The Sonoma Diet - Great Food, But Does It Work?
The Sonoma Diet - My First Foray
Coming from a French, Spanish and Californian background (My Dad's half French/Spanish and my Mom was born in CA) I figured The Sonoma Diet was right up my alley. Going over the food list and some of the recipes made it pretty hard to resist. Plus the diet lets you drink wine :-) Puts images in your head of sitting on a sun kissed patio, drinking wine and nibbling on various olives and cheeses. Only problem? No wine allowed till "Wave 2".
And I'm...not...quite...there...yet. Soon I think. I just follow the recipes through the online program. Just waiting for my profile to flip to "wave 2" I also convinced my mom to give the diet a try. She's been looking to slim down for a little while now so it's been fun talking to her about it and having each other as support. Whenever I go over to my parent's for dinner now it's always to a sonoma recipe.
And they are delicious! Great variety and lots of differing flavors and choices. You don't get bored. The recipes can be a bit labor intensive though. I find myself doing quite a bit of chopping.
Chopping of vegetables. Chopping of meat. Chopping of cheese. Chopping of garlic....you get the picture. But it's always worth it when you sit down to eat. In fact , the Sonoma diet doesn't expect you to cook one of their recipes for EVERY meal. (I think they realize a lot of the recipes are pretty "involved".) When you cook something else, you simply adhere to their recommended portion sizes. I'll list some of the diet's nuts and bolts details below....
Dr. Connie Guttersen a registered dietitian and nutrition instructor at the Culinary Institute of America is the creator of the Sonoma diet. It's based in large part on the Mediterranean diet, which I'm sure you've heard of.... In fact, some promising studies recently came out of Spain highlighting how powerful the diet can be in relation to weight loss. The Sonoma diet supposedly brings a Californian spin on the whole thing and stakes itself as a calorie counting alternative. Instead the diet use portion control through their "plate size" system.
The diet is broken up into three "waves".
The first wave is the most restrictive and lasts ten days. When you're on it you begin to scratch your head when they claim the Sonoma diet isn't a "low carb" diet. The list of unacceptable foods sure contains A LOT of carb heavy foods. But that's fine by me since that's way to get lean. Word of warning to carb lovers out there you may go through a period of carb withdrawal during Wave 1.
The other big absence from Wave 1 (other than wine ;-p), is fruit. Because of their natural sugar content and the fact that wave 1 is all about reducing your sugar intake, fruit is on the restricted list until wave 2.
This is the main phase of the diet. You'll be on wave 2 till you hit your target weight. The food list is greatly expanded. Fruit is allowed. Wine is allowed. Sweeteners like honey are also allowed. I'm a day away from hitting wave 2 and it should be great! In fact I accidentally cooked several wave 2 meals already so I know they're good! (I got a little carried away going through the online recipes and forgot about checking for wave #.)
This is the period that other diets may call "maintenance". Although the Sononma diet doesn't choose to call it that. And I can see why. "Maintenance" sounds a bit mechanical, opposite of what the Sonoma diet is going for. This is where the Sonoma diet is supposed to transition from a "diet" into a "lifestyle". To be honest, I can see that happening for me. I've truly loved the food that has come out of the Sonoma diet. There's enough variety and flavor to keep me happy and on my toes. I'm just going into wave 2 but other than an initial minor carb withdrawal period I haven't found the diet to be a drag. (Note: I already love the types of recipes this diet provides, which is part of why I chose it. So wave 1 might be more of an adjustment for some people.)
Coming from a French, Spanish and Californian background (My Dad's half French/Spanish and my Mom was born in CA) I figured The Sonoma Diet was right up my alley. Going over the food list and some of the recipes made it pretty hard to resist. Plus the diet lets you drink wine :-) Puts images in your head of sitting on a sun kissed patio, drinking wine and nibbling on various olives and cheeses. Only problem? No wine allowed till "Wave 2".
And I'm...not...quite...there...yet. Soon I think. I just follow the recipes through the online program. Just waiting for my profile to flip to "wave 2" I also convinced my mom to give the diet a try. She's been looking to slim down for a little while now so it's been fun talking to her about it and having each other as support. Whenever I go over to my parent's for dinner now it's always to a sonoma recipe.
And they are delicious! Great variety and lots of differing flavors and choices. You don't get bored. The recipes can be a bit labor intensive though. I find myself doing quite a bit of chopping.
Chopping of vegetables. Chopping of meat. Chopping of cheese. Chopping of garlic....you get the picture. But it's always worth it when you sit down to eat. In fact , the Sonoma diet doesn't expect you to cook one of their recipes for EVERY meal. (I think they realize a lot of the recipes are pretty "involved".) When you cook something else, you simply adhere to their recommended portion sizes. I'll list some of the diet's nuts and bolts details below....
Sonoma Diet Details
Dr. Connie Guttersen a registered dietitian and nutrition instructor at the Culinary Institute of America is the creator of the Sonoma diet. It's based in large part on the Mediterranean diet, which I'm sure you've heard of.... In fact, some promising studies recently came out of Spain highlighting how powerful the diet can be in relation to weight loss. The Sonoma diet supposedly brings a Californian spin on the whole thing and stakes itself as a calorie counting alternative. Instead the diet use portion control through their "plate size" system.
The diet is broken up into three "waves".
Wave 1
The first wave is the most restrictive and lasts ten days. When you're on it you begin to scratch your head when they claim the Sonoma diet isn't a "low carb" diet. The list of unacceptable foods sure contains A LOT of carb heavy foods. But that's fine by me since that's way to get lean. Word of warning to carb lovers out there you may go through a period of carb withdrawal during Wave 1.
The other big absence from Wave 1 (other than wine ;-p), is fruit. Because of their natural sugar content and the fact that wave 1 is all about reducing your sugar intake, fruit is on the restricted list until wave 2.
Wave 2
This is the main phase of the diet. You'll be on wave 2 till you hit your target weight. The food list is greatly expanded. Fruit is allowed. Wine is allowed. Sweeteners like honey are also allowed. I'm a day away from hitting wave 2 and it should be great! In fact I accidentally cooked several wave 2 meals already so I know they're good! (I got a little carried away going through the online recipes and forgot about checking for wave #.)
Wave 3
This is the period that other diets may call "maintenance". Although the Sononma diet doesn't choose to call it that. And I can see why. "Maintenance" sounds a bit mechanical, opposite of what the Sonoma diet is going for. This is where the Sonoma diet is supposed to transition from a "diet" into a "lifestyle". To be honest, I can see that happening for me. I've truly loved the food that has come out of the Sonoma diet. There's enough variety and flavor to keep me happy and on my toes. I'm just going into wave 2 but other than an initial minor carb withdrawal period I haven't found the diet to be a drag. (Note: I already love the types of recipes this diet provides, which is part of why I chose it. So wave 1 might be more of an adjustment for some people.)
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