Day 1:
I call this day homicidal rage. The only food available was the cabbage soup and leafy veggies but as much as I wanted. You are bound to the food on the diet. When they say soup and veggies - that's it, oh and water. The rage came on quick because I'm used to having at least 1 cup of coffee a day, sometimes two. Luckily coffee is admitted but only black. I don't drink black coffee. It's disgusting but someone was going to die if the edge didn't diminish so I partook in half a cup. Still as disgusting as I remember but it took the edge off and people lived to see the next day.
Day 2:
Today was still difficult. The website says you may feel weak or dizzy with possible headaches. I never felt weak or dizzy and if I did get a slight headache I'd drink a bit of black coffee or have some aspirin. Day 2 was as much soup and fruit as I wanted. My co-worker and I would laugh because we kept meeting each other in the kitchen, starving, ready to eat soup and grapes or strawberries. When I got home that night I suddenly remembered I was allowed to have a potato with butter!!! Oh the joy that flooded my heart! Below is the potato. May he R.I.P.
Day 3:
By today I was thinking I should feel different and I felt nothing except hunger. I also thought I'd be crapping like crazy but nope. All the plumbing was normal, even with all the cabbage I was eating. Today's allowed food was unlimited soup, leafy veggies and fruit. It was Saturday and being at home was actually easy. Here's the thing - I was NOT craving sweets, coffee or any normal food I'd be eating. Plus, it was the weekend and I wasn't spending money eating out. I'll mention now we decided to start this right before the weekend on purpose so we didn't have to go through 2 weekends and figured that by the end of the week we'd be wanting to cheat and it's much easier to cheat on the weekends.
Day 4:
Banana day. I hate bananas. They're disgusting and weird and it was suggested to eat up to 8 of them in ONE day. Unlimited skim milk was allowed along with as much soup as I wanted! I felt so lucky. I had made a new batch of soup the day before and made it very differently. It was much better as I made it with less liquid and more veggies. Tim and I traveled to NC to see our friends. I told them ahead of time I wouldn't be eating any regular food. So we trekked the 2 hours and I brought along my soup, bananas and milk. They ordered pizza. This was the first time I felt tortured. The smell, oh the wonderful scent of the garlic and pepperoni and bread. But I ate my soup. My pipes acted normally today which surprised me. The only thing abnormal was all the peeing I did during this whole thing but I was also only drinking water and lots of it.
Day 5:
I'd been looking forward to this day. Beef and tomatoes, 6 to be exact and a lot of beef or chicken. I chose chicken cause frankly it's cheaper. A pretty non-eventful day. Soup, chicken and tomatoes. Not bad. Salt isn't allowed during the 7 days to prevent water retention. But other spices are permitted so if you do this diet use them! I use salt on pretty much everything I cook, before I cook it, for ultimate flavor. This was an adjustment especially with the chicken.
Day 6:
Valentines Day! Tim was out of town for work so no pressure to go out to dinner. It was steak and veggie day. I chose to get stew beef and 1 small steak. Luckily they were on sale and the stew beef wasn't expensive. During the evening I had a date with myself, a steak, broccoli and soup :)
Day 7:
The final day...it had come at last. I thought it never would. Today's menu: brown rice, soup and veggies. The plan said to STUFF myself so I did. Brown rice is quite bland when you can't put anything on it so I put soup over it to spice it up a bit. My last meal which I enjoyed while watching Water for Elephants.
All in all it was successful in my book. No cravings had overtaken me. I had stuck to the entire plan and I didn't feel like I had missed out on anything. Well, maybe the pizza. I made the mistake of NOT weighing myself beforehand although I had a general idea of my weight. My clothes did feel different though which is what I typically go by and I had peed a lake. I've started eating normal food and nothing bad has happened to me..yet. People make a sour face when I say it's cabbage soup but the soup itself is quite delicious and the whole idea of the "up to 10lbs" is because you're eating so little calories. This isn't something you do as a lifestyle. I'll most likely do it again in a few weeks because it was a good cleansing and I honestly felt fantastic. But the only true way to be healthy and fit is to stay away from fads, eat right and exercise. Because a fad like the cabbage soup diet is a quick fix and the weight comes back. But I've never eaten so many vegetables as I did in that one week so I see it as a monthly or bi-monthly thing. Plus, it saves on the eating out portion of our budget.
So there you have it...my cabbage soup diet experience.
