About
A groundbreaking self-experiment
I ate only potatoes for an entire year
So you don’t have to
January 1st 2016. Day 1/366. Rock bottom. When I filmed this video I’d been battling with food for two decades. I was in the worst physical shape of my life.
But even worse was my mental health. I was clinically anxious and depressed. Sad, lost and exhausted after decades of trying and failing to stick to a healthy eating plan. Sick of wondering how I could be smart and successful in other parts of my life, but so unable to control my behaviour around food.
It was never about potatoes
Hi, I’m Andrew
The video above kicked off a global media frenzy that lasted the entire year. I was interviewed on The Doctors TV, by the BBC, major newspapers and magazines, breakfast TV and radio, the evening news – they even made a joke about me on Saturday Night Live!
Of course the initial assumption was that I was some idiot Aussie bloke looking for his 15 minutes of fame. But this was an experiment with a carefully constructed hypothesis based on a thorough study of the available scientific literature. My potato challenge wasn’t without precedent. It was just the first time it had been done for the reasons I was doing it. Because of this, I was able to change the direction of the interviews, to provide a different angle.
And the angle was compelling. Thousands of people identified with my distress that so much of my life, so much of my mental space, seemed to revolve around what went in my mouth: what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat.
They understood the misery of wondering how long it would be until I messed up this time. Of trying to figure out how I could be such a failure at doing something as supposedly simple as ‘eating healthy’.
They understood desperately needing a time out from it all; a break from having to make decisions or think about food.
That’s what this was. Potatoes were never the point. They were just the perfect vehicle.
The Scoop
Today is day 70!!! I can’t believe that I have been eating only potatoes since January 1st. I feel amazing! No cravings, no bingeing and a calm brain. This is the BEST way to deal with food addiction and this is the BEST group with BEST leadership…thank you Andrew Spud Fit Taylor and Mandy Van Zanen !!
I lost 17 pounds and am feeling great. I’m walking past my old triggers at the grocery store and don’t feel a pull toward them at all. My cravings are gone and I really want this feeling to continue.
I realised it had never been my fault
My experiment was wildly successful. I lost 55kg (121 lbs). I felt amazing and all of my medical results confirmed that my health had improved dramatically. But far more importantly for me, by the end of that year I had fundamentally shifted my relationship with food. It no longer dominated my life. I had replaced the endless internal debate with consistent healthy eating on autopilot.
This was life-changing of course. But it made me realise that I had suffered so unnecessarily for so long. Finding so much success by going my own way illuminated what had gone wrong with every other diet I’d ever tried. It was never my fault I couldn’t stick to a healthy eating plan – and it’s not yours either.
Coming soon: Overcoming the Top 5 reasons you haven’t been able to stick to a healthy eating plan long term – free guide and mini training.
You need SKILLpower, not willpower
Potatoes are awesome and I could talk about them all day – actually I have talked about them all day! But they’ve been a distraction. I’m a bit sick of explaining that my job isn’t “teaching people how to eat potatoes”!
My focus has always been on developing the psychological skills – the habits of mind – you need to create real, lasting change in your relationship with food. When you have skills, you have no need for willpower.
Our original Spud Fit Challenge and then the follow-on Mega Foods Plan have made way for our brand new Skillpower Program. We are 100% focused on helping you to make the healthy choice the easy choice, even when you’re surrounded by your trigger foods.
Of course the food is a big part of it, and a period of potatoes only is still an excellent catalyst for change. For that reason, it’s one of the food options within our program. Click below to find out more.
Learn More
Results are typical
Meet some of our ‘Super Spuddies’
Wendy Swiger
Marty Ritz
Mark Dixon
Karen Laurvick
Julie Simiana
Adam Morgan
Mary-Jeanne Smith
Arthur Gooch
