Is Dr. McDougall’s Mary’s Mini DietWorth the effort? Here’s What I Found Out…
My Potato Mini
I’ve mentioned Dr. John McDougall’s short-term diet, the Mary’s Mini, on a few different occasions. You eat the same starch every day — accompanied by any non-starchy vegetables you want and some simple low or no-fat condiments — for ten days. You can also have one piece of fruit each day. It’s a great way to do a reset if you get off your dietary track. It also works well as a starting point for a WFPB diet.
I recently did a Mary’s Mini myself as a way to prepare for some upcoming bloodwork. I thought I’d share the experience with you. I picked potatoes as my starch. I’ll go through what I ate, day by day, and share my beginning and ending weights as well as the results of the bloodwork. Before I start with my daily menus, however, I need to mention a few things.
A Few Notes
I briefly explained above how a Mary’s Mini works. However, for this Mary’s Mini, I didn’t adhere strictly to the rules. I did what I’ve labeled an “Augmented Mary’s Mini.” Let me explain.
This is the second Mary’s Mini that I’ve done. The first one was a quinoa mini. It was an interesting experience, but I did struggle with one aspect of the diet — the lack of protein. On this diet, you get to eat starch and non-starchy veggies, neither of which has very much protein. McDougall does, now, allow you to choose legumes as your starch, but I worried that lentils or beans might not be filling enough on their own.
I have blood sugar issues and the lack of protein caused blood sugar spikes, so when I did my quinoa mini I didn’t feel too good much of the time. For that reason, I allowed myself to add some protein to my Mary’s Mini — either seitan or lentils. Yes, I know. I could have just stuck to one choice, but I didn’t think either was a perfect choice. Lentils was another starch and seitan is a processed food and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be eating it every day for ten days. So I gave myself the choice.
The second change I made to the diet was that I allowed myself to use a little almond milk. Nuts aren’t allowed on a Mary’s Mini, but I had just bought a half gallon of almond milk a few days before the start of my Mini. It was already open and I figured it would spoil before the ten days were up and I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I allowed myself a little milk here and there. I’ll try to plan better next time.
Lastly, before I get into the day-to-day of what I ate, I want to explain my unique eating pattern. I have a condition known as hypochlorhydria. This means that I have a lower level of stomach acid than I should have. Because of this condition, the food in my stomach digests at a slower rate and I don’t get hungry as often as what is considered normal.
What this all means is that I only eat two meals a day, or sometimes, one meal and snacks. And I don’t usually wake up hungry, because I tend to eat late. In a way, my eating pattern mimics intermittent fasting. Sometimes, I don’t eat for the first time til as late as 4 or 5 p.m. Then late in the evening, I’ll have a snack or a late meal. This isn’t always the case. Sometimes I do wake up hungry and I start out snacking and have my meal later on. It really just depends on my mood and what I have going on that day.
Okay, I think I’ve covered all of my notes. Let’s get into what I ate each day.
Before I start, I just want to mention that the only thing I drank the entire time was water except for the last two days when I also had a cup of tea. I’d usually have 1–2 glasses of water with each meal and then maybe 1 to 3 more during the day.
Day 1
I started the first day of my mini with some seasoned hash browns that I cooked in the air fryer. I seasoned them with a homemade seasoned salt blend that included garlic and onion powder, paprika, Italian spices and a little salt. Along with the hash browns I had some broccoli and cauliflower that I cooked in the microwave and some seitan chunks that I air-fried. I put some teriyaki sauce on the veggies and ketchup on the seitan.
In the end, I discovered that I could have done without the seitan. I was full by the time I ate the potatoes and veggies. I set the seitan aside and snacked on it a bit later.
In the evening I nibbled on some blueberries. This was my one serving of fruit. I made it a habit to do this at the end of each day. It gave me something to look forward to.
Day 2
Again, I started my day with hash browns using the same seasoning as the day before. Then I had the seitan chunks with ketchup, also as I had the day before. Then, instead of the cooked vegetables I had a salad made up of butter lettuce, mushrooms, shredded carrots and microgreens. I made my salad dressing with carrot juice (was this compliant?), soy sauce, garlic and ginger powder, miso and guar gum.
Guar gum was something I was experimenting with for the first time. It’s a thickener that works even in cold liquids. I was intrigued when I heard about it because I usually make my own salad dressings and I’m always trying to find a way to thicken my recipes. Unfortunately, the experiment was a fail. I don’t know if was only because I used too much or if it always results in the same texture, but I wasn’t crazy about it. The texture of my salad dressing was kind of slimy and not at all what I was hoping for. Since I have a whole bag of it, I’ll likely give it at least one more try at some point.
Later in the evening, I had some potatoes that I cut up and microwaved and topped off with some sugar-free BBQ sauce. They were pretty good. I skipped my fruit on this day.
Day 3
Instead of hash browns on day three, I chopped up some potatoes and microwaved them. I seasoned them with nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and Kinder’s Carmelized Onion Butter Seasoning. (Don’t worry; no actual butter in it. It’s just a shake-on seasoning). Then I had my ketchup-topped seitan chunks. On the side, I had another salad with the same mix of veggies as on day two. I did change up the dressing. I made a honey-mustard dressing of sorts using carrot juice, dijon mustard and water. It wasn’t bad.
For my later meal, I made mashed potatoes using potato flakes, vegetable broth, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and salt.
I ended my day with a smoothie made with frozen berries and almond milk. Delish!
Day 4
This was a fun day, as I did something a little different. I made a small pot of lentil chili using lentils, Rotel, tomato paste, Mirepoix (chopped onions, chopped carrots and chopped celery), mushrooms and veggie broth. Then I put it over some chopped potatoes that I lightly seasoned with the Kinder’s seasoning.
I snacked on two bowls of chili during the day. I had some strawberries for my fruit and ended with some microwaved potatoes with ketchup on them.
Day 5
I still had chili left, so I had chile and potatoes for my first meal. Then my roommate and I did some shopping and I picked up a container of chopped watermelon. I had half of it early in the evening. It was quite the treat. Then I had more chili and spuds for my evening meal. And that was it. It was a pretty simple day.
I’m not sure If it was on this day exactly, but somewhere in the middle of this Mary’s Mini, I did start to find myself thinking before meals, “Ugh, not potatoes again!” And this is to be expected. The Mary’s Mini is designed to make you bored with your meals so you won’t overeat and that’s exactly what it did. It also lead to a specific decision. When I started this diet, I had planned to do 13 days which would have had my mini ending on the day before my bloodwork. But by the time I got halfway through this Mary’s Mini, I decided I just didn’t want to stick it out past day ten. So I just did my Mary’s mini for the usual ten days and then made a point to eat really clean for the remaining three days before the blood draw sans potatoes.
Day 6
Now that the chili was gone, I tried another new recipe — a potato salad. I started with a can of diced potatoes. I made my dressing with mustard, almond milk pickle relish and a little Truvia for sweetness. It turned out quite good.
I got the idea from a recipe I saw on Jane and Ann Esselstyn’s YouTube channel some time ago. I believe the video is called, “ Plant-Perfect Potato Salad.” Their recipe used mustard with apple sauce instead of almond milk. I didn’t want to use my one serving of fruit, however, on this dressing, so I used the almond milk instead.
Then on the side, I had some cooked cabbage that was seasoned with a little soy sauce and garlic powder.
Later in the day, I snacked on some sliced strawberries and I ended my day with some potatoes that I chopped up and cooked in the microwave. I made some more of the potato salad dressing to put over the potatoes and then added some ketchup on top of it. I rather enjoyed this concoction.
And you may have noticed that I didn’t have any additional protein this day.
Day 7
On day seven, I went back to the hash browns with some additions. I chopped up some bell peppers and green onions. I cooked the bell pepper with the hash browns in the air fryer and added the green onions at the end. As before, I seasoned it with my homemade seasoned salt. I had a few slices of seitan bacon and some cooked cabbage with teriyaki sauce.
Later in the day, I went back to the microwaved spuds with the potato salad dressing and ketchup on it. This became one of my Mary’s Mini favorites.
I ended my day with a smoothie of mango, berry and Truvia.Yum! Yum! Yum!
Day 8
I started with the hash browns again, prepared just as I did on day seven. I accompanied the potatoes with a salad. The same butter-lettuce salad as I had done on days two and three. I used a mustard dressing again, but it was made a bit differently. I used mustard, almond milk and truvia. The meal was topped off with some seitan bacon.
Now, it turned out to be quite a large serving of hash browns. I didn’t even need the salad initially. I saved the salad and ate it later in the day and that was my food for the day. I didn’t have anything else.
Day 9
Day nine began with another new recipe. It was a version of one that I found on a Youtube channel called, “Plant Based News.” The original recipe is called Cheesy Chick Peas and you can find it in the video titled, “What is a Realistic Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet?”
You just dump a can of chickpeas into a saucepan and add nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic and onion powder. Heat it up and you’re done. I just subbed in lentils for the chickpeas because chickpeas give me digestive issues, so I don’t eat them. It is such an easy recipe, and quite tasty too. It’s worth checking out. I put my cheesy lentils over some potatoes. And had some cooked zucchini on the side. Later, I had a cup of black tea with a little almond milk in it and then sweetened with Truvia.
And this is where I went off the rails for the only time I slipped during the ten days. I was working on a blog post when I was hit with a wave of hunger that was overwhelming. At the same time, I didn’t want to stop working to prepare potatoes. So I did something I shouldn’t have. First I grabbed some Maple Cardamom carrot chews. It’s a packaged snack that’s just dried carrots, apple juice concentrate, citric acid and natural flavors. Now, that wasn’t so bad. It’s maybe even compliant. However, it’s what I grabbed for next that was a no-no — some dry roasted peanuts. Yes, I can hear you all gasping in shock! I know, I know. I screwed up. But what can I say? I’m human. And then, surprisingly enough, I didn’t eat anything else.
Day 10
On day ten, I created a recipe that was kind of a riff off of an idea I got from a Mary’s Mini video from the YouTube channel “Plant Based Dads.” I made a teriyaki stir fry using bok choy, mushrooms, garlic, onion, ginger powders, chopped potatoes and some bottled teriyaki sauce. The video is called, “A Week of Potatoes. What I Ate All Week on Mary’s Mini Potato Diet.”
Later I had a cup of decaf green tea with some almond milk I tried to froth. That didn’t work too well and the tea wasn’t very good either.
My second meal was potatoes with the potato-salad dressing and ketchup. Then I had some sliced strawberries and another cup of tea. And yes, it’s another day that I completed without the additional protein.
And that’s it — my ten-day Mary’s Mini. It was a good experience and gave me a small boost to my health. Let me fill you in.
Weight and Cholesterol Results
There’s not a lot of info to share here, but I did do a weigh-in both at the beginning and end of my Mary’s Mini. Also, I scheduled my Mary’s mini to finish just before my blood draw to check my cholesterol level. I was going to go right up to the day before, but I was so bored when I reached the halfway point of this diet that I decided to just do the 10 days that McDougall’s instructions dictate. So now let me get to the numbers.
I have good news to share on both fronts. First, let me share my weigh-in. On the first day of the Mary’s Mini, I weighed in at 158.4 pounds. When I finished I was down to 154.4. Okay, that is only 4.2 pounds lost, but for it being just 10 days, I’d say that’s a nice result.
I was even more pleased with the results of my cholesterol test. Back in November of 2022, my primary physician gave me the bad news. My cholesterol level wasn’t good. My total cholesterol was up to 253. This, as well as a high A1C that put me in the prediabetic range, was what made me decide to go WFPB. I knew I needed to improve these numbers if I wanted to get healthy — and I do.
It took me six months to get the A1c down to a normal level. That was my first success. However, I was still struggling with getting my cholesterol down. I have been inching it down, little by little, for the last year and a half, but it was still above what is considered normal (200 or below). Back in February of this year, it was at 221.
Okay, ready for the exciting news? My total cholesterol level as of August 14th of this year was 190. My doctor was very pleased…and so was I. I finally made it thanks to the Mary’s Mini. I attribute this to the fact that for those 10 days, I had absolutely no animal products in my diet.
You see, I have trouble digesting proteins. I eat lots of lentils, small amounts of black beans and tofu and that’s about it. Because of this, I‘ve kept eggs in my diet. However, during my Mini, they were gone and I think that’s what did it. I read somewhere (sorry, I don’t recall where), that if you want to get your cholesterol in the normal range, you must remove all animal products from the diet. At this point, I’d say there’s some truth to this statement.
Conclusion
And there you have it — my Mary’s Mini experience. It went well and I even learned a few things. First, I’m going to try to keep eggs out of my diet. I’ve started eating a little tofu, which I didn’t used to be able to do and by the end of the Mary’s Mini, I just didn’t feel interested in going back to eggs. I used to think I needed them to keep me full and to keep my blood sugar stable. I don’t, however, think this is true and, as I said, I think removing them was the key to lowering my cholesterol.
I also think I realized that potatoes are the superior choice of starch for a Mary’s Mini. I think they are the most filling. I’ll probably stick to potatoes for at least the next two Mary’s Minis and then maybe I’ll branch out. One of my favorite Youtubers, Plant Based Dads, did a corn mini and had tacos almost every day. I must admit, this sounds interesting.
Lastly, I’m thinking I may do Mary’s Mini in six-month intervals. It just sounds like a good round number and the second mini from now will, again, be just before another cholesterol test.
I hope the chronicling of my experience will spark interest in you to give the Mary’s Mini a try. I wrote about the basics of how to do it in my post titled, “WFPB Eating: 3 Ways To Get Started.” Take a look at it if you need the details and good luck!
To follow my journey follow me here at wholefoodplantbest.medium.com and at www.pinterest.com/wholefoodplantbest.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a medical professional. The information provided on the site is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making dietary changes or using any advice given here.