Cabbage Soup Diet- Rapid Results
If you’re looking for a quick-fix weight loss solution, the cabbage soup diet could be your perfect answer. Promoted at being an ideal way to lose weight quickly and easily, the cabbage soup diet is a one-week diet plan aimed at giving you the quick fix you need for that special event, or even just as an ideal kick-start to your weight loss regime.
But what is the cabbage soup diet? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t just have to eat cabbage soup for a week! While the soup is the main staple of the diet, you also have to supplement it with specific foods each day to provide you with the nutrition and variation you need. It is, however, still very restrictive, so should only be considered if you’ve got the will power to go along with it!
To make the soup you’ll need 6 onions, 2 green peppers, 1 large can of tomatoes, 3 carrots, approx 10oz of mushrooms, 1 bunch of celery, ½ a head of cabbage and 1 pack of onion soup mix. Mix all of the ingredients with up to 12 glasses of water (or alternatively 8 cups of water and a can of V8 juice) and season to taste, using bouillon cubes if you prefer. Then leave to cook for around 2 hours, and voila, you main meal for the next 7 days!
Once you’ve made you soup, the cabbage soup diet plan is as follows:
DAY 1- Soup and fruit: Eat as much soup and fruit as you want, except bananas, and drink only unsweetened teas, cranberry juice or water.
DAY 2– Soup and vegetables: Eat your soup and all the fresh, raw and cooked vegetables that you want, except dry beans, peas and corn. You’re allowed a baked potato with butter for dinner as a “treat” (if you can call it that…), and drinks as above, but don’t eat fruit or anything else on this day.
DAY 3– Soup, fruit and vegetables: A mixture of the last two days, but sadly, no baked potato for dinner.
DAY 4– Soup, bananas and skimmed milk: In an attempt to lessen your desire for sweets, tuck into up to 8 bananas and 8 glasses of skimmed milk. Don’t forget your soup as well.
DAY 5– Soup, beef and tomatoes: Eat your soup at least once today, along with 10-20 ounces (300-500g) of beef and 6 fresh tomatoes. If you prefer you can substitute skinless chicken for the beef, and make sure that you drink at least 6-8 glasses of water throughout the day.
DAY 6– Soup, beef and vegetables: Eat as much beef and as many fresh vegetables (except potatoes) as you want, along with at least one bowl of soup. Why not treat yourself to a steak or two? Or three…
DAY 7– The end is in sight! Today eat as much brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice and vegetables as you want, and your soup at least once.
If you follow this plan to the letter, you can expect to lose up to 10lbs in a week using the cabbage soup diet. Perfect if you’ve got a little black dress that you just have to fit into! Bear in mind though that most of this is water, and it isn’t healthy to continue the diet for longer than a week. It’s advisable to take a good multi-vitamin tablet whilst on the diet and make sure you drink plenty of water. If you can bear to do it again after all that cabbage, make sure you leave at least 2 weeks in-between each diet cycle.
The cabbage soup diet has a number of advantages. It can offer you a high level of weight loss in an extremely short space of time, and is relatively simple to achieve as long as you stick to the plan. Being full of fruit and vegetables it contains a lot of nutrients and is high in fibre, and as long as you take a good multi-vitamin and don’t stay on the diet for more than 1 week the lack of protein, carbohydrates and fat won’t do you any long term damage. And, as you can eat as much soup as you want, there’s no chance of going hungry – what more could you want?!
The main drawback of the diet is that as it’s extremely low in calories, it isn’t recommended as a long-term plan. The soup can be quite bland, and side effects reportedly include headaches, fatigue, weakness and decreased concentration, all probably down to the fact that you’re reducing your food intake by so much. But, dieters can console themselves with the fact that it’s only for a week, and if it does the job and gives you the results you need, it could be worth it! So, if you’re looking for that quick weight-loss fix, the cabbage soup diet could be your ideal solution.
