Wednesday 9 July 2014

What I've done so far and road-map.

So Far

My first step was learning a lot about Soylent, the DIY approaches and food in general. At the same time I chose to customize the quite popular "People Chow v3.0.1" for what is locally available to me - I am almost done with that and the post about my recipe is already drafted as well. Finding an appropriate oil is more difficult than I expected though. And I am still waiting on my local masa supplier to get back to me with nutrient facts. 
There were quite a few ingredients I decided would be easier to just order online than to search for locally. Namely this is the Whey Protein, the Mega Man Sport Powder, the Cal-Mag Citrate, the Potassium Citrate and the Choline Bitartrate. Since I already was on Amazon I also treated myself with a new scale and two Blender-Bottles. Sadly most of these things can't be directly shipped to Europe (or Switzerland, where I live, specifically). Shipitto is the name of the service I use to have the packets consolidated and reshipped to me. These packages are on their way to me as I am writing this.
To be better prepared for this experiment I paid a visit to my doctor  - as you probably expected he wasn't enthralled by what I am planning on doing. But he also doesn't think that I am putting myself into serious danger with this experiment. As by me request he did a very basic blood analysis before I left. It didn't tell me much, but according to him everything was fine. At the end of this experiment he'll re-do the analysis and we can compare the results. But keep in mind that this was a very simple blood test, meaning it won't tell us if my People Chow it good enough to provide me with nutrients on a daily basis. But it will tell us if there is something seriously and dangerously wrong with living on it for 90 days. I'll post the analysis in a future post that focuses on how and what data I'll record and compare. It is already drafted ;).

Road-Map

There are still some things left I'll have to get done before I can start my experiment. Here's a list of them, each with a estimate on how long the task will take me:
  • Buy salt. Since I already decided on which local brand this can easily be accomplished by the end of the week. I'll need 360g over the 90 day period.
  • Buy ziploc bags to mix and store my dry People Chow in. I'll do that in the same grocery run that I am planning on to get the salt. Just a few appropriately large ones should do it.
  • Buy vinegar, according to this post the bottles can start to smell pretty bad and soaking in vinegar is supposed to help. Again, this can be combined with the previously mentioned grocery run. 
  • Find or craft measuring containers - so I don't have to weigh everything every time I mix. This will have to wait until all ingredients arrive but shouldn't take long. And I am still not sure how and in what amounts I'll pre-mix the People Chow, so we'll see if I even need these measuring containers. Probably at least one for the oil would be useful.
  • Clean my kitchen from most of my ordinary food. This will have to wait until the day before I start my experiment, but I am already working on using up all my reserves. 
  • Plan in more detail what data I'll record and compare and what other things I should regularly do during the experiment. That topic will be covered in a future post I'll have to write as well. It will be online this or next week.
  • Find and buy an appropriate calorie source. Currently I am looking at a local "mexican" grocery store that could provide me with masa harina from this company. But I couldn't find any nutrition facts and am now waiting on the guy who runs the store to get back to me with them. If he can't find any either or the masa is not enriched I'll have to look into oats and alternatives to get enough B-vitamins and iron. So, this is either going to get easily finished up this week or it will require more investigation from my side and will probably get resolved next week.
  • Find and buy an appropriate oil. The one that was listed with People Chow has a long list of features: low saturated fats, cholesterol free, with Omega 3 and 6 fats, contains Vitamin E and it even is non-GMO. I haven't looked into these requirements in detail, so it might be easier than I expect to find something appropriate, but  I honestly suspect that this isn't going to get resolved until next week.
  • Write a post detailing my recipe after I cleared everything up concerning it's ingredients. If everything goes as planned this post should go online the weekend after the next one.
  • Receive the ingredients I ordered online. This is probably going to take the longest, since everything has to first get to my "re-shipper" and then internationally ship to me. When calculating generously I'd estimate all of that to be over early in the week after the next one.
  • Increase the fiber in my current diet to prepare my digestion for the switch. I hope to reduce the flatulence many with not enough fiber in their previous diet are experiencing when switching. Already started doing that though, so this is presumable and hopefully not going to be a big issue. 
  • I think I am going to make another post where I describe what problems might come up, like the mentioned flatulence, and how I plan on dealing with them. Or maybe I'll put this information in the recipe post... We'll see.
  • Buy additional water filter's so I don't run out. I am glad there is something easy to do here as well...
Overall I believe I can start the experiment a little earlier than planned, probably on the 26th of july. Maybe a few days later, I'll keep you updated...

1 comment:

  1. feel free to suggest other things I should prepare or ask questions about what I've done so far :)

    ReplyDelete