Cabbage Soup - a real-life diet experience

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Cabbage Soup - the Magical Soup?

 

Is it true that you can shed up to 10lbs in one week by eating cappage soup?

 

Is the soup really as magic as people say?

 

Will you gain weight again after the diet is over?

 

This is a lense of Dieting Delilah, but it shows the dieting experience of my niece Belinda, who tried out this diet to lose a bit of weight. I am trying to put some information on diets together on Squidoo and Belinda agreed to write about her experience for me - this is her diet diary!

 

For more information on the cabbage soup diet and other diets go to the dieting delilah homepage... 

 

Why I am trying out the Cabbage Soup Diet? 

Hi everybody,

My name is Belinda and on this page I want to tell you about my diet experience. I am not really overweight but I gained some extra pounds during the winter that I want to shed so that my summmer clothes will fit perfectly again.

I don't want to start a month long diet and I don't want to starve myself. These were the two main criteria.
I had heard of the cabbage soup diet before and decided that now it was time to try it out myself.

I hope that I can help some of you by sharing my experience!

The Cabbage Soup 

How does this diet work?

What is most appealing about this diet? Obviously, it lasts for only SEVEN DAYS.
Because the diet is so low in calories doctors say you shouldn't continue it after you have followed the diet for one week.

For these 7 days your main meal is Cabbage Soup which is high in fiber and low in fat. You can eat as much of it as you want.
Additionally, on each of the seven days you have another "special treat".

Day 1:
You can eat cabbage soup and all fruit (no bananas and melons)

Day 2:
You can eat cabbage soup and vegetables (preferably greens)and you cn have a baked potatoe with a little bit of butter in the evening

Day 3:
You can eat cabbage soup, vegetables and fruits

Day 4:
You can eat -surprise, surprise- cabbage soup, up to 8 bananas and drink some skim milk

Day 5:
You can eat cabbage sooup, 10-20 ounces of beef or chicken and 6 tomatoes for dinner

Day 6:
You can eat cabbage soup, 10-20 ounces of beef and vegetables for dinner

Day 7:
You can eat cabbage soup, brown rice and vegetables and drink some unsweetened juice

During the whole week you should try to drink only water and unsweetened tea.

Dieting books 

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The Recipe 

the first step to success

What you need:
* 1 head of cabbage
* 6 large green onions
* 2 green peppers
* 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
* 3 Carrots
* 1 bunch of celery
* 1 package of onion soup mix
* any herbs or spices you want

Put all the veggies in a huge pot and boil them for about 10 minutes.

This is the recipe that I used - it is very tasty!
On other websites you will find recipe that are slightly different, but I guess all of them will have the same effect.

There are also many different suggestions on how you can season your soup in order to give it a different taste.

Try it out and enjoy!!
(at least for the first few days)

Yummy recipe variations.... 

Of course the recipe above is just the basic recipe for cabbage soup. I have heard about many different variations on TV, in magazines and from friends.

Here are the ones I like most:

Italian Style Cabbage Soup

3 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 cup chopped Italian parsley (flat leaf)
4 fresh oregano leaves, crushed,
or 1 teaspoon dried

Mushroom meets Cabbage

1 can of Mushrooms (10 ounces)
1 extra onion
Cayenne Pepper

Black Nero Soup
1 large onion
500g potatoes
200 - 300g black nero cabbage
1 litre vegetable stock
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh herbs, chopped, e.g. thyme, parsley
30ml vegetable oil
200g cooked cannelloni beans or butter beans (optional)

These are only some variations that you can try out. Be creative yourself and tell me about your best cabbage soup recipe!

Day 1 

getting started with my diet

It is the first day of my diet. I get up quite motivated and have 2 peaches for breakfast. I love fruit so it is great that I can eat them today.

Next I drive to the supermarket and buy all the yummy vegetables that I need for the soup and fruit and veggies for the following days.

Back home I follow the instructions, chop up the veggies and make the cabbage soup.
It actually tastes much better than I think - probably it isn't going to be hard to stick to this diet at all.
I purée half of the soup and leave the other one chunky as it is.

For lunch I have a big bowl of cabbage soup and I feel great.
Until the evening I munch on some fruit and for dinner it is cabbage soup again - but this time the chunky one.

Before going to bed I think about my day:
I really like the soup and didn't feel hungry all day. Seems like this is going to be a good diet for me - well let's wait and see if I actually lose some weight.

Dieting Books 

if the information I give you is not enough...

Day 2 

After getting up I am really hungry. Today I am allowed to eat cabbage soup and veggies, but I cannot eat cabbage soup for breakfast - no way - and I am not in the mood for vegetables for breakfast either.
So a cheat (but just a little bit) and eat two apples. I don't think that this will have much effect on my diet outcome.
For breakfast I eat a huge bowl of soup and some slices of cucumber.
I am busy the whole afternoon long and don't feel hungry at all. I somehow have the feeling that the soup really fills you up a lot.
In the evening I eat another bowl of soup, don't know if I can still see the soup tomorrow or the day after,....
Together with the soup I have some grean beans and cucumber slices and a baked potatoe - yummy!

I somehow have the feeling that the diet works. I guess tomorrow my scale will tell me if it is really working.

Day 3 

The first thing I do today is get on my scale. To my surprise it really shows that I have already lost 2.5lbs. That gives me some motivation for the day. For breakfast I have some nectarines and kiwis.
At 1 o'clock I decide to have lunch. Well to be honest, despite of my weight loss I am not really in the mood for cabbage soup today. I basically force a bowl of soup down my throught and drink lots of water with it.
In the evening I purée the soup again and add some balsamic vinegar so that it tastes a little bit different and reward myself with some cucumbers and tomatoes for eating a full plate of soup.
To be honest I am not looking forward to tomorrow. I can't imagine that I still got 4 days of cabbage soup eating ahead of me.

Day 4 

I get on my scale once more which tells me that I have lost 3lbs - hurray. I am very happy being able to eat 2 bananas and to drink some milk today. It seems like I have never eating anything that delicious before ;-)
For lunch I have some cabbage soup again - my feelings are the same as yesterday: yuck!! Anyway I have decided to keep on going with that diet. It is just one week anyway.
I eat the rest of the bananas during the day and drink some more glasses of milk.
In the evening I don't find it so hard anymore to swallow the cabbage soup.
I am already thinking of the beef that I am allowed to have the next day when I go to bed...

Day 5 

No breakfast for me today. My scale shows the same as yesterday :-(
Just the to think about cabbage soup makes me feel a little bit sick. At lunchtime I can only force myself to eat a little of the soup. The good thing: when I think of cabbage soup I have no appetite at all.
So I basically eat nothing except of a few spoons of cabbage soup the whole day and I drink lots of unsweetened tea.
I can't wait for the evening. I have a beef steak and tomatoe salad for dinner - yummy!!
Just 2 days to go - I can't wait till it is finally over!

Day 6 

Today when I get up my frist steps lead me to my scale. 6lbs - WOW!!! That is great. I feel great,...but just until come down to the fridge to fetch me some unsweetened juice. In there in a huge plastic bowl is the rest of my soup. I know I won't finish it all today and tomorrow.
I am sick of it!
Around of lunchtime I decide to try to eat some soup, but I simply can't. I just eat some veggies instead.
Despite of my weightloss I am in a terrible mood today. I even think about quitting but it is just ONE more day,...I won't give up now.
I am happy to be able to eat meat in the evening, but this also doesn't help my mood.

Day 7 

it is oooooover...

My last day - Hurray!!!
My scale says: lost 7bs - Hurray!!!

I have some juice for breakfast, munch on some veggies later on and can force some spoons of cabbage soup down my throat for lunch time.
I am really excited about having rice for dinner (I looover rice).
The last day goes better than I thought after I nearly quit the day before. I guess it is the feeling that after this day the torture is over that keeps me going!
However, I am still a bit unsure if I will gain some weight again.
Anyway, it is over and I am looking forward to being able to eat other things again from tomorrow onwards.

Dieting Delilah 

My aunt is planning to start a diet too and has created a nice, little blog that she will use to motivate herself to stick to her diet.
She has started to collect all kinds of information on diets there, so I can only advice everyone searchinf for infos on dieting to go there
Dieting Delilah - day to day diet experiences
The Diet Blog

Diet Feedback 

Feel free to post some comments here.
If you have also tried out the cabbage soup diet this is the place to tell us about your experience and opinion.

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