Day 2 of the cabbage soup diet and today’s been a little harder. I’ve been a bit tired on and off, quite lightheaded (especially early in the morning) and I’ve had a splitting headache which I’ve finally resorted to Ibuprofen to knock out.
First thing I also had a real wave of nausea, which I initially thought was going to keep me away from classes today, but it passed pretty quickly. Initially I thought “well, there you go, diet over”, but I’ve since concluded that it was probably my zinc supplement, which has hit me the same way previously when I took it on an empty stomach – obviously my gulped bowl of soup wasn’t enough to cushion it. I’ve just had my second bowl of the day, so we’ll soon tell if it’s the soup or not.
I must say by the end of yesterday I was pretty tired of the soup, and this morning it was a real effort to force it down. But on getting home I remembered that a couple of people had suggested pureeing it (the basic recipe is eaten like a chunky minestrone) to make it more palatable, so I blended the last bowl right down and it was actually very nice.
Today’s supplementary food is vegetables of any kind, including a baked potato, so rather than muck about loading up a thermos with soup I took some celery sticks and two whole peeled carrots into university with me to munch on.
Again I was struck by how much I’m enjoying the flavours and natural sweetness of the vegetables – probably still just the contrast with the bland soup. I’m saving my baked potato as an evening treat (I really am starting to crave starchy foods, which probably is for real after two days, but it’s not insurmountable).
Soupsong’s page for the Cabbage Soup Diet
The version of the cabbage soup diet I’m using this week. There are various other versions floating around.
Mark Hewitt is an English foodie, cook, philosopher, geek, shaman and writer. At the start of 2007 he sold or gave away almost all his possessions and left on a backpacking journey round the world, the purpose being (at least in part) to figure out why he would want to do such a thing. You can follow his journey and find other articles at: [http://www.scadindustries.com/sael/journal.html]
