Day 1 of My 7 Day Soup Diet and Detox
Hi folks,
Today marked the first day of the special 7 day soup diet and detox I’m committed to. Fortunately, I have the help my husband, who is supporting my efforts! This is the protocol that Hoang Le, the massage therapist I’m working with at my gym (I talk about him in this video at my channel), is helping me with in order to get me past some of the sugar and wheat “overload” that my body has been struggling with for a long time.
Anyway, if you have been keeping up with my video series and other posts, you already know that I’m working on my own personal “health transformation” which includes improved fitness levels.
When I was working with Hoang last week after a couple of my Crossfit workouts, I lamented that after a year of working out, I hadn’t lost more than a few pounds. After the start of 2018 (and we’re just about 2 months into the year now), I had begun cutting back on the vino tinto (red wine) to the tune of about 4,000 calories saved per week.
In January ALONE I avoided over 18,000 calories!
Yeah, that’s a lot of calories in just drinking wine! I’m going to be addressing that topic more here on the site – but for now, just know that this is something that’s very important to me.
Cutting back has already resulted in a noticeable difference on the scale, and I’d have to say that I’d dropped about 5 pounds in that first month.
The problem was that this weight loss kind of stagnated, even though I’ve kept up with the cutting back.
What could have caused the slowdown, I wondered?
As I pondered all this, I realized that while I had LOWERED my alcohol consumption by a considerable amount, I had also RAISED my refined SUGAR consumption!
Simply put, I began to eat more ice cream! Not thousands of calories’ worth, but certainly hundreds!
Breyer’s Ice Cream was on sale – buy one get one free types of sales – and I caved!
Seriously, I would have to say that I’ve eaten more ice cream in a MONTH than I had previously eaten in 3 or more years! It’s just not something I’ve ever really craved before.
But of course, I was getting all the “sugar” I wanted through those glasses of red wine.
It made total sense.
In talking with Hoang last week, he suggested that I consider a fairly radical break in my eating routine, and talked about a nutrient-dense vegetable soup as the base for my diet for about a week.
Enter the Low Calorie Vegetable Soup Diet: The 7 Day Soup Diet
There tons of low calorie soups for weight loss out there. You’ve likely heard of “the cabbage soup diet” or the “Wonder Soup diet” or “7 day soup diet” – but most people use that to quickly drop a number of pounds. It’s certainly not a sustainable way to lose weight, because after you’ve lost a few pounds and then go back to the old way of eating, those pounds are likely to march right back on!
We talked about using it as a way to help me sever that habit I found myself getting into with the ice cream. Also, I had been finding myself eating far more wheat-containing products than I had a while ago.
So, I agreed that I’d give it a go, and commit to 7 days. That’s 7 days without any wine or foods with added sugar or wheat. And the soup protocol sounded like a challenge I might enjoy. Well, SORT of – I’m not sure “enjoy” is really the right word!
Tracking my 7 Day “Soup Diet” Progress
In the video below, you’ll see what Day 1 looked like! The soup itself was easy to create; what took the longest was chopping the veggies!
All I put into the soup was a blend of chopped veggies and some broth:
- 2 32-ounce containers of Kitchen Basics Beef Broth
- 1 can of diced organic tomatoes (I like Muir Glen – REALLY tasty!)
- 3 bunches of scallions
- about a pound of carrots
- a couple stalks of celery
- 1/2 head of Savoy Cabbage
- 2 red bell peppers
- a bunch of green beans
I simply simmered it for an hour and a half or so, and there it was. For seasonings, I found I didn’t really need much. Just a touch of salt and a little ground white pepper for a little “zing” was enough. It was quite good!
It’s the end of Day 1, and I’m getting ready to head to bed and get a good night’s sleep. But I’m going to report in every day of this challenge. What will happen AFTER the challenge remains to be seen, but for this week I will be contemplating long-lasting and positive changes that are sustainable for me.
Stay tuned!
