So it’s almost here. The end of our first full month with Soylent. Hard to believe frankly, as Soylent became such an instant, easy part of our lives that it’s like we’ve had it forever. I plan to do a more in-depth video when the 1-month mark officially arrives in a few more days, but until then I though I’d share a few observations here in advance.
One thing that has been very noticeable because we have not gone 100% Soylent, is the difference in how my body reacts to conventional food. Actually I should rephrase that. It’s not that my body reacts in any way differently than it ever did. The difference is that I now have an alternative point of view to compare against. When I eat conventional food (especially going out to eat, but even if I eat a large portion at home), I can feel my body working on it. Most of us are probably familiar with this… it’s the “post lunch nap” feeling. You feel tired, lethargic, sleepy, maybe a little bloated, and sometimes like there’s a lump of something heavy sitting in your stomach. It’s not painful or anything, it’s just… there. I’ve always accepted this as just a normal “fact of life”, but I now know better.
When I have a “Soylent meal”, my body just continues to fire on all cylinders. There is absolutely no sensation of “working” on anything. My energy stays consistent, my head clear, my mood positive. I get no urge to take a nap, no brain-fog to interfere with my decision making or problem solving abilities. The difference is so stark that now I can’t imagine ever not having known of it. But of course how could I have known there was anything else, after a lifetime of eating conventionally?
Soylent has removed a great number of decisions from our lives. We haven’t done a real full-blown grocery run in a month already. In fact just last night we went to a grocery store so that a visiting friend could pick up a few things. Shannon walked around somewhat marveling at all the stuff on the shelves, and commented “I haven’t been in a grocery store in so long…” The place seemed almost alien somehow.
We no longer have to risk going to the store when we’re overly hungry, and buying everything that looks good. We don’t have to contend with lines or crowds, don’t have to concern ourselves with coupons or price comparisons. We don’t have to settle for an alternative brand of something if our preferred is out of stock, and don’t have to spend hours driving around from store to store in order to get all the things we need.
Soylent is proving to be just about all we need in a single convenient, quick, affordable, and tasty package. It’s better for us than anything we could buy in any store, creates less stress on our bodies to extract the nutrition they need, and satisfies far more quickly than conventional food ever could. I don’t know that we would ever go 100% Soylent, mainly because the novelty of occasionally eating out is quite fun. But there is absolutely no question whatsoever that doing 80% to 90% Soylent is a breeze, and we look forward to a long lifetime of better health, better moods, and a better life through Soylent.
What a time to be a human!
What do you think about people making their own Soylent? I am currently living in the UK – I don’t think it is being exported globally currently. So I was just wondering what you thought about DIYing it. Thanks.
I think it’s awesome that people can do that. It’s not for me though… I don’t have the tolerance for screwing things up, and from what I’ve read nobody has managed to come anywhere near the fine-grained smoothness of official Soylent. But for those who are more adventurous and patient than myself… I say go for it! DIY is one of the great things about soylent and I take it as a great sign that no matter what the future holds, this concept is here to stay!
Sounds like a great survival food.
Light enough to carry a large supply compared to other foods.
Easy to make as all you need is a water filter (lifestraw) and a container to mix it in.
Seems reasonably healthy if what they say is true about it.
And as for the taste, it seems like you could add a little something to “augment” the flavor.
My question is, well, fiber related.
If there is no solid food, is there no solid bowel movement?
Yeah I think Soylent could be perfect for the survivalist types! My concern would be refrigeration, since it can spoil pretty quickly (about a day) if not refrigerated after mixing. As for bowel movements, Soylent is loaded with fiber since it’s meant to be optimal nutrition. Our bowel movements have been utterly normal… possibly even slightly easier than normal. Frequency might have dropped slightly but if so, not much. We actually talked about this a bit in the Q&A video we just posted as well. Thanks for the comment!
How can I get this SOYLENT and how much is it???????
You can see pricing info and place an order on the Soylent website at http://www.soylent.me.
Hi Jonathan,
I’ve been trying to get onto the Soylent website but all I get is a black page with white rectangle with soylent in the middle of it. Is their website down or am I missing something?
Thanks & Keep the good info coming,
Ron
Sounds like a browser compatibility issue… I’ve read about several especially with people using certain security extensions, or that are blocking flash. If you use something called “https anywhere”, a number of people reported issues. Maybe try another browser if you can just to compare, and make sure you have flash enabled and working properly. The screen you describe sounds like their loader screen, which normally goes away after a couple seconds. Hope this helps!
This is so fucking creepy…you sound like you’ve been brainwashed into thinking that life is about efficiency and about exerting minimal effort… okay so you’ve cut out the time that it takes to prepare meals and eat.. what do you do with that time? work more? spend more time on the internet? I doubt it’s anything productive. Even if it is…fuck that. We need the time we get to cook our food, the time we get to eat our food, time to socialize over food; time to enjoy our food. Soylent is basically the hyper condensed equivalent of eating out every day for every meal, where the consumer exerts no effort in producing life sustaining nourishment. This to me is beginning to sound like soylent advocates are a bunch of whiny nerds who don’t want to cook for themselves. Well I hope you enjoy your soylent and the efficiency it brings you. I’ll be grilling some mahi tacos and drinking beer. P.S. This is seriously some creepy dystopian future shit where we’ll all be sucking on food bags throughout the day as we lurch over our computers… no more lunch breaks! Who needs em? No more family dinners! more time to work! Forget Holiday dinners! Soylent’s got you covered! What’s next? super powered U.V. lamps in every office building and every home so you never need to be outdoors again? Jesus Jonathan! Why don’t you learn how to cook well and healthy… not depend on some powdered food you helpless little twat!
Wow… someone has so many issues they’ve got a subscription! Still, I find this pretty damn amusing so I’m gonna reply anyway.
Good! Too bad it wasn’t creepy enough for you to silently crawl back into your hole…
Wow then you have a very odd interpretation of those things. Life is about many things, and efficiency is merely one of them. By being more efficient, we are able to get more out of life. I suppose you still walk everywhere, use a smoke signal to communicate over distances, and prefer all your worldly goods are manufactured by hand one at a time rather than utilizing any assembly line processes, right?
ROFL! You don’t know the first thing about me yet you claim to be able to accurately anticipate what I do with my time? You’re hilariously clueless. Since you probably don’t value the same things I do, more than likely what I do with my extra free time won’t sound productive to you. But to me, playing with my kids, spending time with my partner, and creating more music all certainly qualify as worthwhile endeavors that I now have additional time to pursue. And yes, I also work more. Know why? Because I enjoy what I do for work. But, if you’ve never worked for yourself, owned your own company, or turned your hobbies into what earn you a living, I wouldn’t expect you to understand.
Yep, now there’s an articulate way to engage in discourse with your fellow human. “I disapprove of your life choices unless you can justify them to me. But even if you can, you’re still wrong!” Way to go, you neanderthal.
Sometimes, perhaps. But unless you are an outright liar (which I wouldn’t be surprised at), every single meal you partake of is not a wonderful, deep, meaningful social exchange. When I feel like socializing over food, I do so. As far as “needing time cooking food”, no actually I don’t. I can put that time to FAR better use than standing around in the kitchen waiting for things to happen, or cleaning up after, or washing dishes, etc. I can’t help it if you have no other hobbies or life that you would prefer to be doing. I can’t help it if you are in a miserable relationship and don’t like spending time with your partner. I can’t help it if your kids can’t stand you and don’t want to spend time with you. I can’t help it if you use your free time to come to someone else’s website that is sharing their personal views on their own life, and write ranting diatribes from your utterly moronic and illogical point of view.
Wow, and if that’s what you truly believe then you clearly don’t know the first thing about Soylent, what it is, why it is, or what it’s doing for people. You might want to do a slight bit of research on the topics you write about before you start foaming at the mouth like this in the future. But I suppose you don’t have the time to do that since you’re so busy cooking.
Well as a matter of fact, I don’t want to cook for myself. Know why? ‘Cause I don’t enjoy it, dumbass. Do you build your own websites from scratch? Do you compile your own applications from source? Do you own your own business and earn only what you can generate for yourself? Do you consume Soylent? No? Well why not? I’m gonna bet because you wouldn’t enjoy any of those things. Welcome to the free world!
Thank you, I certainly do! Though that had turned out to be one of the more minor benefits!
Goody for you. To me, those both sound absolutely disgusting. But enjoy your buzz, I’m certainly not going to berate you for your food choices. I leave that to thugs like you.
Yeah, just like the computer meant that everyone would be chained to a desk and working 24/7, or the synthesizer meant that there would be no more musicians, or Photoshop meant there would be no more artists wielding paintbrushes and oil. If you actually believe that… well then you’re actually as crazy and idiotic as you sound.
We have family dinners any time we wish. What on earth has that got to do with Soylent? More time for work? You betcha! As already stated, I love my work, I do it from the comfort of my home surrounded by all the creatures and things that I hold most dear, so why the heck not? As for holidays… well for the most part I couldn’t care less since pretty much every day of my life is already better than anyone else’s holiday.
Yeah ’cause you know, light is the only possible reason to want to go outdoors. *facepalm*
I have two words for you. Fuckoffyoustupidwasteofsperm Gopeddleyouridiocyelsewhereandstopwastingmytime.
And for whatever it’s worth, I would be perfectly capable of cooking anything I damn well pleased. But I don’t damn well please. I grew up with a professional cook, caterer, and cookbook author for a mother. Do you really think I don’t know anything about cooking or food? You dumb piece of shit, don’t even bother to find out about the person you’re attacking before spewing your venom. I merely don’t enjoy cooking and food prep. Nobody ever said anything about not knowing anything about it. I know a ton about how to wire up every aspect of an audio/video post production facility as well… you don’t see me doing it regularly because I don’t enjoy it.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.