The cabbage soup diet (also known as the Dolly Parton diet for some reason) seems like it’s been around forever.

A couple of women over on the Fox health blog have been giving it a shot, though, and by day 7 each of them had lost five pounds. Oh, sure, with fad diets like the cabbage soup plan there’s always the risk of regaining every pound lost the instant you go back to eating “real food”, but that’s not what happened to these women:

After the seven days on the Cabbage Soup Diet we have both lost five pounds — and as a result we are keeping better track of what we are eating, when we are eating and why and how it is prepared. There are more fruits and vegetables in our diet, lower carbohydrate intake, less sugar and more exercise. I have personally lost another four pounds keeping this healthy lifestyle.

I’d love to tell you about my success on it, but I’ve never stuck with it for longer than one day because — as I’ve since discovered — I was doing it all wrong. I thought the point was to eat the soup, tons of soup and nothing but the soup for seven straight days. Turns out, there are quite a few other foods you get to eat, too.

Now, I happen to love cooked cabbage. I’m a pretty big vegetable fan in general, for that matter. But I have a hard time going for more than five days without meat. As I’ve since discovered, following the cabbage soup diet doesn’t require that.

So below the fold, for those who are curious, is the cabbage soup recipe along with the daily foods that are allowed. If you try it, let me know how it goes. You just might inspire me to give it a shot, too!

Recipe: Cabbage Soup Diet

• 1 head cabbage, chopped
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 16-28 ounces low-sodium tomato juice
• 2 green peppers, cored and chopped
• 4 stalks celery, sliced
• 6 carrots, sliced
• 1 dry onion soup mix (optional)
• black pepper to taste

Soup directions

1. Place all ingredients in a large pot.

2. Fill with water to cover vegetables.

3. Bring to boil for 10 minutes.

4. Turn down heat, simmer until vegetables are tender.

Cabbage Soup Diet Instructions

Note: You can eat as much soup as you like every day. Also, you can drink as much water and calorie-free beverages as you want.

Ingredients

3 large onions
1 large green pepper
1 head celery
Half a dark green cabbage
Tin of chopped tomatoes
1 pack onion soup mix
3 vegetable stock cubes

Directions

1. Cut all vegetables into small pieces.
2. Put all ingredients, including vegetables, in a sauce pan.
3. Simmer until veggies are soft.

Diet (only these foods plus calorie-free liquids):

Day One: All-you-can-eat soup and fruit (but not bananas).

Day Two: All-you-can-eat soup and vegetables (cooked any way), plus a baked potato with a small amount of butter at dinner.

Day Three: Combine days 1 and 2 but skip the potato.

Day Four: All-you-can-eat soup and up to 8 bananas. Drink up to eight 8-oz. glasses of skim milk if you like.

Day Five: All-you-can-eat soup plus up to 20 oz. of beef, chicken or fish and as many as 6 tomatoes. You must drink eight 8-oz glasses of water to flush your system this day.

Day Six: Same as Day Five plus salad at dinner.

Day Seven: Still more soup plus brown rice, fresh vegetables and unsweetened fruit juice. (No potatoes).

Day Eight: Are you skinny yet?