Today Trisha and I are starting a 7-day cabbage soup diet. What started as a discussion for how to lose 5 lbs, turned into an “I’ll try it if you will” challenge.
And yes I said cabbage soup.
Sounds great huh?
I can’t wait to eat something made from a food that smells like FEET.
I gained 70 lbs when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2007. I’m actually around 7 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight, which was on the high end of healthy when you looked at the charts. I know how to eat right and exercise to lose weight, mostly thanks to Weight Watchers and good old-fashioned common sense. But these last 7 lbs have been eluding me for the last few weeks. The scale won ‘t budge. On top of that, I actually want to lose 15 more lbs to get to my college weight.
The cabbage soup diet isn’t just about eating cabbage soup for 7 days. You also incorporate fruit, veggies, baked potato, brown rice and beef during the course of the week. And lots and lots of that smelly soup.
This morning I have to make the soup. I hoped to have it ready last night, but we had a big party and I didn’t get around to it. I did, however, get a call from Trisha who made hers yesterday and she claims it’s not stinky…we’ll see about that. I am convinced that I will know the answer to “what’s that smell?”.
In addition to eating as much cabbage soup as we want, today we also get to eat as much fruit as we want (except no bananas), so I doubt I will go hungry. I bought enough fruit to keep me full. The hard part will be avoiding the goodies we have left over from our party yesterday.
Here is the recipe for the soup:
Cabbage Soup Recipe
- 6 large green onions
- 2 green peppers
- 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
- 3 Carrots
- 1 Container (10 oz. or so) Mushrooms
- 1 bunch of celery
- half a head of cabbage
- 1 package Lipton soup mix
- 1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional)
- 1 48oz can V8 juice (optional)
- Season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.
Directions:
- Slice green onions, put in a pot and start to saute with cooking spray.
- Cut green pepper stem end off and cut in half, take the seeds and membrane out. 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, cut into bite size pieces, and add to pot.
- Slice mushrooms into thick slices, add to pot.
- If you would like a spicy soup, add a small amount of curry or cayenne pepper now.
- You can use beef or chicken bouillon cubes for seasonings. These have all the salt and flavors you will need.
- Use about 12 cups of water (or 8 cups and the V8 juice), cover and put heat on low. Let soup cook for a long time – two hours works well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
And these are the instructions for today:
Day One:
Fruit: Eat all of the fruit you want (except bananas). Eat only your soup and the fruit for the first day. For drinks- unsweetened teas, cranberry juice and water.
Now, I know we are going to hear from everyone that this “diet” does not change habits, it is not a healthy long-term option and numerous other things related to fad diets. But, I have a few facts for you to consider:
- I have lost 37 lbs this last year. I eat healthy and KNOW how to eat healthy in my regular routine.
- Trisha eats healthy and has maintained a nearly ideal weight for a long time. She gained a few lbs and wants to lose it to fit back in her clothes.
- It’s for 1 week (7 days). We don’t plan on making this a regular event.
- You can eat mass quantities of fruits and vegetables and drink an unlimited amount of water. It also incorporates some grains and some protein.
- It’s not starvation, and it’s not diet pills with who-knows-what in them.
- We’re not expecting miracles (although it would be nice to see some), we just think it will be an interesting week! We want to see if the cabbage soup diet really works.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the adventure.
Just don’t sit too close to us…..
About Kimberly Grabinski
Oh no, lol, I just wanted to try the soup ’cause it looks good and I need to eat more veggies! I’ll have carbs with mine ;). Glad it’s working for you!
You could probably put some pasta in it and make it like a Minestrone type soup. YUM-MY.
I am rooting for you kim! This will be interesting to see how you both do, I know you can lose those pesky pounds.
I am definitely not a nutritionist but I’ve been reading lots of things online and lipton soup mix and boullion cubes are high in sodium, and doesn’t lots of salt make you retain water? I must be wrong since you lost those 2 pounds and this diet has helped so many people. Just thought I’d ask :)
Thanks Annie!
I’m not positive, but I bet the amount of sodium in that stuff compared to the AMOUNT of soup it makes is small, KWIM?
I’ve done the Cabbage Soup diet in the past but didn’t make it past the 4th day. I need to try again because I need to lose 15 pounds. Losing 5 pounds with this diet might be just the thing to get me motivated to keep going.
Good Luck!
Thanks Kimberly!
I’m hoping this will springboard me a bit and help motivate me to lose the last 15 lbs to get back to my college weight!
Mmmm. I think I’m going to try this because I LOVE cabbage. I may have to take something for gas though. Greg’s in for some dutch oven love. ROFL.
LOL!
Sheena, I’ve met you, you can’t possibly have any extra weight LOL!
But honestly so far I feel really good.
im starving to death. My stomach is eating itself for some cake.
I thought about dipping my finger into some frosting but I didn’t.
Good for you! I did the diet one time and made it to Day 3 or 4 (whenever beets were introduced… yuck :-)) Good luck!
This one doesn’t have beets…thank goodness LOL
Trisha said there were a few different variations.
I too do weight watchers and would am intrigued with this to loose the rest of the weight I need in order to reach goal. I would be afraid of gaining it back so quickly. Good Luck and will check back to see how a fellow WW does and if it stays off. I am hoping it does because it just might be something I try.
Allison,
I’m hoping that since I’m already doing Weight Watchers, that when I switch back, it will just be business as usual and I’ll go back to my snails pace of losing weight LOL.
Only time will tell..
LOL Good luck! I’ll be checking in to see how you do! When I did the Zone diet, my husband tried it and he only lost 3 lbs (as opposed to my 57) maybe he can eat cabbage soup? Although. I might not want to be near him!
Maybe he needs to try Weight Watchers. You can eat whatever you want basically in moderation, but it teaches you to eat better because you can eat MORE of the healthier stuff.