The only diet part of this is that 1) RawrGirl chooses to count calories (once she gets used to what that looks like on a plate, she will start doing the plate method), and 2) pizza and fried jalapeno poppers and perhaps worst of all, unlimited cups of coffee (with International Delight Hazelnut Cream) on the weekends are pretty much out of bounds save for an occasional (weekly? monthly?) treat during maintenence.
But every other meal and snack RawrGirl has been able to transform so far into healhty variations. Seeing as how RawrGirl loves to cook (RawrGirl loves food, wine, etc) she has found it quite intriguing to do so (see thread How Have you Tailored Sonoma For You to share your own ideas).
This is why RawrGirl is so excited to be doing this. If she is not "on" a diet, then she can't go "off" the diet at goal and gain all the weight back again. She will just have to figure out how many cups of coffee she can drink without gaining, lol, and then make a choice -- 2 cups of coffee and maintain goal weight OR 4 cups of coffee and get fat again. Doesn't seem like a hard decision.
So what about you? Does Sonoma feel like just another diet? Or does it feel like a yummy way to eat for life that doesn't leave you feeling deprived?
RawrGirl's WeightLoss Diary: http://rawrgirlsweightlossdiary.blogspot.com/