Friday 22nd August 2014: 11.32am. Link shared: http://www.exantediet.com
Just ordered a second pack of diet food from http://www.exantediet.com/ after being on the first pack for two months. I am not probably the first person anyone thinks of as likely to live off of shakes and soups, in fact I originally started out looking for Soylent (http://www.soylent.me/) the meal replacement drink in Europe. As that stuff hasn't cleared European regulators, I looked for a nearest equivalent - 100% RDA vitamins and minerals, ability to be total food replacement, mostly fibre, protein and fat based to ward off hunger and prevent constipation common with diet products - and that turns out to be Exante Diet in the UK who will mail order you a month's supply for about €130 to Ireland.
Now, given I consumed a month's supply in two months, I'm obviously not living off the stuff - I still get takeaways once a week, and a proper meal each night. And hence my weight has barely shifted - I lost quite a bit the first week, since then it's been flat, though probably the weight training has been working against me. The difference in terms of energy levels, stamina and even how many hours I need to sleep to not feel tired is remarkable though, and for that alone I reordered a second round.
There are other side benefits too. Lunch and breakfast preparation are now almost zero time, so for my hour lunch break I get noticeably more time to play with Clara. The food is bland yes, and it all tastes sorta samey despite the flavourings, and it is by definition basically a chemical mix and is as unnatural as is possible. However it is all much more palatable than Soylent is reputed to be - and the advantage of the low calories is that you are usually very hungry, and that makes even the most foul of the product (I especially hate the red berry bar) edible.
Of the products - soups, shakes and bars, I quite like them all but the double chocolate bar (rank) and the red berry bar (truly especially awful, interestingly everyone on the website reviews also says so). The rest I almost look forward to, especially the shakes which are the least fake of the food replacements. The soups will remind you hugely of a superior cup-a-soup, that I assume is due to it having 33% of your RDA vitamins. The puffy cereal bars are also not bad despite the amount of artificial sweeteners, the fudge ones are not good however.
Anyway in about two weeks I'll be going for a kidney filtration test as there were signs ten weeks ago that my kidneys are leaking protein - this health drive is partly aimed at the RSI, and partly at preparing myself for that kidney test. And besides, I need to lose the weight I accumulated in North America, though admittedly there has been no progress on that yet, but maybe give it a few more weeks.