New user in the States hoping the UU powder will break some bad habits

I just got my two starter bags (side question - how can I tell which version Huel I got? I ordered it shortly after the new year), super excited to try a new powder. Even after 5 weeks on one Soylent meal a day, my body wasn’t adjusting, and I eventually needed outpatient help to clear all the gas out and get flushed. Not cheap over here.

I’ve always had a terrible diet. I’ve never been good at planning a week’s worth of meals, networking flavor profiles, whipping things in the fridge together willy-nilly, so things rot, I don’t like leftovers for days on end, and I always end up with too much cheese in everything. After I lost most of my cooking time to home business and keeping this house from collapsing and my two hour round trip commute, I just started eating cheap TV dinners. $1.29, human levels of salt, 400 calories a pop, the basic math said that between these and a giant tub of rice and a bottle of multivitamins, I should be able to survive on $120 a month. But that just doesn’t work - creation only knows the horrors visited on the animals in those dinners and the people making them, I found myself snacking too much, and the cartons produced a lot of waste.

An extra $40 means not much left going into the emergency fund, but my finances are fubar anyways, and $160 a month for 1400 vegan calories a day rounded out with something is a much better choice than the track I’m on. I’d like someday to go 100% and have other food just be the odd night out with the missus every couple of months, but close to $300 a month is more than I’ve ever spent on food.

There’s a bit of indigestion, but no more so than with this current diet, and after having had my first few shakers of Huel my hunger has become insatiable! I have to be careful now or I’ll eat several meals. I think my diet was just that void of certain nutrients. I also have to do something about the oral fixation - I feel satiated and can work on a shaker, but my mouth gets restless.

I’ve always been of the opinion that consumer response to the lackluster processed food industry should not be a reactionary retreat into a mythical golden natural-cooked yesterday that didn’t exist (and required someone to be practically tethered to the kitchen), but to demand, healthier, higher quality, more ethically sourced and manufactured processed food. I’m looking forward to this transition.

I’m also glad I can address a bit of the envy I feel for our dogs since we just pour them some chow and they want for nothing :slight_smile:

edit: spelling

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I’d be conscious that if your body reacted poorly to Soylent in a digestive way, Huel may not be much better until adjusted. Adjustment took about 6 months for me. Used to get these weird paste like “movements” which were agony to pass.

Just a heads up. I’d say it’s worth it, most people adjust in a couple of weeks.

Hi @jonnet97030

Welcome to Huel.

How have you got on?

Huel’s ingredients are very different to Soylent’s, so there’s no reason why you’d have the same issues.

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There’s some digestive discomfort, but it’s far less than what I’m used to, and almost nothing compared to what it was while I was on Soylent; it’s more GERD and occasionally trying to come back up on me than from the other end. I’ve been having to clear my throat a lot, and I’ve become very tired and severely anxious and depressed. My life is kind of falling apart so I blame most of the down for that, but even with my narcolepsy medication, active job, and working on things I like around the house, I feel like turning into a gob of ooze on the floor. It would make for a great cereal flour replacement in things, but I primarily drink it because I seldom have more than a few minutes a day to feed myself, and my mouth and throat seem to be resenting the constant sameness, despite my appetite for it being near insatiable. My cravings for junk food has also hit an all-time high.

Blergh. I’m trying to get enough so I’m not getting vitamin deficient, but some days the one thing I have is one 160g shaker, but I don’t want to take my multivitamin and get too much of something non water soluble. I attribute this to the adjustment period, gut bacteria dying and breeding in accordance with my increasingly vegan diet; I’m taking a 14 strain probiotic every few days to help the process. But if this intolerable doldrum continues, I may have to back out.

UPDATE: I typed the above shortly after calling out sick with a migraine. After that, I got a nosebleed and checked my blood pressure - 140/100, whereas my normal is 110/70. Called a nurse line, they said stop taking my narcolepsy medication and reset on my diet, simple whole grains and vegetables only for three days, and take a 12mg blood pressure pill for three days. I don’t know what the hell happened, doubt it was the Huel in and of itself, but I’m off Huel for now.

edit: the nurse thinks it was restarting the Modafinil without my anxiety medication which I can’t get, on top of stress, on top of my body getting used to new food. I meant no implication that Huel was reacting with my medication.