Week 1

Day 1
329.4lb
10:43 am: Just finished my first potato on the first day of my new way to eat.

First, let me say that I hate eating. I know we need food, but when I eat, historically, I gain weight. I hate to eat. As seen above, I left being simply overweight long ago. Every day for just about the last 4 years the first thing I say is “today is the day” or “I have to stop eating”, something along those lines. I didn’t. It’s too hard. I knew it was just another path to failure.

So today is the day. I chose this date a couple weeks ago for no more reason than a day to start something. I saw an interview with Penn Jillette and I watched because it was about Trump and some other stuff. At the end of the interview he talked about his weight loss. I knew he lost a lot because I saw him in Las Vegas a couple months earlier. I was totally surprised and glad for him at the time, but never did any follow-up. I learned a little about him then, found & purchased his book. Turns out he lost over 100# in 3ish months and has kept it off over a year & a half.

I started doing research on what he did and have a few more books to read still. But, even though there is a lot more to learn and I don’t have the resources he did, I can go for it too. The first part is a mono diet based on, in this case, potatoes. PG said it is to do a reboot on his system and taste buds. That’s what I need. My taste buds are all screwed up! And, I can eat potatoes, I don’t mind them at all.

So, today I start. I’ve had a liter of water and 1 medium yellow potato this morning. I bought red, yellow and russet potatoes yesterday, I’m ready. :-) I know, simplistic but I gotta start. And, if I can reset my tastebuds so that I can open up to a variety of foods (I hate most vegetables, especially the green ones), all the better. I really need to, I really want to. I think it’s going to be hard. But: If it ain’t hard, it ain’t worth doing. If it was easy, everyone would do it. (Look around, no one is.)


Day 2
324.5lb
Yes, that drop was expected. They say the first 10 pounds come off quick and it is all due to water loss. I’m ok with that. Woke up grouchy though. Got plenty of sleep, but felt tired any way. Ok.

Yesterday actually went well. Drank 2.5 liters of water and ate 4 medium sized potatoes, 2 yellow, 2 red. They were good and I didn’t want any more. Already had one today. Not as big as yesterday and so far only .5l of water, but feeling a little hungry, still.

I got the book The End of Dieting, Joel Fuhrman yesterday. It is a little too veggie for me but I’m told he talks about the science of food and eating in it. Time to read that, for the end of potatoes. Why, you ask? They say many who drop the change in eating style is because they don’t know the science behind it. I’m hoping that 2 weeks of potatoes will reset my taste buds and eating a little green won’t be so bad. I hope…..


Day 3
319.1lb
Again, expected to lose 10# in the first couple days. I know it is a little like cheating and only water weight, but it is nice to see go away! I think I even *feel* a little smaller? Is that possible? I don’t know, but I’m running with it.

A little hungry as I have not had anything to eat yet, but I’m not starving to death. I went to bed hungry last night. Just a little. It didn’t bother me. Not because there has been this miraculous transformation, but I knew in my head that it was ok to be a little hungry. Went right to sleep as usual and had a good rest. I feel better this morning than yesterday morning too. I was a little grouchy throughout the day, but I just could have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. Yeah, much better today.

In the shower I was thinking about one of the recommendations Penn said was required of him by Ray Cronise: A Withings scale. It connects to a phone app and can send an email to people watching you lose or maintain. Maybe I should get one than I wouldn’t have to remember my weight and it will track for as long as I have the scale. Prolly a good idea. There goes another hundred dollars.

--potato break--

I had plenty of water and some potatoes. I have decided I like yellow better than the red. :-)  No matter, they will all be consumed. Yesterday was my first test too. We went to a movie. There was popcorn and sody pop a-plenty. I was thinking “just one buttery kernel” in my best Homer Simpson voice, but no. Sorry Homer.

I also got through the first 2 chapters of the Fuhrman book. So far, so good. He said a lot of stuff that made sense and a lot of numberie things that are sad. Like over 50% of the US population is overweight/obese. Only 2% of the population on a diet will keep the weight off. If ya want to live to 90+ and be healthy, maintain a BMI of 22.5. General populations around the world that live into their 90’s have BMI’s of 19 to 24 (I think) and our USA BMI goal set by the USDA is 25. Even the government knows we are fat and is an enabler. Sad, because they know we can’t do it.

You know what else is sad? Our Standard American Diet-SAD. It’s made up of tons of added salt, oil and sugar:SOS. I love it all.

Day 4
315.4lb
Rested well, woke up no problem, rested. Yesterday, potato day 3, went off without a hitch, but I didn’t read any. I need to do that today. Not sure if I will, I’ll try, but non-food related turmoil today. My head is just not into making words.

Day 5
314.4lb
A pound! Perfect! Now, if I can keep that up for the next hundred days…… I’ll hit my target area, but not what my BMI weight suggests of around 150. I have never weighed one hundred and fifty pounds in my adult life. I perhaps passed it on the way up as a kid, but I have no idea when that was. Early teens I suspect. So when I look at a number like 150, I think that is just crazy. Is anyone at that weight at 5’-8”? No one I know except K-12 school kids. I do remember weighing 180 back in the navy, over 30 years ago. Then and in high school I had a waist size of 36. To me, just getting back into that size pants would be awesome and that’s my target. But I’m learning that is just an interest point along the journey. So, out of curiosity, my BMI then was 27.4. Today? BMI=47.9. I guess that’s a little high.

Yesterday was ok. Potatoes & water. Sounds like a prison diet. One of the potatoes I got, there was butter laying out on the counter from the kids. I really just wanted to give the tuber a little dab into it. No, I didn’t. I survived it. Other things in the fridge for the fam is looking good too. It needs to go away soon. It is, actually, albeit slowly.

Didn’t read yesterday but did listen to part of an interview with Cronise. Nothing new that I had not heard before from him, but I keep hoping. I need to get back to the Fuhrman book where there are hopefully answers to questions. Like, how many potatoes can I eat in a day? I’m eating until full, no more. That sounds correct from the Teller book. But what do I do after the potato stage? I know it is all plants. But how much? Which plants stuff? I hate beans and green stuff, but part of the reason for potatoes is to reset the tastebuds. I REALLY hope that works. It did for Teller, but he would eat anything. I’m historically a anti-vegan fanatic. Fruit and nuts are fine, but anything else except potatoes that come out of a garden I don’t like. Can I learn to tolerate them? I hope so. Because after I hit target it is essentially all I want of all plants.

But in a little more than a week, what do I do? I’m a little scared of that because I don’t want to fail on this. I NEED this to survive. I know Cronise has/had a program, that for what seemed like $10,000 he would guide a person through the transition to a new target weight. Could be more, could be less money, but I live hand to mouth. I don’t have Teller money laying around. So, I *really* need to get on the research and see if I can come up with a plan on my own. There are fruit diets out there and the obvious vegan/veg varieties. I’ll have to find what I can find on the web and cut out the SOS.

The other thing that Teller had on his diet was a team of other people as a support group. I guess I’m ashamed to let others know my details. Cronise says to tell no one because they will only want to talk you out of it- like they know more on their SOS diet. So, rock meets hard spot…. For now I hope.

Day 6
317.7lb
Huh. Well,  I did fell off yesterday, last night & when I got up this morning. I only ate around 700 calories yesterday.  So, just a thing I guess. As far as I know, this is part of the detox. Getting all the SAD addictive overdone SOS and other processed junk out of me. This is when most people quit. (The turkey lunch meat did look mighty tasty today.)

I thought I'd measure all my rubbers yesterday to see how many calories I am eating. A little low I think? I did read that around 1000cal is recommended for the weight loss period, which I am in. I’m thinking eating more at one sitting would be better. I remember reading that when you are no eating you are digesting and processing food. So many small meals is bad because there is less digestion and synthesis time.

Day 7
315.0lb
That’s better. That will happen from time to time, I know. I think this time was part of detox & getting used to a new eating style-better! Stomach felt weird again yesterday. Not sure how to describe, but it most closely resembled hungry. But even after I ate something it didn’t really go away, so I figured part of the transition. Still a little like that this morning, but I have yet to eat.

Speaking of eating, yesterday I ate a sweet potato. Man was it sweet! It was kinda overwhelming really. If you are a traditional Thanksgiving type that has the sweet potatoes covered in brown sugar and marshmallows (Ummmmmm), it tasted exactly the same! Without the added sugar! It was a total shock to me. And to be honest, it was too overwhelming and I tossed out about 20% of it. Too sweet.

I also had some tea. A couple cups of Oolong. Bitter, but a nice change.

Because it is day seven, this day marks one week. I don’t know what means in the long run, but I made it this far. From what I read, many don’t get past day 4, so I beat them. Many only last a week. I’ll beat them. I’m guessing that while they all knew they had to lose weight, they just weren’t “all in”. I have to be. I’ll be 58 years old in a month and a week. I never expected to be this old. My dad died of a heart attack at 52. I wasn’t sure if I would get past that age. Kinda has a lasting impact on a kid when your dad dies. His dad died at 62, I think, of heart related problems. That made me feel my entire life that my days were similarly numbered. But, I got past one, now to get past the other. I need to change.