Today was Day 24 for my test of Mountain House food packets as emergency food, The Thirty Day SHTF Test Diet. Lots of preppers recommend storing food for a disaster; this series tests it out. As detailed earlier, this diet has turned into a weight-loss diet too.
Six more days to go, and my newly-acquired two-shift sleeping habit is still in place. The growlings of my stomach are beginning to bite again, but there have been no signs of anything serious like faintness or dizziness. Yet again, I had to frontload a breakfast in the middle of the night to get to sleep. For all intents and purposes I've still trudging along the plateau.
Today's Meals
In the wee hours, I made and ate the Granola with Milk and Blueberries:
A half cup of cold water plus vigorous stirrings, and:
I complained once about the reconstituted berries being a bit crunchy. This time, I waited a bit after stirring. The berries were softer than usual. Evidently, I should wait a few minutes to let the mixture sit before eating rather than dive right in.
The dinner was the notorious Lasagna with Meat Sauce:
the only dinner that requires a good washing of the spoon with soap and water afterwards. That's because the reconstituted mozzarella adheres to the spoon.
As with all the dinners, it took two cups of boiling water, a few stirrings and less than ten minutes' wait time before it was ready to go:
That orange film on the spoon is the mozzarella that stuck to it, mixed with some tomato sauce.
As per usual for this variety, it tasted quite good: just like frozen lasagna baked.
One of the oddities of lasagna is that it's a good-tasting dish that's relatively low in calories. This shows in the two meals' Nutrition Facts boxes:
The granola breakfast is on the left, and the lasagna dinner is on the right. The values for the latter are per half-pouch, so they have to be doubled for the entire thing. Even with that doubling, the lasagna comes in at 620 calories: only 100 more than the 520 for the granola. Also worth noting is the fact that both of them are comparatively low in sodium. If you can stand the monotony, the granola and the lasagna are the closest combo to a low-sodium diet.
As I noted above, it's pretty much the same when facing the scale:
The plateauing continues. Since I'm past the three-week point in this diet, the extended stretch could be a sign that my body has adapted by using fewer calories.
Effects, So Far:
My health remains the same, same as my weight for the past week or so. There are times when I do feel pangs, mostly in late afternoon or early evening, but my energy is at a median-level baseline. Not energetic, but not sluggish. Given that the extended plateauing has correlated with me sleeping two shifts per night, with an extended night-owl wake period in between, this dual-shift could be a means of conserving calories.
Consistent with the entire stretch of the diet, I've had no attacks or signs of ill health. No signs of vitamin deficiency, either.
(Speaking of deficiency: the lasagna is not only unusually low in calories and sodium, but is also unusually high in vitamin C. If you can stand monotony in meals, the lasagna's the one to load up on. Even if it means washing your spoon.)
Conclusion
The trundling along the plateau, with effectively no weight loss, continued today; it's lasted about a week. Unless I see otherwise, it's because my body has become used to the low-calorie regimen and is using calories more efficiently. The food kept testing out well. Aside from my dual-shift nightly quirk, I'm proceeding along normally. Normally for the new normal.
Thanks for reading.
And feel free to comment below!
Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30
Every time I see these posts of yours, I am filled with such gratitude for the fresh food I have LOL makes me want to go get carrots in the garden, and just hold them :D
Wow @nxtblg ! Only 6 more days to go !!! thats awesome , your in the last stretch now And doing great keep it up !😀👍👍👍
Thanks a lot. :)
(It only seems like forever...)
Wow you are almost through it just hang in there soon it will be done. I think you might be right about your body adapting to the diet.🤔😁👍👏👏👏👏Hang in there and steem on.
Sure will! Thanks.
only one week to go, perhaps a biathlon component would be best to recreate the challenges of the apocalypse.
Or living in the woods without electricity....
Good effort man, i will now follow your progress, i have some interesting questions for you at day 30..
Thanks.
best post for healthy.next post soon dear friend
Just a week to go.
Hey @nxtblg - thanks for all the support you've been giving me :) Are you in the @preppersonline discord group ? They've been chatting a lot about checking their preps lately - i said dont let them get old - eat them - which is exactly what you're doing :) love it
No, I haven't been in the Discord group; I haven't even signed up for Discord. :)
In re Check your Preps, I've been taking advantage of off-inventory sales to bulk up my larder, which is full of "regular" (basic level) prep food. The interesting thing about this approach, "government cheese" though it is, is that it offers protection against a "personal SHTF" like temporarily going broke.
I eat through this food - have done so for years - but I have had some stores that have been around for more than a year. That's given be a basic feel for what last long and what doesn't
That's how I see starting to grow crops of food this summer - food security .. we're looking forward to your sunday analysis, if you sign up for discord be sure to join the group :)