Week 1 Wrap up

Hello Everyone!

I know it's been a while since the last time I posted, but my internet at the house was in bad shape. A lot happened the first week mostly for the better and a little for the worse. The biggest change is that I moved from 100% soylent to a 75%/25% ratio where I have 500 cal a day in "real" food. This immediately subdued the headaches, and I was able to lower the amount of extra sodium I was adding down to about an 1/8 of a teaspoon. This has helped me adapt both physically and mentally, but let's start with the physical changes.

Physical Synopsis

Over the course of the last week I have been less tired in the middle of the day, and if I start to feel weak, I just grab some more Soylent. I have noticed that I need a full nights sleep however. If I go under 7 hours and 45 minutes, I am sleepy all day. I'm not sure how to circumvent that as I am also trying to drop the caffeine out of my diet. I will have to experiment with my dinner food to see if the solid food is triggering some sort of extra sleep requirement.

Food tastes amazing now. I love food, and I can't really argue that. The surprising thing is that some foods I thought tasted one way taste a different way now. The realization came over me after I had some raw mushrooms on a salad. All of a sudden it didn't taste like dirt. They were great. I had Tara try some to make sure they tasted the same and she complained they were too earthy, so I know I am tasting them differently. Foods I used to find bland are coming alive with flavor. On the other hand however, food I used to eat all the time is increasing in potency. Spicy foods and garlic are now extremely potent to my taste buds. It's great because they taste more powerful, so I am able to use less and thus add less empty calories for flavor. Also having less acidity in my stomach is keeping my stomach aches to a minimum. All in all, food just tastes better.

I get asked a lot about "missing food" or how I deal with not eating normal food 75% of the day. The answer is pretty simple. I'm never hungry, so my cravings are almost nonexistent. I used to have cravings for certain foods because "my body knew what it needed." Whether that was true or not is a different story, but needless to say, my body didn't need orange chicken and pizza every day. With my craving levels down, I can choose better options for my "real food" meal. An example is that I used to go to Panda Express and have orange chicken and beijing beef with chow mein. That right there is like a 1500 calorie meal. NO WONDER I'M FAT. Now I still go because it's convenient and Tara likes it, but I get vegetables and the items off their 250 cal or less menu. That totals up to about 600 cal for a meal. I compensate by eating 100 less ml of soylent for my evening meal. Being able to really eat where I want but just choose smarter choices really helps out with my cravings.

Mental Synopsis

I have been having less down days than normal, but they are still there. I know soylent won't cure my depression, but it seems like the better diet is keeping something higher than usual. I notice that in the mornings I have been very cranky, but I'm not sure if that's the soylent, or the sleep. Everything else is about the same. Mid morning to evening temper is stable and I'm generally happy. Sorry there is not a lot to report about my mental status. Then again, if there was something of interest, I probably wouldn't be in the mood to share it.

WARNING WARNING TMI INFORMATION TIME WARNING WARNING

It is unbelievable how much better my stomach is right now. I'm consistently rating about a 6 on the bristol scale. No stomach cramps, no soreness. It's wonderful. With all of the problems I used to have, this is great. Now, the days that I kind of cheat and eat food that's not good for me, I still react the same, but the reduction in heartburn and 1-2 ranked poops when I eat right is really a good sign.

TMI SECTION OVER

So in conclusion, I'm 3 days in to my second week, so I will post as much as I can. As always, you can message me with questions, or ask them in the comments and I would be happy to talk with you about it. Thanks and have a great day!!!

Day 1 Debrief

Hello Hello Hello!

Since I'm only on my second day of Soylent, I am going to share how my first day went, so these posts will be a day behind.

Physical Summary

Day 1 was a big learning day. I decided to split my Soylent up in to 4 even meals of 500ml each meal and spread them out every 4 hours or so. At the beginning of the day I was feeling pretty good. I made it until about 4:30 pm when I should have had another "meal" but I got wrapped up in work and missed it by about 2 hours. That moment was when disaster struck. I got a headache at about 5:30 pm that has lasted all through day 2 so far. I am pretty tired because of the poor sleep I got last night, but I wasn't hungry all the time like most days. I had no stomach problems at all Monday except for other issues I will discuss further down. So I would rate Day 1 at about an 8 physically in the morning down to about a 4 in the evening. Not tip top shape, but not a bad day until the missed meal.

Emotional Summary

I was feeling very positive because of the actual fact that I was starting soylent. The fact that I had people supporting me and excited for me kept my spirits way higher than normal. Once I missed my meal however, I was terrible. I got really mad and was generally not fun to be around. Once I ate again, my mood went from angry to more of a melancholy because the headache never subsided. Day 1 emotion was 10 in the morning to about a 4 in the afternoon/evening.

Thoughts

The first day was pretty good until the missed meal, but through the whole time, I never felt hungry while I was eating or during the planned meal intervals. The soylent was very easy to drink and tastes great. I felt pretty good and other than the aforementioned event, I feel like I wouldn't have a problem doing this for a long term solution.

WARNING!!! "TMI" GASTROINTESTINAL INFORMATION BELOW WARNING!!!

Yes I know. "Why do you have to talk about poop?" I was debating it, but after some thought I figured I didn't want to give a sugar coated review of Soylent. You need to know it all. So without further ado, let's talk poop.

I had my first soylent only passing at night before bed. It is a MASSIVE improvement so far over what I used to get on solid foods. I would consistently get about a 6 on the Bristol scale no matter what I ate, but my soylent only passing was a solid 4. This was actually one of the reasons soylent appeals to me. I seem to always have issues with stomach aches and bad stool quality, but the hope of consistent stool levels is promising.

One thing I wanted to bring up up quickly was the gas. I didn't have much, but right before my first passing it was REALLY bad. I'm hoping that doesn't become a trend while at work/other people's offices.

END OF TMI

Conclusion

I know that day 1 is the first day, but if things trend the way they went, Soylent and I should have a very happy meal time life.

Thank you all for reading and for your private tells of support. It really means a lot to me. As always, if you have any questions about my experiences or about Soylent itself, just comment or send me a message and I will address it my next post!

Purpose and Pre-Soylent thoughts

Introduction

Hello Everyone, and welcome to Soylent2Fit!

My name is Chris and I am attempting to use Soylent as my main food source while I transition to a happier, healthier lifestyle.

This blog is mostly going to be a chronicle of my day to day life. I will log food and health events in the day and monitor everything I can. I will be posting how I feel physically and emotionally so I can track Soylent's effects on my body and mind.

Pre-Soylent Life

Just a little background on me before we get into the good stuff. My name is Chris Appling. I live in Phoenix, AZ with my beautiful wife and our two cats. I work at an IT company full-time Monday through Friday, so my choices for food are "fast or faster." I eat way to many fast food lunches and don't exercise much, which contributes to my currently poor and getting worse health. I am currently at approximately 256 lbs at 5'10" in height. Diabetes runs rampant in my family and I am at risk with every burger I bite in to and every "I'll go to the gym tomorrow" that gets tossed around. I need a change, and it just arrived yesterday in a big box.

Goals and Planning

I plan on living nearly exclusively on Soylent. The only "cheating" I will be doing is 1 cheat day and 4 cheat lunches. Every Wednesday my company buys everyone lunch, so I will be eating healthier choices, but will still be eating solid food and then soylent for the rest of my daily calories. My cheat day will mostly be because of the restrictions of soylent itself. I get 28 packets of food replacement per month. This leaves me 30 days of food after taking into account the company lunch days. On months with 31 days this presents an obvious problem. My hope is that I will not consume a full 2000 calories on some days and will have an abundance of food and then all of my worries will be for naught.

As far as weight goals, I am hoping to get down to 200lbs in the next 6 months, and then slowly work my way to being more fit and growing in to whatever weight I need.

So... What is Soylent???

The Soylent website describes the product as "...a simple, efficient and affordable drink that possesses what a body needs to be healthy." Looking at the product as a whole, it comes with a baggie of food powder and a 2 oz bottle of a canola/fish oil blend. It is supposed to contain everything the human body needs to function up to 2000 calories per packet. For more information on the nutritional aspects of soylent check out this link. After mixing with water and shaking it up, one day of food comes out to about 2 liters of Soylent. It's more viscous then a glass of water, but less so than a milkshake.

What is it like?

There is a slightly chalky texture, but I am used to protein shakes and this is much less chalky, so I don't mind. Some people have described the flavor as everything from liquid cardboard to cheerios and even vanilla cake. I am drinking Soylent 1.1, and I'm not sure if that changes the flavor, but to me it is a near exact replica of almond milk.

What now?

I will be doing my best to blog daily about my experiences, so if you have any questions during this whole thing, just leave a comment and I will put my answer in to the next blog post. Here's to going Soylent2Fit!