Announcing the 2 Week Potato Challenge

  You might think I'm crazy for trying this, but hear me out.  On one of my #YouTubeTuesdays, I posted a video of Penn Jillette, one half of the magical duo, Penn and Teller. Penn talked about how he lost over 100 lbs.  One of the things he mentioned in his video peaked my interest. He started a diet by eating nothing but potatoes for the first two weeks.  This got me thinking.  What would happen if I ate only potatoes for two weeks?  So I have decided to give it a try.

  Why would I do something this radical in my diet?

1. I'm healthy despite the obesity.  Blood pressure, blood glucose and thyroid levels are all within the normal range. If I leave it for later, health problems caused by my age or my weight might make something like this difficult. 
2. It is only temporary.  I don't plan on living on nothing but potatoes for the rest of my life.  In fact, I expect to be sick of them by the end of the the two week trial. If I have some negative effects, they are unlikely to affect my long term health.
3. It is likely to improve my health.  A diet of nothing but potatoes sounds extreme, but it has been done before.  This article (Biochemical Journal, 1928) records a study on a potatoes and health. In the study, researchers fed man and a woman a diet consisting primarily of potatoes for a period of six months.  They not only survived on a diet of potatoes, but thrived.  There are modern examples of people who thrived on an all potato diet.  An Australian man, Andrew Taylor ate nothing but potatoes for the whole of 2016 and lost over 100 lbs.
4. To lose some weight.  Lets face it losing weight is hard, especially when you have your genes working against you.  I admit that I'm hoping shed some pounds in those two weeks.
5. To show that potatoes don't make you fat.  Potatoes have gotten a bad rap recently with the all the low carb diets out there.  Many people believe that they have to cut out potatoes to lose weight.  I am convinced that it is not the potatoes that are making all of us fat, though it may be what we put on the potatoes.
6. It fits in well with a whole food plant based diet.  From my research, I have come to believe that a whole food plant based diet is optimal for health and potatoes certainly fit the bill.  
7. Does a mono diet really help reset our taste buds?  In his video, Penn Jillette claimed that a diet of potatoes with nothing on them helps to reprogram taste buds.  The idea is that if you don't like eating healthy food, after two weeks of eating only plain potatoes you will appreciate the kale. (Okay, I admit I paraphrased that one.)

Wish me luck.  My experiment begins on February 17.