Food hacking and my experiences with Joylent

One of the cornerstones of my productive life is flow. According to Wikipedia, flow is “the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus”. Something that frequently interrupts my flow is the urge to eat. However, especially for lunch, I rarely focus on enjoyment when eating. I only eat because I am aware that the nutrients will benefit my body and mind. Meanwhile, my mind usually is absent, thinking about the stuff I did before I interrupted my flow.

Thus, for a while, I have been interested in Soylent, a geeky meal replacement beverage from the Silicon Valley which enables people like me to skip the interruptions and effort related to food intake. Soylent does not ship to Europe. But last December, I learned that there are multiple European Soylent clones. Since the U.S. company has published the list of Soylent ingredients, everyone can come up with their own derivate. There also is an official community of people who create and share their own recipes based on Soylent.

Eventually I decided to try Joylent, an Amsterdam-based producer of a meal replacement powder akin to Soylent (thanks Anna-Lena for the recommendation). I ordered 15 meals worth 2 Euro each, delivered in 5 differently flavoured bags including 3 meals each. For the past weeks (with the exception of a vacation-related break over the holidays), I have been replacing most of my weekday lunches with Joylent. Here are my impressions so far: Continue Reading