Published: 11/29/2020

It’s been 3 days. Potatoes. Just potatoes. Today I woke up at 7:30, the garage door repairman was coming to fix a stupid issue; I let the door crash into the trash can and break some bolts on the door. Oh well, I was his first appointment of the day, which was great.

Before the guy got here, I weighted in; dropped another 2.6 pounds. I’m now at 323 lbs. The weight is peeling off, like the skin of an orange. It’s like my body is saying: it’s about time you learned how to feed me properly.

After the garage man left, the wife and I hung out, got the baby ready for the day and went for a drive. We were going to take the baby to the park but trying not to be bad parents decided that a toddler on a 30-degree swing in addition it was also windy might not be the best way to encourage his liking of the park. So, we went to get some Panera instead.

Black coffee in hand, 8 petite potatoes baked, and, on the road, we decided to drive up to Breckenridge. The potatoes were earthy and tasted like dirt. Mostly because I lost my veggie scrub brush but it turns out, the little thing blends into my black coffee maker because it too is black. I discovered it later this afternoon. I got the veggie scrubber for when I was doing that juicing thing everyone was crazy about like 4 years ago. Yeah, I know, I’m fat, I’ve been fat for a long time.

Time for a rabbit hole. I’ve done a lot of crap for my health. I’ve hired personal trainers, dietitians, coaches and done nermous diets before. The problem with all of these things comes down to a few key things:

  1. Most programs aren’t designed for a lifetime of eating that way. Whole 30, Atkins, even Keto, staying in Keto forever is bad. All diets encourage you to eat like a healthy hippy but allow you to cheat, be it a meal, weekly or monthly. Most programs treat all food except a narrow band of foods as OK, and the bad one’s in moderation.
  2. If I could eat in moderation, I wouldn’t be this fat. I don’t stop, I can’t stop. I love to get the big fat triple with bacon, extra cheese and I’ll take a coke, fries and ice cream too. Food is an addiction. The problem with food addictions is you need to eat to live.
  3. Part of what I find frustrating is finding people who weren’t healthy to begin with. The coach that has run his whole life or what about the dietitian who’s always been skinny and says losing weight is easy? I’m sure they’re great at what they do, they can help you run and eat better. But I want some fat guy who was as big or bigger then I am, lose the weight then keep it off for a long time. Penn J. is that fat guy that kept all that weight off. He was as big as I am! It’s been 4 years and what he’s doing is working.
  4. Extreme diets don’t work. Oh, the irony, I’m eating potatoes for 2 weeks. Well, yes. It’s an extreme diet. They can be effective to jump start the program, but if, after the program ends, you go back to eating ‘healthy’; you’ll go right back or beyond where you started. F that. I’ve done 4 whole 30’s in my life. It works, it takes the weight off, but what happens after is more important than these extremes

Now given 2, 3 and 4; why the potato diet? I need a reset. I eat too much fast food; I could lose the weight doing 1800 calories, but I hate going slow. I know I can do it. I know 2 weeks of eating like a weirdo isn’t that weird for me, 2 weeks is doable. But it’s not the end. At the end of this, if I’m 325 or 300 or 299, it’s not victory, it’s not even the end of the first inning. We’ve got Charlie Blackmon up to bat, the bases are loaded and we’re going to crush those SOBs: The Dodgers.

What’s after the potato diet?

Potatoes are a reset, so after reset will you eat healthy? No. I will not eat healthy or in moderation. I will cook a Christmas dinner feast for my family, chicken, pork or beef. But I will not eat it, no, I’m going to find 3-4 plant-based recipes and serve those for my dinner and to my guests as SIDE OPTIONS for their feasts.

After the potato diet the plan is to:

  1. Work towards the goal of hitting 230 lbs and maintaining the weight indefinitely.
  2. Attend the Kaiser (health insurance) healthy weight management seminars starting in December
  3. Plant based diet until I hit my target weight of 230.
  4. Find 6-12 recipes that I enjoy eating for lunch and dinner, as well as healthy snacks

Plant based cookies

NO! Plants have a lot of things but think the whole plant. This is based on the healthspan diet. No sugar, salt, oil or flour. Cuts a ton of crap out. No vegan cookies, crepes or other vegan junk food. The goal is not to be vegan, but to be healthy and plant based. Cray Ray talks about this in his book called the “Healthspan Solution”.

Long term it involves eating some of the following:

Stick around, this blog might turn into a health focused blog instead of a tech focused blog. Who cares?1? It’s my blog ;)