The Cabbage Soup Diet; Does it really work?

Every day I watch my friend Kim exercise and eat right. She is on the warpath of calories and doing a good job.

No-a great job. 37 pounds in the past year. Our daily IMs read something like this:

• Kim: I’m on my treadmill right now.
• Me: I’m eating Cheetos.
• Kim: After I am done, I am going on a bike ride with the kids!
• Me: I’m still eating Cheetos.

The sad part is that I eat a well balanced diet and have always had excellent portion control. But over the years I have gained a pound here and there and here…and well, definitely there. At my very short height, my ideal weight hovers between 100-102 (although at my most slender I was 93 and spent the majority of my life at 98 before pregnancy), and after I had Charlotte I settled in the 104-106 range and was content with it.

Before you yell at me, I realize to some that that weight range seems low but the truth is its not. I am short. No if, ands, or buts (well, maybe 1 butt) about it. Short equals less weight. I have less bones, blood, tissue, and muscle than people that are taller. Oh, and I have no boobs, so I don’t carry weight there at all.  And the truth is, I want a flat stomach. I cant do a thing about my hips as they adjusted in pregnancy, but I want to wear a bikini if I feel like it. I don’t want to be model skinny, but I would like to be Trisha slender.

Maybe only short girls will get that.

Right now I am up to (well, at-least I was last week) 111.  With my grandmother having just had gastric bypass in April and my aunt having had it last year, I am very aware of what the slow creep up of weight can do to you and I really have to adjust my eating habits, regardless of how good I am at meal times, to my current over-30 years old now metabolism.

That means more exercise, more calorie control, and more awareness of what my body can process.

I’m not 18 anymore. I cant sit here and drink a coke and eat a piece of cake as a midday snack. Balanced meals at meal times don’t equal a balanced diet. And if I break it down, I have gained nearly 20 pounds since college.

That being said, when Kim and I were having this discussion, we started talking about jump start diets. I have been through Atkins (made me sick and nearly pass out), South Beach, and many of my own made up ones; my favorite being the “Cookie” diet that I did lose about 5 pounds on. Now it would probably give me a heart attack.

It was during our talks that her husband Ed mentioned that we should try the “Cabbage Soup Diet”. Apparently it can help you lose that 5-15 pounds immediately and then you can work on the rest.

So we looked it up.

Hmm.

It doesn’t look completely awful. And we thought it would be fun to try.

So we made a pact to try The Cabbage Soup diet (aka The Dolly Parton Diet) together (via IM) and blog our adventure so others know if it works, if it doesn’t, and how it makes us feel. I mean, is it really water weight? Does it make you crap your pants? We are sure there are people out there that have searched it and want to know, so we are doing a social experiment. I will be recording everything I eat during the diet (even if i cheat) and will include any form of exercise I do.

Just so you know, here is the recipe and the diet plan.

The Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe

• 1 package dry onion soup mix (liptons makes some)
• 2 bouillon cubes, either chicken or beef
• 1 celery stick (not the whole stalk), diced (some say a “bunch” of celery)
• 1/2 head green cabbage, diced
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 2 bell peppers, sliced ( i only used 1)
• 6 large green onions, or 1 large yellow, white or purple onion, diced
• 2 cans of tomatoes, diced or whole
• Cooking spray
• Salt, pepper, parsley, garlic powder, soy sauce to taste (or any other seasoning you like)
• V8 (optional)

Spray a large pot with cooking spray and saute all vegetables except cabbage and tomatoes until tender. Add cabbage and  12 cups of water or 8 cups and 4 cups of V8.  Toss in bouillon cubes, soup mix, and seasonings. Cook until soup reaches desired tenderness; add tomatoes.  (Note: I personally brought to boil for about 10 minutes and then cooked on low for 1.5 hours)

Dieters beware; you may encounter some gastrointestinal discomfort from the highly sulfurous cabbage and other gassy vegetables

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The Cabbage Soup Diet

• Day 1: Cabbage soup and all the fruit you want except bananas. Drink unsweetened tea, black coffee, cranberry juice, or water.
• Day 2: Cabbage soup, all the low-calorie vegetables you want (except beans, peas, or corn), and a baked potato with butter.
• Day 3:  Cabbage soup and a mixture of the above fruit and vegetables.
• Day 4: Cabbage soup, up to eight bananas, and two glasses of skim milk.
• Day 5:  Cabbage soup, up to 20 ounces of beef, chicken or fish, up to six fresh tomatoes, and at least 6-8 glasses of water.
• Day 6: Cabbage soup, up to 3 beef steaks, and unlimited vegetables.
• Day 7:  Cabbage soup, up to 2 cups of brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices, and unlimited vegetables.

The recipe for the cabbage soup varies slightly among different versions of the diet. But it basically includes cabbage and assorted low-calorie vegetables such as onions and tomatoes, and is flavored with onion soup mix, bouillon, and tomato juice.

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Of course before you start any diet, you need to consult your Dr if its right for you.  Please dont consider this post a recommendation (as of yet).  There are many online opinions, from drs to  from regular people, that its not a healthy diet (which blows my mind because its all fruits and vegis), so to be on the safe side, I added a multi-vitamin for this week.

Now this is only a week long diet and if you are considering following along with us, please make sure that you realize this is not a long term solution to weight loss gain and you will still need to figure out what is causing your weight gain in order to control it.

• My ideal weight loss goal is 5 pounds this week.
• Kim would like to lose 10, but said she would settle for 2.

We thought it would be fun to document.

We realize its a fad and crash diet, so spare us the lecture. Its just an experiment. If we come out with 5 pounds off, we celebrate..if we dont, atleast we get to learn how to control our farting in public.

So here it goes….Kim and I set out to answer the question: Does The Cabbage Soup Diet really work?

Pray for us.

~Trisha