All but one of my midterms are over, it's halloween which I have promised myself will not even include a single thought of calories (I need a break, mentally exhausted with calorie counting) and I'm thinking of a recovery strategy for tonight's pizza/candy/booze extravaganza as well as my dad's birthday this weekend. Here is my solutions: from November 7th to December 7th I shall eat nothing but soup and salad! No carbs (well, minus noodles in soups that need it) low fats, lots of protein and fiber. I will have finished my last exam by then and will have a month that is relatively low on the mental taxing in university. It's also the month before December, which houses both my birthday and Christmas, so getting ahead on my weightloss till then is a good idea.

I will make ALL my soups from scratch, including the broth. I will make ALL my broths on lean meat. I will go to the gym FIVE times a week, no excuses barring illness.

My fiance loves soups too so he should be thrilled with the proposition. Here is my list of soups, 1 pot per week:

- clear tomato soup with ramen noodles and a tsp of fresh cream per bowl. (200 cals)
- curried cauliflower soup (267 cals)
- minestrone with lentils (387 cals)
- Spicy jerk chicken soup (473 cals)

Some are richer than others, so I will gauge my hunger/energy and make the according soup the following week.

Also, I have an exercise goal for this month. I can run 5 minutes out of a 10 minute mile. I want to comfortably run the full 10 minutes consistantly. I will follow up this 10 minute run with lifting which I know will slow down my weight loss but will give me more tone.

That's my plan, I'm publicly committing to it here and will report back in a blog-esque manner every few days. I would love if some ladies could "police" me and post if I haven't updated in a few days, I'm going to subscribe to this thread so my phone buzzes every time there's activity.

Hopefully I can see this plan through!

I might think of doing something similar. I need a serious kick in my butt and reboot. I'm running out of time before my vacation!

Making food from scratch can be nothing but good good good, but I wonder if the lack of solid foods will do anything to your digestive tract? Do you plan on adding some grilled chicken breast to your salads? Or maybe beans/grains to either soup or salad?

I would like to hear from someone with experience or knowledge if this is a safe diet to take on for a few weeks...like I said..i'm really interested in doing this as well!

Meat/egg in salads for sure, the jerk chicken has shredded chicken too. And the tomato has noodles. So I have -some- solids.

how do you plan on handling breakfast? hmm..egg drop soup..lol

I always drink my breakfast: 1/2c of skim milk in coffee. I dont do big breakfasts, they make me binge later in the day.

I was just thinking about some good hearty soups. I was thinking of Turkey Chili and another that include soups. May make the Turkey Chili tonight, Ive been thinking about it for a while. Ill post my turnout and final recipe after Ive made it

I've been thinking of doing something like this. Maybe not only soup and salad, but I have been trying to eat those for dinner consistently. My latest mantra is "Food does not rule my life". It's actually been working really well when I get cravings. :P

At first when I read this I thought it's crazy! It's not enough, but now I'm thinking I'll try the same thing... I made a soup just yesterday (Moroccan Harrira - with Lamb -- Found it in a really cool recepie book, and it's amazing, though Lamb is more fatty then I would like).

Anyway, I'm going to see what kind of soups I can make... But if I could have soup for lunch (I always eat ceral with yogurt for breakfast), and then have a salad with either fish or meat for dinner... I LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHRISTMAS HOT BODY, HERE I COME!!!

Yeah,i don't know if i'll do soup/salad ONLY... but definitely having soup for a lunch or dinner is probably a good thing. Relatively low calorie and very filling. Just gotta be careful with sodium unless you're making your own.

Will you post recipes (unless they come in a can? lol) for the soups? They sound tasty, and I love soup! I'm getting kind of tired of fruit and soy yogurt for lunch every day.

I am buying ingredients for my first soup today. Here's the recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/curry-cre...se-soup-147539

I was inspired by your plan, so I'm doing something like it myself now I'll have salad for lunch every day, soup for dinner the days I have work (generally 5 days a week), and my choice of dinner the other 2 days. First soup: Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup, (without the tortilla chips ).

How are things going so far? well I hope! ^_^

I eat soup everyday, and sometimes it's the only thing I eat. I freeze soup in 1-cup portions, so I usually have between 3-6 different types on hand, and I'm a master of making soup out of anything. I just love to eat out of a steaming mug. Soup is my hands-down favorite way to eat anything.

My favorite soups are:

Spicy Tomato Blue Cheese Soup (I switch out cream for evaporated skim milk) Link

Carrot Peanut Link

Sun Dried Tomato Soup Link

Roasted Broccoli (I add a T or so of Romano cheese to my bowl before serving) Link

Split Pea with Ham Hock (I switch out hock for smoked turkey neck) Link

Chicken and Lentil Link

I make a lot of Asian-flavored soups with whatever veggies I have on hand mixed with protein, rice or shiritaki or rice noodles, then I add a bit of bottled stir fry sauce and some sriracha into my broth. I'm notorious for ordering plain steamed chicken with broccoli when I get Chinese takeout and turning it into soup instead

In addition to the soups above, some regular soups I make are a tomato/tortellini soup with spinach, a curry lentil soup, turkey sausage/kale soup, and a lot of different chili recipes with vegetables galore, and an Italian wedding soup with turkey meatballs. I just made chicken pot pie soup last week and had to give out jars to friends because it was so delicious.

My freezer is always stocked with small containers so I can just take one out and warm up whatever soup I'm in the mood for. When we lost power in Oct (CT) last year, my entire extended family ate a different kind of soup because we just warmed them up on the grill.

I will probably do the same(barring thanks giving, of course!), especially with midterms coming up/passing by, because I KNOW I'll want to go out to eat as a "treat/celebration" haha.