A month-long experiment with healthy meal replacement shakes didn't go as expected.
I’m not really one to mess around with fad diets. But I am open-minded enough to try something I can easily work into my normal routine and that’s how I ended up drinking 100% vegan meal replacement shakes for a month.
Before you call me a hippie, know that I didn’t get down on this adventure because I’m trying to go vegan. Few things in this life soothe my soul like pulled pork sandwiches or the barbacoa from Taco Loco. I ended up drinking shakes for one meal a day for a month because I was surfing Instagram on the couch and saw an ad for 500-calorie shakes that worked out to just over $2 per meal and my broke self saw an opportunity to save some money. Times are tough, but that decision was not.
Most folks who are about that vegan shake life are drinking either Huel or Soylent. I did my research and stuck with Huel because the taste sounded more appealing, it has more protein per serving and it helped that the name didn’t remind me of a 1973 movie called Soylent Green that, spoiler alert, was about disguised cannibalism.
You prepare this stuff much like you would a protein shake and drink it pretty much the same way, but you’re advised to be careful starting out due to how the stuff can affect your digestive system. If you go too deep into the shakes too soon, you’re going to live on your toilet. I decided to use Huel once per day because every other published review I’ve read had writers using it for all meals for a week and Medium’s Jared Hill said, “I was shaken (no pun intended) and went to bed an empty man.” I wasn’t about to let go of my bodily function control and have Jesus take the wheel.
My vanilla Huel came on a Thursday afternoon and I made my first shake the following day. I thought there was a good chance I’d find the stuff to taste repulsive, but I was pleasantly surprised. If you’re not in love with vanilla oatmeal, the shake’s pretty flexible and you can blend it with pretty much whatever you want to get some bolder flavors.
I felt full, but not so full that all I wanted to do was nap in peace at my desk until something happened like I would after eating a bunch of Taco Loco’s barbacoa. My body handled the stuff pretty well and I did not end up a “shaken… empty man” by the end of the night.
After about a month of regular use, I feel good. It’s helped motivate me to scale back on portion sizes when I eat real food, partly because the shakes are deceptively filling, so I’ve managed to lose around seven pounds between adding Huel and hitting the gym. In the instances where I ate real food for lunch and drank a shake for dinner after a workout, all the protein in there (37 grams per serving) helped with my muscle recovery. I like mixing it with my coffee from Krazy Kup every now and then, especially with a shot of espresso.
I’m still drinking it. It’s so quick to make and saves me time and money. I’m not going to go on an all-Huel diet anytime ever, but sometimes it pays off to step outside your comfort zone.
