Day 1 - Ramen for Breakfast

MMMM Breakfast Ramen

I'm making  a choice to eat only Ramen for the next 30 days. That means every meal, all day, RAMEN. I am trying to class it up by adding actual vegetables and tofu. My wife thinks I'm a stupid idiot, and my daughter thinks it's funny. I just hope to make it through in one piece.

When I first moved out of my mom's house many years ago I ate a ton of Ramen. Top Ramen was only 10 cents a pack and when you're working pizza delivery and living in a converted garage apartment you have to stay on budget. I was pretty skinny back then and today I'm less skinny than I used to be. I also thought about all the Asian people in my local area and they are all pretty skinny too. Could Ramen be the key to some skinny jeans in my future? I went down to the local market to check into it.

They don't have a 100 Ranch Market so this will have to do

99 Ranch Market sells a lot of food that I cannot pronounce or read the name of. The whole place smells like fish which my daughter loves but I find off putting. As for their Ramen supply it is ample. One thing I found though sifting through all the packages is everything has some kind of MSG in it. Not one of them had only natural ingredients. This wasn't going to work. I want to go through with the experiment but I also want to live. What was I to do?

Ramen as far as the eye can see

I went over to Trader Joes and found that they have a good MSG free Ramen, but it was a bunch of fish stuff in it. I am a vegetarian and that adds another layer of complexity to this whole thing. Trader's does have some Udon without fish parts but I don't want to eat Udon for 30 days, this is the Ramen diet. I then drove to Sprouts. Sprouts has a small selection of Ramen and all of them are MSG free. I will be looking online as well just in case my local area is just not stocked with healthier Ramen choices.

Week 1 Ramen selection. Including bowl to cook in at work and some chopsticks

I will also be drinking lots of water. I have chosen to stop drinking sodas during this diet. I am limiting myself to tea, water, and coffee only. You have to have a control when studying the effects of something. I chose to control the intake to only asian items like Tea, but I have to have my morning coffee. (In case your interested I drink regular coffee with a little creamer and one packet of Sweet N Low.)

Day 1 Ramen - 

Morning Time: Cooked up some Ichiban Regular flavor with some baby boc choy and tofu. I used half a pack of the seasoning to help cut down on the salt intake. The MSG was so heavy on this brand that I felt it all day. I couldn't drink enough water to make my lips feel normal. It was tasty but I'll have to limit it to a quarter pack of season on this brand.
Lunch Time: I used my new ceramic bowl to cook up a pack of Mi Chay (translated to vegetarian noodles) Ramen. This Ramen came with a little packet of oil and a seasoning pack. I used a tiny bit of season and tiny squirt of oil. The mushroom, green onions, boc choy, and tofu added a good amount of flavor and I may start using that with noodles and avoid the MSG all together. I have to look up some home made Ramen recipes I can cook in a microwave though.

My lunch with my tea next to it at work.

Dinner Time: For Dinner I made some Ramen that was supposed to be for stir fry. I didn't realize until after the water was going. It came with kinds of sauces and powders and flakes to add to the mix, but I found it very bland. I ended up adding some garlic salt to it for some flavor. I loved the broccoli and carrots that I added and need to remember to throw those in for breakfast.

 

After the first day my tongue felt a little over slated and weird. I had to chew some gum on the way home from work to get the feeling to leave. I think I underestimated the MSG effects and need to come up with some natural recipes for Ramen. Here's looking to tomorrow for some more adventures.

Check in here for more updates on how the diet is going and if I have had issues with the salt and MSG in the Ramen. I hope to add in some physical exercise a few times a week and drop some pounds. Maybe after 30 days I'll adjust and start eating some sushi and just stay with Asian food in general. It is supposed to be one of the healthiest diets out there. Wish me luck, and thanks for checking in!