Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cabbage Soup Diet

The smell of cabbage makes me want to vomit, so this diet would force me to either regurgitate all my meals or just refuse to eat all together:  my apologies for starting you off so negatively. 

Why I stated that is because today's diet review is called the Cabbage Soup Diet.  This diet is a 7-day diet that consists of meal plans for each day of the week in which most include the magical cabbage soup.  This diet is actually a healthy one, but may be discouraging.  Let's face it.  Humans love to see results and this diet takes the full week to show the weight-loss. 

Here's the recipe so you can start cooking your piss-smelling meals...again, I'm sorry:
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.
For those of you who read this recipe and thought, "This sounds so delicious. I can't wait to try it, but where do I start?"  Here is the meal plan that you can follow in order to satisfy those odd taste buds of yours.

Those of you who thought about maybe trying it but are still a little skeptical,  I invite you to look at this page to see the testimonials of people who have tried the diet and have had success! Here their stories!

Eat up!
MIA

Monday, December 7, 2009

The Raw Food Diet

The Raw Food Diet is exactly what you think; everything you eat is uncooked and unprocessed.  It was created on the basis of the belief that foods that are heated above 116 degrees Fahrenheit burn off the enzymes that are helpful for food absorption. 

I'm sorry, but with my Cuban roots, everything is prepared, cooked, seasoned, and hot and ready on a plate to eat.  I can't imagine eating any other way.  Sounds more like a rabbit diet to me, but here's what the researchers are saying.

The benefits include weight loss, increased energy, improved skin, better digestion, and reduced risk of heart disease. 

Ok, ok I know it's probably a very healthy diet, just not very appealing to my taste buds. 

In my defense, some will get a detoxification reflex from trying this diet if their diet was normal before.  They can experience nausea, headaches, and cravings.  The nutritional deficiencies of this diet are iron, calcium, B12, protein, and calories.  These things are suggested to be taken in vitamin form so that your body is getting the essential nutrition it needs. 

Chef Alissa Cohen is a firm believer and has dedicated this whole website to the Raw Food Diet.  Here she has recipes, before and after pictures of her followers, blogs, and more! Check it out

This video gives dieters an idea for healthy snacks available to buy when you're on the diet. 

Can't wait to here!
MIA

Color Diet

Christina Aguilera made this colorful diet come to life!  The point of her diet is to be conscious of what she's eating and be creative in her food choices.  Healthy foods are stressed!

Here's the calendar:
Monday= White
Tuesday= Red
Wednesday= Green
Thursday= Orange
Friday= Purple
Saturday= Yellow
Sunday= rainbow foods are allowed

This diet is challenging if you really think about it, but it makes you really think deep into what food you are going to eat and plan out your meals for the day.  This diet sure is a lot of fun for the pop princess, but others have a problem keeping the diet under control and making bad decisions to eat red velvet cake instead of an apple because their reasoning is... IT'S TUESDAY AND IT'S RED...PERFECT!!!!

If you haven't noticed, sadly our friend, the color blue, is not included in this color spectrum.  I can only imagine it is because there are barely any healthy foods that are blue or because, with research, I found that the color blue is a hunger suppressant!

The American Institute for Cancer Research supports eating all different colors of food in your diet.

Tell me how the rainbow tastes,
MIA

The hCG Diet



The hCG Diet is one that I have never heard about until now!  If beauty isn't already painful enough, some faddys say that this shot is the key to weight loss. 

HCG stands for Human Choriogonadotropin, which is a hormone produced by pregnant women.  Some think injecting this into your body will cause you to lose weight along with following a low calorie meal plan of 500 calories a day.  With my fear of needles, all five hundred of those calories would be sweat out of my body before I would even get my daily shot. 

It is said that patients will lose 1 to 2 pounds a day.  No doubt those are excellent results, but that dosen't sound too healthy.  The facts prove me wrong again by saying that the weight loss comes directly from adipose fat rather than lean muscles. 

And here's the kicker... there's a lack of FDA recommendation, which is why your doctor has not suggested this!  It is legal in the United States, but it is recommended that you don't buy hCG from any other countries because it is not safe.  This is not an Ebay purchase, be careful with who is your distributor.

Who knows, maybe this could be the revolution to weightloss!  But like any other diet, when you stop recieving the shot, your body will not stay the same, requiring you to adopt a healthy life style. 

This diet is in my opinion a short time thing, a segway into another diet.
Blogger (Cyndyok) on the Daily Burn talks about his successes on this diet!

Happy eating!
MIA

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Face Analysis Diet

This diet is basically an analysis of your face, skin, and hair which determines what foods that you should be eating and what foods you should be avoiding.  According to Elizabeth Gibaud, there are 6 arhcetypes in which everyone can fall under.  Personally, I have no idea which archetype I am from looking at this chart, but maybe that just means this diet is not for me! But don't let that discourage you, this diet may be perfect for you.  The basis of this diet builds off the statement that your face is the key indicator of what's going on in your body.

Which type are you?
Type 1: This one is ruled by your thyroid gland. If you have a shiny nose, fluffy hair, cold feet and hands, bulging eyes, and dry skin.
Avoid: Mangoes, white flour, red wine, yeast products, and chocolate
Eat: Cucumbers, oats, apples, potatoes, and asparagus

Type 2: This one is ruled with your liver. If you have a yellow tint to your skin (particularly around your mouth), reddish or bluish nose, and/or a thick and furry tongue, and red ears. If you are suffering from lack of concentration and motivation, as well as experience nausea.
Avoid: Oranges, curry, bananas, alcohol, and coffee
Eat: Cherries, limes, apricots, potatoes and garlic
Type 3: If your are suffering from water retention and have a bloated face, puffy under-eyes, vertical line or groove under the tip of your nose, swollen fingers or ankles, and a hard time concentrating.
Avoid: Soy sauce, peanuts, canned fruit, red meat, and cheese
Eat: Spinach, broccoli, onions, fresh fish, and pineapples
Type 4: If you have inflammation easily, a greasy chin, nose, and forehead, very tight or open pores, horizontal lines on your forehead, sagging cheeks, and smelly feet.
Avoid: Rice, pastries, alcohol, mayonnaise, and shellfish
Eat: Millet, turnips, carrots, asparagus, and berries
Type 5: Prone to having complaints about your skin.
Avoid: Watermelon, raisins, strawberries, eggs, and beer
Eat: Oats, cabbage, apples, butter, and parsley

Type 6: This is only applied to men and is ruled with their prostate. If your ear is red at the top or forehead is red and has horizontal creases above your top lip, dark rings under your eyes, and a furred tongue
Avoid: Sweet potatoes, vinegar, aubergine, red wine, and blue cheese
Eat: Grapefruit, peaches, lentils, courgette, and watercress


So, basically, analyze your features and see what foods should and should not be in your diet.  Beautify yourself and your body... if you can categorize yourself into one of the types.  If not, keep diet searching!!!

What do those lines on your forehead, puffy bags, and open pores mean
Here are the pros and cons to Kate Winslet's facial analysis diet!!!

Happy dieting!
MIA

Baby Food Diet

If you hate the texture of food and love the thought of all your food pureed into one bowl of yuck, the Baby Food Diet could be for you!  Instead of eating 3 whole meals and a couple snacks a day, you replace them with small jars of inexpensive baby food.

Baby food is full of vitamins and minerals.  The portion sizes are small enough where they will satisfy your hunger, but you won't overeat.  There are also kinds of baby food that organic and most are gluten-free for those of you who want that in your diet plan. 

On the other hand, the small portions may lead to binging later or may not satisfy you.  The texture may get boring. 

The baby food is no doubt very healthy because its purpose is to feed babies.  That is why it is full of fruits, veggies, vitamins, etc., with no extra fats, fillers, or other unhealthy chemicals. 

For more opinions on this diet and thoughts of A-listers, click here!
Also, if you want to try to spice up your meals a little bit, look at these baby food recipes.

Good luck,
MIA

Sunday, November 22, 2009

5 Factor Diet

The 5 Factor Diet was made, once again for our favorite celebrities.  We look to our Hollywood Stars to see what keeps them skinny and beautiful.  As much as we see many gimmicky diets and different ways to have an eating disorder, some of our stars follow healthy meal plans.  This diet is one of those.  If you want to look like the stars, but eat food, this is the probably the closest thing I can give you! 

This diet was all started by a man named Harley Pasternak.  He was faced with a challenge to create a diet that not only was healthy and practical, but it had to be able to fit into the schedule of a Hollywood star and all the ingreiance had to fit into a mini fridge.  He also had to put together an excercise plan that would fit into the breaks during their day.  Now the diet can be accessed by everyone, also accompanied by excercise videos, customized meal plans online, and motivational books.

This is what he came up with!

  • It is designed to give you results in 5 weeks.
  • You are to eat 5 meals througout the day.
  • Each recipe contains no more than 5 ingredients and should take around 5 minutes to prepare.
  • The workouts are 25 minutes long.
  • You will get 5 cheat days out of those 5 weeks. 
These key concepts are what makes this diet easy, efficient, and effective!

If you want a sample of a meal plan for the five weeks check it out!

Here's what Mode Athletics personal trainer Mike Roulston thinks about this diet. 

Also, if you're looking for some recipes to get started, this should help you out!

Until next time!
MIA