The McDougall Plan - anyone tried this?

Hi - Recently I ordered a book "The McDougall program for maximum weightloss"  I found him off of the PCRM web site and knew it would be a vegan plan. I'm read most of the  information in the book and it's looking pretty good to me. It's basically low fat and high in carbs. But the thought of eating potatoes and rice has got me intrigued. Has anyone out there tried to follow Dr. McDougall's recommendations?  They seem to also have a lot of nice recipes in their newsletter archive for anyone who is interested:

http://drmcdougall.com/newsletter/archive.htm l

and the below article kind of outlines the premise behind the plan which I am beginning to think makes a lot of sense

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/feb/st arch.htm

I haven't tried it or seen it before, but I just looked at the website and I want to go on the trip to Costa Rica!!  dont have anybody to go with for the 'double occupancy' rate plan...  it looks good to me, like a boot-camp experience