The Montignac Method

[bleudauvergne]

Bleu, let me repeat what others have been saying -- your cooking looks unbelievably seductive and the photos are ravishing!  I particularly enjoyed the "long" post as my husband is French and I too experienced the kind of "attentionee" food deprivation you describe in otherwise affectionate company when I used to live in Paris.  I have recently lost 14 lbs over 7 months of somewhat casual reduced carb eating, which doesn't sound like much, but it's the first time I've ever lost weight and I'm about 2/3 of the way to my goal.  One element of my new eating plan which I believe has been very effective has been drinking copious amounts of green tea, which is supposed to lower and stablize blood sugar, whereas coffee elevates it.  Your diet seems very effective, as well as pleasurable, and I'm not sure whether Montignac excludes all caffeine or just coffee, but there has been a lot of publicity in the diet world lately about green tea, and you might want to consider it as a coffee substitute if it is allowed.

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Hey that's great greenwich st! Green tea. This sounds like a wonderful idea.

[jennahan]

Salut bleu d'auvergne!

Wonderful topic, and fantastic photos of georgeous food and settings. I am now considering going on the Diet myself. I have never dieted before, but I still have a stubborn 7 pounds sticking to me a year and a half after having my baby and need to get serious about losing it. This diet sounds healthy, balanced and easy to maintain. Just out of curiousity, is your husband also be on the diet if you two cook together, and what has both of your progress been to date?

Thanks.

[bleudauvergne]

Loic always loses when I am following the plan, and he loses faster than I do. To keep him nice and fat, I tend to round out his meals when I'm doing the boring dinners, for example, when I prepare a carb dinner like brown rice and ratatouille, I'll add some meat to his plate, serve him wine with dinner, and he normally has bread with his cheese. I also make his favorite dishes from time to time to keep him happy. He still manages to take off weight though and it's not fair but that's the way the whole grain cracker crumbles.

I lost a total of 20 pounds while on the Montignac plan, and after reaching stage II and eventually not following any plan altogether, I've lost more weight, but I can't attribute it to the plan directly. I can definitely say that my eating habits were changed simply by becoming more aware of the glycemic index level of what I'm putting in my mouth, and eating better makes me feel better, which has little to do with the weight loss. The better I feel, the more I want to get out and do things, and that just makes life easier all around. At this point I am not dieting, nothing is off limits to me now, but I tend to still stick to certain rules on the plan, i.e. avoid the baguette, often enjoy my cheese with salad instead of bread.

I am considering going back on the plan to take off a few pounds for summer.

[Eden]

Merci encore Lucy!

I just read this thread & find it really inspiring. I am trying to get back to feeling healthy. I will always be a zaftig girl, I'm OK with that, but after too much inactivity because of a back injury I have gone up beyond where I feel comfortable in my skin, so it's time to work back down to a more healthy me...

The funny thing is that I looked into Montignac once years and years ago, when pretty much the whole plan in detail was available online, but I'd just come off an awful Atkins-oid diet that had thrashed my health & was scared to do anything lo-carby again after that. I've since discovered that while no-carb=BAD, controlled-carb does work well for me, and after reading your accounts, I'm thinking Montignac may fit well with my current lifestyle. As long as I can still enjoy wine, and cooking and dining with my friends that's the important thing...

I need to go find the book & read more details to be sure, but in the meantime I'm keeping some of the basic principals in mind when planning my meals: bresaola w/light cream cheese for brekks (yumm!), and I made a variation of your lentils for dinner last night only problem with those is I want to eat too much beacuse they taste SO fabulous!

So did you ever get a workable nutella-like recipe? you mentioned planning to try, but that was around the time you started posting less frequently...

Edited April 1, 2005 by Eden (log)

[et alors]

Two small things, Blue-- do NOT do pilates without an instructor. I did, and hurt my back.. talking to a therapist, he said that the postions get the most out of you but can also injure you. If you can't get classes, do yoga instead, which can be done with a book or DVD with far less chance of injury. 10-20 sun salutations done fast every morning will stretch you and exercise you.

Secondly my husband I have been doing south beach and lost 30 pounds each (well, me 20, and just put back 10 during a visit to france). We ignore the stupid recipes,a nd cook local organic food according to his strictures and feel wonderful. I believe they are much the same-- whole grains, high protein, veggies... but he allows even less sugars. your strawberry compote would have been forbidden.

Thank you so much for the narrative and photos.. so wonderful!

[menton1]

Very interesting interview with Michel Montignac in this week's France-Amerique, the American version of Le Figaro. He invited the book reviewer for lunch at Cafe des Artistes in New York, where they discussed a new tome, The French Diet--Secrets of Why French Women Don't Get Fat

It seems to be a revisiting of his Montignac Method, along with a mkxture of Mireille Guiliano's big seller, French Women Don't Get Fat

Looks like it's time to start a "régime"!!

Here's the link: (in French) France Amérique Book Review

Edited May 17, 2005 by menton1 (log)

[bleudauvergne]

There's something I completely agree with about choosing to eat less and eat things that are good for you, it happens when our body is in balance and we lose the cravings. I have Dr. Montignac to thank for that to a certain degree. But claiming that French women are not fat is just a myth. Do you need me to take pictures?

Anyway. I may be back to the regime. I need some purification. My spleen is craving popcorn and ice cream that's the first reason to do a few days of the plan. Let me think about some recipes to share.

[bloviatrix]

This link shows the truth about French women.

[TarteTatin]

We recently had a visitor from Paris who spotted our copy of French Women Don't Get Fat. She left us a note with the comment, 'Yes, some of them do, but we hide them.'

She was, of course, being 'ironique'.

[bleudauvergne]

Tomorrow I begin.

[hathor]

I don't care if you are on or off the plan...just share what you are cooking. I've missed you!

[therese]

Tomorrow I begin.

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Woohoo! Just the encouragement I need to get back on track. Really looking forward to this.

[Pan]

Tomorrow I begin.

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Go Lucy!

[bleudauvergne]

Sometimes we need to crave. This feeling comes from the idea that we’re so completely overwhelmed by life and work and the roadblocks and stalls, and everything around us, that it’s a welcome thing to have in your mind a nice little island with a lighthouse beacon like a piece of rich cake from that wonderful teahouse or a batch of duckfat popcorn, or a pain au raisin (what we might call a cinammon raisin roll without the cinnamon, and made with an almost unctuous cross between a pate feulitee and a pain de mie, rolled up and just as buttery as it is sweet…) but I digress. Sometimes what we need is inspiration. And the thought of the perfect pate brisee or one last chance before the hot weather comes to make a tartiflette can mask itself as inspiration and present itself at our door. What do we do? Sometimes we take the opportunity as it knocks. But when there’s a binding around the waist that leaves a mark, or when gazing over the wardrobe which we’ve just rearranged for Spring, we are magnetically attracted to that big long white cotton sweater that covers everything, it is the time, my friends, to think about focusing our attention to the here and now. Sweep away the false beacons of hope and concentrate on the world around us.

Breakfast is an opportunity to charge up the batteries and the perfect time to start the transition back to healthy thoughts about food. Why? Because if we have a nice big breakfast, we won’t even think about food until lunchtime. Even then, they won’t be desperate thoughts that end in baguette sandwiches or kebabs, or choosing unnecessary desserts. We will have the opportunity to reasonably and thoughtfully contemplate what our mid-day meal will consist of. So on my first day back, I begin my morning with a nice bowl of oatmeal. Even as a child I did not have a real sweet tooth, and I preferred butter and salt in my oatmeal. However this morning, it will just be a dash of salt. I am thinking of my mother today. She is a great fan of oatmeal. She says she likes soy sauce on it. Today is the perfect day to try it.

While the oatmeal cooks I enjoy a plum. I take my brewers yeast, which will help me to find an equilibrium over time as I concentrate on what crisp spring bounty will become my focus of attention, and I think about what opportunities lie before me. This is the key to the Montignac method. You must think of the opportunities, and not of the restrictions. I have the following available to me. What will I prepare? The possibilities are beginning to present themselves.

[Eden]

I have just finished reading Montignac's latest book "The French Diet" (TFD) and I find several interesting differences between what he has written for the American market and what you have related from the French edition.

Among other things, he suggests in TFD that Lunch should be the largest meal of the day rather than Breakfast.

from re-reading your blog, you apparently were allowed butter in limited amounts, while in TFD it is verbotten.

In the cheese department you seem to have been given free rein, while TFD strictly limits one to low/no fat cheeses.

you were able to make your own whole-grain pasta, but in TFD all pasta except cold spaghetti (?) is forbidden.

I wonder why the changes. Is it that he thinks we white-flour addicted americans can't be trusted with any lee-way in the grain and butter department?

I am spending the next few days finishing up some social obligations & a box of special chocolates while I think about how best to incorporate this diet into my life, after which I'll be joining you.

Good luck to us all.

[bleudauvergne]

I have just finished reading Montignac's latest book "The French Diet" (TFD) and I find several interesting differences between what he has written for the American market and what you have related from the French edition. 

Among other things, he suggests in TFD that Lunch should be the largest meal of the day rather than Breakfast.

from re-reading your blog, you apparently were allowed butter in limited amounts, while in TFD it is verbotten. 

In the cheese department  you seem to have been given free rein, while TFD strictly limits one to low/no fat cheeses. 

you were able to make your own whole-grain pasta, but in TFD all pasta except cold spaghetti (?) is forbidden.

I wonder why the changes.  Is it that he thinks we white-flour addicted americans can't be trusted with any lee-way in the grain and butter department? 

I am spending the next few days finishing up some social obligations & a box of special chocolates    while I think about how best to incorporate this diet into my life, after which I'll be joining you.

Good luck to us all.

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Eden, I am so glad you'll be joining me.

Yes, in the French version Lunch is the big meal, and the one where he encourages us to take in our lipids for the most part. He says dinner should be light, but I tend to have at least 2-3 lipid dinners during the week. If it means I have to diet for an extra few weeks, so be it. My emphasis on breakfast is a personal one. Note I usually have a tartine or small simple carb meal, except from time to time I splurge on a lipid fest.

Butter is alright as long as you don't go crazy with it, but he encourages us to prefer duck fat and olive oil, for health reasons. In stage one we are told to keep intake low when possible but it is not verboten.

Cheese: French version: Free rein. However I will note that he says that if you are having trouble with a stall, you should try and cut fats, thus tweak the cheese intake.

100% WW pasta is certainly recommended for dinner meals in my book. He may have the American version avoid it due to the fact that most industrially made pastas, unless they guarantee only 100% whole wheat, do contain significant amount of refined flour, and are only "demi complet" in the US. The final 100% WW products can be gritty, so to avoid that, product developers mix flours for the best mouthfeel they can get. There's a big difference between 100%WW pasta and demi complet. If you have any refined flour in your pasta, it won't work. Imagine the backflap if he suggested that you have to make your own pasta. Although many of us here on eGullet find making pasta a perfectly normal and pleasurable activity, I suspect that we are special people. So maybe he's playing it safe because so many of the products available in the states claiming to be WW are not really. 100% WW pastas have a large market here in the bio shops. They are expensive. I make my own pasta for financial reasons. It's about 1/8 of the price, and home made tastes better anyway.

I have got to get cooking! I want to have dinner ready when Loic gets home!

[Chufi]

You must think of the opportunities, and not of the restrictions.  I have the following available to me.  What will I prepare?  The possibilities are beginning to present themselves.

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That is so true. I always wonder when people say: "Oh no I am not allowed to eat that, because I am on a diet".

When you look at the food you eat as a kind of punishment, how can it nourish you? It won't. So that's when you will start craving the other stuff again, the food that you're 'not allowed to eat', which becomes all the more desirable because it's forbidden. And you give in and then you can say: see, diets don't work.

[bleudauvergne]

You must think of the opportunities, and not of the restrictions.  I have the following available to me.  What will I prepare?  The possibilities are beginning to present themselves.

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That is so true. I always wonder when people say: "Oh no I am not allowed to eat that, because I am on a diet".

When you look at the food you eat as a kind of punishment, how can it nourish you? It won't. So that's when you will start craving the other stuff again, the food that you're 'not allowed to eat', which becomes all the more desirable because it's forbidden. And you give in and then you can say: see, diets don't work.

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Frame of mind is everything, Chufi, you are so right.

Lunch was out and I enjoyed a carpaccio de boeuf with walnut oil. It was a very light serving, so I had a 1/2 St. Marcellin. Sometimes the St. Marcellin is so incredible when the restaurants treat it right. This one melted in my mouth...

I took a photo of the carpaccio and will put it up later.

The first night should follow rules but needn't be puritannical. Anyway, there are some things that I have been meaning to try. 'Sabayon' has been the word on everyone's lips these past couple of weeks. It has popped up in magazines, has come on cooking shows, sugary versions used in tiramisu, the asaparagus sauce, etc. in all shapes and forms. I've been thinking that the sabayon is a butterless hollandaise, a sort of custard sauce thickened with egg yolks, using any liquid - wine, stock, champagne, fruit juice, what have you as a medium these days. Therefore, I will incorporate this newly discovered little tidbit of joy into the dish I will cook tonight. For Loic, the blanquette de veau is one of his favorite comfort foods. His mother has adjusted her recipe (as many moms do) to appeal to the children's tastes, incorporating olives and even canned canelles (not so hot but wow once you have a belly full of that you have no problems falling right to sleep) from time to time.

I have decided to go back to the basics and prepare this dish and instead of using the beurre manie that we see time and again, I will use a bit of the stock which has simmered the blanquette and some eggs to prepare a sabayon, thus thickening the sauce without flour. I won't have a whole pot full of sauce, but that's fine. I hope it works. The veal has been on simmering for the last hour.

In addition, as a kind of celebration, I will serve a little chocolate mousse. This is also an invention I have been thinking about, using one egg for two people. You beat the egg white stiff with a pinch of cream of tartar. Then you add 2t. sucrose and beat again till shiny. Then one T. plain (Bernachon - I went back today while back at the bio shop to get some basics.) cocoa is sifted over the whites and folded in. This tastes good as is. I incorporated 1/2 more T. cocoa into the egg yolk and fold that in, and sprinkled the rest of a 1/2 T. cocoa over the rest and folded it in. Put into individual ramekins and chill. I will taste tonight's and see if it needs any adjustments.

The timer's going off.

[Eden]

Eden, I am so glad you'll be joining me. 

Thank you, you are a great inspriation.

I am taking your advice & thinking about the wonderful dishes I will make. Like kichree (basmati rice & dal with spices, yum!) and Greek chicken with olives, and your lentils with bacon, and...

I cleaned out the cabinets today & moved all the phase II foods up out of line of sight.

Imagine the backflap if he suggested that you have to make your own pasta.  Although many of us here on eGullet find making pasta a perfectly normal and pleasurable activity, I suspect that we are special people.  So maybe he's playing it safe because so many of the products available in the states claiming to be WW are not really.  100% WW pastas have a large market here in the bio shops.  They are expensive.    I make my own pasta for financial reasons.  It's about 1/8 of the price, and home made tastes better anyway. 

I think you are right. I haven't had to worry about how "whole" my whole-wheat was previously so I haven't paid attention to this detail in commercially available products here, and of course I have no problem with being told "make your own", but your average guy walking down the street doesn't know how easy and fun it is to throw some flour & liquids together & walk away with fresh pasta or home-made bread...

I read somewhere that Montignac's first attempt to break into the American market flopped because the book was "too scientific" and having read bits of that edition several years back I do think this latest book is "montignac-light", so in that spirit especially he'd avoid "asking too much" of his readers...

I looked at the website & they have a bunch of meal suggestions including some with whole wheat pasta, so I am going to assume that it is safe & go ahead & make my own.

[bleudauvergne]

I looked at the website & they have a bunch of meal suggestions including some with whole wheat pasta, so I am going to assume that it is safe & go ahead & make my own.

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Definitely, Eden, if you can find whole wheat semoulina.

Something about feculants, now that Eden brings this up. Lentils of any kind, kidney, lima, etc. are special. They are special because they shift in application between phase one and phase two. My husband the scientist did a little research on these beans. They're good for the heart, that's for sure, and they can be eaten in great qualtities, alone.

1) When you cook lentils with bacon, remember that the bacon is for flavor and you should limit your intake of the meat. If you can help it, avoid eating the meat. Give it all to your spouse. The lentils fall into the carb family and are not to be combined with heavy fats. Wait a minute here! When you cook a nice slab of smoked meat with your lentils, obviously you're adding fat. The lentils absorb it. That's an illegal combination! However, if this is what you need as a flavor enhancer, this particular combination won't completely sabotage your regime. You will continue to lose in stage one. You have to consider that combining lentils with certain fatty foods will have less of an impact, but at the same time, sometimes that bacon makes a big difference between opportunities and restrictions. It's the overall picture we're looking at here. So for this reason, you should consider it, but not overdo this type of combination.

2) i.e. When you are combining with rice, be careful not to include any fat (at all) in the lentil preparation (basmati rice & dal with spices). It's the only way. It ccunts as a carb. So be careful to control any oils when you are combining feculants with rice.

Here is a photo of the meat, which has been set aside after about an hour and a half of simmering.

[bleudauvergne]

The result of the sabayon was good.

First I reduced 4 ladles of the stock from the blanquette ito about half its volume. That took about 20 minues.

Then I set up a bowl over a simmering pot of some rice I was cooking for Loic (not for me).

I whisked 3 egg yolks and reduced stock (about a cup and a half) for a couple of minutes.

Then I hit it with an electric mixer (a new toy!) when the yolks began to thicken the sauce.

It thickened beautifully, and also took on some volume. I was suprised at the result. With the reduced stock, the flavor was very rich. I added about a 1/2 t. of white pepper at this point.

The sauce was a very good compliment to the blanquette. There was something about the texture of the blanquette that bolstered the creaminess of the sauce and the sauce drew you into a love affair with the soft braised meat, and threw you off into a neverending spin. It was one of those things you can definitely serve to guests. Its on my list.

Blanquette de veau has a lot of cartilage and skin, so it takes on that gelatinous rich flavor. In this way you can eat a small amount and be satisfied. Although I did not finish what was on my plate, I did end up probably eating more than I needed to eat, out of sheer gourmandise.

The salad was endives with a walnut oil vinaigrette. Having a little bit of the walnut drizzled over my lunch got me in the mood.

The local vegetable vendor said that now is not the time for Grenoble walnuts, otherwise I would have sprinkled some on the endives. This reminds me that the green walnuts should be available sometime soon. I am bound and determined to make some vin de noix this year. Loic went back for more rice and sauce. Recipe to follow tomorrow.

Dessert.

The cholocate mousse has room for improvement.

[therese]

The cholocate mousse has room for improvement.

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LOL

[bleudauvergne]

The day's eats included a hodge podge of bland, unmentionable foodstuffs, strictly following the rules and giving me my obligatory carb intake without much effort (i.e. store bought pasta). Dinner was alright.

I was thinking of making pasta again and then succumbed to some smoked magret de canard and changed my tune mid course. When you can't find toothpicks, look around at the herbs you've got drying around the kitchen. Sage branches are just fine speared through the slices of magret.

(note the wine I poured in the glass was served to Loic and mine went untouched until after dinner)

[bleudauvergne]

Dinner was a sort of ratatouille . I basically emptied out the veggie drawer and included some roasted veggies that I had already but needed to use. Lots of garlic. (Loic got his with rice, I had mine plain)

I have some leftovers to have over pasta tomorrow at lunch. Tomorrow I will focus on phase one rules, suggested sauces, I plan to hit the library to see what Montignac cookbooks are available as well.

[SobaAddict70]

Stunning photos, as usual Lucy.

I like the trick of clove-studded leeks. I'll try that next time I make some stock.

What are "canelles "?

Soba