Losing Weight With Cabbage Soup

Dieting is like being on a roller coaster. All the ups and downs until you get so dizzy you just give up. I had convinced myself that as you get older it's ok to put on a little weight. Here are some of the things I told myself; grandma's are suppose to be chunky and I've deprived myself long enough and now I am just going to eat what I want, I deserve it.

What I wasn't telling myself was that it wasn't healthy to make my body work harder to carry this weight. I suffer with fibromyalgia and was offended when the doctor told me that my extra weight was making my knees hurt. How rude! After pouting about that for several weeks I decided he might be right.

I've tried everything to lose weight and what was harder was to keep it off. I did the grapefruit diet, took pills and even started walking. I got sick of the grapefruit, the diet pills were taken off the market (that was scarey) and it got harder to get motivated to get outside when the cold weather came so my walking suffered.

I am not going to tell you that you must eat cabbage soup for the rest of your life and I am not going to tell you that this is the miracle cure for being overweight. IT IS NOT!

What I will tell you is that this cabbage soup recipe helped me lose some weight. It doesn't happen in a week and you must also take care of the rest of your diet. Give it a try, what do you have to lose? Maybe a few extra pounds.

Simple and Easy to make!

This is one of the easiest soups I have ever made. It is very delicious and something I would eat even if I weren't dieting. But, remember this diet is not the miracle for losing weight. You must also put some restrictions on the rest of your diet.

In the past 8 weeks I have lost 12 pounds. If you think this doesn't sound like a lot, rethink that. Picture 12 pounds of raw hamburg! This is almost 2 sizes in blue jeans. Before the diet I was wearting a very tight size 16 and now I am wearing a perfect size 12. HOORAY. My husband, who needs to lose more weight than I do, has lost 34 pounds. HOORAY. Changing our eating habits has certainly made difference in our body shapes but even better than that, our health.

Before I give you the recipe I want you to try to do these things along with eating the cabbage soup.

1. Eliminate sugar from your diet. This was really hard for me but I can honestly say that after about a week the craving for sugar was gone.

Once the pounds start dropping off you can add an occasional piece of chocolate. Remember I said occasionally.

2. Drink lots of water.

3. Eat smaller portions of meat and add lots more vegetables to your meals along with the soup. Make this soup your biggest portion.

GROCERY LIST

1 large head of cabbage or 2 small heads of cabbage

1 package of Lipton Onion soup mix

2 large onions, diced

8 to 10 stalks of celery, diced

2 cans, 15 ounce size, tomato sauce

6 cans, 15 ounce size, diced tomato's

2 Tablespoons minced garlic, optional

salt and pepper to taste ( I don't add any salt but I do add lots of fresh ground pepper)

To a large, heavy pot add the 2 cans of tomato sauce, diced onions, soup mix, garlic and diced celery. Bring to boil and simmer until celery and onion is soft. This might take 2 hours. Add the 6 cans of diced tomato's. Mix well. Slice the cabbage and add to the pot. Salt and pepper to taste and let simmer until cabbage is soft. This will take about 2 hours or more, depending on how much cabbage you have added and the heat of your stove. You should stir the pot occasionally to prevent the cabbage and tomato from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

You can eat this soup for breakfast, lunch or supper and you can eat as much as you want. However, you must eliminate the sugar, cut back on your carbs, eat whole grains, no fried foods, small portions of meat and if you eat beef pick the leanest cuts.

I have another love which I had to eliminate and that was ice cream. I love my ice cream. While shopping you can find foods with no sugar, like sugar free jello. Use this to get your sweet tooth satisfied. I even found some Klondike bars that were sugar free. This doesn't mean you can eat them all day but if you really are having a bad day and need to satisfy your craving, eat one. Sugar free candies can help also.

I hope this works for you as well as it has for me and for my husband.

If you have adieting secret please share it here.