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Just for fun, and because it's kind of a summer ritual for me after all these years, I'm spending the week this week with my old friend, the Soup Diet! I've done it so many times through the years that I've tweaked the soup more to my liking, and here's how I now make it:

Cabbage Soup, a la Verb

One small brown onion
1 or 2 large zucchinis, cubed
1 cup coarsely shredded carrot
2 or 3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 large handful of fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small red potato, diced
1/2 of a large bag of shredded cabbage (or one small bag)
1 large (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 large (32 oz) cartons chicken stock or broth
1 tsp. chicken flavored stock base or bouillon powder
1 T. italian seasoning, or 2 tsp. basil + 1 tsp. oregano, crumbled
tarragon to taste
1 tsp. garlic powder
fresh ground pepper to taste
dash red pepper
2 pkts splenda (I think tomatoes taste best with a touch of sweetness to counter the acid)

Spray a large pot with non-stick spray. Add onion, carrot, celery and bell pepper and "sweat" them until slightly softened. Pour in tomatoes and broth. Add remaining veggies and seasonings (adjust to taste--it's your soup!) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender.

This version of the soup tastes quite a lot like a delicious, homemade minestrone. (I further the illusion by sprinkling my bowl of soup with a teaspoon of parmesan, green can style. That adds 7 calories but lots of flavor.) You may wonder about the red potato. The original version called for a packet of chicken noodle soup mix, which I thought added nothing, so I use the little potato to replace those odd dehydrated noodles and the teaspoon of soup base to replace the powdered broth in the soup mix. Tastes much better and probably has less chemicals. One tiny red potato over the course of several days of soup has no calorie impact and just makes the soup a little heartier.

I honestly don't think what goes in the soup matters much. It just needs to be very, very low in calories and comprised completely of vegetables. The only "trick" is that soup is filling and fools you into feeling sated on very, very low calories.

So the week goes as follows:

Day 1: Fruit and Soup (any fruit you want except bananas, all the soup you want)
Day 2: Vegetables and Soup (any non-starchy vegetables, cooked without fat, all the soup you want, 1 large baked potato with pat of butter for dinner!)
Day 3: Fruits, Vegetables and Soup (as above, only no potato. Still no bananas.)
Day 4: Soup, Bananas and Skim Milk
Day 5: Soup, Beef and Tomatoes (10 to 20 oz beef and up to six fresh tomatoes or 1 large can tomatoes)
Day 6: Soup, Steak and Vegetables (no starchy vegetables, try to stick to leafy green)
Day 7: Soup, Brown Rice and Veggies (I don't much like brown rice, so I just put it in my soup or stir "fried" it with some veggies in non-stick spray.)

That's it! I find it kinda fun, and it definitely "cleans you out." So here I go. Just had watermelon, a peach and a bowl of soup for brekky. I will update through the week.


P.S. Regarding drinks, I try to drink just water, black coffee or iced tea. The original instructions said unsweetened fruit juice, but I don't think that does anything except raise the blood sugar, so I don't do it. It also said skim milk, and I drink some every day as a protein source. Someone argued that with me very vehemently on that first go-round, but what can I say? It works for me, and this is MY soup diet!

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Day 2 report: went to bed hungry last night and didn't sleep very well (but I had a big choir performance this morning and the music was rolling over and over in my brain, so that may have been it more than the hunger was.)

I woke up absolutely famished, but weighed myself before rushing to the kitchen for some, er...soup. (It never sounds very good for breakfast, ya know?) I was down a pound and a half, but had to get up and weigh very early. Betting that if I had slept for 2 more hours and weighed when I normally do, I'd have been down 2 pounds. Considering that I was up a pound yesterday, I'm betting that I lost about a pound the first day.

I should share my meals from yesterday, just for my record-keeping purposes.

Day 1: B-bowl of soup w/ 1 tsp parmesan, a white peach, a slice of watermelon, coffee
S- more watermelon
L- bowl of soup w/parm, white nectarine, more melon
D- bowl of soup w/parm, bowl of sliced strawberries with Truvia, a peach
S- one more slice of watermelon (I bought one of those little individual sized ones, and was trying to finish it off.)

I had a couple of short glasses of skim milk through the day, and lots of green tea and water.

Day 2, so far
B- bowl of soup w/ parm, coffee, short glass of skim milk
L-bowl of soup w/parm, shredded lettuce topped with tomato and avocado slices, iced green tea


After I ate my soup brekky and coffee, I haven't felt especially hungry today. That's good--I find this day and the fruit and veggie day tomorrow the hardest days. The first day, fruit is such a novelty to a Atkineer that it's kind of fun! Seems like the fun has usually worn off by the third day, though.

I'll check in later with the rest of my food and how my hunger is doing.

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Day 2 evening update. I am really, really hungry. Like woozy, lightheaded hungry.


Maybe I'm getting too old for these goofball fad diets. (But I do NOT quit things I start, so I'll finish the darned thing...)

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Day 3

Slept great, got up late and weighed at my usual weighing time. No loss. In fact, a .2 pound gain since yesterday's weigh-in. Was there ever a more uncooperative body than mine? EVER? I'm sure that part of the issue is that I already pared off all my water weight last week on Induction, but still! I'll bet I'm not getting in more than 800 calories the last two days. Argghhh.

I'll not be deterred, though. I'm not a quitter.

Day 3 (Fruit, Vegetable and Soup day)

Breakfast: soup, white peach, black coffee
Lunch: soup, orange, mixed fruit cup, iced tea
Dinner: soup, peach sliced into a bowl of skim milk

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

I just want to wish you good luck! I see your determination and I admire that.

One question, can you eat as much soup as you want throughout the day?

_________________
177/146/140 F 55 8/19/02
Carrie

Yep, all the soup you want. Of course, after a day or two, you don't really WANT soup any more.

Day Four (milk and banana day)

Finally, down a pound! Slept really well, woke up feeling fine and not especially hungry. I find this day pretty easy because I really like bananas and don't get to have them on Atkins. (Although as I recall, by the end of the day, I've had it with bananas...)

Breakfast: 2 bananas sliced in a bowl of skim milk, black coffee (just couldn't face soup for breakfast)

Edited to add: lunch and dinner were just the same! big surprise!

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Day Five (beef and tomato day)

No loss this morning. The same weight as yesterday, down to the tenth of a pound. All that starvation for a one pound loss so far. Sheesh.

Slept quite well last night, no particular hunger. (Ended up eating five and a half bananas yesterday, plus three bowls of soup.)

This morning I joyously had a hamburger patty with sugar free ketchup! Man, did I miss my protein! I already feel like a whole new person! Got a couple of tri-tip steaks thawed for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast: hamburger patty, SF ketchup coffee
Lunch: tri tip steak, SF ketchup, iced tea
Dinner: Arby's roast beef (it's sliced brisket), no bun, of course

Never got around to having any soup. Was really full from the beef.

That's all for now.

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Day 6 (beef and vegetable day)

Only a half pound loss this morning--I am NOT setting the world on fire with this diet this week, for sure.

Breakfast is going to be a tri-tip steak, soon as my GFG finishes heating up.

I'm going to skip the rice day tomorrow and just keep plugging forward with standard Atkins induction. Now that I'm back on meat, I don't see much point in eating a bunch of carbs to knock me out of the ketosis I'm presumably getting back into. I"ll come back tomorrow and report my weight, and edit in today's meals, and call that a wrap on the old soup diet.

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Day Seven

I weighed in down a full pound this morning. That makes 2 and a half pounds for the week so far, and I guess that's not bad considering I lost five last week on Induction.

As I mentioned, I'm not planning to do the brown rice day today. I'm in hard ketosis now, judging by the taste in my mouth and the crampy legs I woke up with, and I see no reason to knock myself out just so I can eat some nutritionally lightweight brown rice. If I should happen to show another loss tomorrow, I'll edit it in; otherwise, this summer's edition of The Soup Diet has come to a close!

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)

Same exact weight as yesterday. I guess that's good--it means my soup diet loss "held."

_________________
Jessica
Low-carbing since 6-21-09
Simeon's Protocol
Loading 7/11-12, total lost: 24.6 pounds so far! (224/165/165)