The Jell-O Challenge

Back from the latest 10-day trip East. We flew most of the time with another crew from another squadron and were, for the most part, put through the wringer. One of the crew members passed along a funny story from his deployed days last year I'd like to pass along to you.

When you're deployed for 4 months and you begin to settle into a rhythm, the human brain (at least the guy brain) begins to look for new things to occupy it. This is where some people get in trouble. Some folks channel this desire for stimulation in creative ways. This fella and his friends were at the chow hall one day and got to discussing crazy diets and nutrition. Someone was eating jell-o and took a look at the nutrition content. Now, this was the sugar free jell-o, the snackpacks of 10 calories each.
"Hey, I wonder if you could survive on these for a day?"
This innocent question spawned more creative debate. "How many of them would one need to eat for 2000 calories (average required for your standard man)?" "Would you need to mix it up with multiple flavors?" "What would a diet like that do to you?"

Unfortunately, the last question there was not asked, or at least not thought all the way through. This gentlemen, sufficiently challenged by his peers, set out on the "Jell-O Challenge" the next day. Each snackpack of Jell-O contains 10 calories--200 for a 2000 calorie diet. He only did it for one day and passed along some thoughts on this diet you should consider if my description of it has interested you in the slightest:

- 200 snackpacks in a day weighs in at just over 40 pounds of Jell-O. He was able to eat about 70 snackpacks. That's over 14 pounds. Respectable.
- At some point, the body says, "Oh great, more Jell-O. I'm still working on the last batch, so let's just let this batch right on through." Zero digestion. I believe he said you could almost put it in a bowl and right back in the refrigerator, though I don't know why you would want to.
- You'll want to stay away from the green Jell-O. See above observation for why.
- It's a strange feeling to be full yet not mentally satisfied with what you've eaten. It's like eating Chinese food and then being hungry again in an hour, but taken to a whole new level.

Ironically, after eating 14 pounds of Jell-O in one day, he still lost 3 pounds. "That gives you an idea about how my day went."