Fruit and Vegetable Soup Diet

A soup diet is a fast and healthy way to shed pounds. Not only is it great for weight loss, but unlike other diets, the soup diet allows you to eat as much as you want, as long as it's your healthy, homemade soup. You can prepare enough soup for a whole week in one pot and be ready for this diet in no time.

Why Soup Works

Soup is such an amazing diet food because of what it contains. If the average soup were chock full of carbohydrates and fat, it wouldn't make a great diet food. But soup is almost always mostly water and fresh vegetables, making it filled with nutrients and having little or no fat. Also, certain vegetables, like carrots and celery, are known to aid in the process of losing weight.

You Don't Have to Deny Yourself

With a vegetable soup diet, you don't need to deny yourself anything. You can eat regular, portioned meals as you like throughout the day. The vegetable soup diet only requires that you rely on your pre-made soup to satisfy all your hunger pangs between meals. No snacking on crackers if you need something to tide you over, simply have a bowl of your soup.

Why You Can Eat All That Soup

You can eat as much of the homemade soup as you can stomach, because the soup mix is essentially filled with nothing but good stuff. You can't eat too much, and, weighing in at just 45 calories a cup, it's unbeatable. You could eat over a dozen bowls of this stuff and still not have exceeded your daily calorie intake, so eat up. Just make sure the meals you eat that are not your soup are portioned properly and small.

Spice It Up for Dinner

To make the basic soup, follow this recipe:

1 pound carrots
3 medium onions
4 celery stalks
2 garlic cloves
2 cans tomatoes (28 oz.)
1/2 head cabbage
3/4 pound green beans
1 can chicken broth (48 oz.)
6 cups water
3 zucchini
2 bags spinach (6 oz.)
Salt and pepper to taste

For dinner, which should always be your soup, you may add ingredients like fish, pasta, beans, potatoes, and even ground turkey. This makes a whole new meal for you to enjoy, and there are recipes online for you to make all kinds of things, from minestrone to Greek fish stew.

Don't Forget to Eat the Good Stuff

A very important part of this diet is eating the right foods when you aren't eating your soup. When you prepare your soup, you should try to get your other food ready for the week as well. Make sure you have lots of fruit on hand. Fruit is the ultimate diet food because it is extremely low in calories and high in natural sugars that keep your energy up. According to DietBites.com, you can eat three bananas before you'll even come close to the sugar content of one candy bar. So next time you get a sweet tooth, snack on some sweet fruit.

Cut Out the Bad Stuff

If you're going to attempt any diet, it is a good idea to make sure you don't just stick to the diet's plan, but also make a few other basic rules for yourself. For instance, try to cut out alcohol as much as possible, as well as all sugary or fizzy drinks. Drink as much water as you can handle, and also avoid smoking and other toxins. The healthier your body is, the more chance it has to function properly and shed pounds.