I was hoping for something insightful to write about my day but I have nothing. My writing juju is as empty as my stomach was at 10:30pm last night.
I was actually looking forward to my $3 day – a little test but one having a definite end. All sorts of memories of the mini-challenges that make up this larger Challenge came back one thought at a time. My first thought of note was when I was packing my breakfast (apple with peanut butter – est. $0.30) and lunch (hot dog (veggie) & large carrot – est. $0.81) was my nutrition was going to plummet when having to do multiple days of this. It always did in years past. I think one year my skin pallor turned this cement-like shade of gray.
This thought stuck with me I was packing my food; I recall walking through the aisles at Pick and Save, getting to the cereal aisle and saying to Rich, “we aren’t even half way through the store and we’ve already spent $30! We don’t have a single vegetable or piece of fruit, no milk for the cereal and no meat.” So my apple and carrot were huge successes of my day. Yipee!
I had lunch with a co-worker and had to explain my odd plate of food. He thought it was some sort of hot dog based cleanse. Thinking about it, I guess in a sense (sans hot dog reference) it really is a kind of cleanse, don’t you think? He listened intently and from what I could tell, was intrigued by the entire path and pursuit. Our conversation wound it’s way back to the nutrition dilemma for those on Food Share. We talked about Type II diabetes – it’s exponential rise, obesity, Food Inc. – the movie, dollar menus, wonder bread and Hi-C. I told him about my grayness back in 2008. The physical woes trickled back and I swear I felt that dull headache that stayed with me for the last 4 days back then. I took a huge bite of my carrot and scowled. I don’t like carrots that much but it’s a coveted vegetable and it was affordable – $3 bag that had 14 large carrots from the farmer’s market. And it was all I had.
After work, I went to the gym for a short time then had a softball game. Guess who’s thankful for that carrot now! When 7:30 gametime rolled around I would have killed for another carrot!
I ate my dinner consisting of a black bean veggie burger ($1), a small handful of mixed green lettuce ($0.50) and 8 triscuits ($0.30+). By my calculations (I am an engineer – we like to calculate), I ate exactly $3 in food yesterday. And did it pretty nutritiously too!
But that’s only one day and I know it shouldn’t be that easy.
I also thought about fasting and the depth of spirituality to which people realize when done over a longer period of time. I feel pretty inadequate at my little attempt (and publicly writing about it – oy!) and could I … should I do something a little ‘more?’ I wonder if I could reach some kind of different level of something. I don’t have the answer. I was not on track to fast today, that’s for sure. But it is a thought and I wonder, I wonder …
I just checked my calendar and it looks like next Monday and Tuesday will be the $3 happy meal days next week. Yes, again, those days fit in well with my schedule. (Sigh) At least I’m being honest.
Anyone want to join me?
