My Potato Hack Story, Part 1

Red and Gold Small Potatoes, pre-steamed, quartered, and thru the air fryer (400 degF 15 minutes)

"The Potato Hack is a short-term intervention (3-5 days) where one eats nothing but potatoes. This short mono-food experiment will strengthen your immune system and provide you with all of the nutrition you need to remain energetic, sleep great, and, as a side-effect, lose weight. The Potato Hack will help you develop a new relationship with food, hunger, taste, and yourself."

https://potatohack.com/

Also, there's a book ...

I do all these odd food things, because I'm T2D, and don't want to be. There is the possibility that I can get into remission by reducing my body fat mass, to about 15%. At that point, my theory says, I can control my diet and body responses to it, such that my BG numbers are "normal", and I've no requirement for any drugs.

Two things about the Potato Hack had some appeal. I've already well begin on reducing my need for Lantus, and wanted that to happen faster. Losing body fat quicker is my way to go, and doing the Hack might get me about a pound of loss per day. And, yes, I have a clue about how much of that would be fat, water, and muscle mass. Doing IF, staying low carb, and watching my protein macros has been getting me about .4 to .5 pound reductions, per day. The second thing, though, is to see what my sensitivity to a "strict" high carb diet will be. Potatoes are a high carb food, albeit with lots of other good stuff. I'm curious to see what my blood glucose numbers do over this 3-5 day experience.

This experiment began Thursday, January 17th, when we went grocery shopping. We had social engagements all day Saturday, and a blizzard starting Friday, so shopping was prudent. I learned more about potatoes than I ever knew, trying to select from the abundance at Wegmans. The book advised 10 pounds to begin, guessing at 3 pounds per day. We took 2 x 3# bags of small Yukon Gold, 1 x 3# bag of small Red, and 1 x 1.5# bag of another Red. These things don't cost a lot, but they're not inexpensive.

Friday, January 18th, we steamed 3#s of both the Red and the Gold. Red took 15 minutes, Gold, 35!. The rules are simple. Boil / steam the potatoes, let them cool overnight, eat. I was going to start on Sunday, January 20th. But, blizzards being what they are, the second social engagement was postponed, so I chose to start Saturday, January 19th, simply warming a few dozen of these beauties in the microwave, to take the chill off. Worked OK.

Then, the first social engagement happened, and I ate enough to blow out my calories, carbs, and BG numbers. Oh well. Back home, I dealt with the BG numbers with industrial quantities of Lantus,  and ate more potatoes, this time halved and air fried 400 degF 15 minutes. So much for the consistency of the experiment, and the numbers therefrom.

This Sunday morning, theDog needed to go outside, and quelle surprise, it was snowing, and shoveling was needed to get the space to go. My use of Lantus was sufficient to get my numbers low (normals would pass out, me, I need to eat). So, breakfast by potato, halved, about 20 this time. Discovered the air fryer "french fry" setting is 400 / 15. Then early lunch by potato, quartered. These just keep getting better, and cannot wait for the full treatment of EVOO, salt, pepper, and vinegar. Someday ...

I expect to be close to finishing off the original 6#s today, and need to steam (or boil) the remaining 4.5#s this evening.

Thanks for following along ...