All Hail the Potato Challenge!!

[Potatolover]

Hello everyone! I am new to MWL and this WOE. I LOVE it so much. As my name suggests I love potatoes. I decided to do the potato challenge and made a big pot of red potatoes with a bit of carrots, celery, onion and sweet potato. Ive been eating it for 2 days. No fat, sugar, dairy, nothing added but veggies here and there.

I have an issue though, I feel like I may be eating too much since my weight loss is very slow. Only 3lbs in 4 weeks. I know I need to eat more veggies but I am not cheating in any other way, just quantity. Any suggestions?

Ps. I love to read what everyone does for tips and tricks. So fun!
You are all my inspiration without knowing it.

[anni m]

thanks for the welcome posts! it's fun to have this community on line, since NO ONE i know, even though i have several nutritionally conscientious friends, eats like this. and of course i've been criticized and challenged through the years for eating the way i do. now that it's even more "restricted", wow! i just like to keep a low profile about what i eat and let my energy level and good health speak for themselves. but it's nice to be open about my chosen woe here and not be criticized/questioned.

it's been amazing how many things taste really good with potatoes; i had three grandparents who were born in ireland, so i should have known! i made jeff novick's longevity soup (a variation, did use some beans in that despite the potato hack, my rules after all!), and just left out the pasta and put in pre-nuked chunks of potatoes and it was every bit as yummy.

i have arthritis and do not take meds for it since the vegan diet seems to help so much, but even the little joint pain i did still experience seems to have gone away since starting this potato hack. hmmm, maybe the abundance of corn products i had been eating had something to do with the remaining joint pain? i had already done away with wheat in my diet, but had replaced it with lots of corn products. all hail the potato indeed!

in terms of slow weight loss, what i've been reading on jeff novick's forum is that you have to kind of fiddle with the ratio of veggies to starches until you find that sweet spot. he has newsletter articles that he's posted links to on calorie density that are really helpful. i'm not good at putting in links yet, but you can find them i'm sure through the search function.

[Jenna]

Potatolover,

Since you were brand new to this WOE, one thing to consider is that most people gain a few pounds in the beginning because of extra fiber in the gut, extra water, extra volume of food, extra glycogen stores, etc. (Basically all the same reasons that people on a low carb diet drop several pounds right away.)

Anyway, all that is to say that perhaps your weight loss will pick up, but I also agree with adding in some more veggies if you can.

[TracyAnn]

Eating potatoes as my main starch has been great for my IBS, which is why I came back to the potato hack. ( I really didn't leave for long) When I first started this woe, I gained a couple pounds at first, especially being low carb before, but now that weight is gone plus a few. My weight loss has been slow, but I just hope that means more permanent. i never go hungry. Actually, I think I eat more than I used to.

Greens make a nice addition to the potatoes.

Eating simply has helped me find what foods don't agree with me and which ones do.

I try to base my starches on potatoes during the week and do regular MWL on weekends.

I am trying hard to avoid condiments and I struggle with nut butters. I actually love those on potatoes. I think there should be a nut butter support group, because I have a horrible time avoiding those. I keep it in the house though for my children....

This thread has been great for me also...with all the tips. It has been a great support!

[Wild4Stars]

For those of you lucky enough to live near a Publix they have their petite red potatoes on sale this week, 99 cents for a 3 pound bag!

[Key Tones]

TracyAnn-I find potato easy to digest. I've been having problems adding vegetables vs. having just potatoes with condiments. I noticed I do better with cooked vegetables.

Carrots particularly make me uncomfortable; I do enjoy crunching on them but will have to cut back.

I just brought in some pasta sauce to use today for my lunch on my potatoes. I'm going to slice up my crock pot potatoes and add some pasta sauce. Yum!

Jenna - I discovered the potato hack on the paleo blogs - I have seen some people talk about how the potato hack caused weight gain then they switch back to paleo and see a loss. Most just seem to drop weight outright, though. I did see a gain in the first 3 days.

Anni - Good news on joint pain! I have heard corn as one of the culprits. I do have some inflammation issues. I avoid all grains except rice.

[KittyMcKnitty]

... I am trying hard to avoid condiments and I struggle with nut butters. I actually love those on potatoes. I think there should be a nut butter support group, because I have a horrible time avoiding those. I keep it in the house though for my children....

Oh, my. I love nut butters, but I would never, ever, ever, ever, put some on a potato. You are a free spirit.

[anni m]

i love peanut butter too, but of course it's not in keeping with the mwl plan. BUT, i accidentally discovered powdered peanut butter and it has saved me! it's also not 100% because it's processed and has some added sugar. but what they've removed is the oil and then you reconstitute the peanut powder with water leaving 2 tablespoons of what is very similar to real peanut butter (better than none for me, as apples with some pb have been my go to dessert for years) at only 45 calories and a gram and a half of fat-- wow!! i measured out my two tablespoons and it's more than what i put on my apple slices! so if it keeps me from foraging for higher calorie/fat stuff i figure it's good. i found it at one local grocer but it's cheaper on amazon by almost half. you can look it up there (just search for powdered peanut butter) and see the ingredients and the hundreds of reviews. it defiinitely helps my cravings for the higher fat nut butters!

[Key Tones]

Hello everyone! I am new to MWL and this WOE. I LOVE it so much. As my name suggests I love potatoes. I decided to do the potato challenge and made a big pot of red potatoes with a bit of carrots, celery, onion and sweet potato. Ive been eating it for 2 days. No fat, sugar, dairy, nothing added but veggies here and there.

I have an issue though, I feel like I may be eating too much since my weight loss is very slow. Only 3lbs in 4 weeks. I know I need to eat more veggies but I am not cheating in any other way, just quantity. Any suggestions?

Ps. I love to read what everyone does for tips and tricks. So fun!
You are all my inspiration without knowing it.

Hi, sorry I missed your post earlier.

3 pounds in 4 weeks is pretty good weight loss actually.

What were you eating before?

[TracyAnn]

Oh, my. I love nut butters, but I would never, ever, ever, ever, put some on a potato. You are a free spirit.

Yeah, I was surprised myself when I first tried it. One night I ran out of sesame seeds, than went to the tahini, ran out of that and tried pb. I also tried jam once, but that was a bit weird.

[TracyAnn]

i love peanut butter too, but of course it's not in keeping with the mwl plan. BUT, i accidentally discovered powdered peanut butter and it has saved me!

Cool! I am going to try that out. I think I may have saw it in the store, but didn't realize it was low fat. I will try a jar and see how it goes.

[Potatolover]

To Key - I have mostly been eating vegan since January, vegetarian before that for 2 years. Maybe a slice of light cheese pizza once a week as my treat. I've done it all from low carb to boxed meals to all raw. My love for carbs keeps me really pretty faithful to mcdougall now though. I have seen my weight go down faster with other methods, but I'm HAPPIER with this way of eating. So I guess shouldn't complain. I would like to lose 15 more pounds. It took me a year to loose the first 15lbs.

Thanks for any advice that comes my way!!!

[Key Tones]

Anni - I tried the powdered peanut butter made into a paste with water on some sliced yukons nuked until chewy. I spread it on after they came out. Um, yum!!!

Potatolover - ah, you've been at it a while! I suspected you might have been trying with a light plan prior to this.

I get the most mileage out of something when i first discover it and am excited because I MAKE it work. I didn't eat much on the potato hack at first. I was pretty impressed at how little I could eat and get by so I pushed it to see how far I could take it.

[frozenveg]

I wanted to comment on the peanut butter and powdered peanut butter! This is the MWL thread, so I just want to make it clear to any newbies that nut butters, even the powdered, are not on-plan for MWL! WAY too calorie-concentrated. And homemade hummus does not need the tahini or other nut butters--you will never even notice it's gone.

For the regular plan, powdered peanut butter is a great find--Mary McDougall showed it to us on January's 10-day program! However, please don't fall into its clutches! It may be powdered, but it has 13 calories of fat for every 45 calories (2 T.) of the powder. That's still 29% fat, and WAY more than we should be eating in any appreciable amount on either the regular plan or MWL. For those, like me (who stayed a FAT vegan in large part because of my love for the nut butters), who can easily eat half a jar in a day, there will be too much temptation, too much fat in your diet, and too much fat in your artery linings!

Back to potatoes, with naturally fat-free accessories, like salsa, mustard, fat-free hummus, ketchup, cooked broccoli or my all-time fave, corn!

[TracyAnn]

Thanks Frozenveg! --I hope i wasn't understood about the nut butters....I didn't mean for it to be interpreted that nut butters were okay to eat on MWL. In my post earlier I mentioned they have been a struggle for me to avoid. I know they are definitely not on the plan. My partner eats a very SAD diet and I am not tempted by those foods...but nut butters! It is one of those things that at times I have a hard time really, really hard time resisting.
I wouldn't even buy it but my 5 year old is going through a phase where he has a narrow range of foods he will eat and pb is one of them.
I was really intrigued about the powdered peanut butter. I bought some of the powdered peanut butter last night. Maybe I can incorporate it into a recipe to further reduce the fat content and get the nutty flavor...and not completely fall off the MWL wagon.