Day One Update

Introduction

For those who don't know, Soylent is a meal replacement product. It was successfully funded via Kickstarter a while back and I was a backer. Basically, it's a whole meal replacement meant to give you 100% of the FDA recommended daily nutritional requirements. The goal of the creators of the product is to eventually bring food to the masses cheaply and in the same way that you get water to your home. It's an ambitious goal, but for it to work, it has to be something that becomes very affordable and provide everything the majority of people need and can function on on a daily basis. I'm not sure it's there yet, but it's something that's very interesting to me.

Personally, I don't like to eat. I think it's a hassle. If I didn't need to do it to survive, I wouldn't. It's not that I don't eat, but I don't look forward to it (except on rare occasions when I get some kind of craving or am going out with friends). I don't like shopping for food, taking time out of my day to prepare it, the cleanup afterwards, and all of the money spend each month on food. As such, I don't really have the healthiest of diets. I eat out a lot because it means I don't have to go through dealing with planning out and cooking a meal. Soylent supposedly solves a lot of these issues so I've been anxious to put it to the test. It's still kind of costly right now because it's a brand new product, but demand is high and they're struggling to keep up with demand. So there are a lot of people this kind of product appeals to.

Preparation

Prep is easy for Soylent. As you can see in the picture above, Soylent includes a pouch of powder and a vial of an oil blend (for all your fats and such). Each pouch plus one vial is a day's worth of food (roughly 2000 calories). Preparation involves emptying one pouch into a large enough container (the one above is a part of a starter kit Soylent ships to you with your first order for free) and adding water. Then you shake it before adding the oil and more water to fill to the top and shake again. 

Once that's done, you can either add ice and drink right away, or put it in the fridge for 2-3 hours before consuming. I chose to make it when I woke up this morning and stuck it in the fridge for a few hours. My last piece of regular food today was a donut from Dunkin Donuts I got with a coffee earlier in the day. After a few hours, I was ready to try it out.

Day One Impressions

The picture above shows what the finished, blended drink looks like. I took it out and poured myself a glass. I've since bought an airtight bottle for bringing to work tomorrow. For now, I poured about 8 ounces to start. Make sure you shake well every time you go to pour a glass. 

Initially, I was planning on looking for different things to mix with the Soylent to give it a better taste, but I wanted to try it untouched first. The informational pamphlet that comes with your order gives directions to mix it with chocolate, berries, peanut butter, etc. But honestly, it tastes pretty good. I don't think I'll be doing that unless I get sick of the taste later down the line. It smells kind of malty. It's a pleasant smell with maybe a hint of vanilla. As for taste, I enjoyed it. It's hard to describe, but it's definitely not unpleasant. I actually heard someone today describe it as tasting like Cheerios. I actually mostly agree with that assessment. It is a bit chalky, but it didn't bother me. And I'm sure mixing it better and/or using a blender would solve that if it does happen to bother you.

Now, going from a variety of different solid foods to a Soylent-only diet will likely take some getting used to. But I don't really think taste will be a barrier to entry for most people. I will admit, there were a couple of times today where I craved some solid food. I wasn't hungry per se, but it was an odd feeling knowing that I was full but not having actually eaten or chewed any food. I'm going to keep this in mind going forward and see if the urge subsides over time. But by the end of the day, I had drank all but about 18 ounces of it and wasn't craving any solid food anymore.

Side Effects

It's only day one, so it's too early to say if there will be any issues going forward. But today, I did notice I was a little gassy. I assume it's just my body adjusting to the new diet. I haven't felt tired or hungry after consuming the Soylent, though. I'll have to see how tomorrow goes when I bring it to work. Since Soylent contains a lot of water, you will find yourself going to the bathroom a lot more often (at least, I did). In addition, Soylent (the company) recommends you drink a lot of water in addition to the Soylent since it only provides 1.6L of water. The recommended daily water consumption is 2.7L. So you'll need to drink at least a liter of water throughout the day to stay hydrated (though, this water intake can be done via any source, really). 

Conclusion

So that's it for my first update. It's too early to say whether or not it's effective, but it's been nice today not to have to worry about cooking or going out to eat. Assuming there are no problems later on, I could see this being very viable for my lifestyle. For the purposes of this trial run, I'm not going to be consuming anything besides Soylent, maybe some coffee, and gum (need to make sure my jaw gets a workout since I won't be chewing). However, if I stay on the Soylent diet after this trial run, I could see myself still eating out or cooking a meal a couple times per week for the social aspect of seeing friends and/or if I get a random craving for specific foods.

Anyway, that's it for today. I should have another update tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how things go bringing Soylent to work with me.