The Thirty Day SHTF Test Diet: Day 5steemCreated with Sketch.

in #prepping7 years ago (edited)

Today was Day 5 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.

Day 5 saw something of a rebound, suggesting that yesterday's letdown was not a post-jag adrenaline crash. I was really tired in mid-afternoon, but not more than my pre-diet norm. As per standard, the food was good. No dizziness, fainting or other symptoms and no sign of any vitamin deficiency.

Today's Meals

Similar to Day 3, a packet of granola with milk and blueberries.

This meal takes 1/2 cup of cold water. Despite it looking a little messy

it tasted like it should.

Dinner was rice and chicken:

The wait time after adding the boiled water is not just to cool it down. Right after I added the water, it was liquidy. After the wait time of ~10 minutes, the water was absorbed:

almost to a paste- or dough-like consistency.

As is usual with processed foods, the "rice and chicken" was mostly rice with some chicken chunks. There were also a few tiny slivers of what appeared to be red pepper. It was spiced.

Effects, So Far:

Until mid-afternoon, something of a rebound. Quite possibly, yesterday's malaise has something to do with all the snow I had to shovel. :)

As of mid-afternoon, I got exhausted but that's actually normal for me. For this reason, the prior four days saw a higher than normal energy level.

If you've been following along, you might have noticed that there are only two breakfast varieties even though there are seven varieties of dinner. Just like the mac and cheese is most numerous in the dinners, scrambled eggs with ham and peppers is the most numerous amongst the breakfasts.

As for my weight:

another drop. It is reassuring to know that my calorie sacrifices have gotten some results.

Conclusion For Day 5

Today, I "went to ground" in a way. The dragginess I reported yesterday was gone, but it was replaced by mid-afternoon exhaustion of a kind I'm familiar with. It looks like the reason for my prior peppiness was the excitement of novelty, a drastic switch from a familiar routine to a new one. If this is true, then it won't come back.

But if I do bounce back upwards. something else is going on.

Returned to old normal. Thanks for reading.

And feel free to comment below!


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Resteemed! Im interested in this thread. Have never tried anything like it. Im a skinny dude but eat like crazy. I guess I was blessed with a good metabolism. lol

Thanks. But that means, if you're preparing for the SHTF, you should make sure that you have a full ration of calories. You might say I can afford to diet because I have a lot of extra poundage.

Quite possibly, yesterday's malaise has something to do with all the snow I had to shovel. :)

yup, jacking up the number of calories used.

I just noticed your dinner was the bigger pack (181 vs 128)...so more than then 540 cal. that's in my pro-pak of rice and chicken...

and since I haven't tried mine, I'm glad you tried it.

So more spicy than savory?

and keep an eye on that exhaustion!

Sure will!

This post is very useful, thanks for sharing!

An excellent idea for a post. Never thought of it. Very practical. Don't know why, exactly, you are prepping but there are some trends in geophysics and solar energy that have my attention, namely: there is going to be a shift in the magnetic poles with a coinciding solar minimum. These two things together can create powerful earthquakes and weather patterns. I suggest you look at SuspiciousObservers on YouTube. Especially the post from 2/11 on this subject. Many blessings.

Would like more variety but if this was needed i would be grateful to have something to eat ave I do love blueberries. Get the first week out of the way as that will be the hardest. Keep going :)

You too! Thanks for the encouragement.

Would like more variety but if this was needed i would be grateful to have something to eat ave I do love blueberries

I think it's tailored to people who more-or-less eat the same breakfast each day but whose dinners vary. Like the stereotypical fellow who eats bacon and eggs for breakfast...

I dont mind having the same food as long as i like it whereas my hubby wouldn't, he hates having ham in his sandwich 2 days running lol

Understood. :)

Goodluck mate nice to see u holding on for 5 days already.

Thanks! I'm just about to get to your meme....

Great post glad you have energy back. Keep going my friend, doing a great job thanks for your work. 👍👏👏👏😃🎉🎉🎉🎊

Hey, thanks for the encouragement!

If shtf I'm gonna have to find me a dairy cow! I need my butter and milk. lol Thanks for being the guinea pig to try this stuff out.

Hey, glad to; someone's got to.

If shtf I'm gonna have to find me a dairy cow! I need my butter and milk. lol

Nice tongue-in-cheek.

I know where some dairy cows are at! :) Hopefully they survive armagedden. Maing butter will be a major pain though so I need someone else to survive to do that. lol

Your doing great so far ! I think you should eat a bit inbetween like healthy energy bars of some sort , two small packets of food is just not enough if out shoveling snow etc . Good luck !upped and resteemed 😊👍✌💕

Thanks a lot!

I've been mulling that, but I figure that the crash-diet regimen makes for a good stress test: a test of how I'd bear up in the teeth of a real disaster.

Haha ! well i hope you survive it all right , I think your supposed to still eat other stuff along with these two packets per day especially if you are active like people would be in a disaster situation . Either way im glad your testing it out for us lol better you then me ! ✌👍😂

A very interesting experiment sir, I will be following with interest.

How long are you 'doing' this, btw?

Oops the clue is in the title I guess lol. doh!