Sonoma Diet Day 19: Exciting news!

I am so excited today! Sharon gave me some pants a few weeks ago that she'd shrunk out of (let's hear a WOOT WOOT for Sharon, who's lost something like 70 pounds). Anyway, They're size 18, and I have other 18s that fit, but this one pair she gave me didn't. I could get them on, but they were too poochy to wear in public, plus they were just tight enough around the waist that they were uncomfortable. I decided to give it a shot, and I'm happy to report that I am wearing them dancing tonight! They are, admittedly, slightly poochy at the pockets, but my top covers that well enough. They are quite comfortable in the waist. Huzzah!

I always have this trouble with pants--my waist is always much smaller than my hips (even when it's way thicker than it should be), so pants that are big enough for my hips, butt,, thighs, and belly are too loose in the waist. Add in my very curved lower back, and it's a real issue. I can never, ever wearl low rise pants. Ever. Even when I'm thin. Oh well...

Today's menu:

Breakfast: burrito with carb control tortilla, eggs, spinach, a little cheddar cheese
Lunch: spinach sauteed with garlic and a little olive oil, tuna, whole wheat crackers
Dinner: cold roasted chicken, lite caesar salad
Dessert: pineapple

Off to Tango in a few minutes, and I feel pretty! I even put on jewelry. I can definitely see a difference in my face and around my neck and collar bones and shoulders, even though the scale is moving slowly. As long as it keeps moving and my clothes keep fitting better, that's what's important!

Have a great holiday weekend!

Sonoma Diet Day 16: still here

I haven't posted in a few days, but I am still here and I am still following my healthy eating plan. I've just been busy and didn't have much interesting to say...we tend to eat the same things over and over because it's easy and doesn't require thought, but so far we're really happy with how it's going. Greg just exclaimed, "I love this diet!" literally a few minutes ago. I've lost another pound, and so has he. I'm sure we could do better, but I'm pretty happy with what we're doing so far and there's always room for improvement.

Breakfast: spinach, egg, and Laughing Cow cheese burrito
Lunch: chicken and veggies from Panda Express (Mandarin Chicken, Kung Pow Chicken, mixed veggies, saved about half for breakfast tomorrow)
Dinner: Sonoma Greek Pizza and salad.

Here are a couple of yummy diet snack ideas for you:

Natural peanut butter (get it right out of the machine at some grocery stores, not the jarred stuff) with a rice cake or celery
Triscuits with Laughing Cow spreadable cheese wedge

Sonoma Diet Day 11

Tired after dancing, so I'll make this quick:

Breakfast: skipped. oops.
Lunch: Sonoma steak & bleu cheese wraps & salad
Dinner: Barilla Plus spagetti with Cabernet Marinara (Newman's Own) and turkey meatballs, salad.
Snack: triscuits and laughing cow light cheese. and a pickle.

Sonoma Diet Day 10: End of Wave 1

The Sonoma Diet is broken up into Waves: the first 10 days is Wave 1 and is the strictest, Wave 2 is the longer term weight loss program that you stay on until you reach your goal, and then you go on Wave 3 for the rest of your life to stay healthy and trim. We weren't QUITE as strict as we should have been on Wave 1, but I think we'll survive anyway.

The bad news is that I bought a bathroom scale since our old one was broken. It was more off than I thought, and I gained more weight back over the past year than I thought I did. I know, I should focus on the fact that I'm doing something about it now, I'm pissed! *sigh*

Breakfast: double fiber English muffin with turkey sausage and one fried egg
Lunch: turkey patty, lemon cucumber slices, one apple
Dinner: marinated flank steak, toasted quinoa pilaf with mushrooms, broccoli
Snack: three triscuits with Babybel light garlic & herb cheese

Sonoma Diet Day 9

I'm so sleepy I almost forgot to post! I'm starting to notice tiny changes that indicate my healthy eating is paying off. I usually notice it in places where the bons are close to the surface--my face, collar bones, shoulders, etc. They feel just a little tighter and there's a little more definition. Yay!

Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 egg white scrambled with a little ham, double fiber english muffin
Lunch: 2 small pieces of chicken satay, Sonoma Greek pizza leftover from last night
Dinner: salmon, barley risotto, salad. I know, repetitive, but it's jsut because it's so good we wanted it again!

Sonoma Diet Day 8

Just a quick post before I go dancing. still going strong and very happy!

Breakfast: ham and spinach scrambled with one egg and one egg white on a double fiber whole grain english muffin
Lunch: chicken breast, green beans
Dinner: Sonoma Greek Pizza (whole grain Boboli with red wine vinegrette, spinach, feta, cherry tomatoes, and I forget what else), roasted zuccini

Off to do some West Coast Swing. Have a good night!

Sonoma Diet Day 7! One week! and a diet tip

I'm excited to point out that I am on Day 7 of the Sonoma Diet and I am STILL going strong. I feel soooo good about this. I'm determined to keep it up forever. We seem to have come up with a workable solution between the recipes in the book and doing our own thing while following the principles. When you follow the meal plans, at least in the old book, every portion of every meail required prep and cooking, and it got to be too much even though I loved every single meal. The new version of the diet offers much simpler meal plans, although we haven't been following them, just cooking simple food in the Sonoma style. We did use one of our favorite recipes from the original book at dinner tonight, the mushroom barley risotto. Delish!

Breakfast: Burrito with one whole egg and one white, spinach, onion
Dinner: Salmon pan seared with a little seasoning (on sale from Safeway again, and sooo good), mushroom barley risotto, green salad with low fat ranch
Snack: 1/4 pineapple. So ripe and sweet. Should have had just 1/8, but since i missed lunch I let myself have it. I generally don't skip meals but scheduling was difficult today and it just happened. I might go have another salad or a piece of low fat string cheese.

Diet Tip of the Day:

I used to think diet food was boring and bland. This is so not the case! Why deprive yourself of flavor? Seasonings, herbs, and spices are "free" nutritionally (just don't overdo the salt), so use them! The Sonoma Diet books have tons of great recipes, although there are many other cookbooks out there for dieters. Take the time to prepare fresh food with lots of flavor, and you won't feel deprived.