As promised last week, I've been doing the SMTM™️ Potato Diet, originally with CM but then pretty quickly not as she almost instantly got sick of it.
Not for everyone, then, clearly—but for me, so far, it's been pretty good! The two promised effects that I was most after were easy satiation and lack of cravings, which have largely held up. I wasn't as worried as some folk I've seen about getting bored—my default mode is eating the same thing, at least for breakfast and lunch, so I felt like 'just potatoes, for a bit' likely wouldn't cause me issues.
I've been having hash browns (the Serious Eats recipe when I've got time, McCains when I haven't) for breakfast, then a baked potato and some other kind of delicious potato preparation (roasties, chips, etc) for lunch or dinner depending on time. I eat, I'm full, I have some more. Current seasoning blend for basically everything is salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, rosemary and thyme; oils are either just olive oil or sometimes a bit of vegan butter which is pretty much just a flavoured oil blend.
If I do get hungry between meals (the biggest problem is that potatoes take a while to cook) I tend to have crisps—not ideal from an oil standpoint but they seem to be doing the job ok-ish. I'm not un-desirous of other foods—if something smells nice I think "ooh, I'd like some of that"—but the other day when the coffee shop I was working from was giving away expiring cookies, I had basically no problem taking it and saving it for CM when I got home.
Precipitous weight drop in the first few days has, as of yesterday levelled off a bit; still down 3kg total from when I started (though some of that is probably the large pizza I had for dinner before Day 1).
Anyway: potato diet: worth trying, imo. Current plan is to stick with it another week and see how I'm feeling. Probably not going to last past the end of the month either way.
In other news: CM and I got a Picturehouse membership, there being two Picturehouse cinemas in Brighton which are within walking distance of us, and us wanting to do more Going Out And Doing Things things. We went to see our first film, Where The Crawdads Sing, which was... fine? I was a little bewildered that the book had done so well; I spent the whole thing waiting for something unconventional, something unexpected, something special—but it just seemed pretty down-the line, especially from a cinematic point of view. Not terrible, just very workmanlike, 'tab a into slot b', as Mark Kermode would say. If the thing that gets me most excited about a film is trying to work out if one of the actors is Bernard from Lost (it was) there's something missing somewhere.
The heat has been a bit much but it's surprising how quickly you acclimate. I've had a few good evenings in the hammock.
I got ill on Friday so I've spent the weekend recuperating, which is a shame as I missed a visit to friends we had planned. Better now, thankfully, and still in the hammock :)