u/MuffinPuff

EXERCISE has been the bane of my existence for over a decade now. Desk worker since 2015, and I haven't done any actual fitness effort or working out since that time. Beforehand, I used to walk and jog 5 miles a day around my neighborhood and the park as a young adult, and I was definitely a bike kid growing up, both bikes and scooters.

Insert 2026, mid-30's. My body is now goo; I don't want to walk/get steps in, or go to a gym, or workout, and any time I do something the least bit physical, I am sore the next day.

Still, if I want a healthy heart, I need to put in the effort.

I can tolerate youtube workout vids, lift a kettle bell, and occasionally attempt to weighted hula hoop when I feel like sweating. But I got a stationary bike on a whim, and I... I think I like it? It doesn't "feel like" exercise, it feels like being a kid again. It's like stepping inside of my 9-year old self, I see my childhood neighborhood and streets, the freedom of being able to rip down steep roads at what seemed like a million miles per hour, the exhaustion from biking back up those hills, the near misses from passing cars (lol), or I can zone out and watch my shows or videos, or do a "ride along" marathon aka the poor woman's zwift haha.

Never in a million years would I think I'd enjoy this.

Woke up at 1:30am, couldn't sleep. My spirit wanted something warm and hearty, and filling and delicious for the oncoming days, so I got up at 2am and started chopping.

Chopped red onion, celery, 1 roma tomato, into the pot.

Added big handfuls of frozen kale & spinach. 2 bay leaves.

1 cup dried lentils, washed.

1 cup dried pinto beans, washed.

1/2 cup of dried yellow split peas, washed.

1 cup of dry farro, washed.

2 dried shiitake mushrooms, washed

3 big handfuls of frozen mixed veg (carrots, green beans, corn, peas, lima beans)

2 knobs of not-chicken bouillon

2 knobs of not-beef bouillon

Garlic & Herb seasoning blend

Freeze-dried cilantro

Salt/Pep

Around 1.5 liters of water

Pressure cook for 45 mins, natural release for 15 minutes, stir and add nooch, 2 capfuls of ACV, salt to taste.

It's the perfect meal. 5am and I couldn't have asked for a better breakfast, took barely any thought to pull this together. I have enough to last through all next week.

Years ago, I tried one of those "health sodas" for the first time, and it was really tasty.

Eventually I went back to the store and tried another soda, not remembering what brand the first one was, I just grabbed what flavor I thought would taste good.

It was awful. Tasted like vinegar, I never bought another health soda again, until today.

The cooler was lined with Ollipop and Poppi. I rolled the dice and went with Ollipop, and it was tasty!!! Made it home and googled "what does poppi taste like" and it's literally made with apple cider vinegar, that was the drink that put me off for years but now I'm back. Ollipop is the way to go.

I started on May 21st and my initial goal was 75 days. Technically tomorrow is the 75th day, but I transitioned out of PSMF on August 1st.

I did high protein, ultra low fat, relatively low carb macros unless it was a refeed day. I had a refeed day on day 30, day 45, and the next one was scheduled for day 60 but my period stopped for nearly 2 weeks (that has never happened to me before), so I had a diet break from day 50 to day 60. My period started on day 51.

Physical fatigue, diet fatigue and restlessness set in hard after day 65. Didn't have the energy to meal prep, prep anything, weigh anything, chop anything, didn't want to turn the stove on at all, had no mental energy to think about anything. I just wanted to rest.

Things I've learned:

-Eating only high protein sucks haha.

-I've always wondered if body fat can be used for hormone production in the same way that dietary fat is used. The answer is no. I've also wondered if women lose their period from being too lean, or is it because of their diet. In my case, it was the diet. Dietary fat matters. I was consuming roughly 5-15 grams per day on average.

-I don't get long term satiation from dairy. Nonfat greek yogurt, nonfat cottage cheese, fat free cheese, none of it keeps me full for more than an hour, maybe 90 minutes. On the flip side, I think fat free cheese gets a bad rap. Of course it's not on par flavor-wise with full fat cheese, but considering the macros, it's pretty damn great as a protein source and works fine in cheesy applications. It's basically so macro friendly, I'm only weighing and tracking it to confirm how much protein I'm getting, unlike full fat cheese where I'm trying to limit dumping an extra 500 calories onto my sandwich.

-I think eating high protein without adequate carbs is a waste if you're looking to improve your fitness. I tried light exercise on several occasions during the diet, and even though I was getting ample protein, my body still could not recover adequately and I was often sore for days afterwards from very light cardio.

-The fat loss was very consistent. I averaged about 2lbs per week (other than the diet break) for a total of 22lbs pounds lost.

-My diet consisted of 30 gram protein shakes, fat free soups, veggies, TVP, and eventually deli turkey & ham on keto tortillas with fat free cheese, nonfat dairy. Lots of mustard, pickles, hot sauces, vinegars, low calorie sauces, non-calorie sweeteners. Sugar free jello cups were eaten freely without tracking, and pbfit was a staple in cottage cheese bowls and TVP oats. Figured out how to make a fat free "kettle corn" with air-popped popcorn, melted allulose in a splash of water, flavacol, liquid sucralose, nutritional yeast and microwave until it becomes a syrup, pour it over the popcorn. Dangerously delicious, I only made it once and knew I couldn't be trusted with that power. Protein ice cream or "fluff" was in rotation too.

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Would I recommend PSMF to others? Yes, but don't go ultra low fat like I did if you're going to do a long run.

Period finally started Friday after being a week late. Got through all of Saturday just fine, but a couple of hours after I went to bed...

Crampocalypse returned. Since I was about 18, I've had EXCRUCIATINGLY PAINFUL episodes of cramping, but they only occur once a year. 95% of the time I don't cramp at all, and the remaining time it's very mild dull aching, but there's always one lone wolf of a night that flips my world upside down, and last night was that night.

I had no midol.

I had no evening primrose oil.

The only meds I had were basic acetaminophen and some Aleve. Downed both. Stayed in bed writhing in pain for 3 hours straight, shifting from yoga pose to yoga pose trying to alleviate the sensation of a searing hot knife poking through my innards. Debating if I should try to hobble to my car in search of more pain meds in the middle of the night.

1am arrives, and the pain starts to subside. The last thing I remember is finally allowing my ass to touch the bed, and slowly folding into my comforter, careful not to reawaken whatever set off my biological cramp bomb.

I'm not sure if this is an example of shrinkflation, but man... I would have thought I'd at least get 12oz of beans, but no, literally half of the contents was just water.

I know it's just green beans at the end of the day, but come on.

I've never been a fruit girlie, and I'm realizing it's mainly because I don't care for apples, most citrus fruits or bananas. Grapes are yummy, but very high in sugar. Same with pineapple, mangos, stone fruits, they run a bit higher in sugar than I'd like.

I love strawberries, but they're only in season during the summer. Don't care for blackberries or raspberries because of the seeds. Don't really care for blueberries either but I'll add them to smoothies or pancakes, muffins.

Insert melons. It just never crossed my mind to consider watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, and all of their variants in my fruit choices. I just had a 10oz container of mixed melon and the whole thing was 100 calories, omfg. Not quite as clutch as a pound of strawberries for 120ish calories, but close enough!!!

I've had a bag of TVP sitting on my shelf for months now, and I mainly bought it for low carb oatmeal, and it's fiiiiiiine in that application, but I rarely eat porridge type meals.

I've tried using it as a ground beef substitute, and it really didn't scratch the itch tbh, so I just let the bag of TVP sit on the shelf until today.

I didn't feel like making a protein smoothie, but spotted the bag of TVP in the corner. Weighed 100 grams (50 grams of protein!!), soaked it in hot water, squeezed it, rinsed it, squeezed it again, into a dry pan to sizzle. Cooked that for 15ish minutes, then added dark soy sauce, braggs aminos, chikn bouillon, nooch, butter salt and msg. Cooked it down again for a few minutes, then added stir fry veggies.

It came out so good!! The key is soaking, squeezing and rinsing the TVP thoroughly to remove that shelf-stable soy flavor. Also, letting the TVP rest after cooking gives it a firmer texture imo. It tastes like an ambiguous ground meat; not beef, but a ground chicken, ground pork, ground turkeyish type protein.

Edit: I completely forgot about mentioning the nutrition, that was the main thing that made me want to post lol. 100 grams of dry TVP has 50 grams of protein, 330 calories, 15 grams of fiber, 96% OF YOUR DAILY POTASSIUM, 94% OF YOUR DAILY MAGNESIUM, 56% OF YOUR DAILY IRON, AND 70% OF YOUR DAILY ZINC. Holy hell, it's truly a nutritional powerhouse!!!! I've been struggling to get my required magnesium and potassium while on a cut, but when I added TVP to my nutrient tracker, literally everything was in the green lol

1ish tablespoon seed butter

3/4 cup of sugar free maple syrup

1ish tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom

drops of sucralose or 1/2 cup of allulose

dash of butter salt

1.5 cups of rolled oats

scant 1/2 cup of raisins

Oven temp - 325F, bake for 15 mins, stir, bake for another 10 mins

Other than a few singed raisins, it came out perfectly, exactly the kind of granola I'm looking for.

I was never a fan of soup growing up, it very much felt like I was just "eating hot water". Or I'd fall back on canned soups, and those are more often can flavored than anything else.

My gateway drug was Marie Callendar's chicken & dumpling soup, it actually tastes good and not too canny as-is.

I got down to my last can and wanted to bulk it out, so I added more veg, leafy greens, chicken broth, wonton dumplings and soy sauce, and it came out extremely tasty, I was obsessed.

Ran out of canned soup, so I ventured into making my own one morning; chicken bouillon, veggie bouillon, roasted garlic & onion blend, soy sauce, mixed veg, arugula, edamame, wonton dumplings, gyoza, chia seeds, in the pot, simmer for a few minutes. STUNNING soup, so flavorful and filling and simple, I became a convert. It didn't eat like "just hot water" it tasted like a robust full meal and felt like I just ate thanksgiving dinner, it was incredible.

Arugula is now one of my favorite greens for soup bases, it adds so much depth of flavor and it's quite robust, it holds up to boiling much like kale does. The lowly frozen bags of peas, carrots, corn and green beans blend that used to sit in the freezer for 6+ months, those are now in heavy rotation every month for my soups.

The bag of chia seeds that have sat in my freezer for 2 years, I'm nearly out of the chia seeds now because they're a crucial part of my soup pots as a thickener.

The chickpea flour/gram flour that has sat in my freezer for 3 years, it's finally being used up because chickpea flour makes a delicious tender dumpling for creamy soups and chowder.