So it was my 31st birthday yesterday, celebrated with little fanfare. I resolved in my vomit-induced haze on my last birthday from eating wings coated with Naga Viper Pepper (1.3 million on the Scoville scale), that I would be better in mind and body in my thirties than I ever was in my twenties.

… and with that in mind, cutting out bad food is on the agenda.

My friends know that I love food, but few of them know I eat mainly for convenience rather than for pleasure. So when Soylent was unleashed upon the world, I knew I had to try it. If you haven’t heard of Soylent, the video below serves as a good introduction to this open source food substitute.

Turns out Soylent isn’t shipping internationally at the moment, so when I heard about the Dutch alternative, Joylent which ships to London, I bought a ten day supply straight away for €65 including shipping.

Disclaimer

Firstly, I should say this is very much a form of qualitative recording, I’ll leave the nutrition science to others and simply comment on how it affects me on a personal level.

Unboxing

Admittedly the contents of the box look suspicious to say the least. Ten unmarked ziplock bags of a beige powder, a shake bottle, ten smaller sachets of oil and some instructions.

The drink itself takes about 30 seconds to pour the required ingredients into the shaker, add the water and shake until smooth. That’s it.

Breakfast: 10am

Day 1 Weight: 206.1 Pounds. Note: I splurged yesterday on junk, it was my birthday after all. The previous morning’s weigh in clocked 203 pounds.

Wakeup time: 08:30am

This is my first time drinking Joylent, and the smell and flavour remind me of drinking blended oatmeal. I read that Joylent contains banana flavouring which can be detected, but the texture and flavour is very much oaty and not unpleasant at all.

Current Soylent early adopters recommend letting the mixture sit in the fridge overnight to help with the grittiness, but I rather liked it ‘straight out the shake’. At lunch I will make up the dinner’s portion and put it in the fridge for several hours to find out.

As expected, there is a feeling of satiety after drinking a meal’s worth of Joylent, but I suspect it will take a little while before the reported sense of alertness kicks in.

Lunch: 3:20pm

Joylent bags come in a day’s supply, rather than a meal’s worth and the supplied shaker is enough for a meal which means you have to eyeball roughly a third each time. I may have done too little as I found myself having to do some topping up for the lunchtime portion and as much as I could for dinner as I could.

So far, the novelty of how quick it is to prepare is not lost on me, though I anticipate the flavour of Joylent itself becoming an issue if you were to go on a full 100% meal replacement for a long period of time. From the early adopter reports I’ve seen so far, most people tend to have one or two Soylent meals rather than go the full way.

I’ve also prepared tonight’s portion early so I can see what it tastes like after several hours in the fridge. Once again after draining the cup I feel full, as if I’ve had a pint along with with my meal.