I know I'm a bear of very little brain, but there are some things about this plan that I just don't understand no matter how many times I read the book, and could use some guidance from folks who have been on it a while. Just ending the first week of Wave 2. Lost 8 on Wave 1, one for this week, which I'm thrilled with. However. . .

I never quite know if I'm staying within the program or not, because I'm not sure what the daily limits are. Between the plan description, the food lists, and the meal plans, there seem to be contradictions. If you'll put up with my random questions, I'd sure appreciate your input.

I think some of my questions have to do with her cutting us a little more slack with snacks. But her advice of "here are some snacks you can have if you're hungry, but don't overdo" doesn't really set up a daily limit for some items. I guess I'd like to have a better feel of "Don't go over two dairy servings or 3 Tier 2 fruits a day, etc", instead of trying to guess what the limits are by her sample meal plans.

For example, the meal plans seem to be adding a lot more peanut butter than Wave 1. But isn't it still just 2T to replace a protein, 1T for a snack, same as Wave 1? Why wouldn't peanut butter be considered against the nuts/fats limit?

Fruits: 1/2 cup isn't very much for a serving, and most days I'd rather save my portions to make a frozen fruit smoothy in the evening as a treat, instead of taking the trouble to add a tad to each meal. The food list says Limit 1 from Tier 2 and Limit 1 from Tier 3. Why limit Tier 2 to just one, when she says you should choose more 2's than 3's to speed up weight loss, and there's not much on Tier 3? "A small amount" of tier 2 is also given as a snack. Some of the meal plans go well over a cup total a day. Is the daily fruit limit 1 1/2 cups or what? After cutting out fruit entirely on Wave 1, I'd like to know how much is too much for Wave 2.

Steel Cut Oats: 1/4 cup? Huh? Is that cooked or uncooked? I know it's 160 calories, but 1/4 cup of anything does not a breakfast make. Would be nice if she clarified that.

Grains: What's the daily limit? Two, three, four? If you have cereal or toast for breakfast, then 1/2 cup at lunch and dinner, then it's not allowed as a snack? Or is it? Again, the meal plans seem to be averaging three, but it's not clear cut.

Dairy: Plain yogurt is an option now, but is that just to replace a protein? Meal plans seem to say you add it to the day's limit--because it's allowed as a snack or? I know in Wave 1 Dairy was just supposed to be milk on cereal and then only as a condiment (Laughing Cow, cheese on salad, etc.) If I don't have the yogurt (with my smoothy), can I have a glass of milk with dinner? Cutting back on Dairy was difficult for me on W1, would like to know where to draw the line on W2.

Seems like more nuts are added as snacks to the meal plans, but isn't the daily fat serving still 3?

Honey?: She mentioned that we can now add honey to sweeten up some of the book's recipes? Isn't that pure sugar? How much honey is allowed per day/week? Or is that only like the dark chocolate as an occasional treat? Again, after cutting out sugar entirely, this seems a little odd. Would like more details.

I know, I know, I'm overthinking this. I should just eat healthy food, cut back on carbs, and call it good. But if I could do that, I wouldn't need to lose weight in the first place. I liked Wave 1 because of the structure. Now that W2 is here, I'd like to continue to stick with the program. I'm just not sure what the program is. I'm surely not going to follow the meal plans, as I live alone, have a small refrigerator with a not-so-great freezer compartment, leftover fresh items would spoil before they showed up in the plan again, can't cook entirely new two meals a day without having leftovers the next day, etc. For W1, I just tried to have some protein, grain, and veg with each meal, heavy on the veg.

For those of you who are on Wave 2 now, I'm sure you're not following the meal plans to the letter. So what daily limits or rule-of-thumb guidelines have you set up for yourself? Thanks for getting to the end of my lengthy tome. Any advice you can give would be great.

First thing I'd advise is to relax a little. :-) There isn't a magical combination of food choices that will be right or wrong here. The purcpoase of Sonoma is to help re-educate us on portions. Somedays you might have 60% carbs, 20% protein and 20% fat.. other days it might be 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein. It's all okay.

I think some of my questions have to do with her cutting us a little more slack with snacks. But her advice of "here are some snacks you can have if you're hungry, but don't overdo" doesn't really set up a daily limit for some items. I guess I'd like to have a better feel of "Don't go over two dairy servings or 3 Tier 2 fruits a day, etc", instead of trying to guess what the limits are by her sample meal plans.
I don't know why you cannot replace this as a protein if you were able to in Wave 1. There are a lot of inconsistencies in the book so this is when we each have to use our own best judgement.
I try and keep my fruit to ~2 servings a day
1/4 c is uncooked
The grain limits can vary. Two is reasonable someday, so is 4. This is NOT a rigid X servings of this plan.
Dairy is used as an accent rather than a primary protein source and should be treated as such. An occasional glass of milk is fine as is an occasional yogurt. The med diet, which this is based on doesn't use much daity. But do make sure you are getting enough calcium in your diet, take a supplement if you need to.
Again there is no serving requirement in Sonoma. Somedays my fat percentage might be 20% somedays 40. It's all okay.
The book mentions dark chocolate should only be eaten a few tiems a week, I believe. Honey. I would also think a few times a week. The main thing to remember when dealing with sweetners is, Will this set me off on a junk food sugar binge?

I generally try and fill half my plate with veggies, and then 1/3 to 1/4 of protein and 1/4 or so of grain ( my grain servings at dinner generally are around 100 calories worth or about 1/2 a cup cooked). I try and make sure I get at least 25% fat and my protein is generally around 25-35% and carbs make up the rest ( veggies, grains, fruit... etc)

This is what is great about sonoma. The main thing is making better choices. We aren't all going to be perfect every day, me included and thats okay. This is all an educational process so just take it one meal at a time. Check out the recipe forum at the top of the page.. lots of ideas there.

I like to think back to the old days when I was a kid and Mom served meals. Remember the smaller portions your family ate when you were a kid? Mom and Dad both. That is what we need to re-educate our brains to.. smaller portions of healthier foods.

LOL I have no answers for you but also found some inconsistencies in the book. Not giant ones and overall I still love it but some things certainly didn't add up. Hopefully someone here has some good answers for you/us!

I was confused by the book, too. She puts out guidelines, but her own meal plans do not follow them. I even noticed in wave 1, where you were only supposed to have a carb with lunch or dinner, one of the meal plans had a carb at both. And with wave 2, she will say to eat 1 serving of fruit and the meal plan has 2 servings of fruit with a meal, such as the one cup of berries. Fats is supposed to be 3 servings, but a lot of the meal plans have more than three in a day. If you consider the nuts as snacks and then all of the olive oil in the meals, it's definately more than 3 servings. I just don't get why her meal plans wouldn't follow her own guidelines.

Glad it's not just me. I've had stomach problems for a couple weeks and haven't been able to stick to the program. But when and if I do, I think I'll just use general principles about food choices. Her instructions for Wave 2 are just too confusing to adhere to strictly, as I was better able to with Wave 1. Would prefer to have daily limits spelled out, as the plate diagram is unworkable for many of my meals, and snack rules seem to be up in the air. And until I can hire Oprah's personal chef and shopper and throw out a lot of leftovers, I'm not going to be following those sample menu plans.

I hear you! I do enjoy adding my wine, but think I have been too liberal with snacks - nuts for sure!! Hang in there! Vicki

I don't know if this is allowed here, sorry if it isn't but I thought this was important to discuss again.
BUMP

Well I think some of those people are missing the point entirely.

Her diagrams are guidelines ONLY. Its not rocksolid.

For exemple:
One of them mentionned wave 1 has carbs in both lunch and dinner but failed to notice there is none in the breakfast.

Bottom line is you should see her plan has a whole not meal by meal. If you look wave 1, its all the same.
proteins in every meal, 2 carbs a day, 3 fats a day, **** load of vegetables of categorie 1.

Same thing for other waves.

Her plates are just an easy guideline to understand portion but you can play with it! If i have a sub for lunch, Ill have less carbs in the morning and none at dinner.

At the end of the day it says in the book clearly this is guidelines only and should adjust according to your weight loss. If 2 weeks on wave 2 you dont loose one pound, well obviously there is something wrong in what you eat and should adjust portions.

and remember, if you dont loose, you dont gain either so you havent FAILED, you just need to adjust for the weight loss to keep going.

I havent read the whole thread cause some people are nip picking and being anal about it.
Come on girls, its common sense she teaches not a drill you must follow or you die.

Plus, this diet is not for everyone. Its a life style change and you need to work to get it. Some people prefer counting points and not understand why some food combination ar enot good.
I chose the diet cause it makes me feel free and creative. I dont like being told to cut something without explanation.
To each their own really.

I agree Zoifa some people think themselves right out of any and all diets. I like what you said its not rocket science, its common sense.
It does look fairly simple to me, eat smaller portions of healthier foods.

Karen, you hit the nail on the head when you said that. That's the problem I've been having for years but could never pinpoint why I kept stopping the plans/diets I was doing until now.

I can also get very anal with a plan like Zofia stated which also makes me frustrated.

Months ago I was supposed to have started this plan, but I got bogged down by all of the technical stuff and never got started.

I mean it's just healthy eating using whole unprocessed foods....get a grip Deb.!!!

Thanks ladies!


~Deb.