Soup Diet Week: The Halfway Update

As I'm now most of the way through Day 4 of Soup Diet Week, this seems like a good time to share some observations from the first three days and most of today. My weight loss will be documented in the finale post because there's more of a pop to it when it hits all at once. Suffice to say it's going well.

Day 1 was surprisingly livable, largely thanks to my decision to fill up on potatoes and eggs at about 11:50PM the night before. It was also the time when I ate the most soup, seeing as the soup/fruit diet is probably the most restrictive of any day. A couple things I've realized while doing this diet are (1) to really lean on each day's prescribed foods, limiting the soup to about one meal per day in order to not get sick of it; and (2) to view it as a cooking challenge, and actually have fun with different foods on their allotted days. I've also upped my coffee consumption, as there's nothing prohibiting that, and I can barely drink anything else besides water for the first six days.

That leads us to Day 2, i.e. baked potato day. Seeing as Ralph Pohlman allows butter on the baked potato on this day, and I normally substitute out butter for olive oil when I cook, I figured I'd use some olive oil instead. That gave me enough to oil a pan. I ended up making this medley of a russet baker, an onion and a green pepper in the oven. I'm aware peppers contain seeds and are therefore fruit but it was easier to hold off on them on fruit day to use them on vegetable day for culinary purposes. I added plenty of basil, garlic, pepper and paprika, the last of which blackened a bit. For those interested in trying it, cut everything up and bake it at 400 for 70 minutes. I also ordered a mixed green salad with minimal balsamic vinaigrette dressing at a bar, proving that Soup Diet Week isn't a complete social life killer.

Day 3 was vegetable overload. I dealt with that by making this stirfry from zucchini, orange and yellow pepper, thai green chili, onion and bok choy, and then this salad (at 11:43PM!) from artichokes, the rest of the peppers, onions and chili garlic paste. I used a minimal amount of canola oil for the stirfry seeing as Ralph Pohlman doesn't specifically allow oil for this day. Planning certain foods for right before or right after midnight is smart if you're someone like me who's typically awake then.

Day 4 hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. I never eat bananas as a snack, nor do I drink much milk. Maybe as a result of this diet, bananas and milk have never tasted so good. I'm down three of each and have three of each to go. Tomorrow, I finally get to eat meat again. That will be a boon.

As an aside, this is my 100th post! ...and it has nothing to do with books. So be it.