Help! I’ve Hit a Wall

Experiences
1

I’ve been on Huel for 2.5 weeks. Three scoops at lunch, three for supper. Small breakfast of regular food.

I’ve dropped weight and generally feel good. The issue is that thinking about my next Huel meal makes my stomach turn. I’m just not getting accustomed to the taste (vanilla Huel). I’m traveling this week for work and enduring luncheons where my colleagues are enjoying catered meals while I’m drinking my shake. The smell alone of their of their food makes my Huel taste even worse.

Any tips for me, Huelers?

Thanks!

Bernard

2

Are you drinking vanilla or Unflavoured?

3

May give you a clue.

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4

:thinking: is it vanilla Huel you are using ?

:joy::rofl::joy::rofl:

Suggestions … maybe avoid the food area ? Go for a little walk while lunch occurs
Pretend to take a phone call while lunch is happening ? And take your Huel with you ?
OR maybe use that social event lunch/dinner as a daily meal and use Huel for breakfast and the other meal ??

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5

Give the taste packs a go. I had rhubarb & custard Huel for breakfast (bad decision - tastes like the boiled sweet - so breakfast was the wrong time of day). I’m having pineapple & coconut Huel for lunch. This one’s a winner (and overwrites the vanilla flavour).

Also try adding coffee, if you like that, or whichever fruit takes your fancy.

I’m yet to try Marmite huel, but it’s on the list, I tell ya!

6

I find the best thing to do at the start is to just avoid those situations. I go for a walk on my own at lunch and drink my huel in the park. I plan my route so I dont walk by any of the places I used to buy lunch as the temptation can be a bit tough

8

Pahaha, I even read it again to check if I’d missed it…

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10

Good advice from everybody. I hate to miss the lunch conversations/meetings but I may need to.

11

Given the deleted post I assume you have your answer. Huel will accept returns of unopened bags within 30 days of ordering.

12

Coffee as mentioned by Paul @pablosaurus is definitely worth a try.

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13

Which vanilla Huel are you having? There are 2 different vanillas with v2.3.

What tastes DO you like? Can you try adding this to Huel?

I’m happy with plain original vanilla, but I sometimes add a shot of salted caramel syrup or cacao powder, or other things less frequently.

14

Hey Bernard, just to say in line with another commenter, have you tried both types of the vanilla huel? There is the original vanilla and then new vanilla. I love the new one but could hardly swallow the old one without wanting to be sick! It’s just a matter of preference so maybe you could try the one you haven’t been having? Rose

15

I’m impressed with your grit. I would have paused my Huel so that I could have lunch with my colleagues.

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16

I’m only a newbie too, but here’s my twopenneth worth.

Try the unflavoured instead of vanilla and then add flavour packs?

Add coffee…coffee and huel good, almosts tastes like a good latte.

Frozen fruit. Blender required, but 100g of blueberries in vanilla huel is great!

Final thought if it was me. I’d breakfast huel, have the catered lunch and then huel for tea!

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17

I’m pretty new to Huel as well, (getting me second order this week, been using it for about a month) within days of getting my frirst order I was having that ‘Oh no! not that taste, not that texture’ feeling.

I’ve done a couple of things to make it work for me.
First off, Original Vanilla does not work for me, I can taste it in the back of my throat for hours, even mixing it with unsweetened unflavoured did not help. So that bag’s just going to sit until I figure out what to do with it.

New Vanilla (everyone says it’s chemically, I don’t disagree, but it’s not bad) This one I can drink pretty easily, pretty happy with it, but it’s too sweet (I like savoury flavour when it comes to meals)

Unsweetened and Unflavoured is like drinking soggy cardboard.

So I mixed 1 scoop of Unsweetened and Unflavoured with 1 scoop of New Vanilla, and it’s great! it’s slightly sweet, without leaving a sweet taste behind.

I also bought Guar Gum from Amazon, a 1KG bag cost me like £5 so it’s cheap enough. Guar gum is a thickener, mix it with water and you can make the teaspoon stand up on it’s own. With this, the drink feel a little more filling (it’s thicker even though I only use 2 scoops in a full Hule shake bottle of water (750~800ml water)) There is already Guar Gum in Huel, just not enough (IMHO)

So to make my daily shakes, I put half a teaspoon (slightly heaped, but exact ratio changes all the time) of Guar Gum into a water (half hull shaker). Close it up and shake for a second so the gum dissolved into the water. Open shaker, put 1 scoop Unsweet + 1 scoop New Vanilla. Close, shake. more water through neck of bottle. Shake, more water, shake. et al.

Give it a good shake to finish.
Now, the best part about it, you don’t have to shake it again, the Huel stays properly suspended in the water, no more shaking :slight_smile: and because it’s thicker, there’s none of the scratchy feeling when you get to the bottom of the huel.

It’s made the huel a perfect base meal for me so far. I tried the flavours, they were ok, but I’ve skipped buying any flavouring since I’m satisfied enough with the mixed vanilla and unsweetened, and the guar gum makes it feel like a real meal.

(PS: Don’t use to much guar gum, the texture is off-putting if it’s to thick, especially if you drink it with the strainer still in the mixer. Guar Gum can also make you clog up a bit if you go mad with it. so keep it around a half teaspoon).

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18

For me, the last meal of the day is the thing to look forward to. So, I can happily drink my 2 shakes, knowing that, at night, I will have a meal. As others have suggested, going out for a walk is great, if that is possible, just to get away from the temptations. My small DAB radio keeps me occupied.

Regarding the taste/smell, I simply use half ‘n’ half as suggested above. Unflavoured/unsweetened with Vanilla (new). I often add a teaspoon of ginger and cinnamon. Frozen cherries are my thing for a treat, they work great.

There is also a certain amount of stubbornness that can help, focusing on the benefits rather than the method.

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19

Some great advice on here. It sounds like you’re having trouble with omitting what is likely an important social aspect of your day. We aren’t here to remove your favourite social events! If you love eating a meal with your colleagues at lunch then go for it and just use your Huel for the other meals in your day.

I think it certainly raises a question about us as a nation though, why do the majority of social events revolve around eating or drinking? I find it in my friends group too, meals out, bars for drinks. I love all of this, but I also love going for walks and runs together.

Does anyone else think that as a nation we can be a little to reliant on food as a social tool rather than nutrition?

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20

Very good point Tim…one of my friends gave up drinking just over a year ago, and he was always really entertaining in a social environment…down the pub/one of the lads…and people were worried that he’d be a bit boring…and the general commentary was that drinking is great/pubs are great and the 2 go hand in hand. Anyway he hasn’t changed (I didn’t think he would), but I often find going to a pub and not drinking a bit awkward.

But yeah, there are plenty of other things to do…it’s not just UK though…Spanish, French and Italian people spend a lot more time socialising around food than we do. They also handle drinking better.