The blog will take a slight diversion for the next 5 days while I hack my body. While the underlying theme of this blog is financial independence, good health goes hand in hand with retirement. What fun is life if you don’t have your health?
Ask the Readers and the Thursday Rant will return next week.
A long time ago, I asked you all if you’d be willing to try the food substitute, Soylent. The answer was a resounding “no.” Some of you even thought I was a bit crazy. No matter; it’s probably true.
When I asked the question about a year ago, I also placed an order for a one week supply of Soylent. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. The Soylent never showed up. The product is back ordered for an unknown length of time. Frustrated with the wait and the company’s very poor customer service (very little communication; not at all transparent), I cancelled my order a couple weeks ago.
The pizza, Portillo’s, donut diet
I recently went to Chicago for work. I always eat horrible on work trips. Co-workers bring in donuts. I eat too much Chicago pizza and Portillo’s. Not good. I was disgusted with myself when I came home and saw that my weight had crept up to an all time high, 172. I’m 5’11”, but am skinny, so my ideal weight is somewhere in the 150s. I had to take action.
It was at this point that I decided to give Soylent another try. However, there was no way I was going to order the official version. It turns out that you can make your own from one of many open source recipes. I went with the People Chow Plus version.
Resets are good
People make all kinds of crazy claims about what Soylent did for them, but my expectations are low. I don’t think that it will do much besides make me lust for real food. However, after my pizza/cheeseburger/donut diet in Chicago, I need a reset. Five days of People Chow Plus and then it’s back to mostly vegetables with some fish, chicken and an occasional pizza slice thrown in on Fridays.
Blow up your comfort zone
On a greater level, I think it’s important that we push our comfort zone every day. Whether it’s trying to write code in a new language or doing push-ups until your pectorals scream, the only way we really get better and learn about ourselves is to push into uncharted territory.
The experiment
For the next 5 days, starting today, I’ll be living on nothing but by DIY Soylent and posting about it every evening. Some of the questions that I have are:
- Will it taste disgusting? (Who am I kidding, of course it will.)
- Will I lose weight?
- How will I feel, mentally and physically?
- Will I be hungry?
- Will I be able to resist normal food?
- Will I want to do it again?
- I have workouts scheduled for today (Monday) and Thursday. How will I feel doing pushups and running? How will my body recover?
- I suck at sleeping. On some days, it takes me hours to fall asleep. Will this diet help?
- What will it be like to eat normal food after a week on this slop?
- Will I be able to get Mrs. 1500 to try it? She has voiced strong opposition.
- And last, but certainly not least, how will it affect my #2s. I know, too much information. For the sake of transparency, I must.
Weight log
- Sunday before bed: 168.2
- Monday morning: 166.8
Wish me luck! Good-bye normal food until Saturday.
Good for you, Mr. 1500 Daze. Perhaps a clothespin over the nose would help with the administration? 🙂 Like “they” always say…once a fella approaches/reaches 40…it gets tougher to keep the lbs. off. And who wants to be relegated to elastic waistband pants in pending retirement…or the Dickies jump suit/ mantard ?! At any rate , I wish you all the best and look forward to the Thursday Rant/Rage as you may be a tad grumpy by then 🙂
Dickies jump suit! LOL! Yeah, I’m never buying any pants with elastic in them!
A clothespin is definitely in order as this stuff is NASTY!!
If you want to reset your relationship with food and your body, I recommend the 21-day sugar detox.
Thanks Zut, I will explore this.
Good luck with this, I’m sure it will be an experience. Whether it’s a fun one, or one you want to repeat again is another matter.
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LOL! Yeah, based on my experience so far, I may or may not be repeating this…
Mr 1500 –
I’m really curious to see the results of this little experiment. Do you have any long-term lifestyle changes (in terms of food) in mind for when you’re finished with this?
Yes, I need to make changes. I don’t drink that much (6 beers/week), but would be better off with even less. I also need to stop eating so much junk. I’m hoping this is the first step.
One question – will you be chronicling said #2s??? I’m so immature LOL.
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One word: Instagram.
Just kidding. Maybe.
Are you keeping track of the calories, protein and carbs too? Even if you could ballpark it that would be interesting because not having enough of those things can throw off your experiment and you may attribute negatives outcomes like sluggishness to the DIY Soylent when it’s really a lack of intake.
If it makes you feel better I started with a personal trainer and I’m limited to 1500 calories errday! The bakery across from work filled the air with cinnamon and sugar and someone brought in homemade pork breakfast burritos in the office. I picked the wrong day to quit smoking! Good luck!
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I will post the nutrition information this week.
Good luck on your new workout and calorie routine.
“I picked the wrong day to quit smoking!” Is that an Airplane reference?
Yeeeeesssssss!
Refinerr recently posted…How I Took 1 Year Off My Retirement Goal By Selling My Car!
Right on! I love that movie!
“First the Earth cooled. And then came the dinosaurs…”
I did DIY soylent just over a month ago, at Labor Day. I did it for about a week, but just couldn’t find a flavor I liked.
The wife has stuck with it though, and done Soylent twice per day (weekdays only) for the past 6 weeks or so. Nothing but positive results.
Hi Joe, this is awesome to hear and very encouraging. If you have a chance, do share what recipe your wife is using.
I think the big question is how much time will you spend in the bathroom or running to the bathroom.
Lots of fiber in the chia and psyllium and soy oil to grease the works. Hope that wasn’t too personal.
LOL! This is one thing I worried about too. For me, it is a “win-win.” If I spend less time in the bathroom, I have more time for other stuff. More time in the bathroom means more reading time.
Good luck!
I personally don’t like trying things like this, but I’m pretty interested in finding out what your experience with this diet is.
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Thanks!
Ummm, it is interesting so far. I’m thankfully not hungry and not lusting for normal food. This is what I hoped for.
I give you full credit for the idea and trying to take a break from your normal diet and trying something else. In the future you may want to consider a different approach, like a juice fast or simply cutting out things gluten, dairy and other high allergen type foods. You should check out the renegade health website, lots of good info. Happy detox.
I’m up for anything and may very well try something else next time.
My first day on a diet too. It has a strict first phase too, and then it’ll get better. Survived the first day (it’s evening here in Europe). Good luck to you, too!
Nice, good luck to you as well!
In college I did a 5-day fast of only water/juice/milk. That sort of fast is not for everyone, but I think I benefitted greatly from it, not only from a spiritual perspective but also from a personal growth perspective. It’s good to push your body sometimes, if only to reinforce the idea that we in the West live a life of great luxury and that we need to be more careful to control our baser appetites, whether that’s food/money/etc.
Right on! We live in incredible luxury and I’m already noticing it. I looked at mountains of food at the grocery store in a whole new light today.
Ummm… Whey protein isolate tastes terrible. I add it to homemade protein bars, but it takes A LOT of other overpowering flavors (usually sweet – dates work like a charm!) to cover up its bitter flavor. Sadly, I don’t see anything like that in the remaining ingredients…
Good luck, Mr 1500… but I can’t help but think there’s got to be a better way. =)
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The ENTIRE THING tastes terrible! The recipe says “Tasty!” I don’t know what they’re comparing it to, cardboard?
Good luck to you, my friend. I’m all for trying new things. There are so many things I said I’ve never do when I was younger, and well, now I’ve done them and I’m glad about it (for the most part)! Also, “Whether it’s trying to write code in a new language or doing push-ups until your pectorals scream”–I definitely read that as pterodactyls the first 3 times I read it. Just thought you’d want to know.
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“pterodactyls”
Now where would you get such a crazy idea like that? Not on this blog. No way. Ha!
I like trying new things as well. The nasty soylent is really pushing it though.
Interestingly, I’m four inches shorter than you and nearly the same weight… which is why I guess I’m also trying to lose some.
None of the ingredients either pictured or listed look very fun at all, but best of luck. I imagine you’ll emerge with a new-found appreciation for solid food which could be worth it on its own.
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Ha, they are not fun at all. Together, they are terrible. Bleh. Otherwise, it’s going great!!
I’ve never heard of Solyent, I know not everyone is the same but when I want to lose weight or jump start good eating, I stick with a strict Paleo/Whole food diet. It pretty much comes down to take out breads and dairy and replace with more veggies and leaner meats. Like personal finance you have to plan ahead and make the right choices but I 100% think Paleo/Whole food diet is a better way of life.
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Oh man, I love bread, but that diet sounds like a good one. If the average person replace 25% of their non-vegetable diet with broccoli, we’d all be much better off.
I’ve never done a shake diet, but I’ve followed other restrictive diets, including an elimination diet to identify food allergies, and every time I’m come out of it a little better off than I was. I mentioned your post on my blog, which is about taking small challenges (I have maybe six readers, so you might not see results :). I hadn’t thought about it in terms of “blowing up your comfort zone,” but I love that idea. Can’t wait to read about how it goes!
Anne, thanks so much for including me! Comfort zones are scary things. I try to avoid them as much as possible!
As for your blog, we all have to start somewhere. Keep at it. I love this:
“If you’re not failing sometimes, you’re not trying hard enough. “
Yikes, have fun with that 🙂 I’m sure it will rock health-wise, but I can’t eat/drink bad tasting food. I eat Paleo most of the time, gluten/dairy-free all of the time. But it’s time to go back to full on Paleo. My body hates pretty much everything.
Oh, and P.S. I dropped 10 pounds during my first month of strict Paleo and have kept the weight off even when I’m eating crappily. Gluten and dairy = poundage for me!
Yes, you looked awesome last month, so clearly you’re doing something right. A lot of smart people tell me about Paleo, so maybe that is the say to go.
A co-worker of mine has been using soylent as a meal replacement for months. He eats it twice a day and a regular meal once a day. He’s the only real hippie in our conservative office. All I can say is, he’s skinny. But that stuff looks nasty. LOL!
Wow, month! I’m dreading 5 days! Is he nuts?
I’m curious how this works out. I like the concept of re-thinking food as fuel and minimizing costs. Maybe there can be follow-up comparison of cost/time/life satification of soylent versus just a simple diet – something like committing to a diet of rice and beans, a handful of nuts, and banana (and similar meals). When I have considered trying soylent, I’ve always landed on just sticking with a simple diet.
I think the idea of a simple, vegetable based diet is the way to go and that is where I hope to end up. Soylent is just a reset for me. I’m hoping that it makes me appreciate good food once again.
172 lbs for 5’11” isn’t exactly on the heavy side if you’re muscular. I’m the same height as you and I’m around 160 lbs. For my body build, I can’t go much lower without losing all my muscles…
Soylent sounds interesting, will see how it goes for you.
If you haven’t heard, you might want to take a look at Whole30. My wife and I gave this a try a couple times and it has done wonders.
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I have a slim frame. Unfortunately, there is a little beer belly currently attached to that frame. My body fat is about 13% now. I’d feel a lot better if it was under %10. I have torn knees, so I’d like to keep as much unnecessary weight off above the knees.
As I told someone yesterday, 40 year old me is doing this for 80 year old me.
Some people have said they couldn’t do a liquid diet, but for me (and I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you too), a liquid diet makes so much sense because it is so much more efficient to get all those nutrients and goodies into your body.
I’m not going to sit around and eat a bunch of kale, and then a bunch of fruit, and then a bunch of nuts, etc etc etc but I WILL throw them all into a blender and blend’er up and drink it down in a minute.
Been doing it for quite awhile for breakfast and lunch and it’s been fantastic 😀
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