Day Four - and we are NEARLY there!

I’m feeling rather lethargic. I’ve noticed it on every walk this week. We walk slowly. Slug-like. That’s me. I’m having trouble with my sentences, frequently getting words muddled. And I’m more than usually forgetful. Housekeeping today was, ah, interesting. Not a lot of energy to go around. Frequent stops for the loo (drinking lots and lots of water to try and stave off hunger!). My stomach feels a bit odd. Sore. Bloated. Not quite right. I’m blaming it on the beans. Not used to eating beans every day, you know! And I’m cold. A lot. Which is not uncommon, I admit, but I’m having even more trouble than usual in keeping myself warm!

The strange thing that I can’t get my head around is that I’m still eating a lot. Or at least it feels like it should be. I’ve got 6 meals a day here people. For those genuinely living in extreme poverty, they reckon they’d have to survive on two small bowls of rice per day with some foraged greens thrown in. Me, I’ve got that, plus ¼ cup of beans, some lentils, a barley and vegetable soup, oats twice a day, a small banana, and an egg. But because I’m not having to pay for power, water, petrol, medicine, or anything else out of my $2.25 a day, I can eat like this. Someone living in extreme poverty every single day gets way less than I’m getting. I can’t imagine how that must affect them.

It’s hard to make rational decisions. I spend ages trying to make sure I’ve measured out the right amount of oats. I wonder if I should hang on for another half an hour before heating my soup, or whether I will be feeling ill by then.

Today, I survived working by foraging in the garden. Found two small mandarins. I can’t tell you how truly delicious they were! I ate them with a baby carrot. I’ve got some broccoli, carrot, and celery saved for dinner tonight and tomorrow night.

Today’s breakfast?  Same as every other day this week. Wholegrain oats with banana – the banana sliced as finely as I absolutely can to make it last as long as possible!

Lunch today?  Rice, greens, lemon juice, and egg. I’m loving lemon juice. It adds SO much flavour!

I’ve been planning Saturday morning’s breakfast since Tuesday! I was thinking of bacon and eggs. But I have now concluded that all that fat and deliciousness might be just a little too much for my body after having a diet with no fat for five days. Incidentally, that’s one area of concern with this diet. No fat. Nothing to store for later. Our bodies NEED a certain amount of fat to work properly. And what about nutrition as a whole? Over the course of five days I probably don’t have any major nutritional deficiencies. My body has hopefully got stores of most vitamins and minerals to last out these five days. So the things I am feeling now are all short-term issues: hunger, lethargy, not being able to keep warm, being grumpy, having trouble making decisions. Now put it into perspective and add: vitamin C deficiency, Iron deficiency, potassium, B-vitamins, protein, amino acids, and more.

Imagine living your ENTIRE life without ever actually getting what your body needs to function properly.

How hard it must be to study and succeed at school when you haven’t eaten breakfast. Or lunch. Or sometimes even dinner. And when you do, you are hungry again within the hour. I’ve given up on study tonight. I have an unfinished assignment that must be in the post on Monday. But tonight it is just too much for me. I can’t actually work out what to do next, let alone how to do it! So I will have to get up really early on the weekend to get things finished. At least then I can have eggs on toast to fuel all the brainwork that will be going on! Tonight, I am finding it hard enough to manage the washing, the dishes, and getting myself into bed. Ah, bed. How I long for bed!

Only one more day to go! I find myself wishing it were Saturday already.

Amy