Still Alive! Yay!

It's been a while! That's okay- no news is good news!

There have been a few hiccups along the journey, of course, so here are the updates:

Axcho's Custom Body Fuel was running behind on deliveries so my husband was without his People Fuel Plus for a few weeks; it has weakened his resolve and he eats food semi-regularly now. It's discouraging to me only because I want all the food I find in my fridge!!

I had an upper respiratory infection for about a week and it kept me from swimming. I kept up with my DIYS mix but my weight loss slowed down.

As I my illness tapered off, my midterms began and sucked all my laptime away.

During midterms, we had a big storm hit and it not only knocked my fence over but it also blew my power for two days. Want to know what doesn't work without power? My immersion blender (not so important) and my refrigerator (quite important). DIYS and Soylent must be refrigerated. Period. So I had to eat food for two days. Ugh. I cannot describe to you the tumultuous state of my tummy during that time. At one point, food going down my throat made my esophagus burn. It was fine but I was very distraught. My weight loss suffered and then my metabolism was off... it was not fun.

Because of all of that, my numbers are not as tidy as "half a pound per day!" as I'd like them to be. But 30 pounds in 10 weeks isn't bad!

Not bad at all! :)

-

Also, for those interested, my husband ordered a 7-day batch of Axcho's Schmoylent (which is a smidgen cheaper) and it arrived a few days ago. Taste, consistency, and overall appeal is improved vastly. He will likely be ordering this instead of the People Fuel Plus from now on.

Heck, if I didn't want my calories to stay low, I'd be on it too! I really like the lack of grit!

I am a choo-choo train

And I am still going strong.

I'm about to contact Soylent.me to cancel my subscription for their product (which is not estimated to arrive until the end of the year -- if I'm lucky). This decision was difficult for me because it means that I will need to continue purchasing and tracking my ingredients and then monitoring my consumption and bodily effects.

Reasons are twofold:

-Shipping for Soylent 1.0 is iffy thus far and many subscribers and Kickstarter backers have been waiting for over a year for it. I splurged on the monthly subscription (~$350) on July 21st and, shortly after that, the estimated shipping time on the website went from 10-12 weeks to 4-5 months. Stoppages in production have happened already and I, personally, find that instability to be very vexing.

-Soylent 1.0 is built around a 2000 calorie diet and is not intended for weight loss purposes as it has not been testing for that. As I am utilizing the adaptability of the Soylent medium to produce a low calorie and ketogenic food substitute, switching to a higher calorie blend would likely make me very unhappy. I'm thoroughly enjoying the changes in my body and I am not ready to switch back to a "normal" calorie lifestyle.

Since I've put so much work into making a blend that not only works for me body but also tastes good to me, I will be continuing my DIYS mix. It's consistent and I control it completely.

I'll likely put in an order for a few bags of Soylent 1.0 after I cancel my monthly subscription just so I can taste the differences.

Adjusting for the Long Term

Tomorrow marks my 6-week point for DIYS. I've had some minor ups and downs but, for the most part, DIYS seems to be the earmark for my life changing for the better. We're looking at a 20 pound loss in 42 days.

None of my clothes fit right anymore. I love it. My measurements confirm that I've lost weight in areas other than just in my chest (thank goodness).

Tons of energy. Seriously. I feel so much younger. Caffeine not only makes me more efficient but also boost my metabolism; I seem to lose a bit more weight on days that I drink coffee or have an energy drink.

I'm not embarrassed to wear my swim suit when I go to do laps. I'm still overweight but that doesn't matter so much to me anymore. Yeah, I have big flappy arms and lumpy thighs and a fupa- but you know what? It's less than I had before! And that's awesome!

It feels like I own my quirks instead of them owning me. I have absolute control over this part of my life and it's liberating. Who cares that I spent two hours yesterday putting together quart baggies with my DIYS mix? I don't have to worry about food AT ALL FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. Strictly controlled? More like strictly free to do whatever the hell I want on my lunch breaks.

As far as my DIYS mix:

• I just had to reorder some of my main ingredients. I purchased roughly one month's worth of ingredients for my first round (with some extras purchased of the cheaper stuff in order to save on future shipping) and I've only had to order the Whey Isolate, Splenda blend, and some more cocoa powder. 
• Whey isolate is more expensive than whey protein powder but I found it for CRAZY cheap this morning. $77.41 per 5lb container. And it's PRIME! So I totally bought two. 
• I've been consistently restocking peanut butter powder and vegetable oil because both my husband and I have been using that in our DIYS; Shelby adds peanut butter to his mix to improve flavor and boost protein and the oil has been shared. I'm considering using Amazon Prime Pantry and keeping these on constant reorder. I'll let you know how that works out.
• While I have really (shockingly) fallen in love with my food scale, I wish I had one that measured in .5 grams. Two of my ingredients are measured at 2.5 and 3.5 grams and I have to eyeball those and just pray. When I find a more fine-tuned scale at a reasonable price, you better believe I will post it on here.
• By pre-mixing my DIYS every two weeks and putting the individual portions into baggies, I'm not only making my DIYS faster at night (takes me about 5 minutes to add water, blend, add water, and then add oil) but I'm also super sure that I'm not screwing up my mix. 
• My husband wanted to know why I didn't just add all the ingredients for 14 days of DIYS into one big pot and then scoop out the right amount of grams per serving into a bag. I insisted that that would be a very good way to get unbalanced portions of nutrients. What if all my sulfur clumps up in the bottom? Psh. 14 baggies all lined up and opened and I can just dish out that many servings of one ingredient and then put it away. Repeat with the next. Feels very factory line-ish but it's very rewarding. And! When I ran out of isolate for two of my baggies, I marked them and then kept putting the rest of the ingredients into all the bags. Now, when my isolate arrives, I just add that to the two baggies that need it and I'm two days better off with barely any extra time spent.

Recommended pattern for mixing up a pitcher of DIYS:

1. Add about two or three inches of water to the bottom of the pitcher. Does not have to be a particular temperature.
2. Open baggie of pre-mixed DIYS and pour into pitcher. Recommend getting entire baggie into the opening of the pitcher before tipping to prevent powder escaping.
3. Agitate the open pitcher to get the powder to start mixing with the water in the bottom. Do not do this aggressively. 
4. Add more water. I add water to about the halfway point of the pitcher because my immersion blender is not overly long and too much water means that it cannot reach the bottom. 
5. Use immersion blender. Make sure to get the clumps of DIYS that will stick to the sides of the pitcher. 
6. Add water to your heart's content. I like to pour in water while the blender is going. I have noticed that grittiness is reduced when DIYS is thick like a milkshake so I have been adding less water. My final level is rarely over three-quarters of a pitcher. 
7. Personal addition: When I pre-mix my DIYS, I still have to add a little extra Xanthan Gum manually to my pitcher (about 1/4 tsp). It's like it loses its potency by being in the bag with the other ingredients. This is the part where I'd include it.
8. Add oil last. Blend. 
9. You can still add water after this; I usually pour a bit down my immersion blender when I'm pulling it out of the pitcher to make sure I have all my ingredients in the pitcher and not drying on my blender. 

I'll include a video of this next time for clarity. You'll get to see how messy it gets in a kitchen where your food is in powder form!

Special Occassions

Shelby and I celebrated our third anniversary over the weekend and splurged on real food as a treat for ourselves. I've lost 16 pounds and he's not that far behind me so we felt it was okay to enjoy chewing on a meal again.

Turns out that the meal kept us full for pretty much the entire day. I had a ham and cheese omelet and he had steak tips and eggs (with pancakes); both meals were as gentle on carbs as we were willing to compromise for and, honestly, I knew that I wouldn't be able to take down a stack of pancakes like I used to. I get full on real food but it doesn't last very long- that's the glory of DIYS. My protein count is high enough that I can sip on it and feel nice and not hungry even though my mind still isn't sure that it's satisfied with just drinking a beverage.

Also, we drink a lot of tea in my house. With the added liquid intake, the tea helps assuage any extra hunger pangs because, like most Americans, we'd gotten out of the habit of drinking the proper amount of daily water and we often confused thirst pangs for hunger pangs. That shouldn't be a problem now!

Just another note about the formula- DIYS doesn't stay fresh for longer than 2-3 days. I'd say that 3 days is generally pushing it and there's a sour/bitter smell that accompanies the taste when it's past its prime. Just a heads up if you want to try it for just one meal at a time- you'll have to mix it in smaller, more frequent batches!

School's Back

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.

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.

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.

We received two boxes of 15 bags each and they very helpfully included instructions for mixing. My husband's pitchers and bottles arrive later today so we took this as a good omen and I graciously loaned him the use of my extra pitcher until his arrives.

Taking a closer look at the mix, his mix looked REALLY different than mine. You might notice the speckles on his bag- those turned out to be Chia seeds. Whole seeds. I am interested to see him down those.

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.