The Thirty Day SHTF Test Diet: Day 14

Today was Day 14 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.

Either it's resuming the diet or the February blahs have finally gotten to me. My third day after the feast break has been challenging, not least because of insomnia. No physical symptoms to report, but I have been withdrawing into my shell somewhat. Can't say at this point whether it's the diet itself or some other difficulty.

Today's Meals

Continuing with the alternation cycle, the breakfast was the Granola with Blueberries and Milk:

Half a cup of cold water, some vigorous stirring, and it was ready:

As with all of them, the granola was moist, the blueberries were liquefied and there was excess fluid that looked like blueberry soup. One of the advantage of this pack is that you can pour the excess fluid right down your throat when the granola and blueberries are all-but gone.

The dinner, yet again, was the macaroni and cheese:

As noted more than once earlier, the 30-day box contained a lot more mac-and-cheese dinners than any other dinner. After the standard two cups of boiling water, multiple stirrings and less than ten minutes of cooldown and reconstitution, it came out as:

It tasted just like you'd expect, and again it was heavy on the salt. Despite me waiting a wee bit longer than usual, a few of the noodles were a little crunchy. That could have resulted from me not stirring thoroughly enough.

The Nutrition Facts for each meal, with the breakfast on the left, were:

Combined, both were a little less than 1,500 calories. Of note is the fact that the granola only supplied 6% of the daily recommended vitamin C and the noodles supplied none. I've been keeping an eye peeled for signs of vitamin C deficiency. So far none, but it is prudent to add multivitamins to any emergency food cache.

Effects, So Far:

As mentioned above, today was a low-energy day ridden with insomnia. This could be seasonal, the novelty of the diet wearing off and replaced with a low-calorie grind, or it could be the stress of going back on. If the second, one way to cope (as part of a weight-loss plan) is a two-weeks-on, one-week-off regimen. If the last, there seems to be no way except toughing it through.

I know I shouldn't rely on the scale for reassurance, as doing so is a fools' trap which eventually gets you hating both the scale and the diet. But today, the scale did provide some reassurance:

The rebound after my Hiatus Day was completely reversed.

Conclusion For Day 14

The higher energy I enjoyed early on in this diet is gone; it's been replaced by a low which might be seasonal. I'd actually like to blame the diet for my droops because it holds out hope that they'll be gone in seventeen days. :) But, the diet may not be the cause.

And anyway, it might be temporary; my spirits might perk back up to normal tomorrow. It might just be the two-day droops. :)

Thanks for reading.

And feel free to comment below!

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