I’ve not eaten solid food in about 36 hours and I felt amazing.

Seriously, I felt great. Some of this may have to do with no alcohol and relative calorie deprivation. (I’m a big guy, and I’m known to wolf an entire pizza in a sitting.) There’s some science that suggests reduced calorie intake is more beneficial than just not making us fat. Jury’s still out on whether that’s a life worth living.

The other big benefit was that I was saving money. I didn’t shop too hard for deals, and yet I was only spending about $6/day on the goop. Unfortunately, free food is my kryptonite. I was tempted by bagels and cream cheese in break area and I almost took the bait. Like, my mind shut down and I was on autopilot. Fortunately, I caught myself before the experiment was ruined.

Plus, why would I want to cheat on this?

I went to the gym after work, and was curious to see how I’d fare exerting myself while being fueled by nothing but fake food. Amazingly enough I felt better than normal and felt no ill effects. It’s different for me to treat food purely as fuel rather than something interesting and worthy of exploration, but it’s tough to argue with the results. Perhaps Stockholm Syndrome is taking effect.

So far, so good.