Life with Soylent: Week 1

So, the first week came and went and it was actually pretty good for generally being the worst week of the month for me. I found that after I got over my toxin release headache that I had a lot of energy because my body wasn't wasting energy breaking down bad food.

On day two I came home and ate half of a bag of chips and some cheese sticks. The salt cravings were strong. On day three I ate more cheese sticks and tossed out the remaining food in the house. On Saturday we had pizza, snacks, and drinks and on Sunday we got a couple of subs. We decided we're okay with this. Soylent works well to fill the gaps between the treats.

And now I have a puppy. The thing cried all night Saturday and Sunday because we're crate training him. It's hard to have cravings when you're struggling with keeping your eyes open and looking engaged for your clients. I need coffee.

Oh, and I'm down weight. No big surprise. I'll check in next week.

Soylent: Day 1

So the Soylent delivery arrived on Friday and I got so excited that I immediately ripped into the boxes and took some crappy pictures:

 

 

And, of course, I posted this to Facebook.  This was immediately followed by a link-response which I imagine was designed to discourage my excitement.  Whatever.  Still excited.  I was in the middle of packing for the weekend away, so I left everything and resolved to get excited again upon my return on Sunday.

Alex was, of course, being positive and responsible.  He helped unpack and stock everything while I blended and stored Day 1's half-gallon "meals." We did a taste test and it was a bit chalky but otherwise just as Alex described from his research: just as non-offensive as possible.  We then went to the local hibachi restaurant for a decadent solid food send-off that included a drink called "The Scorpion" for the fiancé. I have never seen the man turn so red so quickly. It was delightful.

Breakfast this morning was an interesting experience. Ordinarily I'd wake up and head straight for the kitchen to cook us up some solid omelets, but instead at 7:20 AM I just poured out 16 ounces of Soylent and sat around, not knowing what to do with myself.  With the overnight settling, the Soylent had become less chalky and I could appreciate the very slight vanilla flavor of it.

Eventually I decided to spend a luxurious amount of time straightening my hair and applying my makeup while Alex talked about plans to enroll in the local gym with a trainer and everything so we can continue to be serious about our health. I like this plan. I like that I had time to be as pretty as I wanted.

At approximately 9:00 AM, upon getting to work, I poured myself 8 ounces and slugged that down while meeting with my first client. I texted Alex between this client and the next one because he asked me how I was doing so I told him: not full but also not hungry. It was a little weird.

Lunch came and I was positive and happy, but I'm told I tend to come off that way anyway. I merrily recounted my fabulous weekend with a co-worker over 16 ounces.

It was around 3:00 PM before I decided I should probably re-up with another 8 ounces. At this point Alex is texting me saying his day has been busy and he has a lot of Soylent left. I do not. I have probably another good 16 ounces left for dinner.  I'm not hungry. I'm not tempted by solid foods. I'm good.

6:00 PM I consumed my last 19 ounces after coming home from work and being faced with a couple of half-full bags of chips. Still not tempted. Not bad for day 1.

A New Experiment

So, I didn't update the blog at the beginning of the month. Honestly, there wasn't much to say. I more or less did not lose or gain weight. My weight was the same from September 1st to October 1st.  That was neither surprising nor disappointing. It was also not worth blogging about. Honestly, I've been holding out for this. I think this deserves blogging about.

 

So, many months ago Alex came across this product that was going wild on KickStarter and it had a quirky name: Soylent. He did a lot of scouring the internet before approaching me with a wild idea: what if we try this popular meal replacement option?  First of all, watch the video to get the gist of what this is:

 

Got it?  Okay.  I know it sounds weird. I know it probably sounds unhealthy to you.  Oh, let me just get this out of the way: I AM NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR CRITICISM OR FEEDBACK ABOUT HOW CRAZY/UNHEALTHY/IRRESPONSIBLE MY DECISIONS ARE, THANK YOU! Now that we got that out of the way, when Alex pitched this to me what really got me interested was the idea that we've valued a lot as a couple: our time is precious. I spend a significant amount of time buying, preparing, making, packaging, and consuming food. Don't get me wrong, I like food. One could argue I like food too much and therein lies the problem.

For the last couple of months and more importantly for my entire life I have struggled with overeating and compulsive eating. The natural consequence is that I've gained weight, which is fine. I have learned to love my body. What's not fine is that the detriments to my health will catch up to me eventually. I've tried. I've tried many ways to control my eating, count my calories, pre-package my foods, and none of it has worked for very long.

Why not try this? Why not give it a shot? So, this is the experiment: I'm going to try a diet consisting almost entirely of Soylent for the next month. Maybe I'll lose weight. I mean, probably I'll lose weight because I definitely eat over my allotted daily caloric intake regularly. The point is, however, I'll probably gain more: control over my eating, more complete nutrition, and time. Oh, so much time. Especially in the morning.

I got the shipping confirmation this morning. Next week starts the experiment!