tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21333865970332384842011-11-27T17:29:57.120-06:00One man. One bucket. 275 meals.Joelnoreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-64675123426206139602009-07-29T17:06:00.002-05:002009-07-29T17:16:39.844-05:00

So you may be wondering whatever happened to my little life experiment. I promised an explanation and here it is. I'm not dead and I didn't finish the bucket. Most of the food is sitting in the storage unit underneath the apartment awaiting the end of the world. There's a reason I'm no longer eating from the bucket and it's because of the bucket.When I started eating from the bucket, I took

Joelnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-68252566118823134162009-05-23T15:20:00.002-05:002009-05-23T15:28:06.790-05:00

Yes... I really am still doing this. Right now, there are only three meals I find remotely edible: barley vegetable, western noodle and potato bakon. The rest I'd just like to forget about. Today I ate barley vegetable. I've worked out a system where I just eat 2.5 servings for a meal. That is still only 200-400 calories, so I of course eat other things. After each meal I must brush my teeth. The

Joelnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-45179113314320448282009-05-20T16:38:00.001-05:002009-05-20T16:47:03.525-05:00

Click the title for the podcast.

Joelnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-24686977595271797502009-05-19T16:54:00.002-05:002009-05-19T17:09:09.799-05:00

I've haven't eaten meal 22 yet. I don't want to actually. I know that corn chowder is what I have in the refrigerator and my body says meh to that. I'll probably suck it up and heat up a bowl of the awful stuff.As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I've become one of those people who counts calories in everything. I finally bothered to look up the caloric and fat content of McDonalds foods and

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-91669319689864026242009-05-18T15:27:00.002-05:002009-05-18T15:28:09.657-05:00

Click on the title to hear the podcast.Another podcast. When I say that vegetarians are pretentious, I mainly mean the ones who are only vegetarians so they can say they are vegetarians.

Joelnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-14652290050666053002009-05-17T01:15:00.003-05:002009-05-17T01:19:15.452-05:00

To hear the podcast, click on the title of this post.Ok, so I pulled out the mic and decided to podcast today's post. It's nothing fantastic and you'll have to ignore every time I aspirate a sound. (It means I put out a puff of air when I say words like penguin.) Most everyone does it in their speech, but I'm still trying to figure out how not to do it or not have it show up on the audio

Joelnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-6000659309193780982009-05-16T21:12:00.003-05:002009-05-16T21:25:43.778-05:00

Western Noodle, chicken noodle. Nothing new under the sun. Today I ate Western Noodle soup for lunch along with an avocado. I know, it's an odd pairing, but a 90 calorie lunch just isn't going to cut it. After reading some of the horrible effects of drinking just beer for a week, I don't think I'll ever be trying that. I may try to fast for three days and see if I attain enlightenment. The

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-78796282663108213402009-05-15T16:45:00.005-05:002009-05-15T16:58:38.721-05:00

Western Noodle again. It's more or less like eating chicken noodle soup. The disturbing part with eating any of these meals has to do with the sediment of soup mix that is left in the pot after you're done eating. It's got the consistency of sand and I imagine the same health benefits. Of course, by not eating it, I probably lose out on a few calories. Every calories counts!I've thought off

Joelnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-27237541499584079782009-05-12T21:18:00.002-05:002009-05-13T18:35:18.118-05:00

Another post-apocalyptic journal entry to break up the monotony.May 13, 2023Summer approaches. The lurchers are much more active. Hard to predict their movements in the summer. They're erratic and out at all hours of the night. Can't afford to sleep on the ground any more. Must take shelter in abandoned cars and trees.I saw a dog today. Didn't look like he had turned yet. A rare thing these days.

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-12209126304110894332009-05-12T18:44:00.003-05:002009-05-12T18:51:03.474-05:00

Potato soup and deviled eggs. Nothing exciting for dinner, but I'm full. One of the nice things about this diet is that I don't really have to think much about what I'm going to cook. I boil water, drop the soup mix in and in 25 minutes I'm getting my sodium overload. I refuse to believe that these meals were designed as anything but a sodium delivery system. The calories are just an unintended

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-22511899773439406352009-05-11T16:36:00.003-05:002009-05-11T16:53:51.764-05:00

I finally took the plunge and drank a small glass of whey milk. It's not terrible and in a pinch I'd probably drink it, but it's not the milk I'm used to drinking. I figure if I'm going to suffer through the bucket of food, then I shouldn't have to suffer through fake milk. It's hard to describe whey milk. It's somewhat sweet and has a very distinct smell. I think it might be ok in cereal but on

Joelnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-12248936715305906522009-05-10T18:18:00.003-05:002009-05-10T18:30:15.042-05:00

So Saturday and Sunday I committed myself to only eating food from the bucket. I may have cheated and had a cookie but that was it. Instead of eating a single serving, I tend to eat 2.5 servings a meal. In doing this, I am not getting enough calories with this diet. Trying to eat only food from the bucket on an extended basis would be insane. On Friday night I weighed 149 pounds. Today, I weigh

Joelnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-56945650043483714182009-05-09T17:30:00.004-05:002009-05-09T17:59:35.878-05:00

Ok, here's something completely different. Instead of reflecting on what I ate, I wrote a short diary imagining a scenario where I'd have to eat these rations for real. I may do this from time to time depending on the response. (Oh, I ate lentil soup as well. Very bland.)May 9th, 2023Lurchers ate Bill. I suppose that is worth mentioning.Not much else to say about the incident. When you've seen

Joelnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-71954555456524473092009-05-08T14:50:00.002-05:002009-05-08T15:17:30.641-05:00

The corn chowder (chow-duh) can best be described as buckshot soup. Don't get me wrong, it tastes pretty good, but trying to eat the kernels of corn is reminiscent of biting down on a shotgun shell. If you do manage to chew the kernel at all, it wrecks your enamel and gums up your teeth. It's all the fun of a Butterfingers without the great taste and hypertension.Since starting this diet, I've

Joelnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-59848337677405169132009-05-07T22:31:00.002-05:002009-05-07T22:33:58.994-05:00

This weekend I'll only eat food from the bucket, no supplements. God help me. My friends are trying to kill me.Secondly: Really, the hadron collider is going to cause the end of the world? I won't even be able to use the emergency bucket if that's how the world ends.

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-43215488942422703822009-05-07T15:26:00.002-05:002009-05-07T16:02:44.473-05:00

Dinner is a repeat from yesterday with the exception of adding some guacamole to the mix. Part of any emergency supply kit should be a least 10 avocados. I eat maybe two of them a week. I may have an avocado addiction.The health benefits of avocados are surprisingly numerous. In fact, it's rare that something this good for you, tastes so good as well. While avocados are loaded with fat, it's the

Joelnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-33657209448681202892009-05-06T22:28:00.001-05:002009-05-06T22:29:24.754-05:00

Please tell me that the five votes for Hadron Collider are all ironic.

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-33678299330360726872009-05-06T16:34:00.003-05:002009-05-06T16:56:02.735-05:00

You know, it's somewhat hard to go back to a diet of emergency rations after a glorious day of Chipotle. Such is the life of a food adventurer. As you can tell from the picture, I'm eating the Western Stew/rice and black beans. The black beans actually taste somewhat sweet. I was a little surprised by that. Apparently, I could live for a long time on simply brown rice and black beans even if the

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-22376142232963610772009-05-05T16:20:00.002-05:002009-05-05T17:16:12.607-05:00

This is obviously not a meal that came from the bucket. If it were, I'd have so many buckets, they'd stack to the ceiling. I'd be able to build a fort out of them. No, the reason I ate the massive burrito has to do with the fact that today is teacher appreciation day and Chipotle is giving out free burritos. I can't really pass on the free food. As such, the emergency rations and black beans get

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-33126836810175284792009-05-04T17:18:00.003-05:002009-05-04T18:36:48.851-05:00

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I'm not really living off these emergency rations. I'm using them as a side dish or as a base to my meals. As Michael has pointed out, there is simply no way that I could survive on just the contents of the package alone. Well, I suppose I could, but it wouldn't be pretty. In the spirit of the challenge, I've amassed a large collection of dried

Joelnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-85521516811415797632009-05-03T17:37:00.002-05:002009-05-03T18:26:39.563-05:00

It appears as though I will not get 275 meals out of this experiment. The portions are simply too small and I'm very much opposed to starving. Tonight I finished off the potato bakon soup which meant I only really got 2 meals out of it. That's a far cry from five. I may be able to cut some of the other meals with rice or various beans. I have very little meat on hand though. In fact, the only

Joelnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-65302473053924200872009-05-03T11:00:00.005-05:002009-05-03T11:28:04.257-05:00

With a name like Potato Bakon, how could it not be anything but wonderful? Surprisingly this meal was quite good. My friend Nick even tasted some and commented that he wouldn't have known it was an emergency ration based simply on taste. I'd put the soup on par with Bear Creek Potato soup which makes me wonder what kind of tremendous markup some of those instant soups must have. In fact, I looked

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-87120151616901605522009-05-02T10:50:00.005-05:002009-05-02T15:44:41.517-05:00

Brunch/lunch today. Cacciatore... again. Only another 22 meals of it. I'm trying to decide what the chunks of faux chicken are. It's not chicken because all the meals are vegetarian so I'm assuming it's soy. At least, I hope it's soy. Since I added rice to the meal, that adds about 200 calories to my diet. All told, that makes for a 360 calorie meal. If I'm not mistaken, that falls somewhat short

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-40785873266425177972009-05-01T20:07:00.002-05:002009-05-01T20:18:51.309-05:00

If you think that these meals taste good the first time you boil them, just wait until you nuke them in the microwave. I made the mistake of cooking the entire contents of one of the packages which left me with a considerable amount of leftovers. There's still another 2-3 meals leftover that need to be eaten. The caccitore tasted a little bit better actually. I think allowing the water to soak

Joelnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-65127621193916157032009-04-30T16:24:00.007-05:002009-04-30T16:33:52.453-05:00

Yesterday sitting in front of my door was a large box which could only contain one thing, my impending doom. After taking the bucket out of the box, I popped off the lid and rifled through the contents. Apparently, the meals come in foil packages of approximately five servings each. I still had some leftover food, so I put off eating any of the meals until today.For my first meal, I decided to go

Joelnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-64920146836290210282009-04-26T11:00:00.003-05:002009-04-26T11:03:23.771-05:00

So according to the CDC, the new Swine Flu isn't likely to be contained. If this turns out to be a pandemic, then maybe my emergency rations will get field tested for real. To be honest, I was hoping I'd get to use it for zombies rather than swine flu. I suppose one can't be too picky with the end of the world scenarios that G-d gives us.

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-36701721030453852492009-04-25T09:48:00.003-05:002009-04-25T09:59:19.400-05:00

So my bucket of food has officially shipped from St. Lake City Utah. Apparently the warehouse and company who make the emergency food rations are based out there. This doesn't really surprise me. I know that the Latter Day Saint Church is big into encouraging its members to store an emergency supply of food. In fact, there are discussion groups all over the internet. I know they catch more flak

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-9529595199835935312009-04-25T00:57:00.003-05:002009-04-25T01:03:11.746-05:00

Oh, God. I've just taken a look at the sodium content and it's pretty high. I MUST EAT OTHER FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IF I WANT TO LIVE. Of course, after a steady diet of emergency rations, living will be a mighty big if. The sodium content to caloric content averages about 100 calories to 600 mg of sodium. It's actually pretty comparable to a lot of food out there but the calorie level is really

Joelnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2133386597033238484.post-45888898780791180602009-04-25T00:04:00.000-05:002009-04-25T00:24:21.857-05:00

I'm a curious person, always have been. As a child, I explored both the world within and outside myself. My imagination was always burning and luckily I had parents who encouraged it. Now that I've grown up somewhat, I still have a fairly active imagination, but my curiosity can be funded by an adult salary. Sometimes these amusements come in the form of life experiments. I've gone vegetarian,

Joelnoreply@blogger.com4