I did something sort of crazy.
I did a 10 day diet challenge called the Mary’s Mini.
The rules are:
- Pick one starch. I picked sweet potatoes. That is the only starch you can eat for 10 days. You will have it with every meal.
- Your starch should be at least 50% of your meal. The rest of your meal should be non starchy vegetables.
- You can put some sauce/condiments on your meal but minimal to no sugar and salt and absolutely no oil.
So why would anyone do this? It can used as a jumpstart for weight loss. My goal was decrease the amount I was eating daily while still feeling full and satisfied. I knew I had been overeating and snacking too much. I wanted to mentally reboot and start some habit changes. Also, my go to breakfast has been cauliflower and sweet potatoes with wing sauce so I was already 1/3 there.
Did I get sick of sweet potatoes? No. But, I was starting to fantasize about beans and rice.
Was I hungry? No. I limited myself to one bowl of food per meal. That was my restriction – not a restriction of the program. I was very satisfied. If I did start getting a little hungry I would either have an apple (no more than one piece of fruit a day in this challenge) or I’d have some cucumbers with salsa. I didn’t have these snacks every day. I just wasn’t hungry. According to the plan, you should also snack on starches but I didn’t.
What were my results? I did this for 10 days. I lost 8.5 pounds.
What am I going to do now? I am sitting 0.2 pounds under a plateau weight that I haven’t been able to get consistently under for years. My plan is to continue eating as described by Dr. McDougall in The Starch Solution. A variety of starches will make up most of my meals. I’ll be adding other vegetables to the starches along with sauces.
Why did this work for me?
- Because the starches filled me up, I ate less calories overall.
- I wasn’t snacking because I didn’t get hungry and because I told myself that I wasn’t going to snack just because I felt like chewing something.
But aren’t starches super fattening? No, according to the theory behind this diet. Starches fill you up. They are all also low calorie. So you quit eating before you take in a lot of calories. They also don’t spike your blood sugar if you are removing fat from your diet. Removing fat will decrease any insulin resistance you have. The husband is diabetic and his best/lowest numbers now are after eating potatoes. It took some time after removing fat from his diet, but not that long. Maybe a week to see big changes.
How did your weight change after your returned to the regular starch solution? And did you just return to 50/50 plates with a greater variety of starches?
I kept eating mostly starches. No less than 50% starch at a meal but doing a variety of starches. I was doing well until I had to take some strong meds to stop some migraines. Those always shoot my weight up immediately if I have to take more than a day or two in a row. That’s demoralizing after working hard. I’ve been staying about the same after that.