[Chat] What appears to be a good diet plan to lose weight.

[Stephen J Gewirtz]

In his latest cookbook called Fast Food My Way, Jacques Pépin has a 
recipe for what he calls Instant Vegetable Soup.  Basically, the recipe 
is to boil water and to add vegetables that have been shredded using a 
box grater.  Since I make quite a bit of soup at one time, I've used my 
Cuisinart food processor with the coarse grating disc.  My latest soup 
(with almost all the ingredients coming from the Farmers' Market) 
included onions, carrots, zucchini, garlic (cut up by hand), mushrooms, 
red potatoes, a sweet potato, broccoli, Napa cabbage, parsnips, turnips, 
and some "braising vegetables" from the salad lady at the Farmers' 
Market (mostly kale, which I cut up rather than shredded), and I added 
some black and some cayenne pepper.  Also, to get some protein, I added 
some tofu.  Another good vegetable to use is eggplant, but I ran out of 
room in my pot this time.  Using a 12 quart stockpot and about 3.5 
quarts of water, I was able to make enough for 13 meals and am freezing 
some and putting some in the refrigerator.  When you eat the soup, you 
can add some olive oil to get a little bit of healthful fat into it.

Having one or two meals a day of this soup seems to me to work well to 
help to lose weight.  But be aware that so much fiber acts as a 
laxative.  It definitely is a very healthful diet and is vegan for those 
so inclined.  At the same time, I am aware that diet is a very 
individual thing and that what works for one person may or may not work 
for others.

Steve.