start to cheat a bit here and there. The thing to remember is that there is no quick fix to weight loss. Yes, we can loose 5 - 10 pounds quickly if we try hard but as soon as we stop trying, we’ll gain it back. We all know that it takes a life long dedication to healthy eating to really keep the weight under control. So that’s what I am trying to do. I lost only 2 pounds over the last 3 weeks. I know it is possible to loose 2 pounds in a single week but I just have to remember this is the way it goes sometimes and be ok with it. Actually, I should be very happy with it because it’s all progress in the right direction!

I know that the harder challenge for me will be the point when I have reached my goal weight and move into maintenance. But I’m not there yet so will worry about that challenge when I get there.

Ultimately, I think I can make it work because I love the food on the Sonoma Diet.

Wish me luck!

I’ve talked about how much I enjoy the food on the Sonoma Diet, here’s a typical day.

For breakfast I have steel cut oatmeal with strawberries, blue berries, and walnuts. Steel cut oatmeal is wholegrain oats that have only been cut. It takes about 30 minutes to cook but today I have some leftover from earlier in the week so no prep time, I just need to warm it up. I also have coffee with nonfat Half & Half cream. This breakfast is delicious and the oatmeal is very filling. I love strawberries, blueberries and walnuts (can’t have too many though). It’s all good.

The menu for lunch is “Greens with beans and artichoke hearts, wasa and raspberries”. I don’t have raspberries so leave that out since I had fruit for breakfast. The Greens with beans and artichoke hearts is a hearty salad which also includes chicken, red onion, goat cheese, pine nuts, parsley, and a homemade vinaigrette. The beans are supposed to be canned white beans, I happen to have canned soy beans and use those. Prep time is less than half an hour, I have to cook the chicken and prepare the salad and vinaigrette. Wasa is wasa crisp bread. I have been eating wasa since the 1980’s when I was on The Diet Center program. It’s a high fiber cracker, pretty tasty, with no bad ingredients.

For an afternoon snack, I have celery with peanut butter. Again I have to watch the quantity on the peanut butter.

Dinner is “Grilled Moroccan Pork Tenderloin Kabobs with Carrot Salad and Brown Rice”. This meal takes some time to prepare. The pork is marinaded in a sauce of parsley, lemon juice, oil, garlic, oregano (fresh), coriander seeds, paprika, ginger (I started using fresh ginger in a jar to save time and it tastes like fresh), black pepper, kosher salt (I use it all the time now), cayenne pepper, and tumeric. The marianade is prepared about 2 hours in advance and combined with the park. Brown rice takes about an hour to cook so we get that going next. Now we have the time to chop our carrots and prepare ingredients for the Tunisian Carrot Salad. We need garlic, kalamata olives, feta cheese, lemon, Harissa (I’ve never found it in a store so substitute a hot sauce that I have), olive oil, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, and kosher salt. The carrots are cooked for about 5 minutes and then combined with the other ingredients. Instead of doing kabobs on the grill, I stir fry the pork which retains more of the marinade. It’s very good on the brown rice. The whole prep time on this dinner is about an hour and a half. To go with this great meal I can have 6 ounces of wine, I have a red pinot noir. I use very small wine glasses, 4 ounces, and then can have seconds (another half glass). It’s all good.

This is a typical day. I cook quite a bit more than prior to starting the Sonoma Diet particularly because I am cooking a substantial lunch in addition to dinner. It’s so worth it to me to eat this great healthy and filling food and to loose weight with it.

I have now lost 14 pounds on the Sonoma Diet. There are many aspects of the diet that I love and most important is the food is delicious and satisfying. This diet is not low carb or low fat. However, the carbs are unrefined - either fresh fruit and vegetables or whole grains. We’re talking 100% whole wheat or whole grain bread (not wheat bread but whole wheat bread). I currently have the whole grain bread from Milton’s which has 5 grams of fiber in a slice. Cereal also has to be whole grain and typically with 8 grams of fiber in a serving - you really have to read the labels to find cereal with that much fiber. I have also learned to cook with many new whole grains including quinoa, barley, and wheet berries. You mind think that these foods would be bland and tasteless but to the contrary, they have a natural nutty texture and the Sonoma Diet recipes include lots of spices and flavor.

There are so many health benefits to fiber. From a diet perspective, the high fiber foods take a little longer to chew and to digest - that is good - makes you fill up and burn calories eating. From a health perspective, fiber helps with digestion, lowers cholesterol, and stablizes blood sugar. This can help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The Mayo Clinic has a great write up on the benefits of a high fiber diet.

Is there any downside to this high fiber diet? Yes, there is one, the food takes longer to cook. The Sonoma Diet will be tough to follow if you don’t have time to prepare the food. You’ll have to learn some short cuts, prepare ahead, and use your leftovers. For me, it has been well worth the extra time in the kitchen.

If this sounds like a diet plan for you, visit Sonoma Diet Online to try this wonderful diet.

Last month I left for New Zealand weighing 169 pounds and I came back at the same weight. That’s a great accomplishment for 3 weeks of travel! I found it easy to stick with the essentials of the Sonoma Diet Online in New Zealand. While arranging our trip, I looked for B & B’s that mentioned fresh produce as part of their breakfast (most did). Some even mentioned smoked salmon or whitebait fish for breakfast (I liked that too). I also knew that we would stay a week in a beautiful house where we would cook our own meals which would give me the oppotunity to cook Sonoma Diet style.

My expectations were met and exceeded. The first meal we had in New Zealand was at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the water. It was lunch and we wanted New Zealand green mussels. First, they don’t put white bread baskets on the table - yea! Second, they serve delicious fresh food in right sized proportions. The mussels were perfect, a great start to eating wonderful food in moderation in New Zealand. For breakfast the next morning at the B & B, I noticed that the 3 cereals offered were healthy choices. None of this sugar coated stuff like in the US. We tried the Weetabix - New Zealand’s most popular cereal - along with fresh fruit.

While driving through the country we of course noted the miles and miles of grazing sheep and cattle. Another great thing about the meat in New Zealand - it is all free range because they have so much grazing land! Likewise with the poultry, the chickens are also free range. Everyone in New Zealand lives pretty close to water and seafood is also a major component of their food. We enjoyed scallops, fish, mussels, oysters, crayfish (spiny lobster), and paua (abalone). All local and prepared in a variety of delicious ways. Fish and chips is a popular menu item, so not everything was Sonoma Diet compatable, but there was plenty of healthful food to satisfy me.

Just as much of the meat is free range, so also is much of the produce organic. While in Blenheim, we were able to shop at the Sunday Farmer’s Market. It was marvelous! The fruits were similar to what you would expect in summer in the US, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apples, and more. The vegetables were also great - green beans, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and more. All was of a very high quality. We also picked up hazelnuts, and local cheeses, and bacon that seemed more like what we would refer to as Canadian bacon.

A part of the Sonoma Diet that I really enjoy is a glass of wine with dinner. Well, New Zealand has the perfect climate for wine and lots to choose from. We spent a day in the wine country and visited several wineries stocking up for our week on Arapawa Island where there are no stores. New Zealand is most famous for white wines especially sauvignon blanc, and along with chardonney, and riseling. We picked up some great wines to go with our many seafood dinners. We also found some wonderful pinot noirs.

This blog is about healthy food but I also have to mention that the people of New Zealand have to be the friendliest and most helpful people of the world. Always willing to help you find your way. And of course the country is beautiful - Have you seen Lord of the Rings? - this is the place! Outdoor activities are fantastic, we enjoyed some of the best scuba diving in the world. There is also unlimited options for tramping (hiking) as well as adventurous activities such as bungie jumping.

We had a perfect 3 weeks and are looking forward to an opportunity to return to New Zealand for another visit.

I am down 8 pounds now since starting the Sonoma Diet on December 30. That’s a little over 3 weeks ago. I am happy with the progress!

One of the components of the Sonoma Diet is portion control. We do not count calories or weigh food, instead a plate is used as a visual for portion control. On Wave 1, which does not have fruiit, a dinner would be on a 9-inch plate with 30% protein, 20% whole grains, and 50% vegetables. For Wave 2, the main part of the diet, a dinner would be 25% protein, 25% whole grain, 25% vegetables, and 25% fruit. It sounds easy enough but it is a little hard to be exact. For tonights meal, I made an Asian salad with crab and peanuts as the protein. They were mixed in the salad so a little hard to use the plate for measurements. However, what I do is pay attention to the total amount of protein and then know my portion. In other words, I have a pound of crab and I can have about a quarter pound of it, so therefore a quarter of the finished salad. During the 1980’s I used the Diet Center to loose weight and we always measured 4 ounces of protein. I am pretty good at estimating how much protein I am eating.

I am also using portion control on my wine by using a very small wine glass. Most of my nice wine glasses hold quite a bit more than 6 ounces. This small glass only holds 4 ounces. Some nights I only have the 4 ounces and the times when I want some more, I know to only fill it up half way for a total of 6 ounces.

Yesterday I moved to Wave 2 of the Sonoma Diet. This is the main part of the program, it is the diet that we stay on until reaching goal weight. I am down 4 pounds so far (after 10 days of Wave 1). I feel great and am excited about Wave 2.

The first difference for Wave 2 is that we add fruits! There’s an emphasis on berries - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries - because they are so healthy. There are many others as well and some that are allowed only once a day (of the 2 fruit servings per day). There is an expanded list of vegetables as well. Never any white rice or potatoes but there are sweet potatoes and carrots. I’ll write more about the Tier 1, 2, and 3 foods another day.

Another big addition is wine. It is wine because of its heart healthy benefits. The diet does not recommend substituting other types of alcohol. We are allowed one 6 ounce glass of wine a day. I think that’s quite generous (for a diet afterall). I measured a couple of wine glasses and I am going to try to use a small one that only holds 4 ounces and make that work most days.

I am still excited about the diet, still loving the food, and meeting some new diet pals at the Sonoma Diet Online

There’s an article yesterday about “Americans opt for healthy eating, not diets.” Eight out of 10 dieters said their goal was both to lose weight and improve their health. The Sonoma Diet tries to meet these goals with wholesome, fresh, and delicious food. I have just finished the first week and all of the food has been delicious.

I ordered The Sonoma Diet Book from Amazon and it arrived today. Although the online program is great, it does help to have the reference book too for quick answers on some things. One of my questions was can I occasionally substitute other alcohol for wine. The answer is no and the reason given is that only wine has enough healthy nutrients to make the extra calories worth it.

A couple of points from the introductory chapter of the book. The Sonoma Diet is not low carb or low fat. There are plenty of satisfying carbs and they are all whole grains - high fiber and healthy! The fats emphasize olive oil which has been shown to be heart healthy. By not depriving carbs and fats, this diet is satisfying and I hope one that I can continue with as an eating lifestyle for a very long time.

One thing I disagree with is the statement that it is “Simple for busy lives.” The meals take a long time to prepare. About 2 - 4 hours a day. Many of the lunch meals have as much preparation time as the dinners. I think that the longer I am on it, I will develop ways to shorten the preparation time or make substitutions but for now I am trying to stick fairly close to the menus offered online. I love the food and am willing to put in the time because of that.

I have a few more days on Wave 1 (1st 10 days of the plan are the most strict) and I look forward to seeing what new food alternatives there will be in Wave 2.

I have spent a lot of time shopping and in the kitchen the last few days. It has all resulted in delicious food. After picking up most of my produce and herbs at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, I made a trip to the grocery store to pick up additional items. Then today I went to a health food oriented market, Sprouts, to find the more obscure items. They had it all but I think I had to ask 4 times where something was. I needed wheat berries, and quinoa, and whole wheat bread crumbs. We had the quinoa tonight in a pilaf along with Braised Pork Tenderloin with Olives and Capers and a spinach salad. It was very good.

Yesterday, New Years Eve, I managed to eat healthy by bringing lobster and crab and cole slaw (from the diet recipes of course) to a party and drinking just a little champagne. We also danced - exercise is good! Earlier that day, we were scuba diving (that’s were we got the crab and lobster) and it all helped contribute to 3 pounds weight loss. Nice to get off to a good start!

I love the food. I LOVE the food! It’s healthy, lots of produce, good protein too. The only negative is that it takes a long time to prepare. The lunch menu required as much preparation as I normally put into a dinner. It was good though, black bean chili and spinach salad. Dinner was steak salsa, brown rice, and broccoli with lemon and dill. Breakfast was steel cut oatmeal, the kind you cook for half an hour. The snack was celery with peanut butter.

Yesterday I tried to prepare by purchasing most of the food for the week. I am on Wave 1. This portion of the diet is the most restrictive and does not include fruits. They are added in Wave 2. It does include lots of produce, lean meats or fish, nonfat dairy, and high fiber whole grain breads and cereal. The online site lists the menu for the upcoming week and has the ability to change meals or add or delete (if you’re eating out or other reason). The flexibility is great. It automatically generates a shopping list and from it you can check off the items that you already have and then shop for the rest. I wanted to get a jump start last night and wanted to find a recipe to use the lean pork chops that I had. It was easy to search for pork and select from a great list of recipes.

Another part of the program is the online community. I introduced myself and saw that there were a few others starting today as I am. It seems like a nice group.

Tomorrow is New Years and I do plan to modify the diet for the evening. That will take some planning.