'Sonoma Diet' Captures A Lifestyle

Author Connie Guttersen On Weight Loss Plan Detailed In Her Book

(CBS)  The plan includes three "waves."

"Wave One" lasts ten days, and is "an introduction where you experience the most rapid part of your weight loss, but it actually targets those extra pounds around your waist," Guttersen says. "You may not like how those pounds fit with your clothes, but that's really a red flag to heart disease, diabetes and possibly even Alzheimer's. Wave One also shifts your body into new gear, where you're not craving sugary high fat foods. You're satisfied with these nutrient rich foods and that's going to keep you motivated to keep going."

Participants stay on "Wave Two" until they reach their goal weights, and "Wave Three" is a maintenance mode.

The diet also allows a glass of wine per day, red or white. It is, Guttersen notes, part of the Sonoma lifestyle.

Also, plate size matters.

Explains Guttersen, "With the Sonoma Diet, there's no obsessive weighing or calculations. It's an easy plan that teaches you how to put the right amounts and right combinations on your plate so that, after a while, it becomes visual to you. You get it. After a few weeks you know what your plate should look like. It's about the right amounts and balance of these foods."

To read an excerpt of "The Sonoma Diet," click here.