Pancakes

Successful week of the Soylent test. Energy levels, mood, food cravings, ease of making the whole concoction and flavor were better than one would expect. More than a week would be needed to see a real physical effect that could be more accurately measured but this will do as a first run.

Energy levels were up throughout the day with no typical crash 30 mins after a meal. The overall energy was also not too high like over caffeinating oneself on a triple espresso. Reading was easier and focus seemed to be clear with little that distracted me. While trying to learn something like programming I think it really helped, however this may have been attributed to the ease of starting something new and as it ramps up becomes easier to lose motivation.

Food cravings were fairly low considering that I was only drinking my meals. I did how ever need to break the smoothie up into 5 parts as to curb the hunger throughout the day and give myself a "snack" between the 3 main meals. Chewing was missed overall but I expected this and had gum ready. The gum served as a decent substitution most times however a pack or more of gum was needed every day or so to keep that need at bay. Probably too much gum, I was looking for crunch and varied textures and the smoothie fell short here. Towards the end of the week I was having plain popcorn as the chewing substitution and that worked perfectly.

The overall ease of assembling and mixing the Soylent DIY ingredients was more difficult than what would typically be experienced by most people as I am making it in a van with little to no counter space, the top of a bin to be precise. In a kitchen it would be a snap to have several jars of the ingredients and add scoops to the blender without having to worry about the mess of the nutrient powders so much. It would be much easier to make the month in a big batch and bag each day or even each meal up separately, like a grab and go just add water system like the actual Soylent. Also mixing the powders in a blender would have been ideal but given my current setup, no power for a blender, a shaker cup was used. This had some advantages in the fact that it was the right size to carry around throughout the day and only held 1/5 of the total days mix making it easier to measure your portions. The disadvantages are that it doesn't get as smooth as you might like. One or two of these shaker cup blended Soylent DIY’s is about as much as you can comfortably tolerate texture-wise if you're not a daily protein shake drinker via shaker cup. Use a blender! Also drink as cold as you can. 

“All exciting at first but by the end you're sick of them.” - Mitch Hedberg. This was the feeling you get after a day of this mix. It really tastes like pancakes, I also added a touch of raw agave syrup and vanilla extract to enhance the flavor as well. It was great in the morning with a coffee to wash down the “batter” but as it got closer to dinner something savory was wanted and pancakes were not cutting it. I kind of had to force the last two smoothies down by just chugging them with an air of discontent but it wasn't as bad as being forced to eat ‘insert your least liked food’ here’ . It was tolerable just not thoroughly enjoyed. Again if it was cold and you had a coffee it made it palatable all day. By the end of the week I was adding my coffee to the mix in place of some of the water portion and it made the whole experience just different enough to make it the whole week. 

Overall it is something that can be done easily with the right kitchen setup. The amount of flavors are lacking and would need to be developed before this would be more wide accepted and implemented. A savory version served warm and perhaps a spicy version as well. Im all for pancakes but Mitch was right, by the end of the stack, or in this case smoothie, you're sick of them.

Up Next

• Round 2 of Soylent DIY

• Nutritional add-ons information

• Cognitive support add-ons information