Archive for the ‘soylent challenge’ Tag
Servings eaten: 7
Times broken: 0
Amount left: 0 servings
Today’s weight: 252.2
Aaaaand done!
I made it! It’s been almost 2 months of nothing but Soylent, without breaking down and eating any junk food. It wasn’t easy, but it was totally worth it.
Obviously, the big plus was my health. More specifically, the weight I’ve lost is astounding. When I started, I was around 285. (I was probably heavier, as the scale I started with wasn’t very accurate.)
But now I am less than 255lbs. l lost 30 pounds in 2 months. I went from tightly wearing a size 42 pant and looking like a walking sausage to wearing a comfortable and loose 38 and looking like I am wearing clothes, not Saran Wrap. I know it isn’t a great way to lose weight, but it is pretty damn effective. Because Soylent is nutrient dense, I didn’t feel sick or lethargic, which makes this much better than the typical crash diet.
Not that it was easy: it wasn’t. But the difficulties were almost entirely mental in nature. Due to the reduced calories, my mental processing was much lower. You really do need to fuel your brain, and I spent the last 2 months with my needle close to the empty line. That’s why I didn’t do my weekly posts; I just couldn’t muster the brain space after spending all day working on complex issues. Instead I watched YouTube and played video games. I could have spent that time better, but I don’t regret it. I was working on me, even if it wasn’t in the traditional sense.
Craving wasn’t actually the challenge. My punishment was a good deterrent, but mostly I forgot to eat. It was an odd experience for me. I am the type of guy that can always eat. So it was a head trip to feel like I could go days without eating. I swear I was getting to the border of eating disorder. Not quite there, but close. But it was a good lesson, as it did show a potential side of me I should note down for later.
The social aspect was hard at first. I’m a loner by nature, but occasionally I poke my head out of my cage. I always thought it would be weird to go out somewhere with friends, and just not eat. I thought my friends would feel odd and the wait staff would be pushy. In reality, no one cares. Once people get their own food no one is bothered by what is on yours, or lack there of. As long as you tip well and act polite the staff is happy to oblige.
I had some epiphanies on habit and the nature of craving. I’m not going to go into them here, as I would like to devote a full post to them. But I am glad I did this, and that I was able to follow through to the end.
I ate 132 servings over all. That means I will be donating $132 to the Utah Food Bank. I’ll post a quick picture when I do. I will be donating the princely sum of exactly $0 to Ken Ham and his Ark experience. I’ve posted a picture of that donation below.
I hope Answer’s In Genesis enjoys it. I made it just for them. 🙂
So what’s next? Hopefully I continue the downward slope of weight loss. I am going to try and keep a whole plant vegan diet for health reasons. (The ethics is a whole different post.) My goal would be to get at around 200 pounds. Once I get there I’ll reassess my plans, and maybe come up with some other crazy diet scheme.
As for this blog? Tomorrow is the start of NaPoWriMo, so expect to see a poem every day for this whole month. After that, probably some more poetry and political ranting. No matter what, it should be fun.
Thanks for reading,
– Shaman
A while back I did a challenge where I ate nothing but Soylent for 3 weeks. It was supposed to be four weeks, but I broke and couldn’t recover. I tracked it in this blog, but didn’t ever finish it out.
If you don’t know me in person, then you wouldn’t know I tried the same challenge again for a whole month in August, and only broke 6 times.
I lost 25 pounds and felt great. Because of how great ended up buying more of their side product, Coffiest, in the belief I would add it to my daily routine.
Four months and two too many shipments (I forgot to cancel my subscription) later, I have way too much of this stuff. Sixty six bottles of Coffiest, 12 bags of powder, and 20 bars. I also have half a box of their new Cacao flavor. That’s a lot of space food to go through.
So, in the name of amateur science and self-inflicted suffering, I am going on another Soylent binge.
The rules are as follows:
– Any calories I intake have to come from Soylent based sources.
– I am allowed to drink water, herbal tea, decaf coffee, and other non-sweetened or non-caffeinated beverages.
– I have keep going until I shamefully admit I’m a quitter, or run out of stuff to eat.
The rules are similar to my first attempt. But one thing lacking from that attempt was consequences. When I broke, nothing forced me to keep going. For my second attempt in August, I had to donate $5 to a cause I hated. It was a very effective deterrent.
So, for every non-Soylent meal I eat, I will be donating $5 to Ken Ham’s organization, Answers in Genesis.
But I want to potentially put some good into the world as well. So for every serving I of Soylent I do eat, I will donate a dollar to the Utah Food Bank.
I started this morning. My current totals are below.
Servings eaten: 4
Times broken: 0
Amount left: 132 servings
Today’s weight: 283 lbs
I will be posting a daily count of the above, and will post weekly updates. I may also post poems and other rants as I feel like it, as I know most people follow me for the poetry.
Am I crazy? Probably. Wish me luck. 🙂
Thanks for reading,
Shaman
So, I did something kinda dumb.
Back in October, I decided to buy a box of Soylent. Soylent is a meal replacement drink, designed to give all of the nutrients you need to survive. It was designed by some silicon valley CEO that was too busy creating the future to be worried with base needs like eating and happiness. You ever wish that you could fill your self up like a car (hopefully not literally)? Not me, but I am a sucker for weird things like this.
I tried it out for a while. It works, but it tastes like pancake batter. Just straight pancake batter. As in, mix up a water bowl of it next morning and chug a bit and you have the taste of Soylent. Flavoring it makes it better, you can have pineapple pancake mix, or orange creamsicle pancake mix.
Overall, its a cool concept. If you are an eat to live type of person, it takes a lot of the effort of cooking out, and it is more healthy that fast food. If you are not that type of humanoid creature and you enjoy food, then this stuff is a nightmare. It is boring, bland, and uninspired. I could like on it if I needed, but I wouldn’t want to.
All that being said, I ended up accidentally ordering 4 more boxes. I signed up to an automatic subscription and forgot to cancel it for 2 months. Stupid 15% off.
Those 4 boxes have been sitting in my house for a couple of months now. Unopened. Untouched. Unloved. They might have even stayed that way.
But while listening to Penn Jillette’s podcast, he mentioned something interesting. He recently lost a ridiculous amount of weight ridiculously fast. I’m not planning on doing his super vegan, magic power diet (I don’t hate myself that much. Yet.), but he mentioned that for the first two week of the diet he could only eat potatoes. Unappealing, but enough to live.
He stated that his diet guru did this because he wanted to change Penn’s taste palate. By being forced to eat only potatoes, you will eat pretty much anything else by the end. On top of that, it helps you become aware of boredom eating, social eating, etc., which I found very interesting.
Now, I think nothing but potatoes can be a little risky. They aren’t very nutrient diverse. Although I doubt a month would be enough to kill you, you’d probably feel pretty crappy at the end. I will save that venture for my trip to mars.
But I do have something as bland as potatoes, but much healthier. I have that unloved and neglected pile of Soylent. So, in a moment of extreme masochism, I decided that I will spend 4 weeks eating nothing but Soylent.
Yay…
I have set some rules for myself.
– No more than one bag a day, with no flavors or additions. Blandness is the point of choosing Soylent, and the one or less back a day should ensure I have enough for the challenge.
– No calories from any other sources. That includes juices, soda, really dirty air, etc. My life is now Soylent.
Pretty simple, right?
Now, I am going to be posting about my progress each week on Friday. I was going to do daily, but you can only bitch about self imposed challenges in so many ways. A week gives me times to get something of substance.
So… ready, set, go!
– Shaman
Shame on The Universe 