The Thirty Day SHTF Test Diet: Day 5

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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Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11