The 7-Day Cabbage Soup Diet: How it worked for me

 The Cabbage Soup Diet (CSD) ... now there is a "blast" from the past. Ha ha. But seriously, it was a staple in the 80's and maybe 90's I think, but everyone did it at some point if you lived during those years and wanted to drop a few pounds quickly with minimal effort.  And spoiler alert, it works! I remember growing up my Dad used to do it in January every year. He , once upon a time, was a pretty big party guy and like someone ese I know treated the holidays like a free for all every year. See, I knew there was a reason, it's genetic. But after all of the Polish family food fests, office parties, neighborhood gatherings and country club shindigs, January 2nd always rolls around with tight pants and regret. So every year I watched him do this diet with discipline and enthusiasm because you get to eat food that tastes good, and he would drop probably 20-30 lbs. in a month. For real. Now first of all, he's a big guy  and was a big drinker (helloo water weight) so shedding weight comes a bit easier and quicker than it does for us ladies. But still, he would finish it up looking like a new man and I will always remember him saying how good he felt. 

I have been on the post menopause, there I said it, weight loss struggle bus for I don't know how long. It feel like since I hit my 30s but at least the last few years it has become exponentially harder to get that kickstart happening. To be honest my attempts have been somewhat lukewarm and half hearted, falling off the wagon was/is as easy as dispensing wine from a box if you know what I mean. A few weeks ago the old cabbage soup diet came to mind and I though should I? Could it? Can I? After a few days of that rolling around my cabbage I said yes. I went to the grocery store, bought all of the supplies and came home and made a huge pot of soup with a plan to start Monday, July 31st. And I did it. I journaled every day, tracked what I ate and how I felt. In short, real food, no processed chemical laden garbage, alcohol (maybe a smidge) or sugar. One evening meal on Day 4 my girls and I went out to dinner and to see Post Malone so I did not adhere that night. I ate what I wanted and drank reasonably so that I could enjoy the experience with them. Could I have stayed on plan? Sure. Make choices that make you happy.  

via GIPHY

Fast forward to the morning of Day 8 and I step on the scale to see that I am down 15.6 lbs. Can I get a whoop whoop? Now, was some of it water? Sure. Muscle? It's likely. Fat? FO SHO. Is this a sustainable way of life? No. Am I a registered dietitian, doctor, or social media "health coach"? No. I am just a girl who likes to eat real food and drink good booze, not work out too much. I may have a few emotional issues that feed the flames of over indulgence. Stress, sadness, anxiety, pretty much when anything goes wrong I try to assuage it with food and alcohol.  I mean it could be heroine or crack so I consider myself lucky. 

I am taking a few days off to focus on just hitting my macros, getting my protein in and intermittent fasting, which I also did during the CSD... 16 hours fasting, 8 hour eating window. I will start round 2 soon. I would like to lose 30 lbs. by my birthday on September 8th. Its not going to be easy but with the total amount I need to lose, and it's a lot, I am confident that it is doable with food and movement. 

All in all I think this is a great way to get a jump start on weight loss if you lack motivation and need to see results quickly in order to stay on track. It really could not be easier and also serves as a great detox from unhealthy, processed foods. I will continue to report here on how its going so come on back now and again if you are so inclined. 

Bye for now...

Cabbage Soup Diet • Diet • Weight Loss

The 7-Day Cabbage Soup Diet: How it worked for me

Friday, August 11, 2023

 The Cabbage Soup Diet (CSD) ... now there is a "blast" from the past. Ha ha. But seriously, it was a staple in the 80's and maybe 90's I think, but everyone did it at some point if you lived during those years and wanted to drop a few pounds quickly with minimal effort.  And spoiler alert, it works! I remember growing up my Dad used to do it in January every year. He , once upon a time, was a pretty big party guy and like someone ese I know treated the holidays like a free for all every year. See, I knew there was a reason, it's genetic. But after all of the Polish family food fests, office parties, neighborhood gatherings and country club shindigs, January 2nd always rolls around with tight pants and regret. So every year I watched him do this diet with discipline and enthusiasm because you get to eat food that tastes good, and he would drop probably 20-30 lbs. in a month. For real. Now first of all, he's a big guy  and was a big drinker (helloo water weight) so shedding weight comes a bit easier and quicker than it does for us ladies. But still, he would finish it up looking like a new man and I will always remember him saying how good he felt. 

I have been on the post menopause, there I said it, weight loss struggle bus for I don't know how long. It feel like since I hit my 30s but at least the last few years it has become exponentially harder to get that kickstart happening. To be honest my attempts have been somewhat lukewarm and half hearted, falling off the wagon was/is as easy as dispensing wine from a box if you know what I mean. A few weeks ago the old cabbage soup diet came to mind and I though should I? Could it? Can I? After a few days of that rolling around my cabbage I said yes. I went to the grocery store, bought all of the supplies and came home and made a huge pot of soup with a plan to start Monday, July 31st. And I did it. I journaled every day, tracked what I ate and how I felt. In short, real food, no processed chemical laden garbage, alcohol (maybe a smidge) or sugar. One evening meal on Day 4 my girls and I went out to dinner and to see Post Malone so I did not adhere that night. I ate what I wanted and drank reasonably so that I could enjoy the experience with them. Could I have stayed on plan? Sure. Make choices that make you happy.  

via GIPHY

Fast forward to the morning of Day 8 and I step on the scale to see that I am down 15.6 lbs. Can I get a whoop whoop? Now, was some of it water? Sure. Muscle? It's likely. Fat? FO SHO. Is this a sustainable way of life? No. Am I a registered dietitian, doctor, or social media "health coach"? No. I am just a girl who likes to eat real food and drink good booze, not work out too much. I may have a few emotional issues that feed the flames of over indulgence. Stress, sadness, anxiety, pretty much when anything goes wrong I try to assuage it with food and alcohol.  I mean it could be heroine or crack so I consider myself lucky. 

I am taking a few days off to focus on just hitting my macros, getting my protein in and intermittent fasting, which I also did during the CSD... 16 hours fasting, 8 hour eating window. I will start round 2 soon. I would like to lose 30 lbs. by my birthday on September 8th. Its not going to be easy but with the total amount I need to lose, and it's a lot, I am confident that it is doable with food and movement. 

All in all I think this is a great way to get a jump start on weight loss if you lack motivation and need to see results quickly in order to stay on track. It really could not be easier and also serves as a great detox from unhealthy, processed foods. I will continue to report here on how its going so come on back now and again if you are so inclined. 

Bye for now...

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Hello.

Wow, does it feel weird to be back here, banging on the keys to put up some content on the old dusty blog. What the heck am I doing you might ask? Goofing off on a Sunday afternoon? Well, I am not 100% sure which also seems to be pretty much the case way back when I was writing this thing regularly a hundred billion years ago. I really miss writing as a creative outlet for one, I miss the interaction too. Blogging in the early 2000's and teens was all the rage and I met so many cool strangers right here in this space, before social media was like it is today. Social media was kind of like the cherry on top of your blog sundae at that time. It was like a little extra thing you didn't have to have but was an amusing addition. Some bloggers loved it and devoured that cherry and others left it sitting in the bottom of the empty bowl.  And then everything changed. The blog sundae started to slowly melt away and the cherry was all you had left so most of us moved forward and started honing our "IG/mini blog post  with the emphasis on photos" style of blogging. And the real written blogs, especially in the lifestyle category kind of died or just changed in my opinion. At least that is what I thought.

Turns out people are still writing blogs but mostly as a side bar to what ever social media outlet they have the biggest presence on, most likely Tik Tok or Insta. So say all this to say I am not sure what I am really doing here or where this will go but I have a few things to say about a few things and rather than moving and starting over it seemed kind of nice to think about maybe just redecorating a little bit. After all, all my old content still lives here and the domain is paid for and I don't feel like migrating to a new platform and thinking of a new name and all of that bullshit. Maybe at some point I will but, not today. 

The truth is, I have been looking back a lot lately and not in a bad way because I normally don't recommend that sort of thing. Sometime things happen in life that force you to reflect on the past. I'll save some of that for later but for now looking back has me remembering things that made me feel good and added richness to my life. I feel as though the last few years for many reasons, I have lost some of my focus, purpose and drive. I think back to certain times in my life when I really liked who I was and mostly felt good as opposed to loathing all of the things so much. Can we go back in time and experience those times again? No but perhaps if I reintroduce some of the atomic habits I had then that made me better, the same will be true today. I think so anyway, we'll see.  

To be honest I don't even care if anyone reads this because it just feels good to dump everything out here that is in my brain. In the old days I feel like blogging really kept me on track and accountable in some weird way. I felt like if I wrote it in my blog and even one person read it then I had to follow thru on what ever it was. It was a good way to track and execute goals, ideas and plans for the future while documenting in real time what was happening in my life. Again, I am sure no one really cares but one thing I know is that if you are going thru something there is a 100% chance someone else is or has too, and you just never know how putting it out there could impact another person. 

I am not sure how much I can do here given my job, family and other responsibilities but, we shall see. I just finished a big detox and that is the first thing I really want to talk about, so stay tuned. 

Hello.

Sunday, August 6, 2023

Wow, does it feel weird to be back here, banging on the keys to put up some content on the old dusty blog. What the heck am I doing you might ask? Goofing off on a Sunday afternoon? Well, I am not 100% sure which also seems to be pretty much the case way back when I was writing this thing regularly a hundred billion years ago. I really miss writing as a creative outlet for one, I miss the interaction too. Blogging in the early 2000's and teens was all the rage and I met so many cool strangers right here in this space, before social media was like it is today. Social media was kind of like the cherry on top of your blog sundae at that time. It was like a little extra thing you didn't have to have but was an amusing addition. Some bloggers loved it and devoured that cherry and others left it sitting in the bottom of the empty bowl.  And then everything changed. The blog sundae started to slowly melt away and the cherry was all you had left so most of us moved forward and started honing our "IG/mini blog post  with the emphasis on photos" style of blogging. And the real written blogs, especially in the lifestyle category kind of died or just changed in my opinion. At least that is what I thought.

Turns out people are still writing blogs but mostly as a side bar to what ever social media outlet they have the biggest presence on, most likely Tik Tok or Insta. So say all this to say I am not sure what I am really doing here or where this will go but I have a few things to say about a few things and rather than moving and starting over it seemed kind of nice to think about maybe just redecorating a little bit. After all, all my old content still lives here and the domain is paid for and I don't feel like migrating to a new platform and thinking of a new name and all of that bullshit. Maybe at some point I will but, not today. 

The truth is, I have been looking back a lot lately and not in a bad way because I normally don't recommend that sort of thing. Sometime things happen in life that force you to reflect on the past. I'll save some of that for later but for now looking back has me remembering things that made me feel good and added richness to my life. I feel as though the last few years for many reasons, I have lost some of my focus, purpose and drive. I think back to certain times in my life when I really liked who I was and mostly felt good as opposed to loathing all of the things so much. Can we go back in time and experience those times again? No but perhaps if I reintroduce some of the atomic habits I had then that made me better, the same will be true today. I think so anyway, we'll see.  

To be honest I don't even care if anyone reads this because it just feels good to dump everything out here that is in my brain. In the old days I feel like blogging really kept me on track and accountable in some weird way. I felt like if I wrote it in my blog and even one person read it then I had to follow thru on what ever it was. It was a good way to track and execute goals, ideas and plans for the future while documenting in real time what was happening in my life. Again, I am sure no one really cares but one thing I know is that if you are going thru something there is a 100% chance someone else is or has too, and you just never know how putting it out there could impact another person. 

I am not sure how much I can do here given my job, family and other responsibilities but, we shall see. I just finished a big detox and that is the first thing I really want to talk about, so stay tuned. 

Read More