Day before I start the Cabbage Soup Diet

Well the countdown is on...tomorrow I begin a 7 day cleanse/diet consisting of mainly cabbage soup along with other certain foods on certain days of the diet. I will get into those details in a bit. With this diet/cleanse you are supposed to lose 10 pounds in only 7 days so that is my goal.  But of course before I deprive myself of fatty, salty, and oh so yummy foods for the next WEEK, about an hour ago I ate an Areo bar, Coffee Crisp and a piece of leftover cake from my graduation (hence the cute little piggy pic!)

I say to hell with it, if I'm going to be eating the same soup everyday and peeing like a freaking racehorse daily, I might as well get my sugar fix in now! I got my chocolate fix, seemed that's all I needed, and now I'm ready to get on with this fad diet and see what happens.

"THE CABBAGE SOUP DIET"

So there isn't really a history as to where this diet or concept originated from, and there are many stories ranging from nurses at 'Sacred Heart Hospital' who had patients go on this diet for medical reasons, and there's stories of the recipe (or similar recipe to it) being used by members of the military for meals years ago.

Whatever the case may be, I stumbled upon this diet online and it's definetly gotten my attention.

So pretty much they call this one of those 'fad diets' just like the Atkins diet and Miami beach diet etc.. pretty much a diet where you follow strict rules, but lose weight real fast. Of course with that comes concerns from medical professionals and others regarding how losing weight so fast is unhealthy for the body, and yes I do agree with that, but the Cabbage Soup Diet is mainly used as a cleanse and should be used as a kick start to a healthy eating routine/program/lifestyle change.

According to-->  http://www.cabbage-soup-diet.com/  here are some Pro's and Con's regarding the Cabbage Soup Diet:

"Pros: You’ll lose weight fast, and for the week, you can eat as much of the foods listed in the program as you want. Although the diet is only for seven days (and shouldn’t be followed for longer), it provides a great “kick-start” for a more moderate diet.
Cons: Some people find the soup bland. Others report feeling light-headed, weak, and have suffered from decreased concentration (although I hear that many people think the diet is worth the effort anyway, since they lose so much weight!)."

That link above is the main website I've gone to for the recipe and for a lot of information/advice regarding the diet. So pretty much you can find all the details of the diet on there,and if you google 'Cabbage Soup Diet' you will come across tons more info.

THE RECIPE

• 6 large green onions (also called “spring” onions)
• 2 green peppers ( I used one red and one green pepper to switch up the flavor)
• 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole) (I used 2 low sodium cans of diced tomatoes, pics below)
• 3 carrots
• 1 container (10 oz. or so) mushrooms (I chopped up 5 mushrooms)
• 1 bunch of celery (three stalks)
• half a head of cabbage
• 1 package spice only soup mix (In the US, Liptons is a good choice) ( I did not use this)
• 1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional) (I did not use this)
• 1 48oz can Low Sodium V8 juice (optional) (4 cups of V8 and 8 cups of water)
• Season to taste with pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc. (Little to NO SALT!) (I used garlic powder, fresh parsely chopped (about a tablespoon), dried basil, little less than a teaspoon of curry), lots of pepper (as I heard it really gives the soup flavor), and a little cumin. I also added 4 small crushed garlic cloves to the soup.

DIRECTIONS:

Slice green onions, put in a pot on medium heat and start to sauté with cooking spray. Do this until the onions are whiter/clearer in color (about 4-6 minutes).
Cut green pepper stem end off, then cut pepper in half to take out the seeds and membrane. Cut the green pepper into bite size pieces and add to pot.
Take the outer leafs layers off the cabbage, cut into bite size pieces, add to pot.
Clean carrots, mushrooms, and celery, cut into bite size pieces and toss them in. Add tomatoes now, too.
If you would like a spicy soup, add a small amount of curry or cayenne pepper now.
For seasonings, you can use a spice soup packet of your choice (no noodles!) or use beef or chicken bouillon cubes. These cubes are optional, and you can add spices you like instead (make sure not to add much salt, if any at all).
Use about 12 cups of water (or 8 cups and the 48 oz of Low Sodium V8 juice), cover and put heat on low. Let soup simmer for a long time – about 2 hours or until vegetables are tender.

7 Day Meal/food plan for the Cabbage Soup Diet

EVERYDAY you should be eating as much cabbage soup as you would like. They say the more cabbage soup you eat, the more weight you will lose. It is recommended you eat 2-3 bowls a day, everyday (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
Everyday Drinks: unsweetened teas, cranberry juice and lots of water. NOTHING ELSE :(

DAY 1: Fruit-can eat as much as you want, but you cannot eat bananas.

DAY 2: Vegetables: fresh, raw or cooked, any kind you want, but they say to stay away from
beans, corn and peas, and potatoes. For dinner you can have one baked potatoe with butter.

DAY 3: Mix Days One and Two: Soup, fruits and vegetables. No Baked Potato.

DAY 4: Only bananas and skim milk. You can only eat up to 8 bananas. This day is supposed to lessen your desire for sweets. (I plan on making banana and milk smoothies with a bit of cinnamon in it! yum!)

DAY 5: Beef and Tomatoes only. 10-20 oz of beef and up to 6 fresh tomatoes. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water this day to wash the uric acid from your body. Eat your soup at least once this day. You may eat broiled or baked chicken instead of beef (but absolutely no skin-on chicken). If you prefer, you can substitute broiled fish for beef on one of the beef days (but not both). Plus cabbage soup.

DAY 6: Beef and Vegetables. You can eat as many veggies as you want, and can have 2 or 3 steaks. Plus of cabbage soup.

DAY 7: Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and veggies. Can eat as much as you want of those. Plus cabbage soup!

So that's a little about the diet! I decided I wanted to do this, because I want to see if I can actually lose 10 pounds in 7 days! Why not! I wouldn't mind losing the weight, it will be good to cleanse my body of salt and sugar for a week, and it'll be a good test to my willpower regarding how strict this diet is and if I can stick to it!

So this evening I made the soup, pretty much followed the recipe except for I left out the onion soup mix and the bouillon cubes WAHOOO I'm proud of myself for that, as I know they would give the soup a lot more flavor, but I really wanted to have as little sodium as possible and both those items have sodium. I had them on hand just in case, but I was able to play around with some spices and got the soup to a flavor I feel I can live with for a few days.

So overall I'm excited about this diet, interested to see if it'll work, and I'm really happy the soup turned out ok!!!

*Look for an update on Day 1 of Cabbage Soup Diet tomorrow evening!
Thanks for stopping by!

Below are some visuals of my cabbage soup cookoff!! :)