Latest Post: The Shipwreck Diet Ended
It’s done! Here’s what I’ve got left:
- 2 cups of rice
- 2 cups of chickpeas
- 1 egg
- 1/2 pound tofu
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 cups butter
- 1/2 pound green chile
- 10 bowls worth of soup
Oversaving
I shoud have eaten more. I conserved food at the start because I was thinking that I really wanted to be sure food lasted until the end. I conserved food at the end because, holy shit, I lost five pounds in two weeks.
I ended the diet at 189 pounds, 11 pounds less than I started.
And that’s too damn much weight in a month. My mood was bad. I was feeling kinda crappy. I had 9,000 calories left at the end. That puts me at about 1450 calories a day. I bike most days around ten miles. Three times a week, I go up and down 24 flights of stairs when I go to work. I take frequent walks.
I read that if you’re inactive, the floor should be 1200 calories. If you’re 190 centimeters tall and don’t drive, I think the floor is 1600 calories. I could have had another bowl of soup a day for the last week, had some more beans and dirty rice, and I’d have been a pound heavier and felt worlds better.
How the ingredients went
Mayonnaisse
I had exactly the right amount. Three days before the end, I used the last of it to make some egg salad. Before that, I used it for salad dressing. I was surprised at how little difference it made when I skimped.
Cream
It goes in potato leek soup. I mix it with blueberries and sugar. I put it in omelets. I could have definitely used more. I was really surprised at how 25% of the cream was about 75% as good in these dishes.
Fruits and Vegetables
All were just about the right quantities. I ate them relentlessly the first week and a half, and any more, they would have spoiled. I really wished I had more lettuce for salads. Salads would have been a better use for the mushrooms (which I finished off with a pretty bad stir fry) and tomatoes (which I finished off eating straight toward the end of the second week).
Potatoes, Onions and Garlic
I had the right quantity, and these were the backbone of my diet. These were the soups. These made up most of the deluxe hash brows that I had five times in the first three weeks.
Chedder Cheese
I love cheese. In a way, this is the thing I most worried about running out of. My hash browns put a huge dent in the first couple days. But the second and third week, I barely touched the cheese. I was terrified of having none less. I kept a couple ounces, which I dubbed my “emotional support cheese”. The last day, I had dinner really late, and was not feeling good. I ate the emotional support cheese while I made my final meal of tofu and rice.
Butter and Sugar
I had way more than I can have in a month. My original plan was for a weight-maintaining 2400 calories a day, and it included flour, three types of sugar and other things for baking. I wanted to lose weight, so I cut everything but sugar. Except for occaisional fruit, I had nothing to eat it with. So I would have liked to cut sugar and get more cream instead.
And I was so afraid of running out of butter. There’s no oil in this diet, so I cooked everything with butter. It went in my rice. It was on my omelets, melted into my hashbrowns. But that still just used a little over half my butter. I could have managed with 2 1/2 cups.
Green Chile
I have about half a pound out of two. I should have used it less sparingly. Some more green chile rice would have been nice this last week.
Eggs
24 was about right for the last two weeks. I’ll try to be a little more conservative with these because they’re getting expensive.
Rice and Chickpeas
I should have added some canned or frozen vegetables to help season these up for the last weeks. I really wanted to figure out how to make rice balls. Having those on hand as a snack would have been nice.
Wasabi Peas, Blueberries and Olives
Speaking of snacks, these were good to have on hand.
Conclusion
It was a cool experiment. I had a lot of practice planning meals. I’m convinced I could eat on a tiny budget if I need to. I got a reminder to take better care of myself in terms of eating enough. (I gained 35 pounds in a year and a half, so I’ve gotten reminders about eating too much.) I got a good illustration of my overconservative resource strategies.
I’m going out for some Italian tapas later, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Latest Work: Daring Exploits
A comedic adventure about a woman who beats an unbeatable video game and gets recruited by an alien race to fight in a war. The only problem is that she won by finding exploits in the game. The people she’s fighting for realize that they needed a cunning opportunist more than they needed an ace fighter pilot. I am particularly proud of the narration.
