Hi. I'm a longtime lurker. I've been reading about The Sonoma Diet on this forum and have decided to try it, so I finally registared for support and info. It's been a long time sice i've tried anything structured. I can't find a copy of the book (tried Walmart, Superstore), but I've been able to order a copy through the library- don't know when it will come. One thing I'm wondering about is the time commitment for shopping and cooking. I don't mind cooking, but we have a very busy household. Would you say this requires more than the average program? I'm an old time Weight Watcher. Thanks for any input.

Well that is really hard to say. I do my cooking in batches and use my freezer a lot so for me it doesn't take a lot of time. If you have freezer space, I recommend making double batches of things and freezing one.. of course assuming it freezes well.

Buying veggies pre chopped can be a time saver but of course it is more expensive. You aren't going to be eating processed foods so making things essentially from scratch, if you aren't used to it will be more time. If your kids are old enough, get them involved in the preparation.. not only will they enjoy it but you'll have a little elf helping you.

Hi, for my family, I can say that it is more time consuming, but the amount of time is dropping as each week passes.

For the first couple of weeks, just planning everything, and getting as much stuff prepared as possible to eliminate the opportunity for failure was crucial for me. Because you are giving up processed foods, I found if I didn't have things done ahead of time, it was easy to turn to the old standby's.

Now we go shopping usually on Sunday morning, when my daughter wakes up, so it's early, come home, and prepare some of the food, since by the time we get back, it is time for her morning nap.

* We will chop some of the veggies for a salad.
* We will wash and dry the spinach and put in a bag wrapped in paper towels.
* I will get some of the veggies ready for snack purposes. But I've found that I take small salads with me to work for snacking with some basalmic vinegar or lemon juice.
* Recipes that we have found that freeze well, we will make double and freeze a batch, so that we always have some quick meals on hand when neither of us feels like cooking.
* For recipes that freeze well, we will sometimes make an extra and then portion it out, so that on days when one of us doesn't know what we want to take for lunch, it's already there and ready to go.
* Any extra vegetables and spinach that I have left over, I will make a vegetable broth while we are chopping, then freeze it in ice cube trays and put it in air tight containers, so that I always have extra broth when I need it and I know what's in it, no extra sodium.

I will say though, that the couple of hours extra that we spend on the weekend getting ready for the week/weeks ahead really saves more time than that throughout the week. All the little things that you can do in a one time thing that you would normally do throughout the week add up to a lot of time.

I have found that cooking time is generally lower because a lot of the recipies are grilled and we have an electric indoor grill (a real saver because our oven broke one night after I had used the broiler and we haven't gotten in fixed. dh says we are going to use our grill and our roaster since we are moving out the end of next month anyway)

Shopping is generally the same amount of time or less for me. Before I shopped at random and just picked up stuff because it was on sale. Then when I wanted to fix something I generally didn't have what I needed. Now I don't really have that problem, I just pick up stuff in general the recipies call for, learn where it's at in the grocery store. I think I may start preparing the veggies by chopping some for salads/sandwiches to save even more time, although it doesn't take that long to do it as needed now.

DH thought it would be more expensive to do Sonoma but we've also found that buying veggies with a purpose (as opposed to buying them and then letting them go to waste) and not buying the excess junk...plus making such good meals fast we don't have the need no longer to go out, I think it also saves us money in the long run. I'm finding the Sonoma lifestyle to be easier then the way we lived before, never having a really good idea of "what's for supper?"

I am buying the family meat trays, and dividing into meals.. I usually will chop up the chicken into thin strips, stick it in a ziplock bag with greek dressing, olive oil and sundried tomatoes and it marinates like no other, I use it for stirfry and any chicken dish. Super fast suppers. And also I do the same. Once you have your meat prepared.. suppers are a breeze.

Thanks for the input. I still don't have the book. I should probably just order it from Amazon. The only time I was successful with Weight Watchers was when I was on maternity leave, because I was able to devote so much time to meal planning and prep. (That was 13 years ago, so the program has likely changed). I need to get organized and as you have pointed out, that will probably save time in the long run. Weekend are usually crazy for us because the kids are often in out of town tournaments, so I don't often get much done on weekends. I found out that my high school is having a reunion this summer, so that is what has finally spurred me on!

Good Luck. It's a really great eating plan that doesn't feel like a diet at all. You can have fun eating and stun them all at the reunion.