Soylent Meal replacement test day three: Emotional eating

World Today

I am on my third day of eating nothing but the meal replacement drink Soylent.

Well, almost nothing. I cheated on day two and had a Diet Coke after work. I wasn’t hungry exactly; I just wanted to taste something besides Soylent… anything but Soylent.

READ MORE ABOUT JIM SPELLMAN’S SOYLENT EXPERIMENT

I’m starting to realize what a big role food plays in our daily lives. What to eat, when to eat, and where to eat. These thoughts are almost always rattling around in our heads. Obviously, we usually look forward to eating and I have missed not having a meal to look forward to after work.

But it may not be that simple. I realize that I lean on food some times. I’ve had a busy day working in the field and generally running around. Soylent has kept me full but I really want to eat to feel better. The phrase some people use is “emotional eating,” and that seems fitting.

Eating to celebrate, eating to socialize, eating to relieve stress and eating out of boredom. These are all probably bad reasons to eat and can lead to making poor diet choices. My temptation today was this box of tiny donuts.

day3 soy

Registered dietician Hope Warshaw said that Soylent may address these issues by teaching us to think of food simply as fuel for our bodies.

“Certainly food is fuel and certainly many of us would do better, maybe be healthier if we thought more about food being simply fuel for us and I think at a very basic level that’s what Soylent is,” Warshaw said.

But I’m starting to doubt if I can sustain the Soylent-only diet for the rest of the week. Warshaw says this isn’t unusual.

“To eat the same thing and the same taste, and lack thereof, day after day after day is simply boring and the vast majority of people won’t do it,” Warshaw said.

On another note I tucked a bottle of Soylent into my bag on the way to work and it made a big mess. I ruined an umbrella and a couple note pads and my iPad and other items got coated in pasty Soylent. I can’t blame Soylent for this, but it does take some getting used to be sure you have some Soylent with you, especially if you aren’t in one place all day.

Email me at Jim.Spellman@cgtnamerica.com if you have any questions or comments.