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This was one of those stories that sounds a lot more interesting than it really is.  Nothing really new here.  The reason I’m even writing anything about it is because I’m following up my recent Weight Watcher posts and my previous post was a list of 7 foods to help people lose weight and this article was put out as a list of secrets to make Weight Watchers, or any diet plan, work even better.

Here was their numbered list of Weight Watchers Secrets (this is my interpretation - not copied & pasted):

1.  Get the most for your point or calorie allowance:  In other words, although WW and calorie counting allows you to choose what foods you want to eat, you’ll lose weight faster (and most likely cut cravings and binge eating) if you fill half your plate with veggies and divide the other half with protein and your starch (if you allow that).  I believe the diet plan Volumetrics is based on eating foods that fill you up without many calories.  So using the “full-plate trick” as it was called in the article, should help you lose faster than if you just eat whatever you want, as long as it fits in with your points/calories.

Sure, I agree with this and wish I liked vegetables more.  But is this really a secret?

2.  High fiber breakfast - I just wrote about this yesterday and I agree with this idea.  But I also think a high protein diet can also keep you feeling full until lunch time.  I think we can all agree that the worst choice is a high carbohydrate breakfast with little fiber.  That will almost guarantee that you’ll be hungry before lunch and could cause you to overeat at lunch.

3.  Eating frozen meals - I think there’s a diet based around eating frozen meals.  Many diets recommend using a frozen meal or two in your day.  The article stated that one dieter mentioned in the article went against WW advice about eating frozen meals because of the high sodium content.  I don’t remember ever reading or hearing anything about that when I was doing WW. 

The tip stated that by eating frozen meals you can get yourself used to eating the correct portions and train yourself to be able to eat better when you prepare your own meals.  I remember reading where people using these meals add even more veggies to them to fill themselves up without adding too many calories, like “secret” #1.

I just use the meals for convenience as when I make my own food I measure and weigh everything.  Of course, my problem wasn’t that I ate huge meals but that I binged on candy & chips all day.  I’ve used these frozen meals in the past a lot when dieting and I’m kind of grossed out by them now.  Sure, they’re trying to go gourmet and some of their meals are OK, but it’s not something I would prefer unless I have nothing else in the house.

4.  Using a surprise stress reducer - Reading my post about my experience with Weight Watchers Meetings, I do not agree with this secret that states attending meetings reduces stress.  Their reasoning is that going to the meetings and getting encouragement can reduce stress, and we’ve all been told that stress can hinder weight loss.  So I guess I agree about reducing stress, but I don’t personally agree that attending meetings helps with that.  In fact, I was so disenchanted that attending those meetings (and paying for something I didn’t enjoy) actually created stress for me.

5.  Eating small meals throughout the day - I really do agree with this and that is how I normally eat on most any diet I’ve ever done, with the exception of my low carb diet of choice (Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet).  That was only 3 meals a day, no snacks.

There are a couple popular weight loss plans out now that are based around 5-6 mini meals vs. 2 or 3 large meals.  For me, I eat breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner and an evening snack.  I believe doing so helps keep my appetite under control and boosts my metabolism.  In fact, the magazine states that dieters eating 6 times a day lost 45% more weight than those that ate only 3 meals a day.

6.  Protein - Again, one of the things mentioned on my previous post linked to above about the 7 best foods to eat to lose weight.  There are also diets that are not high protein diets but they suggest having some protein with every meal and snack you eat.  I’ve kind of been leaning towards this and it does seem to help keep me full.  Again, not much of a secret. 

7.  Stop watching so much TV - I’ve never read anything about this one.  Supposedly, those who have lost weight and kept it off watch less than 5 hours of television a week.  I’m not sure how many hours of TV I watch, but I can binge whether I’m watching TV, working on the computer, reading, etc.  So to me, this was the silliest secret in the article.

8.  They called this secret ”smart walking” but what they were really getting at was that by exercising (using an example of a brisk 30 minute walk) you go beyond the calories burned by doing so.  The article reminds us that we stimulate our metabolism and reduce the fat storage hormone, insulin.  We know how exercise can benefit us and to me this was just filler.

Other tips not included in the list of secrets were listening to your favorite music while walking (gee, haven’t heard that one before), going to bed early (since not getting enough sleep supposedly can hinder weight loss - I’ve read this before many times) and probably the best one was to take your weight loss journey one pound at a time.   I like the last one because sometimes it doesn’t seem like you’ll ever get to goal and you’ll be dieting forever.  It might be easy for some to get tired of dieting (I recently took 2 weeks off and am now just counting calories - and I’m close to goal) and just give up.  Looking towards your goal and realizing how many pounds you still have left to go can make you depressed.  Taking it one pound at a time instead of looking at the big picture might take you to goal a lot easier.

The article then goes on to give the normal meal plan suggestions which to me are so similar to other meal plans that Woman’s World writes about.  So this didn’t give me any new ideas and I’ll even go so far as to say that I think this is one of their lamest weight loss stories I’ve read in a while.  

By eating foods that boost your metabolism you can feel more satisfied and would hopefully be able to stick to your diet plan easier. I do agree with some of this but I’m not sure these are truly 7 top foods. It just seems like one of those magazine ad words to get your attention - and it worked for me!

1. The first “food” mentioned is high fiber cereal for breakfast. I think fiber is the key here and I don’t think it has to be from cereal. The recommendation is to eat a cereal with at least 5 grams of fiber per serving. But there are high fiber, low calorie breads now and I purchase these wonderful high fiber cookies that I’ve been having for breakfast and/or snacks. So do we consider fiber a food, because that is really what they’re trying to say.

The suggestion is that by eating at least 5 grams of fiber in the morning helps us not to overeat the rest of the day. But I try to get as much fiber as possible in every meal I eat. Sometimes I use fiber supplements if I don’t think I got enough. I prefer high fiber pasta (took a bit to get used to it - now I don’t like regular pasta).

2. Vitamin C was the next “food” suggested - in the form of fruits because it can help the body burn up to 39% more fat during activity. It is suggested that you get 500 mg. per day. I started taking one Vitamin C chewable supplement (it’s like a little treat since I love the taste). I used to take Vitamin C supplements, then stopped when I found out that your body can only store so much at a time but now I started up again. I try to take the C supplement at a different time than when I take my multi-vitamin so I can spread my intake throughout the day. Unfortunately, I don’t get enough fruits so I try to make up for that.

3. Hot peppers and spicy foods because they contain capsaicin, which speeds up metabolism up to 25% after eating a meal. Unfortunately, I can’t handle really spicy and hot foods so this is one metabolism booster I’ll have to pass. I did a quick search to see if you can purchase capsaicin pills but all I found was a topical cream to relieve muscle and arthritis aches and pain. I’ll have to check the next time I’m in the supplement aisle. All peppers are a good source of Vitamin A and C.

4. Omega 3’s help to build up leptin, which is a fat burning hormone. Eating fatty fish such as salmon, tuna and sardines are the best food sources. If you’re not a lover of fish (like me) experts suggest that popping fish oil pills can be just as effective. I try to get mine in every day and I swear since I started taking them recently my sweet tooth and binge mentality has gone down.

5. Proteins - specifically lean protein sources help protect muscle loss when dieting. You can burn up to twice as many calories by eating a high protein meal versus eating high carb. I think we pretty much all know this and one of my most successful diets was The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet (high protein). Eating protein requires more energy to complete digestion so it helps preserve your muscle and it revs your metabolism.

6. Pistachios made the list because they contain both fiber and protein, a perfect mix to keep you satisfied longer. Technically, they help control serum glucose levels. We think nuts have too much fat but I feel the fat in pistachios just joins with the fiber and protein to create a triple threat against hunger and binge eating. I’m sure I’ve eaten too many pistachios at one time, but if you want to measure a good amount for a snack, you can have one ounce, around 49 pistachios, which isn’t too bad. My only question is what about other good nuts like almonds or pecans? I’ll have to study why pistachios made the list and not the other healthful nuts.

7. Green tea was thrown into the mix of the top 7 foods to help speed up metabolism and help with weight loss. I was drinking green tea at least once a day but found a black tea that I loved the flavor of and kind of drifted away from the green variety. I’ll have to get back on the green tea wagon. But I wonder if we’ll hear that green tea doesn’t have the miracle benefits that we constantly hear about. At first I thought it was kind of gross, then I developed a taste for it and now I’d rather have regular or herbal tea. I’ve read that red and white teas have even more benefits than green tea, but those don’t get as much attention.

So this is the current list of the 7 top foods (couldn’t they find 10) and I suppose none of these can harm us (except for the hot peppers - I can’t handle them) so it certainly can’t hurt to try to get as many of these food sources into our daily eating.

I don’t know what made me change my mind, but I decided to give my local WW facility a try. I’m sure I got the free coupon so didn’t pay to sign up. However, I did purchase the whole package with cookbooks, journals, etc. I think I decided to try the actual meetings to get the kit and to get weighed in. I thought I’d feel more accountable having to get weighed in once a week.

The Leaders

I also decided to attend the meetings. My first impression during my first meeting was that the leader wasn’t very thin looking. Please understand, I’m not expecting a super thin leader, but I really felt this woman would be considered to be slightly overweight by most weight charts. I did like her leadership but I needed to switch days.

The leader that I felt really looked like a success, lean but healthy looking, had more of a “rah, rah” attitude. She even gave us silly homework and I felt like I was a little kid in class. She looked the part of a successful WW leader, but I didn’t like her method of conducting meetings.

So I once again chose a different meeting time. This leader was the worst. I kid you not, she was clinically obese. She made mention about taking meds which she was struggling with but in my opinion, she should have stepped down from her position until she got her weight under control. Had I been brand new to WW and had her as my first leader I wouldn’t have thought WW was very successful. I almost wanted to write a letter about it but I didn’t want to ruin her WW opportunities.

Her other problem was the fact that she preached a sermon. I think that’s what she wanted to do in life - be a preacher. She got so off the message of Weight Watchers that I almost left before the meeting ended. Listening to a sermon (not religious - just the tone of the meeting) from an obese leader? I was losing my interest in this whole thing.

The Meetings Didn’t Offer What I Wanted

Now let’s forget about the leaders. They did have to abide by a weekly topic that they got from headquarters but as mentioned, their styles were very different. I ended up attending meetings held by the first leader I tried. She was the best of the leaders available in my time frames.

But the meetings were more motivation and less hands-on diet techniques and how to follow the program. If you had any questions about the plans (they started the options of The Flex Plan and The Core Plan - the two plans were choices in a new program called TurnAround) you were really supposed to stay after the meeting. That surprised me as I was expecting the meetings to be different.

You see, when I’ve got the motivation to attend these meetings, that means I’ve reached that click. I’m getting motivation coming to the WW office, getting weighed by strangers and sitting with a group of people there for the same thing. I wanted more tips and ideas like I was getting from the free forums I was on.

I had the idea that I would continue going to the meetings, paying my weekly fee, getting weighed and leaving. In fact, I did it a few times giving an excuse that I had to work or something. But I also felt it was stupid paying to get weighed. I’ve reached goal without paying anything and without attending meetings, why couldn’t I do that again.

All in all, I can’t see myself ever attending a WW meeting again, even if I go back to the plan. Leaders do vary and if you’ve got a good one consider yourself lucky. Maybe others need the motivational focus of the meetings but I wanted the diet plan facts and ideas. Feel free to share your feelings.

As I’ve written, I got introduced to Weight Watchers by having success on The Wendie Plan. As mentioned in that post, I did keep my weight loss for over a year but my back went out for a long time period and between being laid up and depressed, I lost my good eating motivation and started gaining it back. As I get older, I gain back what was lost and a little more and keep hitting new highs when I let it go on too long.

I once again did some studying on dieting on the Internet and found some good Weight Watcher forums. I decided to try Weight Watchers Flex Plan. I had learned how to count points on The Wendie Plan and still had many of my free Point counters and excel sheets from then.

The Plan

Depending on your current weight, you eat a certain amount of points per day and have an additional 35 points per week that you can use however you want (spread them out, add them to one special day, etc.). And there were those that didn’t use these bonus points at all.

You also had the option of figuring out points available depending on how much you worked out and these extra points had to be eaten the same day of your work out. Again, some people did not eat their “activity points.” I ate every point available.

I learned a bit on The Wendie Plan. Weight Watchers figures lower average calorie intake per day than I can eat to lose. In other words, I started at a higher than recommended points allowance because I wanted to be able to eat as much as I could for as long as possible while still losing at least 1/2 pound a week. I felt that the calories on The Wendie Plan just weren’t enough and that is another reason it was difficult to maintain. I had eaten pretty low calories for the couple months up to reaching goal that as soon as I started upping that for maintenance I started gaining.

I realize maintenance requires some fine tuning, but I think with many diets you are simply lowering your metabolism and once you reach goal you need to keep it revved up, especially when adding more calories. Sometimes it just takes patience.

Because of that experience I decided to work WW for me. I was always in the lowest points range for WW. Here’s the different ranges using your current weight:

Less than 150 pounds = 20 Points
150 to 174 pounds = 22 Points
175 to 199 pounds = 24 Points
200 to 224 pounds = 26 Points
225 to 250 pounds = 28 Points
250 to 275 pounds = 30 Points
275 to 300 pounds = 31 Points
300 to 325 pounds = 32 Points
325 to 350 pounds = 33 Points
Over 350 pounds = 34 Points

And don’t forget your additional 35 points per week plus activity points (more about those in a later post).

How I Did It

I did not join my local Weight Watchers Group. I found the best WW forum online called Bootcamp Buddies. This was a group that did not put up with going off plan. They didn’t like whining or excuses. If you are serious about losing, this is the forum to be on. I haven’t been an active member for quite some time so I’m not sure if they’re as strict as they used to be. They are very supportive and these are real, everyday people trying to lose weight or maintain.

The other forum I was part of, although it was more difficult to use (when I was there I couldn’t believe that WW couldn’t figure out a better forum for their own site) was the WW forum you can visit here. Maybe they’ve improved over the years although with a quick look it doesn’t appear too different. You do not have to be a paying member to join the forum community.

According to WW, I should have started at 20 points a day (approximately 1,000 calories) with the addtional 35 points added in however I wanted. I felt that was too low and would keep me hungry and unable to maintain easily. So I started at 28 points a day. I was less than 150 lbs. but was starting at a range suggested for a person weighing 225-250 lbs. I believe I was on this range for at least 4 weeks before my weight started slowing down, might have been longer. Keep in mind, 28 points averages to around 1400 calories a day, which many other diets recommend as a starting guide. This allows for moderate weight loss without feeling too deprived. Of course, with the additional bonus points it was actually higher than that. I was lucky enough to be able to lose some on that higher range.

Once my weight loss started slowing I then dropped to the next points range which was 26 daily points plus the 35 bonus points. I kept going lower when my weight started to slow or stop. It’s too bad I can’t remember how low I had to go before reaching goal.

I Reached Goal Without Paying A Dime

I found all kinds of free resources online so didn’t have to purchase anything. I’ll post free WW resources later. I got all my motivation from the free forums. You can get any questions answered just by reading through these forums and if you can’t find an answer then join and post your question. It is forum etiquette that you try to find the answer first - all good forums have a search feature.

So Why Am I Still Dieting?

My memory is fuzzy but I don’t think I was able to maintain for very long after using The Flex Plan. I don’t know if it was the back going out again or what. So soon after I started gaining I went full fledged Weight Watchers.

But then I read yet another diet in Woman’s World Magazine called The Wendie Plan.  Although it was described as a back-up plan to Weight Watchers (to be used if you start to plateau on WW), I found the plan so interesting that I wanted to try it. 

And Here’s the Plan

It is like following Weight Watchers counting points.  However, depending on your weight and how many points you would normally get on WW, The Wendie Plan divvies the points up differently each day.  How many people eat the same amount of calories every single day while dieting?  There are sources who feel that your body gets used to the same thing and your metabolism stagnates around it.  So you need to keep your metabolism guessing by switching things up.

So, as an example, since I was on the lowest WW points scale, here was my week:

• Day one = 20 points
• Day two = 25 points
• Day three = 21 points
• Day four = 35 points (Super high day or shd)
• Day five = 20 points
• Day six = 24 points
• Day seven = 22 points

If you add these up they total 167 weekly points.  Being on the same level on Weight Watchers, you are allowed up to 175 points (20 points a day plus an additional 35 for the week, to be broken up however you want).  So with The Wendie Plan you’re eating a bit less, but you get one high point day.

The rules were set that you should eat the days in the same order every week but the more I’ve dieted the more I disagree.  I feel that as long as you keep your points at 167 per week it shouldn’t matter how your days line up.  Some times you need your SHD for a weekend, sometimes you need it on another day.  I truly don’t think it matters, as long as you stick to the other days as planned.  I made switches and reached goal just fine.  But I did stick to the alotted points per week.

In fact, I believe that I could reach goal almost as quickly by upping the weekly calories to 175 and spreading that around, or adding the extra to the SHD.  I believe I lost a bit over 20 pounds in about 2-3 months.  I also exercised and completely reshaped my pear shaped body.  I went from a tight size 12 pants to a size 4! 

So Why Did I Go Off It?

When I follow a plan I am gung ho.  I do not cheat or deviate from the plan.  I found every free resource for tallying points and journaling and support groups and I wrote (typed) in every single point I ate.  I was getting tired of it after I reached goal.

I felt so wonderful at my new weight and being able to wear sizes smaller than when I was in high school (I was a size Jr. 5 to 7) I didn’t think I’d ever allow myself to gain the weight back.  But my back went out (old car accident that flares up once or twice a year) and I was sidelined in bed (it was a bad one that lasted quite a long time) and the weight started creeping back.  Once I was up and around again I just couldn’t get back on the plan.  It took a long time, but I did eventually regain the weight I lost. 

I seemed to be able to reach goal quickly at this point in my life but it was maintaining I found difficult.  After reaching goal I still had good eating habits but they would start fading once my “sweet tooth” returned and along with it my binge mentality (going from sweet to salty, back & forth all day).  Again, I’m surprised I’ve never been obese with how I eat sometimes.

The Daily Points for Other Weights

POINTS TARGET - 22 (Weigh 150 -174 lbs)
Day 1 - 22 points
Day 2 - 27 points
Day 3 - 23 points
Day 4 - 37 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 22 points
Day 6 - 26 points
Day 7 - 24 points

POINTS TARGET - 24 (Weigh 175 - 199 lbs)
Day 1 - 24 points
Day 2 - 29 points
Day 3 - 25 points
Day 4 - 39 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 24 points
Day 6 - 28 points
Day 7 - 26 points

POINTS TARGET - 26 (Weigh 200 - 224 lbs)
Day 1 - 26 points
Day 2 - 31 points
Day 3 - 27 points
Day 4 - 41 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 26 points
Day 6 - 30 points
Day 7 - 28 points

POINTS TARGET - 28 (Weigh 225 - 249 lbs)
Day 1 - 28 points
Day 2 - 33 points
Day 3 - 29 points
Day 4 - 43 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 28 points
Day 6 - 32 points
Day 7 - 30 points

POINTS TARGET - 30 (Weigh 250 - 274 lbs)
Day 1 - 30 points
Day 2 - 35 points
Day 3 - 31 points
Day 4 - 45 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 30 points
Day 6 - 34 points
Day 7 - 32 points

POINTS TARGET - 31 (Weigh 275 - 299 lbs)
Day 1 - 31 points
Day 2 - 36 points
Day 3 - 32 points
Day 4 - 46 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 31 points
Day 6 - 35 points
Day 7 - 33 points

POINTS TARGET - 32 (Weigh 300 - 324 lbs)
Day 1 - 32 points
Day 2 - 37 points
Day 3 - 33 points
Day 4 - 47 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 32 points
Day 6 - 36 points
Day 7 - 34 points

POINTS TARGET - 33 (Weigh 325 - 349 lbs)
Day 1 - 33 points
Day 2 - 38 points
Day 3 - 34 points
Day 4 - 48 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 33 points
Day 6 - 37 points
Day 7 - 35 points

POINTS TARGET - 34 (Weigh more than 350 lbs)
Day 1 - 34 points
Day 2 - 39 points
Day 3 - 35 points
Day 4 - 49 points Super High Day (SHD)
Day 5 - 34 points
Day 6 - 38 points
Day 7 - 36 points

Summary

The last time I checked (and it was a long time ago), Weight Watchers allowed Wendie Plan discussion on its own forum.  They allowed a thread or section for The Wendie Plan.  Yet another popular WW website/forum banned all discussion about the plan on her site.  It was her site and she could do what she wanted, but if WW sanctioned The Wendie Plan for their own forums, then I simply didn’t understand the censorship on another forum not owned by WW.  So I made the choice to no longer participate in that forum.

I’m not sure how popular The Wendie Plan is anymore.  I was an active participant on a wonderful forum/support group that I don’t think is around any longer.

The bottom line is that many people that follow the Flex Points plan eat similar to The Wendie Plan without calling it that.  Some days we need to eat more for a fancy dinner out or a party.  It’s nice being able to eat less on other days so you can splurge on a special occasion. 

And so many people feel that mixing up your daily calorie intake keeps your “furnace stoked,” keeping your metabolism going strong.  I tend to agree and will write more about diets that switch things up.  So many are becoming popular today.

I also feel you can work these plans without counting points.  A point is about 50 calories.  So a 20 point day on WW is around 1,000 calories.  No wonder you lose weight!  However, even WW Flex Points adds that additional 35 points a week (another 1,750 calories).  If you followed The Wendie Plan with its 167 weekly points, that would equal around 8,350 weekly calories.  Divided by 7 it would come to 1,192 calories a day. 

So you could follow the plan using calories instead of points.  Here’s an example from the lowest point allowance that I would be on:

WW followers would consider this blasphemy - converting points to calories.  Points use calories, fat & fiber in their points calculations and many non-starchy type veggies are “free” foods.  I’m close to goal (7 pounds away) and I’m almost tempted to try this again using calories instead of points. 

Consider the difference of a strict 1,200 a day diet plan.  At 1,200 daily you’d get an additional 50 calories a week and should be able to lose at least one pound a week (for most).  But imagine having to limit yourself to this same amount every day.  One dinner out could amount to 1,200 calories, even if you don’t go overboard.

It’s nice to have some lower calorie days and allowing yourself to have one high day in a week where you can eat some things you’d normally consider off-limits.  It isn’t a license to eat candy & chips all day, but you could allow yourself a special treat at least one day a week.  It gives you something to look foward to and takes the daily drudgery out of a normal calorie counting diet.

I’ve never tried it, although I had thought about it. It is definitely a short-term diet that many use to kick-start their weight loss or get over a plateau. You should only follow it for 7 days at a time.

Here’s the actual 7 day plan (soup recipe will follow):

Day 1: You can have the soup and all the fruit you want (with the exception of bananas).

Day 2: No fruit today. But you can eat the soup and all the vegetables you want (with the exception of corn or peas) and you can have one baked potato with butter at dinner. Personally, I would think the potato would be acceptable for lunch instead of dinner, but only one potato. Veggies can be raw or cooked.

Day 3: This is a combination of days 1 & 2. Eat all the soup, fruits (no bananas) & veggies (no corn or peas) you want. But no potato this time.

Day 4: This is the day that starts what I consider the goofy stuff. You can eat up to 8 bananas and up to 8 glasses (I’m assuming 8 oz. glasses) of skim milk as you want. And don’t forget your soup (if you’re not sick of it yet). Supposedly, this day is to lessen your desire for sweets.

Day 5: You should have at least one serving of the soup. In addition, you can have up to six fresh tomatoes and 10-20 oz. of beef, skinless chicken and/or fish. You should make sure you drink 6-8 glasses of water this day to wash the uric acid out of your body. Nice.

Day 6: Beef, skinless chicken or fish again, but this time you can also eat as many vegetables as you want. You should have at least one serving of soup. No starchy veggies like potatoes, corn or peas. Again, up your water intake today to at least 6-8 glasses.

Day 7: You need at least one serving of your soup. Then you can eat brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice and vegetables, as much as you want. I don’t get the unsweetened fruit juice, even unsweetened juice gives the calories without the fiber of real fruit. Doesn’t make sense to me. It also doesn’t specify, but I’m assuming the vegetables should not be the starchy kind as mentioned before.

Here’s some tips:

• Drink at least 4 glasses of water - more on the days specified
• Keep taking your vitamins
• Eat plenty of soup - make sure you’re filled up - don’t try to cut calories by not eating as much as you’re allowed
• If the soup is too bland, spice it up to your liking
• Follow the plan as written (although I still don’t get the fruit juice vs. fruit)

Cabbage Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

* 6 large green onions
* 2 green peppers
* 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
* 3 Carrots
* 1 Container (10 oz. or so) Mushrooms
* 1 bunch of celery
* half a head of cabbage
* 1 package Lipton soup mix
* 1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional)
* 1 48oz can V8 juice (optional)
* Season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.

Directions:

Slice green onions, put in a pot and start to saute with cooking spray.

Cut green pepper stem end off and cut in half, take the seeds and membrane out. Cut the green-pepper into bite size pieces and add to pot.

Take the outer leafs layers off the cabbage, cut into bite size pieces, add to pot.

Clean carrots, cut into bite size pieces, and add to pot.

Slice mushrooms into thick slices, add to pot.

If you would like a spicy soup, add a small amount of curry or cayenne pepper now.

You can use beef or chicken bouillon cubes for seasonings. These have all the salt and flavors you will need.

Use about 12 cups of water (or 8 cups and the V8 juice), cover and put heat on low. Let soup cook for a long time - two hours works well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Variations: I’ve read some good ideas to keep you from getting sick of the soup.

• Make one recipe using red cabbage & red onions and spice it up differently than your next version of green cabbage with green/white/yellow onions.
• Cut chunks bigger or smaller.
• You can even blend it all together to make a “creamier” type soup (I have an immersion blender that works great for soup).
• On your meat days you can add meat chunks to the soup but remember to weigh the portions - although I’d have a hard time eating 20 oz. of meat in a day, even combined in the soup.
• On Day 7 you can add the brown rice to the soup.

OK, I think I’ve convinced myself to give this a try. I’m currently near goal on a plan I haven’t written about yet but I feel the need for a little change but didn’t want to get invested in a different plan. However, as it is always more difficult the closer you get to goal, I might save this for the last couple of pounds. As I’ve written, I didn’t lose much, if any, weight on the famous 3-Day Diet and so much weight loss from these quick fix fad diets is a lot of water weight. I’ll post my experience when I try it.

Here’s the basic plan:
Week 1: 600 calories for the first 3 days, 900 calories for the next 4 days
Week 2: 1200 calories every day
Week 3: Repeat week 1
Week 4: Repeat week 2

There are other tricks and tips in the book and it states to take some time off before starting the plan back up. I can’t remember how many weeks they suggested taking off but you can keep using this plan until you reach goal.

I personally believe it should just be used as a kick-start or save it for when you get near your goal weight. As with many other low calorie, quickie plans, once you go back to normal eating you can most likely expect a gain in the beginning. Don’t fret since you’ve probably lost more on this plan than you normally would have with most other eating plans.

I recommend you try to find the book to get the entire plan and ways to use it, especially if you’re going to keep up with it beyond a one-month period. Here are some more Rotation Diet ideas and an idea on what to eat on a 600 calorie day.

I lost a bit over 20 pounds without exercise doing CAD. I lost my urge to binge and I felt very healthy and had a lot of energy. I went to parties and social events and stuck to the plan.

I met my husband at a 4th of July party where I brought chips & pork skins (another food I have never eaten since getting off plan). People couldn’t believe this thin woman ate pork skins! In fact, the next time I saw my future husband at a different social event, he asked me where my pork skins were. I was not attracted to him until he made this joke! So maybe CAD brought us together in a way.

I’m never one to hide my diets. My friends always ask me what the latest one is. But remember, I was on CAD for over 3 years so they got used to that. However, they still bring up the party I was at (another 4th of July party) at a friend’s. When I entered the party I scanned the appetizer table. I would not eat until I was ready for my reward meal, so any appetizers had to be part of that meal.

Once the main meal was served, I set up my plates. I chose the appetizers I wanted, set up my meal plate and maybe even set up my desserts (sometimes I’d have to ask a hostess to let me eat my dessert before others did). I brought my own kitchen timer with and set it to 60 minutes once I started eating.

That was an entertaining meal. One of my friend’s kids walked by with some kind of ice cream treat I hadn’t seen. My time was running out so I asked her to go get me one. It was like a race & everyone was shouting, “Hurry! Hurry!” Even she was racing to get the treat back to me so I had time to finish it. We were all laughing and people who didn’t know me thought I was crazy.

In fact, it got to the point where I didn’t drink much at all while reaching goal. I chose to eat food instead. Not a huge deal since I’m not much of a drinker, but it was different going into bars and being completely sober. Drunks are very irritating when you’re not one of them!

Why I Quit

First off, I’m surprised I stuck with it as long as I did. I reached goal in a couple of months. I could have quit then and there. But I enjoyed feeling so healthy and I didn’t want to gain the weight back. My problem is binging on carbs and I knew if I got off plan the binge mentality would eventually return.

But after such a long time on the plan I started resenting the fact that if I had oatmeal for breakfast (something I was having an urge for), then that would have to be my reward meal and my next two meals would have to be low carb - 2 in a row. And my low carb meals were getting boring. I was starting to just cut up my meat and throw it in a salad for dinner.

I’m a person who needs variety and I decided I had enough of the program. I should have just eaten my oatmeal and had a sensible reward meal for lunch or dinner on those days. But I suppose if I allowed myself to do that the WOE would start changing more and more, until it was no longer CAD at all.

The good news is that I kept my weight off for over a year. So many people say that once you stop low carb you gain immediately. That’s hogwash. If you’ve lost enough weight it isn’t all water, especially after a length of time. Sure, you might “plump” up a bit as carbs hold onto water more but you’re not going to suddenly gain back everything you lost unless we’re only talking a couple of pounds.

I can’t remember how I started gaining. I don’t know if I just started binging again or if my back went out (old car accident that flares up about once a year & keeps me bedridden at times) but after a year of maintaining my weight I finally started gaining again. And that’s when I finally joined Weight Watchers.

I don’t remember much about the book and don’t really know why I didn’t try it. It is less structured than most low carb plans and I think maybe that was the problem. When I’m on the look-out for a specific diet plan I’m better with a bit of structure.

It offers lists of foods to avoid and lists of foods you can eat. There is no measuring or weighing or counting calories.

In fact, to me the book was more about the bad foods like sugar (and why they’re bad) than an actual “diet plan,” which is what I was looking for. This might be a good plan for those that like more leeway and less rules.