Not only that, this diet has staying power. It’s a secret people have been using for decades to lose weight fast.
It used to be called the Model’s Diet.
The best part is:
It’s cheap and super healthy.
In today’s post, I’ll list each step for losing weight with the Cabbage Soup Diet
If you’re reading this guide right now, chances are you need to lose weight and lose it fast.
If that’s the case, please tell me you’re not reading this while gorging on a bag of processed junk food. If you are eating something you have no business eating, please A) dispose of it and B) consider the back of your head smacked.
The Best Diet No One’s Talking About
The Cabbage Soup Diet is a quick fix solution and considered by many to be a bit of a miracle that can help people lose up to 10 pounds in a single week.When someone first mentioned The Cabbage Soup Diet to me, my first thought was that this was NOT something that I would ever want to try. However, I am not completely opposed to cabbage, and other diets haven’t worked for me so eventually I did give this one a try. It is an amazing diet plan that really works…
After its popularity in the 1950s, the cabbage soup diet was forgotten for a time, but then revived in the early 1980s as the Dolly Parton Diet, Trans World Airlines (TWA) Stewardess Diet, and the Model’s Diet.
No doubt these modern monikers were given to the diet because it was known that models, actresses and flight attendants back in the day would have periodic weight check-ins and, if they were overweight, risked losing their jobs.
Here’s the long and the short of it:
1. It’s dirt cheap
You’ll spend a few dollars on inexpensive vegetables (cabbage being the vegetable most used) and throw them into a pot and making soup, so anyone on any kind of budget can give this diet a try. You could say it’s a souper cheap way to lose weight.2. Nutrient Rich
Cabbage doesn’t get the love and respect it deserves as a superfood. It’s a very healthy vegetable that offers a ton of vitamin C (F *ck off scurvy) and a lot of fiber. You’ll see in a minute why the high fiber content is so important.3. Cabbage Fills You Up
Satiety is the feeling of fullness after a meal and the feeling that lasts between meals. Satiating foods increase the feeling of fullness make the feeling last longer.Eating low calorie foods that make you feel full is one of the secrets naturally skinny people use to fight cravings and eat less overall.
It’s not known exactly why high fiber foods, such as cabbage, increase satiety. Most scientists agree the slower process of digestion of these foods trick your body into feeling full longer.
Many studies have confirmed the importance of highly filling foods for appetite control. This one combined the results of multiple studies to conclude that by eating more fiber, people do eat few calories and they burn more fat. It seems that by adding 14 grams of fiber for 2 or more days people reduced calorie intake by 10%.
You can see in the Nutritional Value section above that you’ll be adding almost double this amount of fiber per batch of soup.
Did I mention?
The people in the study weren’t actively trying to cut calories.
It happened naturally because they weren’t as hungry.
4. Works as a Cleanse
Fiber not only helps you feel fuller, if you often have trouble “going” – you’ll probably have an easier time of it this week and find your intestinal tract cleared and cleansed. Win/win, no?A study published in the Lancet showed a 69% increase in the weight of bowel movements on a cabbage diet.
This might be gross, but:
It kind of makes you wonder how long that extra stuff had been in there before the cabbage came along to carry it out.
Be careful because the diet is not something that you should continue for a long time. In fact it is more of a cleanse than a diet. But, I happen to have lost 15 lbs on the diet myself… so I am a believer.
5. It’a a Whole Food Detox
The cabbage soup diet is a form of intermittent fasting that gives your body a break from all of the usual processed garbage you shovel into it.On this diet, you spend 3 days or more replacing crap with pure whole food–the kind that comes straight from the earth.
After a week of eating whole foods, your body feel refreshed and renewed as it has time to adapt to an absence of the many toxins it usually receives on a daily basis. Many people report a diminished cravings for sugar and refined carbs.
6. A Form of Intermittent Fasting
Starve a little to lose a lot.You may have heard of the eat, fast, eat diet–or any other diet that relies on fasting as a means of calorie reduction.
The cabbage soup diet is a quick and dirty version of an intermittent fasting diet.
Fasting diets are scientifically proven to help you lose weight and improve health:
You can read more about it here. If you wanted to keep up the weight loss over a long period, do the Cabbage Soup Diet just one a day a week for as long as you like after you complete the initial phase.
7. It’s Simple.
You can make a whole batch of the soup and store it in your refrigerator and just heat it up for later. This is so much more convenient than having to, say, juice fruits and veggies three times a day and clean the juicer each time.Are You Up to the Task?
The Cabbage Soup Diet works for the person who just can’t seem to stick to any diet for any real length of time.Let’s face it:
We’re a society of instant gratification hounds, and you KNOW you’re one of them. Most diets require you to be on them for four to six weeks before you see any real results.
Although the Cabbage Soup Diet is NOT intended as a long-term solution, what’s great is that by losing significant and noticeable weight in one week, you’re much more motivated to get into shape. It’s the perfect jumping off point for true long-term lifestyle changes.
This persons swears by it for long term with success:
I have been on the cabbage soup diet for a year (on and off). I’ve done it about six times and I’ve lost over thirty pounds. I do NOT like cabbage or most vegetables, for that matter. But, I bought a blender, blend it up REAL well and I drink it. I’m used to it, now.The other person who this diet is perfect for:
The person who really doesn’t give a rat’s a** about making lifestyle changes, they just desperately need to lose 10 pounds in a week so they can fit into their bridesmaid dress and avoid armpit fat rolls.
The Original Cabbage Soup Recipe
The original 1950s Cabbage Soup recipe is basically the same one used today. The only real variant of today’s recipe is that the soup is cooked less. While the original called for cooking the soup for a full hour, an amount of time that would essentially destroy all of the nutrients in the cabbage and other veggies, the newer version suggests cooking the soup for only 20 to 30 minutes after being brought to a boil.You can eat as much soup as you want at any time during the day.
The ingredients:
- 1 Green Pepper
- 1 Large Can Diced Tomatoes
- 6 Stalks Celery
- 1 Large Onion – Chopped
- 1-2 Cubes of Bouillon (if desired)
- 1 head cabbage. A nice, big green one.
- 48 oz. of V-8 Juice (low sodium works best)
- 4 cups of water
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil (do not splurge here)
- 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (or to taste)
Step One
The first thing you’ll want to do is rinse all the veggie in the sink and they chop them into bite-size pieces.Step Two
Next, heat the olive oil in a pan and then add the onion to saute for a couple of minutes until the onions start to sweat. Add your celery and pepper and saute those with the onion for another 4 to 5 minutes.Step Three
Pour in your water and V-8 Juice, bouillon cube, hot sauce and tomatoes. Bring all of it to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer until your veggies are tender (about 15 minutes if you chopped your veggies into smaller pieces).Step Four
Next, core your cabbage, then shred it, add it to your pot, and cook your soup for another 10 minutes. Adding the cabbage at the end of your cooking time preserves some of its nutritional value and keeps your house from smelling like a port-o-potty.7 Day Cabbage Diet Plan
Day One:
Fruit Day: On your first day you can eat as much fruit as you’d like (except for bananas). When you don’t feel like any more fruit but you’re hungry, have your soup. Only fruit and soup today.Day Two:
Vegetable Day: Today you can eat as many vegetables as you can handle, and they may be raw or steamed. You should really try and avoid peas, corn and beans but eat a lot of leafy greens. So today have as much soup and veggies as you want. And for dinner you may chow down on a big, baked potato with oil, or butter if that’s your thing.Day Three:
Day 1 and Day 2 combo: Today you’re basically going to eat all the fruit (still no bananas though) and vegetables and soup you want, but no potato at dinner.Day Four:
You Can Finally Eat Bananas Day: Today’s a fun day because you can eat AS MANY BANANAS as you want today. You can also have as many glasses of skim milk as you’d like. And of course throughout the day eat as much soup as you want.Day Five:
Get Your Protein And Tomatoes On: Today the diet calls for a piece of beef or chicken that is 10 to 20 ounces. You can substitute with anything high protein, as long as it’s not too starchy or sugary. You can also up to six fresh tomatoes. Putting ketchup on your beef does not count for fresh tomatoes. It’s also very important today that you drink 6 to 8 glasses of water to eliminate the uric acid from your body. Your soup should be eaten as often as you’d like.Day Six:
More Protein and Vegetables. (You may also feel free to substitute broiled fish for one of your protein days but not for both.) Eat as much protein (seriously have 3 porterhouse steak if you’d like), veggies and soup as you feel like today. Try to eat a good amount of leafy greens today but no baked potato!Day Seven:
Unsweetened fruit juices, vegetables, and brown rice: You know the drill, you can stuff your face with as much of these items, and of course your soup today.So… You Say You’d Like to Make Some Substitutions
The key to being successful with the Cabbage Soup Diet is to really not stray from the recipe or weekly meal plan. Having said that, there are a few substitutions you may experiment with if you get bored or don’t like another particular food item.A number of other high fiber vegetables may be added to the soup for a bit more flavor, as long as they are lower in calories. For instance, adding corn or carrots would not be a good substitution because they are both sugary vegetables with too many calories.
Veggies like zuchinni, spinach, and kale are acceptable substitutes. You may even add one can of black beans to the pot for a bit of added flavor, texture and protein. To change up the flavor, stick to herbs and seasonings like cayenne, curry powder or bay leaves.
Maximize Your Weight Loss
As we mentioned a bit earlier, cabbage is full of fiber, making you feel full on this diet. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), raw cabbage contains only 20 calories per 31/2 ounces. Heck, you’ll practically burn that off just from chewing.The shorter cooking time helps to alleviate the bitterness of raw cabbage without destroying the dietary fiber and nutrients.
The bottom line is:
The more you can fill up on this nutritious and low-calorie soup, the more weight you will lose.
The DOs and DON’Ts of the Cabbage Soup Diet
DON’T ever feel hungry during your weeklong diet. The whole point is for you to eat AS MUCH soup and other allotted foods on the appropriate day. Anyone who says the Cabbage Soup Diet is a starvation diet is an idiot and you can tell them we said so. If you’re feeling hungry, you’re not following directions, and if you don’t follow directions you won’t get the results you want. Capiche?DON’T add salt to your foods; not to your soup or veggies or baked potato or tomatoes or protein source, etc. This includes table salt, sea salt, salt substitutes and seasoned salt.
DON’T drink anything but water. And drink a ton of it. Remember the cleanse aspect of this diet, where your digestive tract gets cleared out? Without a lot of water, you’ll just feel bloated and constipated. The extra waste won’t make it’s way out and you’ll be worse off than when you started.
You’ll notice there are some versions of this diet online where you have the option of drinking cranberry juice and V-8 juice instead of water. All we’re saying is, if you want to lose 10 pounds instead of 9, you’ll want to shave off as many calories as you can, and water has zero calories.
DON’T get creative with the soup recipe unless you’re using one of our alternatives. Recipes were made to be followed. You may think adding another cup of carrots won’t hurt but carrots contain a lot of sugar and therefor calories.
DO enjoy your coffee and tea during the weak so as to avoid any awful caffeine withdrawal headaches but ;
DON’T add your usual sugar and creamer. For a bonus pack of antioxidants, we recommend this matcha green tea. It’s better than a vitamin. Black coffee and tea has very minimal calories so you’re alright there.
The biggest problem with mainstream diets is this:
They take that very slow and steady approach to weight loss and most people want faster results.
The weight loss is so slow that most people get discouraged and quit before they ever see any true results.
The very reason why people love the Cabbage Soup Diet so much is because real weight loss, which you can see with your own eyes, happens in only 7 days. And that weight loss propels people into a more long-term solution that can bring about even greater weight loss and a radical positive shift in their overall health.
Maximize the Weight Loss
You’re probably wondering:Will this actually work?
Here are a few final tips on how you can make sure you are successful with this simple yet very effective diet:
· Follow the diet to the proverbial letter. Listen, just because you’ve had an English muffin every morning for breakfast for the past four years doesn’t mean you can have them this week.
You only need to commit to seven days – it’s really not that much to ask of yourself. If you feel it is, you will never lose weight.
· Don’t forget to drink a lot of water on this diet to help flush out your system and keep you full.
· Make sure to make plenty of soup so you can store it and easily heat it when you get hungry. That’s really key, having that soup always ready to go.
· Don’t go out that week to bars and restaurants with friends and family or you’re just asking for trouble. You can fool yourself into thinking you have enough willpower to NOT eat a whole bowl of chips and salsa by yourself, but if that were the case, you wouldn’t be trying to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time in the first place. It’s only 1 week, suck it up.
0 Comments