I'm in a super-secret, paid-access-only Facebook group, called Spudtember. The owner, Andrew "SpudFit" Taylor is charging a $10 admission, and has about 300 folks signed up. Most of these people are there because they are food addicts and overweight. Andrew is the poster-child of overweight food addicts, the entire reason, actually, for his year-long potato diet.
I am quite impressed by the folks in the group, especially with their cooking skills! These recipes and pictures have been worth the price of admission for me. I tend to get lazy when potato hacking, resorting mostly to hashbrowns and oven-fries. Check out these pics posted on FB for the group! Soooo many ways to cook plain potatoes!
Potato on!
Tim
Unfortunately, I can't join. If I was not the family cook, I would do it for long stretches at a time. Not for weight loss, I have none to lose, but for budget trimming and simplicity :) But I would probably add a few things around the core potato meals: some high protein yoghurt (Greek style or Icelandic skyr), some raw veggie cuts (cukes, etc), some occasional fruits like apples, grapes and oranges. Basically something quick to grab that does not need much kitchen time if at all.
ReplyDeleteYou are almost describing McDougall's Starch Solution diet, except that it's Vegan. I think if you ate as you described, it would be a perfect diet. Throw in an egg or two and some seafood or liver on some days, viola.
DeleteYeah, I like me some fried liver and seafood. As a very occasional side item, it would be perfect :) I just can't convince my wife to join. I tend to like boring, she can't stand it :D . Now, my kids, well, that'd be unfair to deprive them from some childhood delights (pasta / meat sauce, ice-cream, etc) :D
DeleteSo the fat sources would just be the occasional egg and Greek yoghurt?
DeleteI love the simplicity and low cost of this idea, as I'm time-poor, could do with saving money, and am a sucker for the ascetic :)
@David
DeleteYes, maybe a piece of fatty fish once in a while but that would have to take as little time as possible to prepare, so most likely canned or pre-smoked. Or if you want to add plant fat, whole olives or an avocado will do. But that's for the more fancy days :D
Yeah, Spudtember is a blast! There's a mom doing this who's feeding 7 children and her husband. What a trooper! The people in the group are fun and lively.
ReplyDeleteI've always been sensitive to nightshades.....I get arthritis. But so far I'm OK as long as I stay away from the other nightshades - peppers and tomato. This is a revelation!
I don't have food addiction. I'd love to lose that 25 pounds left over from having babies, and I'm interested to see how my health shifts on this simple mono-diet. A one-month trial feels perfect to me.
Hi Madeleine! What an active FB page, eh? I cannot keep up, at all. You should consider adding some sweet potato this month to get Vit A and E, (missing from white potatoes).
DeleteI am eating about a quarter sweet potatoes. Dessert! Thanks for the tip - I didn't know about A and E.
DeleteI imagine it's a lot of work for Andrew. Clearly he loves it, but still....
Yumm....beautiful food! Might join just for the recipes!
ReplyDeleteActually, "SpudFit" and his wife wrote an ebook they are planning to sell later, but giving it for free if you join the group. It has 10 or so really good recipes, much better than the ones in my book, lol. I tend to get bogged down in hash browns, oven fries, and mashed when I eat just potatoes, lol.
DeleteI just joined last night. I'm waiting to get into the group. Since Andrew and his wife are in Australia, I figure they're about 16 hours ahead of me. I'm in Minnesota. I can hardly wait to see what the group are posting. I got a couple of Yukon Golds last night and a sweet potato. I figure to eat them when I get hungry today. My biggest problem with any way of eating is that all my friends want to meet up and eat out. This will definitely be a challenge for me. I imagine I'll be eating some plain baked potatoes when I eat out. Any other suggestions, Tim and friends?
ReplyDeleteCool, I try to make a couple comments a day, but it is very fast, I can't keep up.
DeleteAs far as eating out with friends...at first, make a big joke about it, but let them see you are serious about eating potatoes only. Then later in the month watch their jaws drop as they see how much weight you're losing. Then be prepared for nonstop questions about eating a potato, lol.
If you're jump-starting with these potatoes you bought, make sure you cook a ton more than you think you could possibly eat. If you don't get through all of them today, they'll be full of RS tomorrow, so win-win! This way you won't be tempted because you ran out of 'your' food.
DeleteThanks for the idea, Madeleine. I'm also going out to pick up a bag or two of Yukon Golds (my FAV) and some more sweet potatoes. I'm not terribly fond of sweets. They are just too SWEET for me. But variety is good. And as Tim said, they're good for Vit A and E.
DeleteAfter seeing your cooked potato pictures, I'm hungry now!
ReplyDeleteHey Tim, just curious.... if Andrew is keen to focus on something like food addiction, what are your and his thoughts on when the potato-only period is over? It sounds like the classic detox period that drug addiction facilities use where you put abstinence in place in order to recover. But food is different. Assuming you don't plan to eat potatoes-only for your entire life, what's the thinking about transitioning back to a varied diet? Do you believe that gut health will be so improved that unhealthy cravings or overeating will end? That this somehow resets both psychology and physiology?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see how this is discussed in the group. People are already asking, "what next?" Binge eating and overeating are serious conditions, I hope some people are helped.
DeleteThis will be fun to watch! Longest I've done is 2 weeks also.
ReplyDeleteWill you keep us posted periodically this month on how you feel?
ReplyDeleteThe potato dishes look astounding. I kind of like your idea, though, in your book, about keeping it kind of very plain the first hack. Of course, these people are/will be doing this a very long time. So, yeah, variety in prep, please! But some of the potato dish photos up there lit my neurotransmitter lights up, and I'd hate to see anyone drop out early because some of the things besides potatoes pulled them out by fueling cravings. Maybe for some people it would be best to do a potato only hack like you describe and then transition to the brothy potatoes, delectably browned potatoes and tangy ketchup? Maybe my fear (based on a food addict mother who passed those tendencies down to me) is unfounded. I just want people to have the best likelihood to succeed.
Anyway, have a good Labor Day weekend!
Sure, I will be posting all month on how this goes. Funny with all these different prep methods, as you are eating them, your brain still says, "It's a potato." I made some potato salad yesterday with a bit too much vinegar and mustard, and got a bit of indigestion from it, lol.
DeleteWhat I am seeing, it's going to be hard for me to eat at a "maintenance level" of calories this month. Especially if I am to keep my activity level as high as normal. Morning of Day 4, and feeling great.
In the Spudtember FB group, Andrew is running a pretty tight ship, telling people their main meals need to be "mashed or roasted" potatoes and not all sorts of fancy dishes with more gravy than potato.
Best of luck! Just curious, is there a strict amount of potatoes one has to eat for this "hack" or just eat until full?
ReplyDeleteEat until full. Seems to be impossible to overeat potatoes. I think on a 30+ day hack, most people would really struggle to eat enough to maintain or gain their weight.
DeleteIt takes 6 pounds of potatoes to get 2000 calories! I've never eaten 6 pounds in a day. SpudFit Taylor has been at this for 9 months now, lost over 100 pounds, and is eating 6-8 pounds daily!
Remember to do some whole body resistance training! This will ensure that you are using all amino acids available from the spuds for tissue maintenance, so don´t slack off.
DeleteSo I just used white wine to steam my potatoes in my instant pot instead of water. I must say they have a very nice, understated flavor. I am now using that same wine to steam (hard boil) some eggs in the pressure cooker too. I got the idea from cooking artichokes...
ReplyDeleteI'll bet a heavy, dark beer would be good, too.
DeleteWhat is the potassium content in a tablespoon of raw unmodified potato starch?
ReplyDeleteNext to nothing, I believe. It's barely digestible to humans, so any nutrients would also not be available to us.
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