Soup is the second word in the title of this blog because soup reminds us to drink plenty of water and to eat our vegetables. Vegetables are packed with vitamins, nutrients, and fiber which are the tools your body needs to function properly. Vegetable hammers help produce red blood cells, the vegetable saw cuts down cholesterol, the fiber shovel improves bowel function, and the vitamin drill and nutrient crowbar reduce your risk for heart disease, type two diabetes, and possibly your risk for cancer.
Sleep is a crew of workmen who spend the night building, cleaning, and repairing your body. Vegetables are the tools they use and water is their transportation. When the workmen don’t have the right tools, they improvise, but the result isn’t the same. You can build a house using only a crowbar, but we all prefer to live in a house built with a complete toolbox. Don’t live in an improvised body; give your workmen the tools and time they need and you’ll be amazed by their good work.
Vegetables are important for weight loss, but not because they magically melt fat or lock your mouth when a cookie comes near it. In fact, studies show that if you add vegetables to your diet, but make no other changes, you won’t lose weight. Veggies help you lose weight when you replace non-veggie food with veggie-food. The equation is not 3 burgers + 1 apple = weight loss, but 1 burger + 3 apples = weight loss. It’s this replacement of high calorie foods for low calorie plants that makes the scale move. Yes, technically you can lose weight by reducing your calorie intake and not include veggies—the Chocolate Cake Diet™, for example, lets you eat a slice of chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and nothing else—but it doesn’t help your overall health.
There’s only so much space in your stomach toolbox. High calorie foods are a tape measure. You definitely need one: healthy high calorie foods have protein and good fats your body needs. But filling your toolbox with only tape measures doesn’t help you build a house you want to live in; it only helps you measure your house’s expansion. Ba-dum-bum-ching! Expanding waistline joke! Vegetables fill up a lot of space on your plate and in your stomach but contain very few calories so it’s like filling your toolbox with titanium tools that are strong but light. Many veggies are made up of 90% water, so they help hydrate you as well as fill you. Building your house body well is important because you and your body are in this for the long haul; till death do you part. Know what else we’ve done to death? This metaphor.
You might not like vegetables. When we were kids, my siblings and I tried to explain to our parents that they liked vegetables and we didn’t because their taste buds were old and dying. The truth is that your taste buds adjust to what they encounter regularly, be it spicy foods, salt, sweets, or vegetables. The more you eat vegetables, the more you crave vegetables. It’s like buying your first power drill. You get along okay with screw drivers and hammers, but once you get a feel for the power drill, you’re not going back to that battery-less wasteland. Vegetables are power tools and your body loves using them, so fill your toolbox with titanium tools, shed that unnecessary insulation, and build your house well.
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. Genesis 1:29 (NIV)
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/fruits-veggies-don-lead-weight-loss-study-article-1.1844944 Fruits and Veggies Don’t Lead to Weight Loss
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and food. “
Vegetables have nutrients, fiber and water and many have complete proteins or combine to make complete proteins. Scientists are discovering that many vegetables have chemical compounds that improve our health and fight disease. They do so much more for us than fill our bellies. Our bodies are designed to digest plants and the closer to plant form (not processed) you can eat them, the better. 
If you’re not a vegetable fan and can’t imagine eating plants all day and calling that Paradise, keep in mind that Eden had better plants than we do today. Take my Grandpa’s strawberries, for example. They didn’t come from a big chain store. Their straw-babies and great grand-planties were handed down through the years from neighbor to friend to family.
Round One: They’re circling each other, calling out random numbers of calories. Exercise calls out 100 calories burned by walking a mile. Oh! Diet lands a solid hit with not consuming one half cup of spaghetti noodles to save that same 100 calories. The crowd roars! So much easier to eat fewer noodles than walk a mile. Ding ding!
Excuse #1: I can’t make it to the gym five days a week this week because my kid is sick, my other kid has a dentist appointment, it’s snowing, my car’s in the shop, there’s a Downton Abbey marathon on TV, my sneakers don’t match my only clean t-shirt, and no one wants to sweat on a Friday. May as well give up.
Excuse #2: I have a sedentary job and a busy schedule driving here and there and the only time I can do any real exercising is on the weekends. But going for a hike or playing tennis or taking a long bike ride doesn’t count, right? I mean, if most of my exercise is all in one day, it doesn’t do any good, does it?
The Bible as a lot to say about exercise. Unfortunately for our weight loss efforts, the Greek words translated as “exercise” have nothing to do with working out. The Bible talks about exercising kindness and authority, but has little to say on the subjects of weight lifting and lunges. Mostly we get are metaphors to “run the race” set out for us (Hebrews 12:1) and not to run or box aimlessly but to try to win the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24-36).
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Exercise doesn’t have to involve hours of sweat or debilitatingly sore muscles, it just has to get your blood pumping and your muscles moving. Every little bit of exercise adds up and adds benefit, even as little as two minutes.
Field Irrigation: Watermelon and sunflower seeds. Sweet and salty, this snack satisfies both cravings. Just make sure you pay attention to which seeds you eat and which you spit.
Mediterranean Berries: Greek yogurt and berries. Fill a small plastic container with Greek yogurt and add a few tablespoons of frozen raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries and your snack is ready to travel without refrigeration.
Cooling Waters: Cucumber 
The Aqueduct: celery with nut butter. This crunchy nutty combination is not just for kids. Let the water and protein flow.
Muddle the Puddle: hummus and cucumber slices. Hummus comes in a variety of flavors to keep things interesting as well as hydrated.
Bell Pepper Boats: half a bell pepper boat filled with tuna salad. This can be a snack, or two boats can be lunch. Easy to take on the go and they store well.
Sex, Soup, and 2 Fisted Eating 