For Those with the Willpower of a Marine...
Written: Oct 16 '02
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Pros: Instant gratification, fast weight lost
Cons: Dangerous, can get sick, gaseous, not a long term solution
The Bottom Line: A way to jumpstart a new lifestyle by getting the mind ready for a healthy lifestyle. Please use with caution as some can suffer adverse effects from the diet.
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| chic_seeker's Full Review: Cabbage Soup Diet |
If you have the willpower and determination to gut it out and suck it up like a United States Marine, perhaps this is the diet to jumpstart your new and hopefully healthy lifestyle. The cabbage soup diet by itself is not a solution to a weight loss problem. What happens with most dieters (myself included) is that we get discouraged when the scale won't bulge and we've hit the plateau in our goal to obtaining that supermodel-like figure.
Basic Overview:
The cabbage soup diet spans for seven days with a set of required food / restrictions for everyday. The recipe for the soup is as follows:
1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (I used 1 can tomato sauce + 2 fresh tomatoes to give it texture and color)
6 Lg. green onions
2 onions (I sautéed mine with PAM and salt first because the odor of raw onion soup is just not very appetizing)
1 Pkg. Lipton onion soup mix (Else beef bouillon cubes work as well)
1 bunch of celery
1 head of cabbage
2 green peppers
Add whatever seasonings you like. Examples include salt, parley flakes, dill, rosemary, basil leaves.
Optional ingredients: 1 can green beans omit the green onions, add 4 stalks carrots
Substitutions: If the idea of having beef makes you gag, please feel free to substitute chicken or tofu.
Please note that the recipe is pretty lenient in the types of vegetables you can put in it. I sautéed parts of the vegetables with PAM, not oil, before making it into a broth because it tastes better that way. Please watch the sodium (salt) content and salt carefully as too much sodium is not good for the body.
For each of the seven days, the food schedule that is mandatory to adhere to is as follows:
Day 1. All you can eat fruits (except bananas) and soup day. (No starch rich foods) I usually go with watermelons and berries. Your body needs the vitamins!
Day 2. All you can eat vegetable and soup day. The veggies can be fresh or canned. I put balsamic vinegar on mine 'cuz it tastes better that way. I prefer kale for its nutritional contents. Choose whatever veggies your heart craves. (Sorry, no starchy veggies until dinner) Dinner: 1 baked potato with moderate amount of butter. (I use Molly McButter)
Day 3. All you can eat fruit, veggies, and soup day. No starchy food like potatoes.
Check the scale; you have probably lost 5 pounds if you've stuck to the diet.
Day 4. A food limiting day in the regiment. A total of 3 bananas and all you can drink skim milk as well as soup. Idea: banana shakes (with 1 frozen banana and skim milk). By now, the body is craving and dreaming of the yummy food it misses. I know mine does!
Day 5. Tomatoes, beef and soup day. (10 to 20 oz. of beef and a total of 6 fresh tomatoes.) I sautéed 2 tomatoes and the beef together with some teriyaki sauce 'cuz gosh, I miss warm good food..
Reminder: Drink 6-8 glasses of water on this day to wash away the uric acid in your system.
Day 6. All you can eat beef, vegetables, and soup. Sorry, no baked potato or other starchy stuff. Add some spicy chilies to the soup if that'd help you drink it. I usually hate the soup by this day...
Day 7. Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice, soup, and vegetables.
Check point: You will probably lose 10 - 15 pounds if you followed the regiment faithfully. If you have succeeded, congrats, your determination is truly amazing. He he, you can consider joining the Marines :)
Cool Points: You're allowed to season your food with fresh or dried herbs, salt, pepper, fake sugar, lemon, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, ketchup, or soy sauce.
It's mostly all you can eat of a select part of restricted food except on day 4 and 6. If you are hungry, drink soup and eat!
Beverages allowed: water, tea, coffee, or any drink without sugar that you want. It is preferable to limit the diet soda factor to one or two for a day. Don't forget that all that carbon dioxide from the soda will only add to the gaseous factor.
Why this works:
Diuretics serve to flush the body of toxins (as so popular in de tox diets). The veggies used in the cabbage soup diet are mostly diuretics. Also, the amount of water consumed also helps to cleanse the system.
To put it bluntly, the diet makes the body pass an excessive amount of gas and makes the person go to the bathroom for number 1 quite often. I guess this can be good if one suffers from constipation on a regular basis... But it is by no ways the healthiest way to diet.
Comparison:
The cabbage soup diet is definitely safer than a fasting where the body can go into starvation mode from the so called "cleansing ritual".
The cabbage soup diet will not increase the cholesterol as significantly as staying on the Atkins Diet (all protein, no carbs diet). Yet the Atkins diet sure was tastier with all the meat one can eat...
It is longer in duration than the Hollywood "Miracle" drinks diet that consists of fortified juices for two days along with none-appetizing fortified snack bars.
Thoughts:
In an ideal world, we'd all eat right, exercise everyday, have no stress, and very fit bodies to go with our very fit minds. Yet since this isn't an ideal world, we try to find shortcuts in achieving perfection. The cabbage soup diet is one such example.
Personally, I consulted a nutritionist on this subject and she is adamantly against the cabbage soup diet. Her reason is simple: the body goes into starvation mode and becomes malnourished. Hehe, you'd think that I'd listen to her advice and stop this cabbage soup none sense but the allure of a quick weight loss is too great. So now I'm going back on this weight loss diet again and I'm taking a multi-vitamin supplement everyday to compensate for what my body needs.
Why I go on this from time to time? Easy, I love seeing the scale drop... even if the drop is short-lived. This diet inspires me to take better care of my body and continue eating healthy and exercise moderately. See, I figured if I am good at sticking to the healthy routine, then I never need to smell the icky broth that is this cabbage soup diet.
However, these diets, along with many other crash diets are harmful. This is not a long term solution. But I would choose this diet over the Hollywood diet anyday because this is more effective. The Atkins diet is by far the most delicious for a carnivore but the increase in cholesterol is daunting enough to keep me at bay. As for a fast, I just can't stand that, nor do I want to put my best pal, my tummy through that type of torture.
Most important point
If you feel light headed, nauseous, have any health problems, is nursing, pregnant or whatever other exceptions to the rule that puts you at risk of becoming more ill because of the diet, please don't try this weight loss diet at all costs. Good health is more important than looking hot in a pair size 0 of leather pants.
I am serious when I say that some people can get extremely sick from following a mostly fluid diet. The body will reject solid food after it's adjusted to the diet.
It is preferable to only follow the diet one seven day cycle at a time with a two to four week rest period before embarking upon another cycle.
Lastly, good luck and remember the Grecian motto of "everything in moderation" is the way to go! :)
Recommended:
Yes
Approximate Monthly Cost (US$) cost of food
Food Variety Restrictions A short list of allowed foods
Restrictiveness of Portions Gorge all you like
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chic_seeker
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Location: NY, NY, USA
Reviews written: 47
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