Resolution 12: Eat Fewer Potatoes, Especially French Fries & Potato Chips

Eat Fewer Potatoes, Especially French Fries & Potato Chips

When I was a little girl, maybe nine or ten years old, my teacher that year had asked each of her students to answer a list of questions. One of those questions had been, "What's your favorite food?" I had answered, "Potatoes!" 

Poutine: fries, covered in cheese, covered in gravy. Mmm.

That love for potatoes has never ended. There were more than a few times when, during my living-single days, I would come home from school and boil a potato or two, cover them in butter, and call it diner. When I was in late elementary school, my mother, my grandmother, my cousin, and I drove to Colorado to visit one of my aunts: it was she who introduced me to one of my favorite snack foods still to this day--salt and vinegar chips. About five years ago, on a trip to Quebec with family, Scott and I fell in love with poutine: a Canadian "delicacy" of french fries, covered in cheese, covered in gravy. And now, with Newt's only a few miles from our home, sometimes it is all but impossible to ignore the calling of their crispy, golden fries (which I then dip in their tasty, fatty, chipotle mayo). 


It is this love that I have for potatoes that will make this week's resolution all the more difficult. This week, I eat no french fries and no potato chips, plus I will attempt to avoid potatoes all together (no matter what the preparation). 


This past June, Harvard released a study that addressed a few foods that, when eaten regularly, cause pounds to creep up on a person. According to the Washington Post:

"Among all the foods studied, potatoes stood out. Every additional serving of potatoes people added to their regular diet each day made them gain about a pound over four years. It was no surprise that french fries and potato chips are especially fattening. But the study found that even mashed, baked or boiled potatoes were unexpectedly plumping, perhaps because of their effect on the hormone insulin."

It is the findings of this study that will serve as my motivation for this week. Can I do it for a week? I think so. For a lifetime? Well, I'll take this resolution one step at a time. 




As for last week's resolution--


Not snacking and avoiding caffeine two or more hours before bed was very doable: it was not a problem at all for me. In fact, I plan to continue on with this resolution as I move forward. That said, the impact of this resolution still has yet to show results. Maybe it was the Daylight Savings Time, but for whatever reason--despite my awareness of my afternoon and evening caffeine intake--I struggled getting to sleep at my typical 10:00 PM bedtime.