Good luck with the new diet, Lee!

You’re a braver man than I am, @Lee_Ars:

Nothing but the Soylent: we’re trying 1 full week of the meal substitute

I sincerely hope the Soylent isn’t green in color:

HA :smile:

Yeah, it’s been interesting so far. After finishing day 1, I actually feel a little overstuffed. That’s a hell of a lot of stuff for one person to consume.

The listed calorie count sounded fairly substantial.

I’ve never tried something along those lines. I’ve lived off MREs, of course. I’ve also fasted for a week a few times, just water and some watered down juice. (And coffee, for the safety of my coworkers.) Our bodies are more flexible than we tend to give them credit for.

You have one hell of an interesting job, Lee. Watching an F-1 rocket engine test, Lego Mindstorm another day (another great review, BTW) and now this. Your wife must give you weird looks at times.


Here’s the day 1 report for everyone else here: Ars does Soylent, day 1: Embrace the chalky weird sweetness

Day 2 up: Ars does Soylent, Day 2: My God, what have I gotten myself into

I’m really starting to feel for you, @Lee_Ars. However I do like the green food coloring. Nice touch.

Latest update: Ars does Soylent, Day 3: Moderation leads to actual for-real enjoyment

I don’t know that I’ve ever laughed that hard at a bowel movement.

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I’m trying desperately to figure out why I’m looking forward to the daily “stool report”. There has to be something wrong with me. :question:

The ongoing saga continues: Ars does Soylent, Day 4: The Soylent-powered man

Uhm, about that chalkiness. Is it possible that it would have been less of that if the goo had a overnight in the fridge? To see if a little more soaking in water would help?

According to Rhinehart, it’s the physical size of the rice protein powder that’s the main cause of the chalkiness. They’re experimenting with making the powder finer so it isn’t so chalky.

What happened with Day 5?

He died. or something.

But then he got better.

@Lee_Ars mentioned that he would write a feature about his experience in his first article about the subject. I imagine it should be published shortly.

Every evening this week, expect a short update on progress. I won’t go so far as to take pictures of the, er, bathroom end of things, but I’ll absolutely be reporting on everything I feel. Five days isn’t really enough to get more than the briefest of introductions to any new kind of eating regime, but I will strive toward being informative and entertaining. At the end, I’ll have a feature-length write-up of what I went through and how it made me feel. I’ll also be sitting down with Rhinehart to talk about the road ahead for Soylent.

Yep, it’s being copyedited right now. I ended up hanging back one day so that I could include an interview with Rob Rhinehart (soylent founder guy)—he didn’t have any availability yesterday, so we did it today.

Piece should be going live in the next 20-30 minutes.

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Hither, for the lazy.

Ahh, you beat me to it. :smile:

I really like articles on Yon better usually.

Something about this whole experience has been niggling at the back of my skull for a few weeks, and I finally figured out what it was. It’s been mentioned on the other boards and various other places, but my children both have eating… things.

Siglet Secundus turns three next week. He never progressed past a bottle. He won’t consume anything that he can’t get drink, preferably through a bottle or sippy cup. He’s had all sorts of testing and even occupational therapy for kids with eating disorders (I was disappointed to discover it wouldn’t end with him getting some sort of job), and near as the medical people can figure, he’s just a stubborn jerk. He would literally prefer to eat nothing indefinitely than to put solid food anywhere near his mouth. (I was an infamously picky eater as a child, though not that picky. My parents think the whole thing is hilarious.)

Part of me is just amazed and impressed that he is so insanely strong-willed about it. The rest of me is worried about a) what happens if we can’t get formula for some reason and (more pressingly) b) what happens when he just can’t get enough nutrition this way. (Both kids are within the “normal” curves for age/size/weight/etc.)

Siglet Primus didn’t get much farther. He has been living exclusively on oatmeal for over three years now. He turns six in February. We can put things in the oatmeal (creamy peanut butter, flax meal, vitamin supplements) so long as we don’t significantly alter the consistency nor texture.

They will both drink apple juice; this is their preferred beverage (watered down). Both like hard candy (e.g. suckers), but nothing that has to be chewed. Primus loves (sugarless) gum.

I wonder if we could talk (by which, of course, I mean trick) either of them into adding soylent to the mix. It’s not like infant formula tastes good (or like much of anything); I’m amazed that either of them can stomach the same meal day in, day out, for literally years. I’m waiting for them to come down with some obscure nutritive deficiency.

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