Hi there

Love the Hello Kitty

Montignac Method in a couple of sentances...

Michael Montignac is a French doctor, who discovered the link in his Type 2 diabetes patients that when they picked their foods carefully, they were able to regulate the insulin levels in their blood much more effectively. A "side effect" of this insulin control was that the pounds began to shed.

Thus came about the principle of Glycemic Index, the lower the GI of the food, the less of a spike and trough in the blood sugar level, the easier the food is to digest, cholesterol levels improve.... leading to weight loss.

Like many of these diet plans, it is based on 2 phases. Phase 1 is based around eating very low GI foods (less than 35 or so), for the body's metabolism to be able to revert to the proper state, and insulin release controlled. This is where you lose weight fast, but not as fast as plans like Atkins. Phase 2, where you can eat a wider variety of things, as the body's insulin release works properly, so can digest more things. This is the weight maintaining "phase" and is intended to be how you eat for the rest of your life.

The first Montinganc book, Eat Slim.... and Stay Slim (or something like that) goes into a lot more detail. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=books&n=507846

To evolve this diet further, contemporary thinking is placing more importance on the Glycemic Load of foods, rather than Glycemic Index. Glycemic Load is the concentration of carbs in a typical serving of food.

A really good resource from Gylcemic Load is here:-
http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm

And this website also recommends this book (which I have yet to check out) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...e=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I mentioned Chocolate. It is acceptable to eat chocolate with high cocoa solids in it (over 70%) - basically dark chocolate. Red wine is also acceptable.

A quick run down of bad foods from the top of my head:-
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Any kind of soda, diet or otherwise
Beer
Potatoes
cooked carrots
overcooked pasta
certain types of rice
Butter
Refined foods (including sugars, bread / wheat, cereals etc)

The diet is less about counting calories, carbs, dietary suppliments, and to a certain extent choosing food groups. It is more about fresh ingredients, and changing eating habits for life.

I've been on this plan for about 7 months, and have lost about 30 lbs. I consider myself to be on a mix of phase 1 and phase 2 right now, as I have widened my food choices, and have maintained my weight loss for about 2 months, including a 1 week lapse over Christmas, when I didn't put a lb back on, despite eating badly. According to Montignac, this is perfectly normal once you have "reset" your body's metabolism.

I'm Engllish, and have been living in the US for a while, and I've noticed that whereas Montignac is quite well known in Europe, it is relatively unheard of in North America. In the US, it seems to be eclipsed by plans such as Sugar Busters of Sommersizing - which to me seem to be borrowing much from Montignac. For example - try finding a description of Montignac on this website under the "Which plan for me?" Quick link...

In fact, in the preface to Sugar Busters! it even says they copy Montignac...

I hope this helps! Good luck with whatever you choose!

Spang