For a while now I've wanted to blog about different diets. I decided the best way to do that was to immerse myself in them first and write about them after. So here it goes.

I want to start by saying that I'm not doing any diet to lose weight. So you won't see any dramatic before and after pics here. My goal for these analysis is how do they make me feel. My body goal is to feel healthy and strong. I do not weigh myself regularly nor do I take my body measurements. Any weight loss I experience is not a good indicator of how much you may lose on each diet. Weight loss is extremely individual, based on your own metabolism, nutritional needs, lifestyle and activity level.

The Soup Diet - is a one week diet supposedly designed by a cardiologist for patients to do to lower their weight and pre-operative risk factors. My husband and I have actually done this diet twice. Once last year after Christmas, and again this January. The first time my husband lost over 10 lbs during the first week, but continued to lose weight for 2 months afterward, totaling almost 30 lbs! I however lost almost 4 lbs the first week, and gained it back almost immediately. Just goes to show you how different bodies react differently. I include this so you can see just how different weight loss can be for different people.

Duration: 7 days. I did all 7 days with modifications this year.

What we ate: vegetable soup, lots of it. The idea is that you can have all the soup you want. I liked that, so I never had to feel hungry. In addition to the soup, each of the days had an additional something to it. Day 1 we could have any fruit except bananas. Day 2 was all fresh vegetables and 1 baked potato at supper. (That was the best baked potato of my life!) Day 3: any fruits and veggies except potatoes. Day 4: bananas and skim milk. Day 5: Beef and tomatoes. Day 6: Beef and vegetables. Day 7: brown rice and fruit juice.

Pros: I love soup, so this diet was ok for me. Lots of vegetables. Being allowed fruit for a few of the days allowed me to get enough carbs that I didn't feel horrible. It's short, only 1 week, so very attainable. I also liked the variety of each day being allowed something slightly different; though I didn't follow the logic of several of the days. I personally would have designed it differently and I will expand on that below.

Cons: extremely low protein for several days. Very low fat also. It was a lot of work to constantly be making soup for 2 people. If I wasn't at work I was either making soup or shopping for ingredients for soup. Also soup for breakfast sucks. I often had an egg instead.

Modifications: This year when we did the soup diet, I added quinoa and spinach to the soup for extra protein and that seemed to help. I also added healthy fats (lard and olive oil) to the soup, and had full fat dairy (cheese- I don't drink milk!) on day 4- I don't recommend low fat dairy ever! :) I also had fruit instead of fruit juice on day 7 (I don't drink juice either!) - I don't understand why juice was even in the diet. And I had one egg for breakfast most mornings. I also added garlic and more spices and herbs to change the flavour of the soup.

Energy level: fairly good to low, it fluctuated with what was allowed for each day. Mentally I was felt fine, no issues. Physically I was able to do my work outs, so that was good.

Weight loss: My jeans fit better again after a few days on the diet (especially after the over-eating over holidays), but not drastic weight loss. I do not weigh myself regularly nor do I take my body measurements. Any weight loss I experience is not a good indicator of how much you may lose on each diet. Weight loss is extremely individual, based on your own metabolism, nutritional needs, lifestyle and activity level.

Cost: low, I think we saved money doing this diet. However it was time consuming as I was grocery shopping for veggies often.

Recommended for: with my modifications it's a great, quick reset after over eating over the holidays. It's a great way to break old eating habits, high carb or sugar diets and eat lots of vegetables.

Bottom line: I doubt this diet was designed by a cardiologist; if it was, he needs to stick to Cardiology. I think my modifications are much more nutritionally sound. It is a short diet designed for weight loss, but not as restrictive as some fad diets. I would do it again- with my modifications.

I'm not good at following rules, I'd rather make my own. So here's the Changes I would make: in addition to the modifications I made above, I don't understand the reasoning behind day 4: bananas and skim milk. I would totally change that to just fruit and high fat dairy (cheese, yogurt). I also found that going from just fruit and vegetable to 2 days of high amounts of beef was hard on my digestion. I would change Day 5 to Eggs and tomatoes, and Day 6 to beef, chicken or fish. I don't think the juice on Day 7 is necessary or logical at all.

I hope you have found this information helpful. My goal is to share information to educate and empower people to take control of their own health. Please contact Lisa for more information. I would love to help you experience Better Health Naturally!

The information provided here is for educational purposes only. For treatment please seek a qualified health care provider.

Next up: The Egg Diet, another Fad diet.