Results on Vegetable Soup Diet

 

Results: I lost 3 pounds in a week and a half, but I believe 1.5- 2 ibs could be water weight, because I eventually gained it back this week.

The Verdict: The vegetable soup diet or the sacred hearts diets as many call it was not as bad I initially anticipated. However its a diet one can only do for a short term period.

Modification: More Protein. Vitamin/Mineral supplements are not going to be enough to sustain you throughout the day, which is why I ended up adding tilapia with every meal and towards the end of the week I started eating lentil/bean soup which has plenty carbohydrates and protein at once

Good for eating out? : Yes, as long as you eat some type of Bean Soup.

Vegetable Soup Diet

Sorry I haven’t updated in forever! You guys know how terribly busy I was studying for the mcat. But I’m back and hopefully trying out more of these diets that people claim will help you lose weight and discovering how effective they really are. My new diet was inspired by a friend of mine thats doing it as well (but a different variation). Either way I hope we both achieve our desired results. I’ll post my results in a week. 🙂

Protein Shake Diet Results: I really enjoyed the protein shake diet. I ended up lasting 10 days on it and lost 7 pounds and about 1 pant size. However this diet is only good for about 2 weeks and not to maintain a healthly lifestyle. The diet is only as effective as long as you do at least 30-40min of cardio everyday. After the diet I ate mainly meat and vegetables and I managed to keep the weight off in those 2 months that I was studying and couldn’t go to the gym. By maintaining my weight and eating healthy, I ended up dropping 2 pant sizes and 12% body fat.

Diet #2: Vegetable Soup Diet.

Vegetable Soup recipe find it here: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet/soup-diet-basic-recipe-1007

Day 1: Include all fruits in as much quantity as you want in your diet, except bananas, along with the soup.

Day 2: Include all vegetables in your diet, especially leafy green ones rather than starchy ones. You can even have one baked potato, without butter and vegetable soup.

Day 3: Stick to fruit and vegetables only, with no potato. Vegetable soup can be taken as much as you want.

Day 4: Drink skimmed milk and bananas for each meal. Eat at least eight bananas with enough skim milk. This is once again teamed with the vegetable soup, in desired quantity.

Day 5: Tomatoes and meat. However, limit the quantity of meat, resorting to red meat for the iron. Ensure you drink plenty of water to wash out the acid from the tomatoes. The soup is to be taken according to your discretion.

Day 6: Meat and Vegetables (limiting the meat). Soup and Vegetable can be taken in any ample quantity.

Day 7: Brown rice along with vegetables. Take soup, as much as you want.

Exercise: An hour of cardio everyday (I usually do spinning, but I’m going to alternate with running). Weight training 3X a week. I’m also going to be trying BodyrockTV. Link here: http://www.bodyrock.tv/

Current Weight: 135 ibs

Measurements: 35-25-38

Protein Shake Diet

Diet #1: Protein Shake Diet

Weight: 143.4 pounds

Goal Weight: 130 pounds

Height: 5’8”

Measurements: 36-27-40

BMI: 22. 5 (normal) Calculate it here: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

Diet: 2 Protein Shakes a day, 1 high protein meal. I’m using Gladiator meal replacements and I’ll vary between chicken and tilapia as my high protein meal.

Exercise: 1-2 hours of cardio daily. 35 minutes of weight training, 3 times a week.

I already measured my body fat today as well and took pictures. We’ll see in two weeks 🙂

Got Diet?

I think about dieting as much as any other woman, approximately 99% of the time. Several questions arise: when to start, what to do, how to do it etc? Some say always start on a Monday, since its the beginning of the week and you’re more likely to stick to it throughout the week. Others say there’s no such thing as dieting since the mere meaning of the word suggests restriction of some sort of food that is vital for our existence. I think dieting does exists, just in different variations: to some its a lifestyle, to others its weight loss, and to others its fat loss and muscle gain. Now lets say you want to start a diet…I’ve compiled a list of things I do to prepare before I start my diet. Here is what I do:

1. Keep a thinspiration album. Always helpful to look through pictures of celebrity, artists, maybe even family members that you aspire to look like. Keep them on your phone constantly, so if you get a craving you can look through the list and stay focus on your diet.

2. Make an exercise playlist. You’ll want to feel motivated when you work out with some of your favorite music.

3. Measure, weight, and examine your body before you start the diet so you can monitor your progress and results. I usually write down my initial weight, my BMI, my measurements in inches with a tape measure and I take picture from 2 angles; front and side. As the weeks progress you’ll be excited to see how far you’ve come.

4. Keep a diet journal, either online, on your microsoft word etc and write down everything in #3 from above. Also you might want to establish a final goal weight and write weekly goals on your journal (every 2 to 3 weeks). So if your diet is 6 weeks long then you’ll write down your initial goal weight #1 for the first 2 weeks, then initial goal weight #2 the 4th week and so on.

5. On your diet journal you might want to keep track of all the calories you’ve consumed. I use loseit.com to track my progress, write down each food item I’ve eaten or drank throughout the day and also the exercises I’ve done.

6. Research different types of diets and see what works for your lifestyle. Stick to it if you’re seeing results within two weeks or ditch if its not working out for you if you find you’re breaking the diet more than twice a week.

7. Lastly, what I have found that helps me stick to my diet is investing in some sort of material, for example, new sneakers, a calorie counter watch, new workout clothes, a blender for protein shakes, diet supplements etc. Believe it or not, the product you buy actually works as a booster for your diet. Every time you see it, you’ll associate it with dieting and it acts a positive reinforcement to help you stay focus on your diet.

Hopefully all of my suggestions works for you guys. I’m starting a new diet tomorrow that I haven’t tried yet. We’ll see how it goes. I will keep you guys posted. 

Bite Size Buddha

I would like to start off this blog with a little anecdote. When I was in high school I was taking a class in which we were learning about different religions. I grew a fascination for practically every religion we were studying, but I decided to pick Buddhism to present for my class project. I researched for countless of hours and my curiousity increased exponentially with every tick of the clock. The branch of buddhism which I was instantly drawn to is called Theravada. I’m going to try to explain their philosophy as accurately and concisely as possible (courtesy of Wikipedia). The Theravada’s philosophy has Four Noble Truths:

1. Suffering: Due to attachments to worldly things, due to change etc.

2. Cause of Suffering: Cravings which leads to attachments and bondage.

3. Cessation of Suffering: Elimination of the cause (craving) eliminates the result (suffering) through detachment.

4. Pathway to Freedom from Suffering: With the right concentration, right actions and right dedication one can ultimately reach Nirvana, a state of pure bliss.

One can relate these Four Noble Truths to any aspect of one’s life, such as romantic relationships, professional development, or monetary obsessions, but what I associate it with is my relationship with food. Bite Size Buddha is a blog thats going to consist of observations of not only my relationship with food, but also of my family members, my friends and people I may come across with on my journey. Also, I will conduct a mini sociological study using my self as guinea pig, in which I will employ different diet techniques and show the most efficient and effectives ones to use. I hope that you guys follow on my quest through these Four Noble Truths and employ them in your lives as well. 🙂