Contrast [Soylent Blogrimage 12/30]

This journey has lasted an eternity. 12 days doesn't seem that long on paper. 12 days of vacation? Easy. 12 days of great weather? Not long enough.

12 days without food? Ermergerd. 

The reason I don't know anybody who has done the 30 day Soylent challenge in real life is because this is very difficult. It's a strange dynamic, though.

Eating Soylent helps me feel better between meals than I did with real food. I have more energy, my mind is clear, and my body feels lighter. However, this challenge is most difficult during meal times when lots of people are eating wonderful burgers, delicious tacos, tasty....what am I talking about? Oh, the hardest times are during meals, but everything else feels great.

In times of not eating Soylent, I love food. I'm always finding new experiences and have regular hidden spots where I get incredible meals. In between meals, however, I often feel horrible. Lower energy, sluggish from carbs, crashing after sugar highs, etc. 

In the future, I hope to balance these dynamics. 

FEELINGS:

• Longing for real food
• Saving a lot of dining out money
• Breath still bad
• Smelling like Soylent
• Varying between hating the tasting and loving the taste

My Energy is Through the Roof as is my Breath [Soylent Blogrimage 11/30]

I wrote a blog a couple months ago about the ability of a tongue scraper to eliminate bad breath. This Soylent challenge is eliminating that progress.

My body is beginning to smell like the stuff I'm eating. Considering, "you are what you eat," this makes sense. It's all part of the challenge.

I wish I could eat a mint :(

FEELINGS:

• Breath is uncontrollable
• Energy is incredible
• Vertigo is gone
• Miss chewing food
• Social interactions are getting less awkward for me

Not Eating Regular Human Food is Very Inconvenient [Soylent Blogrimage 10/30]

Whether it's my keys, bag or Soylent bottle, I tend to forget where I place things. In fact, on my ministry trip to Honduras, one girl decided to serve me as team leader by making sure I didn't leave my travel bag at our different service sites. 

Normally this doesn't bother me, but it's a very inconvenient reality concerning Soylent. Normally, leaving the house and forgetting something is not a big deal--I can do without most things and can Improvise. I very often forget my lunch and don't worry about it because I can always eat or borrow food from a friend. With Soylent, forgetting my lunch means I don't eat. 

Every Monday I go out to eat with my co-workers and today I forgot my lunch in the work fridge. Like I said earlier, this is normally not a big deal. When you can only eat one thing, like Soylent, it is very much a big deal. I'm using to eating this stuff. It's the forgetting it all the time that is testing my patience. 

I need to start stashing emergency rations in places I frequent. Eating only one thing does simplifies life in many ways. Not have options and an ability to improvise makes it very inconvenient. Knowing what you want gets rid of a lot of options (so it is with life). 

FEELINGS:

• Tired of forgetting my Soylent Bottles
• Losing hunger
• Vertigo is gone
• Energy is still above normal

Watch Me Make a Day's Amount of Food in 10 Minutes [Soylent Blogrimage 9/30]

Video: Preparing one day's worth of food

This is how I prepare my food. I made 15 meals in less than 30 minutes. Pretty good. 

Here are the Steps

Step 1: Gather all your ingredients from local stores or the internet

Step 2: Measure each ingredient on a food scale in a separate bowl (recipe found here)

Step 3: Put Individual ingredients into a plastic bag

Step 4: Shake contents together

That's all I do to prepare the meals. Then, I simply add water to whatever I want to consume the Soylent in. 

FEELINGS:

• Soylent is very inconvenient
• Used to going without meals
• Energy is fine
• Clarity of mind is great
• Constantly using will power is stressing me out

Life without Food Requires a Great Deal of Will Power [Soylent Blogrimage 8/30]

This challenge does not feel fun. Before forsaking all other foods, the thought of eating just Soylent seemed like an adventurous idea. After this challenge is complete, it's going to be a great story and memory to share. Right now, there isn't anything fun about it.

Only 8 days into life without food, I'm relying on pure will power for every part of the day. Sometimes I eat out of habit. Other times I eat out of boredom. To prevent myself from falling into old ways, I'm constantly exerting willpower to stay the course. 

This gives me less willpower in other areas of my life. I have to fight not to get cranky or sad. Food is very joyful. Food is very important for social environments and the act of sharing. Food is an adventure of new experiences. All that is gone for the month of March.

It will make a good story indeed. 

FEELINGS:

• Really missing food
• Exerting a lot of willpower to stay the course
• Energy is fine
• Soylent like poop and bright yellow pee

I Went to Three Movies and Three Restaurants [Soylent Blogrimage 7/30]

3 Movies and 3 Restaurants. This is what my day consisted of. 

Especially since I'm not eating food at the restaurants, people are asking a lot of questions about Soylent. If I saw someone doing what I'm doing, I'd ask a lot of questions too. It's getting more and more normal. I think people are getting used to the idea that I'm not eating traditional food. Perhaps I'll have to go through a re-entry phase of normal social eating after I'm done with this challenge. 

One physical setback is night time vertigo. Every once in awhile I feel a sense of dizziness. In the Reddit Soylent community, people warned about this if the nutrients aren't mixed properly. Occasionally, some of the mixture ends up on the sides of the bottle and the vertigo reducing elements are lost. I got to make sure that I'm getting everything. 

Also, I feel good that I gained 6 pounds back (earlier I lost 8 pounds in 4 days). It probably was water weight. 

FEELINGS:

• Getting what feels like Vertigo at night (Soylent bloggers warned about this)
• It's very inconvenient when I forget my Soylent at home
• Energy is Great
• Poop now looks like Soylent :)
• Pee is still very yellow (I hear it's from the Vitamin B)
• Gained 6 pounds back.