Too often diets feature bland, boring meals with foods like rice cakes, raw veggies and plain chicken. But dieting doesn't have to mean deprivation. There are many diet plans and weight-loss programs that guide and teach you how to eat using scrumptious, flavorful foods that also happen to be good for you.
The Sonoma Diet
The Sonoma Diet combines nutritional research with the festive culinary traditions of the Mediterranean and California's Sonoma Valley. The premise of the Sonoma Diet is that the healthiest foods also make the tastiest dishes and that by eating the right-size portions of the right foods, you will lose weight. The Sonoma Diet is available by book or online, and its readers and members have access to 500 different recipes that use healthy fats like almonds and olive oil as well as fresh vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes and peppers; fruits like blueberries, grapes and strawberries; lean meats; fresh fish; and whole grains. The Sonoma Diet consists of three phases, which they call Waves: the induction phase, the diet phase and the maintenance phase. Meals include whole-grain cereals, pita and hummus, chicken and wild rice, and pork chops with vegetables and fresh bread.
The Flavor Point Diet
Dr. David Katz, an ABC Good Morning America medical contributor, developed the Flavor Point Diet. This diet works on the theory that when the brain is over-stimulated by too many flavors, you lose the ability to tell when you are full. But this diet does not limit flavor or foods. Instead, the point is to eat flavorful foods in combinations that allow your brain to recognize when your appetite has been satiated. The Flavor Point Diet has a three-phase approach; phase one consists of creating meals around one central flavor for each day in order to reset your brain. In phase two you introduce more flavors into your day, and flavor themes encompass each meal rather than an entire day. Phase three, the maintenance phase, uses all the flavor lessons you've learned in phase one and two.
Jenny Craig
Jenny Craig is a commercial meal plan that strives to teach you how to eat and cook for yourself without feeling like you are sacrificing satiety, flavor, taste or any specific food group. Jenny Craig's prepared meals combine everyday ingredients such as cheese, tomato sauce and barbecue sauce, but prepared in recipes that are low-calorie and diet friendly. Examples of flavorful Jenny Craig meals include blueberry pancakes with veggie sausage, maple nut hot oatmeal, creamy chicken and corn chowder, rotini with meatballs, sesame chicken, lasagna, chicken fajitas, honey mustard pretzels, white cheddar popcorn, chocolate cake and chocolate caramel peanut bar.
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