Potato diet day 5

When I did this diet the first time, I experienced an overriding psychological change that was more striking than any physical one. The words I used for it at the time were that I felt like I “scorned food,” like my cravings for sweets and other tempting foods had entirely vanished.

I am not feeling that currently, and I have a hunch as to why. Mainly, I think the inclusion of high-palatabilty garnishes in my diet, such as ketchup, is keeping the part of my brain that is attuned to craving sweets and flavor activated. My first time around, I did not use ketchup until much later in the process, and instead used hot sauces and soy sauce and sometimes vinegar for flavor. I think avoiding sugar in this way was accidentally very beneficial to the psychological sustainability of the diet. It's not clear if my current cravings are just mental, or if eating ketchup (or harissa or barbecue sauce or other flavors that are even remotely sugar adjacent) is triggering something in my digestion/blood sugar. However, even if it's “just” mental, I feel like it's really interfering with my drive to continue the diet in a way I simply did not experience last time. My solution is going to be to exclude the sweet garnishes going forward. I fear the drop in palatability will prevent me from getting enough calories, however the distraction of all-day urges to abandon the diet entirely is unsustainable and I'd rather fix that first.

My plan for the week ahead basically looks like this: steam half a bag (2.5lbs) yellow potatoes every morning. Eat them all, plain. Then for dinner, mashed potatoes or hash browns or roasted potatoes cooked with some oil.

Digestion-wise, I've hit the point where I suddenly have less poop to poop. Still had some gas yesterday however but less today. Will continue to monitor this.

Otherwise I think my energy is generally good. My focus as stated above is going to be maintaining adherence. I didn't have problems with adherence last time, so if I can lock it in now we should be in a good spot for the rest of the project.