CathyM Weight Loss & Health Blog

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.