Please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
MEET THE KROCKS: We are a married couple who started on a life-changing whole food, plant-based weight loss journey in June 2018. To date, we have lost over 260 pounds combined and we aren’t done yet! Read Our Story
Follow our Journey:
YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER
After losing 270 pounds (155 for Brian and 115 for me), we get asked ALL the time: “What are you doing to lose weight?” The most simple answer is: we switched to a whole food, plant-based diet. But it’s a little more complicated than that, so we thought we’d start by answering a few questions!
NOTE: We are not doctors or nutrition experts. You should consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet. (Read More)
How did we get started?
Back in June 2018, Brian came home from work one day and told me all about this crazy two week potato diet. He listened to Joe Rogan’s interview with Kevin Smith, where Kevin discussed his weight loss journey following a heart attack. He told me that Kevin started with two weeks of potatoes (after being inspired by Penn Jillette).
Brian was super excited to try this potato thing out. It seemed harmless. I liked the simplicity of it – you eat plain potatoes and nothing else. There’s no guesswork to that! Our combined weight was 799 pounds at the time and I was pretty desperate.
I read Penn Jillette’s book Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales and we started our two weeks of nothing but plain potatoes. By the end of the two weeks, Brian had lost 25 pounds and I lost 20!
Check out these links for more on our two weeks of potatoes:
VIDEO: 800 Pound Couple Tries Potato Diet For 2 Weeks
BLOG: How We Got Started On Our Whole Food, Plant-Based Weight Loss Journey
VIDEO: Penn Jillette Potato Diet: What We Learned From Eating Two Weeks of Potatoes
BLOG: What We Learned From Penn Jillette’s Two Week Potato Diet
So What Happened After The Potatoes?
During the two weeks of potatoes, I spent a lot of time researching what we would do next. We really had no clue what we were doing 🙂 and Penn’s book doesn’t exactly give a specific step-by-step guide for what he did after the potatoes. I did a lot of searching and read/watched a lot of interviews with Penn. I also spent a lot of time on Twitter looking through tweets from Penn and Ray Cronise (the scientist who helped Penn with his weight loss journey).
From all of my research, it seemed like the closest thing to what Penn followed is the “Six Week Plan” for weight loss outlined in Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat To Live. So I started reading that book and we decided to give it a try. What did we have to lose (aside from several hundred pounds)?
The six week plan is basically an outline of foods you can eat unlimited amounts of, others you should limit, and some you should avoid altogether. After you read the book, if you are interested in learning more about the six week plan or a Nutritarian diet, I would highly suggest checking out HelloNutritarian.com. Kristen, who runs the site, has done an excellent job of putting together so many resources for people who are just starting out. She also has a guide that includes meal plans, recipes and more.
Immediately following our two weeks of potatoes, we started following the six week plan guidelines from Eat To Live. When we started, we weren’t sure if we would keep doing it, but we decided that we would stick with it for at least six weeks and then re-evaluate.
After the six weeks, Brian had lost another 20 pounds, for a total of 45 pounds lost (including the 25 from the two weeks of potatoes). I lost another 17 pounds, for a total of 37. Since six weeks obviously would not be long enough for us to lose the hundreds of extra pounds we had accumulated, we decided to keep following the guidelines. Over time, we have made adjustments, but in general we have kept with the six week plan guidelines as we continue to lose weight. Check out the video above to hear us discuss how we have adapted this plan to our lives.
What Is The “Secret” To Your Weight Loss?
Everyone thinks there must be some crazy secret to how we’ve lost 270 pounds combined. The truth is… the secret is just sticking to a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet!
A WFPB diet is one consisting of whole foods (i.e. minimally processed or non-processed foods). It is a vegan diet, so it excludes all animal products (meat, dairy, eggs). You also avoid any added oil and refined sugar. For more information on a WFPB diet, I recommend checking out NutritionStudies.org.
There are a ton of different plant-based doctors with plans you can follow to lose weight. We started by reading Eat To Live, but I think it is important to research all of the different plans and decide what is best for you. Here are a few others we have been checking out:
Dr. John McDougall’s The Starch Solution
Dr. Michael Greger’s How Not To Die
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
In addition to the doctors, we also like to follow “real” people who are taking information from these doctors and putting them into practice in real life. The most difficult part of our journey was figuring out how to incorporate the principles of a WFPB diet into our everyday lives. So we found other people who were doing it and took advice from them! Here are a few of our favorites:
The Jaroudi Family
Brand New Vegan
Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show
Martin The Great Potato Mage
Let us know in the comments below if there are any other resources you love that we should check out!
So That’s It?
That is it! Really! There is no big secret… we just switched our diet to whole food, plant-based and literally the pounds just keep coming off. We are never hungry, we love what we eat, and we can truly enjoy food again without over-indulging.
We have tried many diets in the past, and honestly, we both think this has been the easiest one. And the best part is, we both want to keep eating this way forever! We don’t want to go back to our old ways. We have taught ourselves a new way to eat, and I really think we can sustain this lifestyle and keep the weight off.
If you have any specific questions or topics you want us to cover in future videos/blogs, please let us know in the comments below!
Check Out These Books:
PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to purchase through these links, we receive a small commission from each sale at NO extra cost to you. All proceeds go back into making more content!
Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical TalesEat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss
The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure
Plant-Based Nutrition
Hiya guys, thanks for sharing your brilliant story to date.
You truly are an inspiration, love the way you to interact.
I’ve been plant based for 8 months now, but I do suffer with a lot on wind and also very loose / watery stools ( poo)
Just wondering if that’s normal due to the amount of fiber/ water in my diet.
Looking forward to more u tube content from you.
Keep up the good work.
Regards
James
Hi James! Thank you very much for the kind words and for watching. The “wind” is definitely normal. We have been pretty stinky LOL! For the stool consistency… I think both of us have actually been a lot more “regular”/solid than before.
James,
To take care of the wind/stool issue I would recommend 2 things. 1.) get a good probiotic and stay on it. Not just for a week or a month, jit’s for life. If you don’t want to take a pill, then eat fermented foods like kimchee, sauerkraut. 2.) Take some enzymes before your meals. Papaya is enough to take. Trader Joe’s sells one that is about $4-$5 a bottle and lasts for a long time. I take 1-2 pills per meal depending on the meal.
Oh, one more thing…are you eating gluten? This could also be a cause for your symptoms.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Jessica, looking forward to your next u tube post.
Regards
James
What about doing a comparison of the meat burger options¿
Thanks for watching! Good idea! We will have a lot more comparison videos coming hopefully!
Thanks so much for your channel. My husband and I have been on a weight loss journey. I am plant based and he is mostly plant based. We just returned from vacation and unfortunately we took a vacation from eating as healthy as we do at home and brought home a few extra pounds. Fortunately we found your channel the day we returned and you helped us return to our healthy habits quickly. We love your recipes, humor, and relationship. Happy to report we have been able to lose the few pounds that we brought home. Thanks again!!
Thank you so much for sharing that! That is great and we are so happy to hear that we could play a small part 🙂 It is hard to transition back from “vacation mode” to being home, so we always make sure we have a plan and plenty of frozen batch cooks on hand for when we get back from a trip!
Hey, love ur talks & “throw downs “
Great info. Can you do a vid on work lunch box suggestions, can fix the night before. And snack suggestions. And healthy drink suggestions? Besides our water intake. I’m older, but my son is like the Mr. (senior moment on name)ty
We will definitely add these ideas to our master list 🙂 We don’t actually snack in between meals as part of the plan we follow, so any “snacks” are really just extra pieces of fruit, etc. that we eat alongside our lunches. For drinks, I only drink plain water and Brian drinks iced tea as well. Thanks for watching!
After watching you guys a while I read Presto! by Penn Jillette. I had had the privilege of meeting Ray Cronise in September at True North Health Center in 2015! I was there eating dinner with Chef AJ after attending McDougall’s Advance Study Weekend. Ray told us all about having helped Penn the previous 4 months to lose 100 pounds. I did not know until I heard your YouTube video that Penn has written a book from his perspective! I needed to read that to get myself back to a stricter nutritarian lifestyle! Thank you so much for helping so many people! In November, my hubby and I will be going to True North (at the top of my bucket list!) Health Center to do a water only fast for 21 days! We’re hoping to reverse much, if not all, of our SAD diet effects and get off of all our medications! We’re excited and will be away from home (KC) for 30 days. In the meantime I’m trying to do a Mary’s mini and the Eat To Live with less cheating. Your videos and blog will help to encourage me, I’m sure!
Awesome! Love Ray Cronise! He and Penn have inspired so many people and we wouldn’t be here doing this today without them. Keep us posted on how everything goes in November!
Just want to congratulate you guys on what you’re doing! It’s so exciting to see people make this change.
Remember to Keep Eating Right
👉🏼🌱
New cookbook is out December 2019! The Healthspan Solution
Ray
Thank you Ray. You have been such an inspiration to us. We are really looking forward to the new book. Already got it pre-ordered 🙂 We aren’t “perfect” at this, but we keep trying to eat right and get better. It has been an amazing journey so far.
I am very impressed! Thank you for your videos and recipes. Love them! I would get so hungry eating this way and prefer McDougall and Engine2 style eating. I will try for a lighter large salad for my evening meal. Inspired!
Been watching your shopping and other video’s…
started on plant based a month ago due to B/P and cholesterol scare… losing weight and finding all kinds of inspiration from you guys… following Dr Esselstyn and Engine 2 books… Ann and Jane’s video’s are very informative and they are so fun to watch…
Watching your cheese sauce one now that is so inspiring as I am a born cheeseaholic… Next move is to go to your web sites for your recipes….
Great job and keep inspiring us all!!!
Hi I have watched your youtube channel and read Jillettes book. I tried to follow the same but keep failing with the 2 week potato plan. Something or other makes me fall off on day 2 or 3. I wanted to ask what kept you going the first two weeks? It sounds easy but my own experience has been the opposite and wondering what I’m missing out?
Pure will power kept us going during those two weeks. It was rough… but on days when I was ready to give up, Brian kept me going and vice versa.