A 30 day diy soylent adventure
Nothing much has really changed here.
The chocolate taste is pretty bothersome and overall it's still too filling; so much so that I can't force myself to finish the pitcher at night. I'm still sipping away, only really wanting to take the next sip when I feel a growl of hunger. Side effects wise, I'm still losing weight (but at a more normal rate now with daily fluctuations included). My mood and energy levels are still great and my skin is still continuing to clear. BM wise I'm pretty solid and I only seem to have gas when I force myself to chug (which is only at night when I see how much is left). The people I'm around (both at work and home) are great about not eating in front of me. Or if they do, doing so discreetly while saying they're eating something vile and that I, in fact, should be the one who feels sorry for them (thanks Julia). TTFN
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Today I FINALLY made some batches in advance. As a result, I won't have to wait until noon to start eating everyday. Then again, I don't have an excuse to not eating. The chocolate flavor is still bothering me (nothing else about it though, the texture isn't really noticeable anymore). I really have to force myself to take every sip. To continue on the downer train; today is the first day I haven't seen a dip in the scale and my measurements are still the same. I may have finally gotten all of the regular food out of my system so any more change in the scale will likely be changes in fat. The good news is that my craving for 'real' food is rapidly diminishing. A cheeseburger still sounds good but doesn't quite have the same driving need that it used to. I've also added gum to the acceptable list so hopefully my jaw muscles won't atrophy too fast. (Plus, eliminates the chocolate between sips) I continue to sip throughout the day rather than break it up into 'meals' despite my desire to just get breakfast done and out of the way. I just seem to get full so fast and pushing myself to eat too much too fast just makes me queasy. This is in marked contrast to before soylent when I could NEVER stop eating so I guess it's a good thing? In terms of other results, I do think my skin has improved (less acne, also smooth to the touch) though it's never really been consistent. My mood and energy levels are greatly improved. Like, a lot. Like, too much. Yesterday I was practically manic, I couldn't stop singing and talking in really bad accents. The gross side effects: Yesterday I had the worst kind of gas. Shockingly, hair raisingly bad. Funny though that it should wait until day 3 to show up. I wonder if it has to do with my forcing myself to drink my soylent. I read on the forums that sipping rather than chugging can help with gas so I've been trying not to chug. With the amounts I have left at the end of the day though, I don't know of any other solution. NMS: BM wise I'm still pulling a solid ( :D ) 3.5 on the Bristol Scale. TTFN Sorry day three is late. There really isn't a good reason why other than I wanted to check my body fat percentage and I never got around to doing it.
Between waking up late and not having my powders pre-made yet, I ended up eating my breakfast portion at about 3pm. Not that I was particularly excited to get started drinking. The chocolate flavor is really starting to get to me. When I run out of ingredients I HAVE to make it not chocolate. I'm already meh on the whole chocolate thing to begin with (chocolate flavoring that is, not chocolate itself) but this extra bitter cocoa all day everyday is just too much. To make sure I was able to choke it all down, I tried adding less water so I'd have less to drink. Turns out that's not such a great solution. It ended up just making the chocolate flavor more concentrated. I ended up not finishing the entire pitcher making this the second day in a row I haven't eaten all of it. There wasn't much left but I just couldn't bring myself to consuming anymore. I was pretty sure I was going to vomit if I tried. On the plus side, the scale is continuing to go down. Although, this is not that surprising a change considering I'm on a liquid diet. I'm expecting about the first 3 lbs to be regular food leaving my system. I'm expecting the body fat percentage and measurements to give me more a more accurate assessment of fat loss. The concert last night was amazing and best of all I didn't consume anything other than my chocolaty soylent! Not that it wasn't tempting. There were bars set up everywhere at the venue and after standing for 3 or so hours a beer sounded really good. Not to mention at some point a guy walked in front of me holding a beer practically under my nose and the smell was AMAZING. I found this surprising as I'm not normally a beer drinker but I've heard on the forums that people report a better sense of smell for food. Temptations continued as my friends and I went to Denny's after the show. Melted cheese galore. And the smell! But I stuck with my tea and, 'No no I'm perfectly content with my tea and this mysterious thing I keep shaking!'. Just keep telling yourself that. This is my life now.
I seem to be getting used to the taste and texture. Results still to come. I've weighed myself and I've only lost about a pound so far. Will check my body fat percentage tonight but I don't expect much change but we'll see. TTFN Last night I bought my pitcher and blender bottle and mixed up today's soylent. (I was planning on making a few days ahead of time but ran out of energy, hurray for procrastination!) Based on other people's experiences with Official Soylent and other DIY soylents, I wanted it to soak overnight to try improve the texture. It didn't.
Not to say that it's completely inedible. I was so excited I tried a bit last night and texture wise it wasn't too much different this morning. Granted, different recipes be different. Taste/Texture Impressions: I'm currently consuming my 'breakfast' and its very sedimenty. Not necessarily a bad thing, and something I don't think I can actually avoid... so I better be okay with it. Flavor wise it's pretty bitter; last night I was aghast at how bitter it was but this morning it seems manageable. It's also VERY intensely cocoa-y which is unsurprising as it's practically a third cocoa, but that might be contributing to the bitterness as cocoa by itself is quite bitter. If I adjust the cocoa down then I'll need to find an alternative source for both my iron and my fiber as (I found surprising) cocoa is super high in those and is basically my only source for them in the recipe. Side effects: None yet. Although I'm still trying to work my way through breakfast. I say this not because of the taste/texture, which I'm already starting to get used to, but rather the amount. This is something I've seen people mention in the forums on multiple occasions- its quite filling. I've doled out my breakfast serving which is around 1/4-1/3 of the pitcher and I'm finding it incredibly hard to finish. Granted I've never really been a breakfast person, but it is noon so I should probably choke it down. We'll see how the rest of the meals go today. I have a concert tonight (my first ever!) so we'll see what happens. Hopefully bathrooms wont be a problem. No matter what though, I'm resolving not to break my 30 day challenge rules! (see About section) TTFN Oh the tests...
I went to the doctor yesterday to get my 'before' tests done. I explained what I was doing and he seemed to think it was one of the most reasonable strange diets he's heard of. (He then went on to tell me about the weirdest one someone had attempted which consisted of eating nothing but cabbage soup!) He actually seemed to get pretty excited and said he was looking forward to my results. He also recommended that I do a two month experiment rather than a one month I take this as a good sign. He ordered multiple blood panels and a urine test (why urine?) results of which should come in the mail in about a week. Yesterday I also had my body fat percentage measured at the gym with one of the hand held machines. Yes.... I know it's not that accurate. (The trainer said expect 2-4% variance) So long as it's consistent so I can compare the difference, I don't really care what my actual body fat percentage is. (I feel like I got the highest score though! You should have seen this lady's face when my results popped up. Part of me was like, 'way to be judgey about people's weight' and the other part was like 'suck it lady, HIGH SCORE!) Needless to say I'm SUPER stoked to start! I've wanted to go on official Soylent since I heard of it and I've been tinkering with my DIY soylent since about June. I have all of my ingredients for my DIY and today I'll be getting a pitcher and a blender bottle and tonight I'll be mixing up a few days! More posts to follow and I'll be updating the results section each week. TTFN :) |