cabbage by Nick Saltmarsh on flickr.com
The cabbage soup diet is a very popular choice for losing weight quickly. Though it is not a long term solution, it can help you lose pounds rapidly in time for a special occasion or event. The diet is extremely restrictive and the only way to get the results promised is to follow the diet rules rigidly.
Here is the suggested way to follow the diet:
Day 1: On this day, you are allowed to consume fruit. There is no restriction upon the amount of fruit that you eat. The only restriction is that you CANNOT eat bananas. All other fruits are fine. On this day, you eat fruit and soup only. For drinks, you are allowed water, unsweetened tea, and cranberry juice (be wary of the added sugar in most brands.)
Day 2: You are allowed to have vegetables on this day. You are actually allowed to consume as much as you want and they can be raw or cooked. Though you can eat any that you want, the general recommendations are to choose green, leafy vegetables and stay away from beans, peas, and corn. And of course, you can have all the soup that you want and you should eat as much of this as possible. If you want, you can reward yourself at dinner and have a baked potato with butter. You are also allowed water and unsweetened tea this day.
Day 3: This day combines day one and day two: you can have as much fruit and vegetables as you want throughout the day. Make sure to consume lots of soup. However, on this day, you need to skip the baked potato.
Day 4: This is a day when bananas are allowed. You can have up to 8 bananas throughout the day. You are also allowed skim milk (make certain it is skim and not something else). You can have as much of the milk as you want through the day. And as always, eat as much soup as you want.
Day 5: On this day, you are meant to consume beef and tomatoes. The recommendation is to eat 10 to 20 ounces of beef and up to 6 fresh tomatoes. It is important to drink at least 6-8 glasses of water in order to wash out the uric acid from your system. If you do not want to have beef, you may substitute it with chicken, boiled or baked, as long as there is no skin on it. You can also substitute beef for broiled fish, but should you choose that, you cannot substitute fish for beef again on day 6. Make sure to eat your soup at least once during the day.
Day 6: This day is devoted to beef and vegetables. You can have unlimited quantities of both throughout the day, as well as eating the soup. The only restriction is that cannot have baked potato on this day. It is recommended again that you choose green leafy vegetables and eat them with the beef. Make sure to drink lots of water or unsweetened tea.
Day 7: The final day of the diet is devoted to eating brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice, and vegetables. There is no limit to the amount of these things that you eat. Just make sure to eat your soup throughout the day as well.
The diet is restrictive and the only way to make sure you get the impressive results you are looking for is to follow it exactly. Cheating on this diet would be a disaster. The restrictions generally only refer to types of food, not amounts, so you should not really go hungry while following this plan. The key, of course, is to eat lots of soup along with the other things allowed on each day. For the people that love this particular diet, the motto seems to be “the more cabbage soup, the better”, so eat lots.