Today is day three of my seven days on the Food Stamp Challenge. So far, so good.
Monday was pretty easy-breezy. I decided to stagger my allotted food for the day. Yogurt for breakfast, a cheese sandwich for lunch, a Special K bar for an afternoon snack to tide me over, and then a Boca burger with grilled onions and cheese on whole wheat bread for dinner.
Tuesday (National Hunger Awareness Day) was a bit more of challenge, mostly because of the temptation of “free” food (but there’s no such thing as a free lunch, right?). At our staff retreat on Tuesday, lunch was provided. The rules of the challenge state that one “should try to avoid accepting food at receptions, parties, friends’ homes, or your place of work.” So, I came prepared my yogurt breakfast and multi-grain penne pasta lunch. I actually felt pretty good because it meant I avoided eating the donuts provided for breakfast and the potato chips and cookies served with lunch (Hmmm, maybe we need to think about having healthier foods at our staff meetings!).
Later that night, I had my book club meeting—which, as folks who know me know, features the absolute best meal I eat every month. I’m fortunate to be in a book club with some excellent cooks and foodies. Generally, the hostess makes the entrée and the other participants sign up to bring beverages, appetizers, salads, bread, side dishes, and desserts. It’s always a delectable smorgasbord and last night was no exception.
However, I held firm and ate the brown bag cheese sandwich I had brought while I watched my friends devour hummus and vegetables, glasses of red wine, quiche, salad, some kind of yummy-looking spinach-peppers-mushroom combo, and three kinds of crusty bread. This was followed by homemade strawberry and rhubarb pie topped with two kinds of Ben & Jerry’s. Luckily, not much chocolate was involved, so I was again able to restrain myself and stick to my strawberry Special K bar for dessert (Saved from breakfast—I’m getting pretty good at rationing!).
Today, Wednesday, has been much easier. I had an early morning meeting where breakfast pastries were provided, but I was on the offensive again with my yogurt and Special K bar and managed to avoid eating a scrumptious-looking super-sized cinnamon role. For lunch, I brought pasta (again) and a cheese sandwich (again)—I had decided I was left a bit hungry the previous day and needed to double up on lunch. Lunch was actually quite enjoyable, but that was because I met a friend in the park for a picnic lunch and it was one of those glorious spring days without too much humidity!
So far, this exercise has reminded me:
- That there’s nothing like a challenge to motivate me. Since this week is really a simulation, it’s more a test of my will power than anything else. I’m not a person who’s ever been motivated to participate in fad diets for the purpose of weight loss. A challenge on the other hand, is a whole different story—particularly when it’s connected to raising awareness about one of the issues I’m most passionate about—poverty—and one of the organizations I’m most devoted to—Bread for the City (For more on my ties to Bread, please click here and read under "On Poverty".) And let’s face it, pride and shame are huge motivators. I agreed to blog about this experience, and who wants to have to admit failure publicly?
- How much, we (as in those of us who have plenty to eat and nearly constant access to food) tend to overeat. Eating a limited, rationed diet motivates you to eat when hungry, not just because it’s “lunch time” or because food is there. Though I don’t know, maybe if you’re truly hungry, you eat whatever’s available when it’s available because you don’t know where your next meal is coming from or when it might be? (As Sherell noted earlier today). I did have a debate with myself about whether to accept the free food offered on Tuesday, but my will power won over. A thought I had was, if I truly had limited access to food, wouldn’t I have eaten the three free meals offered and rationed my own supply to last another day?
- Just how much free food I have access to through my job. It’s tragically ironic that those who have the least resources likely have the least access to free prepared meals to supplement their diets, while those of us with comfortable incomes probably have food a little too available to us. Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not, shall lose?
- Just how much my social life seems to revolve around food. I’ve had to be a bit more creative about my social plans this week. Instead of going out to lunch, I made a date to meet a friend in the park. No happy hours, no dinner at a new restaurant I’ve been wanting to check out, no catching up over coffee. I have a friend I want to see this weekend and instead of dinner and a movie, it will be just a movie (I’m wondering if I qualified for food stamps, could I realistically afford the movie? Probably not.) Is this yet another way that poverty is isolating?
- How pretty freakin’ easy my life is compared to many people’s. I hardly think it’s a hardship for someone who eats well year round to engage in one week of restraint. Eating on a food stamp budget for one week is nothing compared to doing it year round. I ate just fine in the weeks leading up to the challenge and feel sure I’ll eat just fine afterwards. But can I even imagine what it would be like if I had limited access to food for weeks on end? If I actually had to endure hunger for long periods of time? How would this affect my health? My outlook on life?
And what if I were a single mother with children to feed and I thought they were going to bed hungry at night?
