Diary Of An Unsuccessful Cabbage Soup Dieter

I have a confession to make...I attempted the Cabbage Soup diet. 'Why?!?' you ask. Well, it's simple really. What with having images of beautifully formed females thrust in my face daily, I wanted in on the admiration. In the last couple of years, I have successfully managed to bring my weight down from a whopping 62kg to an ok 58ish kg by means of a healthy eating plan from a qualified dietitian. However, I've struggled to lose the extra few kilos that I could do without and I felt stuck. So what better I thought, than a radical kick start? I wanted to see fast results in order to motivate myself to take the final plunge and finally be happy...or so I thought:

DAY ONE:

Drink unlimited amounts of cabbage soup and eat as many fruits as you wish (no bananas).

Seemed simple enough and it was. I guess the excitement of starting something new kicked in and I quite enjoyed this day. I didn't even feel too hungry!

DAY TWO:

Drink unlimited amounts of cabbage soup and eat as many veggies as you wish. Treat yourself to a baked potato with a little butter for dinner.

Again, the food was not a problem on this day. It was a little harder to drink the soup admittedly, but at least I had my jacket potato to look forward to. During the day however, I did feel a little faint and I had the first twinges of a headache.

DAY THREE:

Drink unlimited amounts of cabbage soup and eat as many fruit (no bananas) and veggies as you wish.

Despite drinking plenty of water throughout, I woke up with a stinking headache. Perhaps it was my body detoxing, but I was feeling weak and almost passed out on the tube. By lunchtime I was feeling sick with hunger (how pathetic eh), yet I couldn't face the soup. I persevered until the evening and feeling truly dreadful I gave up! I had some lovely fish, brown rice and veggies instead!

So yeah, not only did I attempt the diet, I also failed miserably. I figure if something makes you feel so bad, it can't be good for you! Even though I could see I'd deflated considerably in just 2.5 days, i didn't bother weighing myself. What if I then felt it was worth it and continued, pushing myself beyond my limits?? I'm not saying that the cabbage soup diet is necessarily bad for you and I do think the first 3 days are definitely the hardest in terms of what you can eat. However, with my long commute to work, I was simply using up more energy than I had and it felt unhealthy.

On the plus side though, I've found my weight loss mojo again. The experience has strangely motivated me to follow my dietitian's plan until I reach my ideal weight once and for all. I'm tired of yo yoing and never being happy. Weight loss is a long term plan and maintenance is the tricky part-I could have put myself through 7 days of strange eating in order to lose 4kg and then probably gain them right back again. I now feel ready to make a life change for good and I look forward to feeling confident. At least something good came out of the cabbage soup diet!