Cabbage diet?

[ilovemykids]

Anyone ever heard of the cabbage diet? I remember someone giving it to me a long time ago. It lasts like 2 weeks or maybe 30 days. You eat only one thing a day. Anyone heard of it or know where I can get it? I don't really like cabbage that much but if I can lose weight on it, I'll try anything.

Thanks,
Shelly

[sourpuss]

Eating once a day will send your body into starvation mode and thus slow your metabolism down.

[ghanie]

I remember hearing about that diet back when I worked in a doctor's office. You don't eat once per day .. you are rather limited to a certain kind of food per day. It's called a cabbage diet because there's this recipe for cabbage soup that you can eat at any time during the diet that's supposed to boost your weight loss.

Most of the girls attempted it and while they did lose some weight, it wasn't as much as the diet advertised. I'll do some googling to see if I can find it .. it's not unhealthy from what I remember.

[ghanie]

Well that was fast .. here we go ... since we can't post links, here is a copy/paste of the routine. Oh some other basic rules that I'm remembering .. no suger, no soda, no caffeine, and no smoking.

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.

Day Two:
Vegetables: Eat until you are stuffed will all fresh, raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. Try to eat leafy green vegetables and stay away from dry beans, peas and corn. Eat all the vegetables you want along with your soup. At dinner, reward yourself with a big baked potato with butter. Do not eat fruit today.

Day Three:
Mix Days One and Two: Eat all the soup, fruits and vegetables you want. No Baked Potato.

Day Four:
Bananas and Skim Milk: Eat as many as eight bananas and drink as many glasses of skim milk as you would like on this day, along with your soup. This day is supposed to lessen your desire for sweets.

Day Five:
Beef And Tomatos: Ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomtoes. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water this day to wash the uric acid from your body. Eat your soup at least once this day. You may eat broiled or baked chicken instead of beef (but absolutely no skin-on chicken). If you prefer, you can substitute broiled fish for the beef on one of the beef days (but not both).

Day Six:
Beef and Vegetables: Eat to your heart's content of beef and vegetables this day. You can even have 2 or 3 steaks if you like, with leafy green vegetables. No Baked Potato. Eat your soup at least once.

Day Seven:
Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables: Again stuff, stuff, stuff yourself. Be sure to eat your soup at least once this day.

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.

[ilovemykids]

Hi ghanie,

Thanks for doing all that work to find it. It sounds interesting. I am not sure I could do it, though. Sounds like a lot of work! Does is only last for 7 days? Or do you start over at day 1?

That cabbage soup doesn't sound to bad, I might try it out.

Thanks again,

Shelly

[ghanie]

As with most of these "fad" diets, it's only a jump-start and not recommended for long-term use. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to do it every few months if you like it.

They're meant to cleanse the system of processed junk and get a person into the mindset of making their own foods and following a plan.

If you observe most of these diets, you'll find a theme .. whole foods (the stuff that isn't processed and doesn't come in cans, boxes, or baggies). If it is packaged, make sure it doesn't have any gluten or sugar.

And of course there are the cardinal rules .. small frequent meals, don't eat within 3-4 hours of bedtime, eat within 30 minutes of waking, drink plenty of water throughout the day and about a cup of water with each meal ... it goes on but it's about the same.