Soup Diet

I always remember my dad and step-mom doing this crazy diet when we were younger. Every year before we went on Spring Break they would spend the week eating this disgusting looking soup, and every year they lost a bunch of weight. It was great for them but I remember thinking how crazy it was. Well here I am, 26 years old and less than two weeks away from my engagement photo shoot and I am nowhere near the physical goals I set for myself. So, I turned to my dad. This past week I have been doing the Cabbage Soup Diet.

But, isn't this just one of those fad diets? Yes. This is a plan to drop weight fast, not a lifestyle change. The diet is only 7 days long but it's legit. The diet was originally formulated by doctors to help obese heart patients drop weight fast before heart surgery. My dad has an entire book on the diet with the history and medical facts backing it up. There are a lot of super shady websites with the Cabbage Soup Diet on it, if you want to do it I recommend using my blog as a guide and feel free to e-mail me with ANY questions you have! :)

As much as it sucks, it works! In the past week I have lost 6 pounds and I feel great!!!!

I took this picture this morning---don't I look great? I wish. Hehe.

I decided to share the diet plan with you all and also include a sort of food diary so if any of you are interested you can see what I did....cuz it worked!

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The key to the diet is the soup, so here's the recipe:

-1 head of cabbage
-6 carrots
-6 stalks of celery
-1 white onion
-2 48oz cartons of Vegetable Broth (I use Swanson brand)
-6 cups of water
-1 package Lipton Onion Soup Mix
-2 cans tomato sauce
-Garlic (to taste)
-Salt & Pepper (to taste)

*The instructions are simple....chop up your veggies and mix them with the rest of the ingredients in a super large stock pot and simmer until the veggies are soft. When serving the soup feel free to add seasonings to spice it up. Some days I would use a little low sodium soy sauce to give it an Asian flavor and other days I would add some Franks Hot Sauce to make it nice and spicy.

*TIP: Make 2 separate batches of the soup. Use half the ingredients to make your first batch and use the remaining ingredients later in the week to make the second batch. This way the soup stays fresh!

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Rules & Regulations:
*You can eat as much soup as you want each day, but you MUST eat at least one bowl every day. Lucky for me I love soup, and thought this soup was really yummy, so it wasn't a huge problem for me, but I did get sick of it. I know my dad has an extreme hatred against the soup after the second day....so beware! The soup may get old....but keep your eye on the prize!

*Try and drink a ton of water. It helps you feel full, keeps you hydrated and gives you an oral fixation when you're so hungry you think you might snap. On the 5th day you need to drink at least 6 glasses of water to help rid your body of built up uric acid.

*You are allowed to drink coffee, but it has to be black! No milk, no sugar, no flavor shots. Black.

*NO ALCOHOL. Period.

*Each day you are allowed to have one small bowl of a fiber rich cereal with skim milk to help keep you regular (if you know what I mean). Trust me, you are going to want to eat this cereal...it not only tastes amazing (when all you've been eating is fruits and veggies) but you're going want to go to the bathroom!

*There is not an exercise program that goes along with this diet plan, in fact you may not have enough energy the first few days to work out. Whether you work out or not you will see results and lose weight! I just really wanted to get the best results possible to I tried to get in at least a little cardio each day of the diet.

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Diet Plan & Food Diary:

DAY 1:
Fruit is the objective of the first day: Eat your cabbage soup with all the fruits that you want, except for bananas. Cranberry juice, unsweetened teas, or water are the only drinks that can be taken.

I quickly found that a set breakfast, lunch and dinner weren't going to cut it on this day....you will starve to death. So I kind of just grazed all day long. Throughout the day, I had 2 kiwis, a mango, a pear, a handful of raspberries, a cup of unsweetened Green Jasmine Mango tea and a HUGE bowl of cabbage soup.

DAY 2: Make vegetables a big part of day two: You can eat any kind of cooked or raw vegetable as much as you like along with your soup. Try to pile up on leafy dark vegetables while avoiding those dry peas, beans and corn. During supper, a large potato that has been baled in the oven and lightly touched with butter may be consumed. Refrain from fruits on this day.

This day was tough because it was Saturday and we were on the run. J was playing in a b-ball tournament so I needed to bring my veggies to go. I started the day with a bowl of Fiber One cereal with skim milk (I use 1/2 a cup of each). Then throughout the day I had two snack packs of baby carrots and a can of V8 juice and then had a bowl of cabbage soup for lunch. For dinner I made my baked potato (so amazing) and also sauteed spinach with onions and garlic. It was a surprisingly filling meal, and super delicious! I also somehow managed to get the energy to go for a 5.25 mile walk!

DAY 3:
Mix one and two: Incorporate the essentials found in the 1st and 2nd day, dropping the baked potato. Eat as much fruits and vegetables that you want to on this day together with you cabbage soup.

I once again started my day with a small bowl of Fiber One Original Cereal and Skim Milk and paired it with a huge cup of unsweetened hot Green Jasmine Mango tea. Throughout the day I grazed on cantaloupe, red grapes and baby carrots. I had 2 bowls of soup this day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. This was a tough day because J and I went to the Timberwolves vs Celtics game and it was a HUGE challenge to order a bowl of fresh fruit when everyone else in the suite was eating nachos and chicken fingers. But, I stuck with it.

DAY 4:
Skimmed milk and bananas: You may have to endure eating a lot of bananas on this day. Consume up to eight bananas and take as much skimmed milk as you can, eating it together with your soup.

This was the day I wanted to quit. I once again started the day with Fiber One cereal and skim milk along with a green mango hot tea. Then, I ate a sh*# ton of bananas. Throughout the day I ate six bananas, ate a bowl of soup, and then had two more bananas for dinner---which I ordered at a restaurant. It was weird, but I'm committed. I also tried to drink a ton of milk, which was harder than I thought. I wanted "normal" food so bad this day. BUT, I knew I was half way done and if I could just stick with it I would be happy I did.

DAY 5:
Tomatoes and a little bit of beef: Start including six fresh tomatoes and between ten and twenty ounces of beef with your cabbage soup. It is recommended that you consume a minimum of 6 glasses of water, more if you can. This will aid in removing the Uric Acid that has accumulated in your body. Take your soup at least once on this 5th day. If you don’t like beef, baked chicken may be eaten instead. However, remember not to consume the skin on your chicken only the white meat.

This was without a doubt the worst day for me. I HATE (like despise) tomatoes, so I was stressing all day on how I was going to somehow eat 6 of them. I loaded up on soup all day and of course had my cereal for breakfast. For dinner I had a nice big boneless, skinless chicken breast. For my tomatoes, I ended up throwing them in the blender and liquefying them as much as they would liquefy, I added some water, garlic, s&p and oregano put it on the stove and tried to make tomato soup. It definitely didn't taste like tomato soup---but it was to the point I could get it down, kind of. I almost puked twice but over the course of two hours I was able to keep all 6 tomatoes down. So glad that's over.

DAY 6:
All the beef you can eat plus vegetables: Together with your soup, you can eat as much beef and vegetables as you like on the 6th day of the cabbage soup diet. You can consume up to 2 or 3 steaks if you want together with your leafy dark green vegetables.

BEST DAY EVER! :) I had cereal and soup throughout the day and then for dinner my fabulous dad grilled me a nice big 10oz filet! So yummy! I had roasted broccoli and asparagus on the side and I was SO happy! After a week of crappy crap it was seriously heaven. My only regret is that I didn't have like 12 more steaks throughout the day.

DAY 7:
Eat brown rice with your vegetables and cabbage soup while drinking unsweetened and fresh fruit juices.

Yesterday I had brown rice for breakfast, brown rice for lunch and brown rice for dinner and it was amazing! I am a carb-o-holic so getting rice was like Christmas morning! I polished off the end of my soup throughout the day and of course had Fiber One to start the day.

I made it! I somehow completed this terrible diet without cheating and it worked. I was really hoping to lose 8 pounds, but 6 pounds gone? I'll take it! Now if I can just eat healthy and continue to work out I'll be in good shape and ready for summer (and my engagement pics!)