Does anyone know if dried fruit is OK on Sonoma? I'm on Phase 2, and I just love Craisins and dried berries, I don't want to give them up, they're a great snack! Also, how about corn tortillas and baked corn tortilla chips? And lastly, what about just regular oatmeal (not steel cut) and Cream of Wheat, aren't they better than eating other cereals that don't have much fiber???

Just some questions............Thanks!

Dried fruit is fine.. BUT.. for example dried apricot half. Two tiny pieces are one fruit and that is limited to once a day. Take a look at the book and the fresh fruit servings.. that many pieces of dried would be a serving.

Corn is a Tier 3 veggie so this should be eaten in limited quantities, so it follows that corn tortillas would be okay, but I would try to eat thing with whole wheat ones the most often.

Chips are just junk food... no matter what you call them, baked or fried.. they are still chips. Treat them as you would any chip on this plan.. as a rare indulgence

Regular oats are rolled oats, which are on the approved list and are fine. I personally prefer the steel cuts.

I am not familiar with cream of wheat but all you need to do is look at the box. Look for the words 100% whole grain or whole wheat. The very first ingredient should be identified as "whole" and there should be no grains that not identified as whole. Chances are this stuff is not whole grain, but do read the label. The sonoma book recommend 8 grams of fiber per servingfor cold cereal so aim for a high fiber hot cereal as well. Not sure you can get 8 gram from a hot cereal, but do pay attention to the fiber content.

Thanks for the help Linda! I'm still struggling with all the do's & don'ts - I need to review the book again!

I just wanted to reply to the question regarding cream of wheat cereal, the box doesn't say whole wheat, it says wheat cereal..But another hot cereal that is very similiar is called Zoom and it is 100% whole wheat... I'm just hearing about the Sonoma diet and I'm very curious, is seems kind of confusing to my limited inteligence!? And is it very expensive to get the ingredients for wave 1?? I did South Beach and Atkins for a brief time and it cost me a fortune having to keep stocking up on fresh produce and meat almost daily... And when T.O.M. would pay me a visit I'd stray for a few days and regain every ounce I'd lost I don't want to go through that again.. Any replies are appreciated,, thanx.. Curious girl :O)

I think it does run quite a bit to keep the veggies and fruit stocked up, but I feel it's worth it for the health benefits. It's such a huge change of eating habits for most people, I think. The grains aren't that costly and you can still be pretty frugal on meats if you buy mostly chicken and pork. I'm trying to take it week by week and I think I will be saving money by not buying some of the junk food for my family. Also, I've been maintaining even though that time of month came and went and I've actually been having things I shouldn't be having a little too often. I know that's why I haven't been losing very fast, but I haven't been gaining!


Linda or anyone else that might know ------------ I was also wondering about a couple more food items........such as parboiled brown rice (like brown minute rice), does it have the same nutrition and is it acceptable? What about turkey hot dogs (such as Oscar Meyer or Jennie-0)??? Sorry about all the questions, it's just hard to know on specific foods when there are so many foods out there. I usually try to make a good educated guess, but it seems that some of you are really firm on the decisions on what to eat or not.

Thanks a lot!

Cindy.. no problem. Questions are valuable for everyone because chances are someone else has been wondering too.

Oka as far as parboiled brown rice, check the nutrionals on the label and compare it to regular brown rice. If it is close, then go for it. I personally make big batches of regular brown rice and freeze the stuff because it takes so darn long to cook.

Hot dogs.. turkey beef or otherwise - This is one of those things that you'll get a handle on once you get further into this, but think for a minute about regular hot dogs... regular hot dogs are not what you would call a power nutrient rich food, aside from the calories and saturated fat. A hot dog is a hot dog in my opinion. You can reduce the fat, reduce the calories, but it is still a hot dog. To be used spareingly, just like baked chips. Think about foods from a nutrional standpoint, first and foremost. .. "How many nutrients will this food bring to my body" should be a question you need to ask. Now this doesn't mean that we can never have another hot dog or a baked chip or a low calorie cookie but as long as these items aren't daily or even weekly parts of our diets we'll be fine. And yes I succumb to the hot dog craving every few months... I love Hebrew National beef franks.. I think they are called 97% fat free beef franks and have 45 cals a pop and taste good.

Cherry, thanks for the info on cream of wheat. I would definately avoid that and get the Zoom stuff because it does use the word "whole" in the ingredients. It can be $$ to start out this plan because of buying certain herbs and things for the first time, but I buy my veggies and things once a week and that's it. I plan my meals out for the week, then shop according to my list. I make enough food to last for the set meals and no more. Everything is portioned. As far as TOM, you know its going to come every month right? The best defense is BEING PREPARED!! Yes upper case to empasize. You know what your triggers are so don't have them in the house. Don't carry spare change to hit vending machiens. Have fruit or veggie scut and ready to go for noshing. Get a project ready to keep hands busy. We each are in charge of our bodies... so take control of the situation and plan ahead for combat!!

As far as the price of the food goes, our family grocery budget actually went DOWN when we stopped buying so much prepackaged food and junk snacks. It IS a committment to keep fresh veggies in the house, but I don't find it hard now that I've gotten used to it.

I was in Wal-mart a few weeks ago and found wheat tortilla chips. They were yummy. They weren't as crisp as corn, but hit the spot!