So, my goal thus far (now that the recipe is essentially fleshed out) has been to simply maintain the DIYS diet. My weight has continued to steadily drop and my energy level is surprisingly good. My dogs are still keeping me up at night but, were that not the case, I'm betting that my sleep level would be great as well.
School has started up again and I've discovered that DIYS is both a good and bad thing for me there. I no longer have to contend with deciding which horrible fast food place to subject myself to but I do have to carry around an insulated lunch bag for my DIYS. I've decided to deal with the extra bag since I'm enjoying my weight loss.
At the beginning of this week, I officially added physical exercise to my repertoire and can assure you that DIYS is sufficient for an active lifestyle. Perhaps my formula isn't appropriate for someone interested in strength or marathon training but for a 2-3 times per week cardio event (like Zumba), this should work nicely. I've also been getting a lot more physical activity just by walking across campus constantly, so I'm figuring that (and the heat) into how well DIYS is working.
I've dropped my Zumba class though. I attended class on Tuesday and discovered that it wasn't just a place to workout but included papers and research and students teaching choreography to the class. No thanks. I need cardio, not extra research papers. So now I have an hour of lap swim between classes! Full cardio, full body, and low impact! Woo! It's what I really wanted to do instead of Zumba but I misread the pool schedule and thought I couldn't swim until after my classes; now I get to do it in between! Yay!
Here are the results from the past week:
I've consistently lost weight every day this week despite the fact that I've added to my protein intake by adding browned lean ground turkey meat (no spices). I also had dinner with a friend last night and, because I had less than a full pitcher of Soylent that day, I had a piece of swordfish and some plain asparagus. I find this interesting because it means that my caloric consumption is greater.
Weight during pre-DIYS tests (8/3): 275.6
Weight as of 8/29: 260.2
15.4 pounds in 26 days = .59 pounds per day
Blood glucose steady between 90-98 each morning
Resting BP and heart rate consistently healthy
I have more energy now than I've had for a very long time- despite my lack of sleep!
I'm going to assume that I can do better in the next 4 months because I will not only be increasing how I burn calories but I am also no longer tinkering with my recipe or cheating with foods that don't treat my body right.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
Cheat? Who, me? Prove it!
Ha! Two weeks down, my health is fine, my energy is actually pretty darn good, and I'm TOTALLY NOT DEAD, YOU GUYS.
Success, I'd say.
Also, we had a bunch of friends over for a game day at my place and we stocked up on healthy stuff (not just because of our Soylent lifestyle but also because our friends are broccoli-and-plain-chicken-only health nuts) and it was a resounding success.
I cheated and it was totally okay. Naan bread (flatbread), hummus, some carrots, broccoli, and some sugar-free energy drinks. I didn't eat as much as I thought I might (I feared that I'd gorge as soon as that naan bread hit my mouth) but my stomach must have shrank because I was not only not really used to using my jaws for eating anymore but I got full from real food VERY FAST.
And when I weighed myself the next morning, I'd still lost weight. XD
So, 14 days in and I'm down 9 pounds (a very weird 9 pounds, mind you) and my BP is better, my blood glucose is holding at a steady 90-95 range, and I feel very very good. My hair never went funky, my skin isn't sallow, my nails aren't thinning (I hope!) and I have yet to faint. Woot!
All of this is fantastic news considering that immediately after my 3-week point, I start my Zumba class.
I might die. I might want to die. We'll see.
Success, I'd say.
Also, we had a bunch of friends over for a game day at my place and we stocked up on healthy stuff (not just because of our Soylent lifestyle but also because our friends are broccoli-and-plain-chicken-only health nuts) and it was a resounding success.
I cheated and it was totally okay. Naan bread (flatbread), hummus, some carrots, broccoli, and some sugar-free energy drinks. I didn't eat as much as I thought I might (I feared that I'd gorge as soon as that naan bread hit my mouth) but my stomach must have shrank because I was not only not really used to using my jaws for eating anymore but I got full from real food VERY FAST.
And when I weighed myself the next morning, I'd still lost weight. XD
So, 14 days in and I'm down 9 pounds (a very weird 9 pounds, mind you) and my BP is better, my blood glucose is holding at a steady 90-95 range, and I feel very very good. My hair never went funky, my skin isn't sallow, my nails aren't thinning (I hope!) and I have yet to faint. Woot!
All of this is fantastic news considering that immediately after my 3-week point, I start my Zumba class.
I might die. I might want to die. We'll see.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Schmoylent versus DIYS
Current Recipe
I'm one week in and here's the recipe that has resulted out of a lot of tinkering. When I make this, I put the Pre-cooked Masa (PAN) in my food blender first to further chop the bits down (to reduce grit) and when I add water, I boil it in my kettle and add about a cup to my pitcher before adding my dry ingredients. Then I stir the nonsense out of it, add more boiling water gradually, and use my immersion blender until my hand nearly falls off. Then I let it sit overnight in my fridge and, after a lot of vigorous shaking, it gets poured into my glass travel bottles and kept chilled until it is drunk.
The Xanthan gum does wonders for texture. I tried 1/2 tsp (as that is the suggested serving size) for my whole 2L pitcher of mix and that was, rather shockingly, too much. It's thick. Seriously think, guys. Like a milkshake that I wanted to attempt to chew. I had issues pouring it. 1/4 tsp (about 1g) is PLENTY. I legitimately do not have to shake it after it's put into the smaller travel bottles- I simply do so out of habit and of residual fear from my days of chocolate ocean sand mix.
Also, I added the peanut butter powder to taste (which came out to about 22g but I may lower it later) and I reduced the cocoa powder so that I could at least taste the peanut butter powder a bit. Now it's lovely and I enjoy drinking it. Really. It's lovely. My friends tried it and couldn't seem to get past the little bits of grit left over but they SERIOUSLY have no idea how gritty it used to be and simply do not appreciate my efforts. Silly heathens.
My numbers are going down and I've bounced back from the tiredness that resulted from my calorie drop. I continue to nibble on things like carrots and cucumbers and tomatoes (and I split a granola bar with my coworker yesterday and it was heavenly) so I'm not gripped by my need to chew like I was before but I feel like I could be doing better at sticking to just my DIYS.
Also, I did a successful social outing with friends this past weekend! It was just bowling at a posh alley with some, admittedly, great smelling food and extensive drinks but I survived! I tanked a 12oz bottle on the way there and sipped on another bottle during the game and I felt no need to get dinner with my group. The urge to order something was there out of habit (not hunger) so my iced tea went a long, long way for me that night. I did, on the other hand, have to avoid the bar area where the food was served because I actually found myself drooling a little bit. Grease. Smells. Wonderful. Now. I don't want to put it in my mouth but it really does smell amazing.
So! On to the business of the day!
Shelby (my husband) ordered some People Fuel Plus (a variant of Schmoylent by Axcho) about a week/week and a half ago and I wanted to give you a better update since it arrived last night and we've mixed some up.
This mix reeked pleasantly of cinnamon and it really caught my attention coming out of the box. I checked out the ingredients again and noticed that, while most of the main nutrients are identical to what I put in my recipe, the Axcho version has a few alterations that I will be looking into- most notably, the multivitamin powder. I have bolded the ingredients that are not exactly in my DIYS mix.
Included in the People Fuel Plus (PFP) mix:
Masa Harina (Corn), Whey Protein Isolate (Milk), Chia Seeds, Psyllium Husk Powder, Potassium Citrate, Iodized Salt, Calcium Citrate, Choline Bitartrate, Multivitamin Powder, Saigon Cinnamon, Stevia Powder, Xanthan Gum
Notice that there are a lot of equivalencies here. Psyllium Husk Powder instead of rice flour. Saigon cinnamon instead of cocoa or peanut butter for flavoring. Stevia powder instead of splenda blends. I use an actual multivitamin instead of powder but I went ahead and highlighted that as a difference as well. The recipes are clearly similar so there is a lot of hope for people who don't like certain recipes but want to tinker with their own tastes in mind. The description for this mix says "Tastes like Cheerios or corn tortillas" and, while that does not appeal to me as a desirable everyday taste, my husband was ecstatic. He made sure to mention that he would take a savory flavor over a sweet flavor any day of the week.
Don't worry. He ate his words later.
Here goes the first blend...
And then it turned into grits.
The cinnamon smell went away as soon as we started to mix the stuff up with the spoon and it stayed away. After blending, the mix smelled like corn (that's the Masa/PAN for you!) and it held the consistency of very dense grits. The recommended 6 cups of water topped the pitcher after we finished and it stayed ridiculously thick; I'd love to know how much Xanthan gum they used in this to get it that seriously thick.
The picture you see above during the mixing process is exactly how thick it was this morning after sitting all night. Shelby "poured" a cup for breakfast and had to break out a spoon to try to eat it. He then put it back into the fridge and vowed to tinker with it tonight. It's probably edible but only just.
I didn't have the courage to try it. I'll keep you posted.
Friday, August 8, 2014
The Sandman
Guys. I fixed my grit problem.
Not only does adding peanut butter work (and a small amount too!) but so does just adding the peanut butter powder. And, to make things even better, making the mix with less water totally helps. Now it's thick like a milkshake. I love it. I drank all my DIYS yesterday with no issue.
But I'm crazy tired. No caffeine makes for a very dull and very lethargic day. Cutting calories means I'm still adjusting but I also stopped drinking coffee and redbull in one go and my body feels like it stops working by 3pm. I added a sugar-free redbull yesterday around lunchtime (which helped) and I poured some coffee into my mix bottle this morning after I'd drank half of it and that worked as well. We'll see how long it takes before I pick back up.
In the meantime, though, I have been going to bed by 9pm. I essentially faceplant into my pillow well before my husband and dogs are ready to turn in and it's starting to get on my nerves. Yeah, I don't have homework right now, so this is the best time for me to be sleepy, but duuuuuuuuuude... I have stuff to do! I have a bowling night tomorrow that I'm going to snore through! Jeesh. I'll adjust but I'm pretty down on power right now and thought I'd share.
Also, my tests are coming back better- BP is down, glucose is down, specific gravity is down, and my weight is a bit down as well. Yay!
Things not DIYS that I've eaten: plain rice cakes, a small 2-ounce container of fresh guacamole, a pickle, and an Eggo (still frozen). I told you, I'm weak. But it's getting easier to resist- especially when I'm staying busy.
I'll post an update recipe when I recreate the PB mix and I'll also link to my tracked numbers thus far.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Minor alterations
Here we have a newly altered mix.
On the left, you will notice my cheap-but-useful food blender. It was $9 at Big Lots and came in crazy useful today. I measured out my pre-cooked MASA/PAN (corn flour) and poured it into this bad boy first and blended the nonsense out of it. Then I measured out my minerals and blended those as well (for good measure) before adding all that into my pitcher.
To further produce a more palatable beverage, I reduced my cocoa powder by half (22g instead of 44g) and added two tablespoons (180 calories) of the only peanut butter I could find. It isn't the healthiest of peanut butters but that will be resolved when the peanut butter powder I ordered arrives tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to know if the taste could be what I wanted it to be. You can certainly see how light the mix is now in the photo.
Lastly, I severely reduced the amount of water in my pitcher. I used the same technique of adding water in small amounts while using my immersion blender (still the best tactic) but I stopped adding water at about the 3/5th point. I'm interested to see if a thicker mix will reduce how much I notice the grit- this was one of the suggestions on the Reddit post about DIY Soylent sandiness. If the thickness turns out to really make a difference, the Xantham Gum will help thicken the mix.
So far, the taste is nice (the chocolate isn't as overpowering) and the mix seems to be blending a lot better. The bits of particles on the sides of the container after a good shake aren't as large as they were before.
Also, I noticed today that drinking my mix out of a straw helped with the grit issue. By constantly stirring and not just drinking the liquid-only portion sitting at the top of the bottle, I spread out how much grit was in each sip. I was able to go through three bottles while at work without too much issue.
Something I haven't mentioned yet: gastronomic status. Yeah, my pee is yellow. It's clearly from one (or both) of the pills I take in the morning since it goes away by the evening. And yesterday (my first day), I had a bit of a rumbley tummy and some mild gas. Nothing that a gas-x couldn't resolve and nothing that prevented me from being around people.
I still have some of my two original bottles left to put away but I'll make sure to give you another update when I drink up my 1.1 (naughty pb) version!
Unforeseen Complications
I timed my DIYS start poorly. I brought enough DIYS with me yesterday to stand me through my workday but not enough to get my through my math exam last night and I came out of it ravenous.
Unfortunately, I also became aware of another issue- I had the urge to physically chew on something and this urge got stronger throughout the day. At some point, I mentioned the desire to rip at something with my teeth to a friend and she seemed mildly alarmed (and justifiably so). I attempted to stem this urge with gum but the relief was temporary. By 8pm, this urge became so overwhelming that my arrival home involved me busting through my front door and barreling to my fridge and devouring a small amount of chicken casserole right then and there. I didn't even really want the taste- just the pleasure of chewing on something. So, I clearly have a chewing addiction that I need to break; this explains a lot about why I previously found myself eating when I wasn't hungry. When I weighed myself this morning, I had already dropped a bit, so my one brief encounter with my fridge didn't do that much harm.
Solution time! I had planned some loopholes into my DIYS diet in case of emergency and I've expanded those loopholes accordingly:
Since pure caffeine in controlled amounts is good for improving your metabolism, I have considered getting some caffeine tablets, crushing them, and adding them to my Soylent mix. I ran almost purely on coffee and Redbull before Soylent so I feel like this wouldn't be that drastic. Bear in mind, the tablets I'm talking about have about the equivalent of one cup of coffee per tab and I'm certainly not planning on dumping a whole box in. Maybe just two- and those will be spread across my whole day's amount of nutrition.
I will expound on this in a later post: I've ordered some powdered peanut butter and some Xanthan Gum so assist in improving my recipe. Peanut butter is for protein and taste (I really wanted to taste the PB in my whey mix!) and for texture; this reddit link goes over ways to reduce the gritty texture in DIY Soylent and not only is Xanthan Gum on there, but the Schmoylent folk making the Glenda Fuel mix seem to be using it in most of their mixes as well!
Unfortunately, I also became aware of another issue- I had the urge to physically chew on something and this urge got stronger throughout the day. At some point, I mentioned the desire to rip at something with my teeth to a friend and she seemed mildly alarmed (and justifiably so). I attempted to stem this urge with gum but the relief was temporary. By 8pm, this urge became so overwhelming that my arrival home involved me busting through my front door and barreling to my fridge and devouring a small amount of chicken casserole right then and there. I didn't even really want the taste- just the pleasure of chewing on something. So, I clearly have a chewing addiction that I need to break; this explains a lot about why I previously found myself eating when I wasn't hungry. When I weighed myself this morning, I had already dropped a bit, so my one brief encounter with my fridge didn't do that much harm.
Solution time! I had planned some loopholes into my DIYS diet in case of emergency and I've expanded those loopholes accordingly:
- Food from my garden is okay. I grow tomatoes, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and, someday, my grapevines will mature.
- I will be adding raw carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumbers to my garden ASAP and those items will be store-bought until further notice in order to aid with resolving my chewing needs. Fresh/raw vegetables are back on the table for me.
- A light dinner is acceptable once a week. Twice a week is fine if said dinner is a salad.
- I will continue my weekly Graze box of healthy snacks. They are $6 and I have been ordering their calorie-counter snack box for a few months now and they're GREAT. If you want to see what they are, go to the Graze site. If you want to try one, you can use my code GWEND45ME to get your first box free. This isn't a plug, per se... I just really like my boxes and many of my friends love getting them as well.
Since pure caffeine in controlled amounts is good for improving your metabolism, I have considered getting some caffeine tablets, crushing them, and adding them to my Soylent mix. I ran almost purely on coffee and Redbull before Soylent so I feel like this wouldn't be that drastic. Bear in mind, the tablets I'm talking about have about the equivalent of one cup of coffee per tab and I'm certainly not planning on dumping a whole box in. Maybe just two- and those will be spread across my whole day's amount of nutrition.
I will expound on this in a later post: I've ordered some powdered peanut butter and some Xanthan Gum so assist in improving my recipe. Peanut butter is for protein and taste (I really wanted to taste the PB in my whey mix!) and for texture; this reddit link goes over ways to reduce the gritty texture in DIY Soylent and not only is Xanthan Gum on there, but the Schmoylent folk making the Glenda Fuel mix seem to be using it in most of their mixes as well!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Side Note(s)
My husband, inspired by my ingredient flurry last eve, has purchased Schmoylent's People Fuel Plus.
I, inspired by the grit in the bottom of my cup, bought a one-day bag of Schmoylent's Glenda Fuel. This is purely so I can test out the difference in ingredients. The Glenda Fuel is even lower in calorires (1200!!), low in carbs, and lactose-free. Looking at the ingredients, I would only need to swap out a few items to try this recipe. So, instead of going on another buying craze, I'll try the Glenda when it gets here and make adjustments accordingly.
I, inspired by the grit in the bottom of my cup, bought a one-day bag of Schmoylent's Glenda Fuel. This is purely so I can test out the difference in ingredients. The Glenda Fuel is even lower in calorires (1200!!), low in carbs, and lactose-free. Looking at the ingredients, I would only need to swap out a few items to try this recipe. So, instead of going on another buying craze, I'll try the Glenda when it gets here and make adjustments accordingly.
It tastes like... people
Kidding! Although... I wouldn't even really know what people taste like to begin with. Didn't that computer analyse humans and determine that they taste like bacon anyway? Yeah. It doesn't taste like bacon.
My mix tastes like Yoohoo.
Yep. Chocolate powder in milk that hasn't been stirred in all the way. In fact, after periodic shaking throughout the night, my mix looked like this when I went to put it into bottles:
The Takeya bottles make it super easy to shake the pitchers vigorously and gave me an added advantage while pouring into the bottles.I have those two 12 ounce bottles in my mini fridge at work and the remainder with be my evening meal. I made it through my first 16 ounces of DIYS between 7:30 and 10:30 this morning.
I haven't been targeting how much I need to drink by any particular time because I wanted to know how my body deals with DIYS on its own. At first, it seemed ideal for sipping on all day. And then it happened- I got near the bottom of my cup and realized that my constant stirring had not prevented sludge from forming on the bottom.
The same gritty sludge is also forming in my bottles; you can see the lines forming just above the silicone covers.
The taste/flavor was fine. Excellent, really. But the texture! Oh man, the warnings about the texture do NOT prepare you. It eventually came down to choking back mouthfuls of mix that had the consistency of trying to drink seawater with a healthy helping of sand in it. But, you know, chocolatey. And the bits of corn flour (et al) had to be chewed and felt like they were getting stuck in my teeth.
I think, maybe, that tonight will involve me pulverizing that corn flour with a mortar and pestle.
But the truth is that anyone who has read the same stuff that I did knew about the texture issue already. The main question is... am I hungry?
No. I'm not. And it's wonderful.
More to be posted as the day progresses. My tummy is making funny gurgle noises but they aren't painful or indicative of hunger, so I'm hopeful. I'll also have my personal numbers chart posted this evening as well.
My mix tastes like Yoohoo.
Yep. Chocolate powder in milk that hasn't been stirred in all the way. In fact, after periodic shaking throughout the night, my mix looked like this when I went to put it into bottles:
Kind of like silt that had settled on the bottom of a dirty lake.
The Takeya bottles make it super easy to shake the pitchers vigorously and gave me an added advantage while pouring into the bottles.I have those two 12 ounce bottles in my mini fridge at work and the remainder with be my evening meal. I made it through my first 16 ounces of DIYS between 7:30 and 10:30 this morning.
I haven't been targeting how much I need to drink by any particular time because I wanted to know how my body deals with DIYS on its own. At first, it seemed ideal for sipping on all day. And then it happened- I got near the bottom of my cup and realized that my constant stirring had not prevented sludge from forming on the bottom.
The same gritty sludge is also forming in my bottles; you can see the lines forming just above the silicone covers.
The taste/flavor was fine. Excellent, really. But the texture! Oh man, the warnings about the texture do NOT prepare you. It eventually came down to choking back mouthfuls of mix that had the consistency of trying to drink seawater with a healthy helping of sand in it. But, you know, chocolatey. And the bits of corn flour (et al) had to be chewed and felt like they were getting stuck in my teeth.
I think, maybe, that tonight will involve me pulverizing that corn flour with a mortar and pestle.
But the truth is that anyone who has read the same stuff that I did knew about the texture issue already. The main question is... am I hungry?
No. I'm not. And it's wonderful.
More to be posted as the day progresses. My tummy is making funny gurgle noises but they aren't painful or indicative of hunger, so I'm hopeful. I'll also have my personal numbers chart posted this evening as well.
Monday, August 4, 2014
The First Mix
So! Using my handy dandy food scale and a bevy of neato measuring tools (and a conversion app on my phone), I carefully started scooping small amounts of ingredients, one ingredient at a time, into a large measuring cup.
Amateur tip: tare your scale with the large measuring cup on it already.
Here, you can see that I'm using my Takeya 2L airtight pitchers that Soylent actually sends you with their starter kit. I bought these from Amazon for about $15 a piece and they're delightful. I added ingredients in order as they appear on my recipe and we're on the cocoa powder step here.Speaking of cocoa powder, this stuff is pretty potent and I now understand why the original recipe was called Chocolate Silk. I will be investigating alternate flavoring options because DANG this thing is chocolatey. The Chocolate Peanut Butter whey isolate smells AMAZING and I'm a bit put out that the cocoa powder really covered up that yummy flavor. I seriously bought that whey flavor because I know perfectly well that I love Reese's cups and I could eat them at any time of the day- much like I'll need to be drinking my DIYS. But that's for later!
It was like playing with sand art. But... better smelling (sometimes).
My scale was pretty serious about only showing whole amounts of grams, so I had to fudge sometimes on the half-measure ingredients and just hope that I was scooping them correctly. Should I enjoy this shake, I'll invest in a new scale.
Seriously. Sand-art. Adding the oil made me feel like I was at the beach.
So! Let's talk about the water amount. There are lots of suggestions as to how much water you want to add to this stuff. I know that the official Soylent utilizes the whole 2L container and followed that path. As it turns out, I should have added water a bit more progressively.
Pro-tip: Unless you have a super long immersion blender, add water slowly.
Unlike me, who went whole hog and had to hand mix for an hour.
My first bottle resisted mixing and the immersion blender that I bought, while perfect for that I need it to do (really!), does not actually reach the bottom of a full Takeya pitcher. I had to fight this thing with a spoon and alternated between giggling like a maniac and cursing like a sailor. Yep, that's me- maniac sailor.
Yummy, right?
This is the mix right when I pull the immersion blender out of it. The mix smells like yoohoo and takes a while to get to a decent consistency.
This is the same mix about 20 seconds later. Yeeeeeaaahhh. That's a lot of sediment. That's okay- there's a reason why I'm making this at night and letting it set in the fridge overnight. There are lots of forum posts that mention "grit" in their Soylent recipes and one of the recommendations was to let the stuff soak overnight. I also plan on putting the MASA in my mini food blender by itself to help break it down further; from what I gather, this is the source of the grit. I'll make sure to post on how the texture is when I have it for breakfast!
Time for batch #2! I was adding ingredients to the two containers at the same time because I have a final tomorrow night and will have essentially zero time to come home and make another one of these bad boys. So, two days of food in one go? Check. Learning from my blue container mixing, I added only a slight amount of water and then started blending from there.
And guess what? IT LOOKED AND SMELLED LIKE DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS BROWNIE MIX.
At this point, I was sorely tempted to lick the spoon. Texture, movement, EVERYTHING my senses could pick up told me that this was brownie mix. It was heavenly. I resisted and continued onward to add a slightly lesser amount of water than the blue container. Consistency stayed the same but, hey, if the mix sucks, I won't have to down quite as much of it.
My true (current) recommendation for water quantity is to just get a good feel for exactly how much of this you want to put away during the day. I should have added less water to begin with in case I didn't want it to be thin. Well, that's okay... it's all about learning!!
I took baseline measurements yesterday and today so I'll be adding another downloadable chart with my numbers as they are taken. Taste updates due tomorrow!! Yay! Also, I'll let you know if my energy levels plummet so hard on Day 1 that I end up failing my test.
Whey Isolate: T-Minus 8 Hours
The wait for my isolate is kind of killing me so, in the meantime, let's go over some of the questions I've been getting from friends and family:
Are you crazy?
Yes. Obviously.
Aren't you going to get hungry?
If I consume enough calories and watch my proteins carefully, hunger shouldn't be a problem. In his article with The Verge, Chris mentions that he was consistently full fro m the 38 grams of protein that his traditional Soylent provided. My mix uses 60g of isolate which provides a whopping 54g of protein per day. Yeah, I think I'm going to get full.
Won't you miss food?
Yes. Definitely. That's my problem. I have very low willpower when it comes to food. I grew up using food as a salve for broken hearts and bad grades and it's a crutch that I can't really afford anymore. I eat when I'm bored and it's a really awful habit to have. I like the taste of food even when I'm not hungry and I've edged over that line of obesity that I never wanted to experience. I'm in a really good place in my life to start this experience and I've got a Zumba class scheduled this fall that I'm hoping will enhance my results. Yeah, I'll miss the food but I won't miss not being able to get into my clothes.
Where did you get all this stuff?
Amazon, iHerb, and Vitamin Discount Center. The airtight storage containers came from Target.
What about the holidays?
Yeah, I know. I can't wait for the questioning stares when I settle in my chair at Thanksgiving dinner with a big glass of Soylent in my hand (sarcasm). I preempted this issue with a solid phone call to my immediate family members that are most likely to be impacted by my lack of holiday eating. They were very interested and surprised at my enthusiasm for this change and seemed to support it as a means to the end. I've gotten very big over the past few months and it hasn't gone unnoticed by my family. In addition to assuring them that I would still be present, I reminded them of their desire for me to be healthy and that said health is more important than tucking into the same food as they do.
Does that mean no more lunch dates? Meeting up for dinner?
Not necessarily. If my friends are comfortable with me ordering non-alcoholic drinks and watching them eat, then those social events are still completely possible. I can technically still have food from time to time so healthy appetizers aren't necessarily out of the question. Rob Rhinehart (inventor behind the Soylent craze) mentions that he always envisioned Soylent as replacing most food, not all food, and that users should be able to enjoy social functions normally. I do intent to stick to a strictly DIYS and, later, official Soylent diet as much as possible because a little bit of cheating on my diet could open the door for me to do a lot of cheating.
Why can't you just exercise more?
I've been asked this question in a slew of ways over the years (not just as Soylent-related) and it never fails to be insulting; it implies laziness and lack of thought. I have successfully used exercise previously to lose weight- it's how I know that my weight gain is a personal behavior problem and not a biological issue. I am a full-time worker that also attends school full-time all the way through the year (yes, summer and winter semesters as well). It is VERY difficult for me to balance my 40+ hour job, my course load, my husband, and my three dogs as well as both my and my husband's family's requests for our company. My lunch breaks are spent reading textbooks and I often stay awake into the night completing assignments, playing with my dogs, and tidying the house. Adding a workout routine to my schedule has been a nightmare. I will be going part-time at my job to attend the last courses I need for my degree during the week and I've added my Zumba class to that school schedule. So I WILL be exercising while using DIYS- I just won't be doing so for another 3 weeks so that my body can adjust accordingly.
Will you still have to cook for your husband?
No. He and I discussed this at length and he is also interested in a Soylent-type lifestyle. Unlike me, my husband has very little interest in food and only asks about it when his blood sugar drops. His solution for food once I've started drinking DIYS? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Seriously.
Is your husband going to be drinking DIYS as well?
He's going to taste mine but he'll be ordering official Soylent shortly and attempting a bodybuilding version of a lactose-free DIYS of his own until it arrives. He's be particularly interested in a variation of Schmoylent (you heard me) called People Fuel Plain that is designed for lactose-free needs. There's also a slightly more expensive variation called Schmoylent Clean that is lactose-free, gluten-free, and vegan that has a lovely review stating that it tastes like pancake batter. Interested? The creator of Schmoylent sells the completed product similarly to actual Soylent at his website, Custom Body Fuel, that has same-week shipping time frames. If my mix doesn't work out, I will be turning to Schmoylent before giving up and waiting for my Soylent.
What if it tastes bad?
I'm not overfond of Brussels sprouts or plain oatmeal but I still eat those. I'll deal with it. The end will justify the means... unless it comes out looking like boogers, in which case, Schmoylent will rescue me.
Why spend more on the whey isolate?
My husband is lactose-intolerant. I've noticed that, since living with and then marry him, my lactose sensitivities have gotten much worse. We don't keep regular milk in the house (only Lactaid, which has lactose enzymes removed) and dairy foods are kept to a bare minimum and now, when I have ice cream, I suffer for it. To nip both of us with one stone, we'll only have isolate in our mixes. Incidentally, talking to one of our fitness/bodybuilding friends, isolate is more finely designed to have a better impact on your health anyway, so we seem to winning out on this ingredient.
You must have spent a fortune.
I got this query yesterday and even though it wasn't a question ("Did you spend a fortune?" sounds pretty tacky and/or forced anyway), I really have to address it regardless. Soylent does sound expensive. I understand that. The smaller quantities available on Soylent.me aren't as cost-efficient overall but I went the bulk route available on their site which was a recurring order of $255 for 28 bags (1 month). Costly, right? Well, no. That's $9.11 per day or, more reasonably, $3.04 per meal. When was the last time you spent $3.04 on a meal - every meal - for an entire month?
There's a lot of hullaballoo about the expenses of this kind of lifestyle and, while my DIYS ordering was a bit haphazard and... interesting to calculate out, my real number crunching came down through my bank account. I downloaded a spreadsheet of my expenses for the past 12 months and deleted every row that wasn't food related. The numbers are rough since I had to do some fancy guesswork with visits to Walmart, Target, and the occasional gas station, but the overall picture is pretty clear: Partaking of Soylent would save me over $3,000 per year.
Want a clearer picture? I ordered Jimmy Johns for lunch because I didn't have the time this morning to figure out if I had anything suitable for lunch. Cost for that easily made sandwich, some chips, a cookie (I have no willpower) and a drink plus the driver tip for the convenience of delivery was just about $20.
$20 for lunch. Jeez. That's not unusual in a restaurant either. And let's not forget that the nutritional balance of this meal is severely questionable- chips, cookie, mayo, sweet tea... they all add up and not in a good way. With Soylent, I could eat and eat well for two days on the equivalent monetary value. So, you tell me. Did it cost a fortune? Not really. The initial setup did put me back a bit but I expect the long-run results to be less costly than if I continue my current chaotic and nutrition-less lifestyle.
Are you crazy?
Yes. Obviously.
Aren't you going to get hungry?
If I consume enough calories and watch my proteins carefully, hunger shouldn't be a problem. In his article with The Verge, Chris mentions that he was consistently full fro m the 38 grams of protein that his traditional Soylent provided. My mix uses 60g of isolate which provides a whopping 54g of protein per day. Yeah, I think I'm going to get full.
Won't you miss food?
Yes. Definitely. That's my problem. I have very low willpower when it comes to food. I grew up using food as a salve for broken hearts and bad grades and it's a crutch that I can't really afford anymore. I eat when I'm bored and it's a really awful habit to have. I like the taste of food even when I'm not hungry and I've edged over that line of obesity that I never wanted to experience. I'm in a really good place in my life to start this experience and I've got a Zumba class scheduled this fall that I'm hoping will enhance my results. Yeah, I'll miss the food but I won't miss not being able to get into my clothes.
Where did you get all this stuff?
Amazon, iHerb, and Vitamin Discount Center. The airtight storage containers came from Target.
What about the holidays?
Yeah, I know. I can't wait for the questioning stares when I settle in my chair at Thanksgiving dinner with a big glass of Soylent in my hand (sarcasm). I preempted this issue with a solid phone call to my immediate family members that are most likely to be impacted by my lack of holiday eating. They were very interested and surprised at my enthusiasm for this change and seemed to support it as a means to the end. I've gotten very big over the past few months and it hasn't gone unnoticed by my family. In addition to assuring them that I would still be present, I reminded them of their desire for me to be healthy and that said health is more important than tucking into the same food as they do.
Does that mean no more lunch dates? Meeting up for dinner?
Not necessarily. If my friends are comfortable with me ordering non-alcoholic drinks and watching them eat, then those social events are still completely possible. I can technically still have food from time to time so healthy appetizers aren't necessarily out of the question. Rob Rhinehart (inventor behind the Soylent craze) mentions that he always envisioned Soylent as replacing most food, not all food, and that users should be able to enjoy social functions normally. I do intent to stick to a strictly DIYS and, later, official Soylent diet as much as possible because a little bit of cheating on my diet could open the door for me to do a lot of cheating.
Why can't you just exercise more?
I've been asked this question in a slew of ways over the years (not just as Soylent-related) and it never fails to be insulting; it implies laziness and lack of thought. I have successfully used exercise previously to lose weight- it's how I know that my weight gain is a personal behavior problem and not a biological issue. I am a full-time worker that also attends school full-time all the way through the year (yes, summer and winter semesters as well). It is VERY difficult for me to balance my 40+ hour job, my course load, my husband, and my three dogs as well as both my and my husband's family's requests for our company. My lunch breaks are spent reading textbooks and I often stay awake into the night completing assignments, playing with my dogs, and tidying the house. Adding a workout routine to my schedule has been a nightmare. I will be going part-time at my job to attend the last courses I need for my degree during the week and I've added my Zumba class to that school schedule. So I WILL be exercising while using DIYS- I just won't be doing so for another 3 weeks so that my body can adjust accordingly.
Will you still have to cook for your husband?
No. He and I discussed this at length and he is also interested in a Soylent-type lifestyle. Unlike me, my husband has very little interest in food and only asks about it when his blood sugar drops. His solution for food once I've started drinking DIYS? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Seriously.
Is your husband going to be drinking DIYS as well?
He's going to taste mine but he'll be ordering official Soylent shortly and attempting a bodybuilding version of a lactose-free DIYS of his own until it arrives. He's be particularly interested in a variation of Schmoylent (you heard me) called People Fuel Plain that is designed for lactose-free needs. There's also a slightly more expensive variation called Schmoylent Clean that is lactose-free, gluten-free, and vegan that has a lovely review stating that it tastes like pancake batter. Interested? The creator of Schmoylent sells the completed product similarly to actual Soylent at his website, Custom Body Fuel, that has same-week shipping time frames. If my mix doesn't work out, I will be turning to Schmoylent before giving up and waiting for my Soylent.
What if it tastes bad?
I'm not overfond of Brussels sprouts or plain oatmeal but I still eat those. I'll deal with it. The end will justify the means... unless it comes out looking like boogers, in which case, Schmoylent will rescue me.
Why spend more on the whey isolate?
My husband is lactose-intolerant. I've noticed that, since living with and then marry him, my lactose sensitivities have gotten much worse. We don't keep regular milk in the house (only Lactaid, which has lactose enzymes removed) and dairy foods are kept to a bare minimum and now, when I have ice cream, I suffer for it. To nip both of us with one stone, we'll only have isolate in our mixes. Incidentally, talking to one of our fitness/bodybuilding friends, isolate is more finely designed to have a better impact on your health anyway, so we seem to winning out on this ingredient.
You must have spent a fortune.
I got this query yesterday and even though it wasn't a question ("Did you spend a fortune?" sounds pretty tacky and/or forced anyway), I really have to address it regardless. Soylent does sound expensive. I understand that. The smaller quantities available on Soylent.me aren't as cost-efficient overall but I went the bulk route available on their site which was a recurring order of $255 for 28 bags (1 month). Costly, right? Well, no. That's $9.11 per day or, more reasonably, $3.04 per meal. When was the last time you spent $3.04 on a meal - every meal - for an entire month?
There's a lot of hullaballoo about the expenses of this kind of lifestyle and, while my DIYS ordering was a bit haphazard and... interesting to calculate out, my real number crunching came down through my bank account. I downloaded a spreadsheet of my expenses for the past 12 months and deleted every row that wasn't food related. The numbers are rough since I had to do some fancy guesswork with visits to Walmart, Target, and the occasional gas station, but the overall picture is pretty clear: Partaking of Soylent would save me over $3,000 per year.
Want a clearer picture? I ordered Jimmy Johns for lunch because I didn't have the time this morning to figure out if I had anything suitable for lunch. Cost for that easily made sandwich, some chips, a cookie (I have no willpower) and a drink plus the driver tip for the convenience of delivery was just about $20.
$20 for lunch. Jeez. That's not unusual in a restaurant either. And let's not forget that the nutritional balance of this meal is severely questionable- chips, cookie, mayo, sweet tea... they all add up and not in a good way. With Soylent, I could eat and eat well for two days on the equivalent monetary value. So, you tell me. Did it cost a fortune? Not really. The initial setup did put me back a bit but I expect the long-run results to be less costly than if I continue my current chaotic and nutrition-less lifestyle.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Now for the good stuff!
My Lactose-free Chocolate Peanut Butter Soylent Recipe (perma-linked for download).
That recipe has been heavily altered from the DIY Forum on Soylent.me. I've also added columns to help me calculate how much of each ingredient I'll need to make 90 and 30 day batches and what that would cost. I've also included links to each of the ingredient locations where I purchased them and attempted to keep the cost per ingredient accurate to what I bought.
Here's what it looks like to put together at least a 30-day supply of DIY Soylent (DIYS from now on):
There is one ingredient missing from all this mayhem: 5 lbs of Whey Isolate (in Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor). That last item is shipping from Vitamin Discount Center instead of Amazon and iHerb; it should arrive by Monday (8/4) and I'll mix the first day's batch that night. Under recommendations from the DIY forum, I'll be letting the batch chill overnight to reduce grittiness from the PAN/MASA (the pre-cooked corn flour).
But! In the meantime! Having so many flour ingredients arrive in really, REALLY not airtight bags meant that I had to invest in airtight storage. So now my kitchen worktable looks like I've either started a bakery or an illicit laboratory.
From left to right, we have P.A.N. (in individual ziplock bags for freshness), the MSM Sulfur Powder, Iodized Salt, Potassium Gluconate, Potassium Chloride, White Rice Flour (in individual ziplock bags again), Choline Bitartrate tablets, Calcium & Magnesium powder, more jars of White Rice Powder (I got a bulk pack so there was a lot!), Women's multivitamins, my starter Vegetable ("Soybean") oil, a different type of Women's multivitamins that isn't as good as the Rainbow Light version, a jar of the Splenda Brown Sugar, a jar of the unsweetened cocoa powder, a coffee canister containing more cocoa powder since I underestimate my storage needs, and more white rice flour. Don't let the size of the paper fool you into thinking that the jars are small- that left-most jar is 2.5 gallons of corn flour and that's a 12" x 18" inch chart!
Technically, I ordered enough materials to only fully make 30 days of DIYS but, when available, I ordered bulk packs of the cheaper, easier to store ingredients so that I could order less for the next month or so. Hence the rows of Potassium Gluconate and Calcium/Magnesium containers and all the extra white rice flour. Since I need these items to stay fresh as long as possible, I went for as many airtight containers as I could get my hands on.
So! Now I have the ingredients. How on earth am I going to make this work??
Well, back to that large chart on the table- that's my bio-monitoring chart to make sure that DIYS doesn't do anything harmful to my body. I will be putting myself through a battery of tests on a daily (and then hopefully weekly only) basis to ensure that my body is getting exactly what it needs. To do so, I have procured a slew of home equipment to test myself:
Here, we see my chart, a jar of urinalysis strips, a cloth measuring tape, a digital wrist blood pressure/pule monitor, a mobile blood glucose monitor (with extra lancets and test strips), and a body analysis scale. All of these items were bought from Amazon and are safe to use at home. I will be doing pre-DIYS testing to determine my baseline scores and then will continue to test to determine the effects that DIYS has on my body.
Interested in how I plan on keeping track of my data? Here's a perma-link to my blank chart. Any changes I make to it will be made to this chart, so feel free to download it and alter it it your needs. Naturally, I expect that men using this chart will likely not need the menstruation row! :)
That recipe has been heavily altered from the DIY Forum on Soylent.me. I've also added columns to help me calculate how much of each ingredient I'll need to make 90 and 30 day batches and what that would cost. I've also included links to each of the ingredient locations where I purchased them and attempted to keep the cost per ingredient accurate to what I bought.
Here's what it looks like to put together at least a 30-day supply of DIY Soylent (DIYS from now on):
There is one ingredient missing from all this mayhem: 5 lbs of Whey Isolate (in Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor). That last item is shipping from Vitamin Discount Center instead of Amazon and iHerb; it should arrive by Monday (8/4) and I'll mix the first day's batch that night. Under recommendations from the DIY forum, I'll be letting the batch chill overnight to reduce grittiness from the PAN/MASA (the pre-cooked corn flour).
But! In the meantime! Having so many flour ingredients arrive in really, REALLY not airtight bags meant that I had to invest in airtight storage. So now my kitchen worktable looks like I've either started a bakery or an illicit laboratory.
Technically, I ordered enough materials to only fully make 30 days of DIYS but, when available, I ordered bulk packs of the cheaper, easier to store ingredients so that I could order less for the next month or so. Hence the rows of Potassium Gluconate and Calcium/Magnesium containers and all the extra white rice flour. Since I need these items to stay fresh as long as possible, I went for as many airtight containers as I could get my hands on.
So! Now I have the ingredients. How on earth am I going to make this work??
Well, back to that large chart on the table- that's my bio-monitoring chart to make sure that DIYS doesn't do anything harmful to my body. I will be putting myself through a battery of tests on a daily (and then hopefully weekly only) basis to ensure that my body is getting exactly what it needs. To do so, I have procured a slew of home equipment to test myself:
Here, we see my chart, a jar of urinalysis strips, a cloth measuring tape, a digital wrist blood pressure/pule monitor, a mobile blood glucose monitor (with extra lancets and test strips), and a body analysis scale. All of these items were bought from Amazon and are safe to use at home. I will be doing pre-DIYS testing to determine my baseline scores and then will continue to test to determine the effects that DIYS has on my body.
Interested in how I plan on keeping track of my data? Here's a perma-link to my blank chart. Any changes I make to it will be made to this chart, so feel free to download it and alter it it your needs. Naturally, I expect that men using this chart will likely not need the menstruation row! :)
Friday, August 1, 2014
This is the beginning
I was introduced to the modernized concept of Soylent as a food replacement by this lovely article from The Verve: Soylent Survivor. If you have the time, read what Chris Ziegler has to say about the amusingly, tongue-in-cheek product called Soylent (it's not people!) that was engineered by Rob Rhinehart.
This is not another Muscle Milk or a casual protein shake sort of drink; Soylent is designed to provide all the minerals, vitamins, calories, etc. that a body needs in order to function. There are loads of experiments that folks have already done with both the commercial Soylent (made popular by its wildly successful Campaign.Soylent.Me that was fully funded in under 2 hours) as well as the also popular DIY Forum available on the Soylent.me website. Even Stephen Colbert gave in and tried some!
With some data in-hand, I placed my first official month-supply order with Soylent (on July 21st)... and then found out about the waiting period. My order confirmation said that new orders would take 10-12 weeks to ship but the website now states 4-5 months until shipment. Many excited potential users have filled the forums with gradually increasing irritation regarding the delay in production and shipping. There are reasons for these delays (ingredient adjustments, production relocation, etc.) but the buyers only care about when they can stop dealing with the hassle of food and start feeling healthier. I understand this- that's why the DIY forum is so popular! Using their recipes and ingredient breakdown information, I was no longer able to quench my desire to try a test of my own.
If there are already human guinea pigs testing this magical powdery food, why am I doing an experiment? Well, aside from waiting for my shipment, I noticed that many of the blogs and articles I found from journals with access to early Soylent batches only used Soylent for a matter of weeks; even the viral Rob Rhinehart post about the stuff only details about half a year's worth of usage. Also, most of said postings were done by men and many of those men were also interested in maintaining or increasing their weight. I am interested in losing weight (at first), maintaining a healthier body, and eliminating the hassle of prepping food constantly- in a very long-term fashion. Taking inspiration from Tim Ferriss' 2-week attempt and documentation of commercial Soylent, I intend to document my process carefully with physiological tests, pictures, and introspective monitoring and provide as much longitudinal data as possible.
Using the handy forum calculator, anyone can figure out what numbers they should aim for. Dig through the Recipes page and you'll see all types that are designed for different needs. I'm not a male bodybuilder, so I tend to seek out the under 1500 calorie recipes designed for women. For new users, look at recipes that are 100% complete- meaning that the nutrients fulfill 100% of the daily recommended intake (DRI) for the profile type that it was created for. You can also make copies of these recipes and tinker with the ingredients and amounts until they match your requirements.
For my test, I based my ingredients on the Chocolate Silk recipe (even though I'm not overfond of chocolate). As I am insulin-resistant (borderline diabetic/my body doesn't process simple sugars well) and I have lactose intolerant tendencies, I altered two of the ingredients. Brown sugar was swapped for the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend to reduce blood sugar issues and the Whey Protein is now the lactose-free Whey Isolate. Isolate tends to be more expensive but will save myself (and my husband if he tries it) from any unpleasant gastronomic distress.
Here's my public recipe: Lactose Friendly- but keep in mind that the costs and purchase websites are not accurate as these ingredients were added to the forum by someone else. I'll be providing information on my recipe, ingredient purchases, total costs, daily costs, testing measures spreadsheet, and results as I continue this process.
Initial Basics: Female, 29 years old, 6'0" tall, 275 lbs, with a sedentary lifestyle.
DRI of calories: 2200.
DIY Soylent calories: 1375 (lowered to reduce sugar intake and to permit the consumption of iced tea with Splenda, coffee with sugar-free creamer and splenda, sugar-free Redbull, and optional Fiber One bars).
This is not another Muscle Milk or a casual protein shake sort of drink; Soylent is designed to provide all the minerals, vitamins, calories, etc. that a body needs in order to function. There are loads of experiments that folks have already done with both the commercial Soylent (made popular by its wildly successful Campaign.Soylent.Me that was fully funded in under 2 hours) as well as the also popular DIY Forum available on the Soylent.me website. Even Stephen Colbert gave in and tried some!
With some data in-hand, I placed my first official month-supply order with Soylent (on July 21st)... and then found out about the waiting period. My order confirmation said that new orders would take 10-12 weeks to ship but the website now states 4-5 months until shipment. Many excited potential users have filled the forums with gradually increasing irritation regarding the delay in production and shipping. There are reasons for these delays (ingredient adjustments, production relocation, etc.) but the buyers only care about when they can stop dealing with the hassle of food and start feeling healthier. I understand this- that's why the DIY forum is so popular! Using their recipes and ingredient breakdown information, I was no longer able to quench my desire to try a test of my own.
If there are already human guinea pigs testing this magical powdery food, why am I doing an experiment? Well, aside from waiting for my shipment, I noticed that many of the blogs and articles I found from journals with access to early Soylent batches only used Soylent for a matter of weeks; even the viral Rob Rhinehart post about the stuff only details about half a year's worth of usage. Also, most of said postings were done by men and many of those men were also interested in maintaining or increasing their weight. I am interested in losing weight (at first), maintaining a healthier body, and eliminating the hassle of prepping food constantly- in a very long-term fashion. Taking inspiration from Tim Ferriss' 2-week attempt and documentation of commercial Soylent, I intend to document my process carefully with physiological tests, pictures, and introspective monitoring and provide as much longitudinal data as possible.
Using the handy forum calculator, anyone can figure out what numbers they should aim for. Dig through the Recipes page and you'll see all types that are designed for different needs. I'm not a male bodybuilder, so I tend to seek out the under 1500 calorie recipes designed for women. For new users, look at recipes that are 100% complete- meaning that the nutrients fulfill 100% of the daily recommended intake (DRI) for the profile type that it was created for. You can also make copies of these recipes and tinker with the ingredients and amounts until they match your requirements.
For my test, I based my ingredients on the Chocolate Silk recipe (even though I'm not overfond of chocolate). As I am insulin-resistant (borderline diabetic/my body doesn't process simple sugars well) and I have lactose intolerant tendencies, I altered two of the ingredients. Brown sugar was swapped for the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend to reduce blood sugar issues and the Whey Protein is now the lactose-free Whey Isolate. Isolate tends to be more expensive but will save myself (and my husband if he tries it) from any unpleasant gastronomic distress.
Here's my public recipe: Lactose Friendly- but keep in mind that the costs and purchase websites are not accurate as these ingredients were added to the forum by someone else. I'll be providing information on my recipe, ingredient purchases, total costs, daily costs, testing measures spreadsheet, and results as I continue this process.
Initial Basics: Female, 29 years old, 6'0" tall, 275 lbs, with a sedentary lifestyle.
DRI of calories: 2200.
DIY Soylent calories: 1375 (lowered to reduce sugar intake and to permit the consumption of iced tea with Splenda, coffee with sugar-free creamer and splenda, sugar-free Redbull, and optional Fiber One bars).
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