Just Keep Swimming

Overall, I have enjoyed this project. It was fun seeing how much I can take away from myself and still survive. I have learned that I am able to still do my daily things only eating some rice, which really isn’t as much as I thought it was going to be in the beginning. I have also learned that I am one of the most stubborn people I know, I don’t give up once I say I am going to do something. Even though there were many days when I wanted to give up (kind of like today) and when my body needed food to get energy but I just keep on going telling myself I can do it. Which I can do and did. I now know what it is like to have hardly any food to eat and still have to go on with my normally life. I kind of thought that I would get to not do as much as I did while eating normally but time doesn’t stop or slow down just for me. The world I guess doesn’t just go around me and my wants and needs. I still had to walk to school, unload the dish washer, clean my bathroom and attended all of my classes. There were many days when I just wanted to go home and not talk to anyone but I had to get over that because everything in this world just keeps going so I needed too. I don’t know how people in third world countries do this every day for their whole life. I would probably at some point get used to it but it would be hard to go on every day hardly eating. I need food in me to keep warm in the winter months and to help me keep up my energy so that I am able to sit in class and not sleep. Food in any culture is important but I think in our culture it is more important than others. We need food for parties, for snacking, and really for staying warm. But in Africa they don’t need food to stay warm but food to help their bodies stay strong so that they can go on with their daily lives. That means they won’t be eating as much as we would be over here, but at the same time I still think we eat way to much then waste way, way too much.

The Last Supper

Today is it. I am finished tonight at midnight, I did think about staying up until then and once the clocked changed to November 1^st I would start eating. But that seems a little crazy and like I am completely focused on food. Which I am not, this project so to understand what it’s like not to have food so I am going to wait until breakfast comes and then eat. Tonight is my last supper of rice and stir fry. I still like rice but only with sauce and other things than the normal stir fry I have had.

The last day I thought would be the easiest but it’s not. I am hungry and have been counting down so my body knows that it is the last day and that I will get to eat again. So it is calling out for food and I am very tired. I had energy yesterday but today that was all taken from me. I am just wanting to sleep the whole day away and not do anything. However, I cannot do that since I have school today.

Breakfast, Lunch and Supper

Yesterday my parents and I went out to Strasbourg for breakfast with some super great friends. They had pancakes, blueberries and bacon while I watched them only drinking water. For lunch we went to the farm and I got to eat, there was rice and many other things I would have loved to stuff my face with but I didn’t since it was my second last day! By supper time we were still at the farm so we stayed for supper as well. Then I really got to eat, there was chicken, peas, carrots, potatoes and of course RICE. It was a wonderful day and it really didn’t bug me to be watching others eat good food while I was still with rice and water. Probably because I know it is coming to an end very quickly, today is my last day. Plus it’s Halloween!

During the whole day, I was being asked if I was okay watching people eat and for me it has become a reality. My family at home and friends at school eat in front of me all the time. If I hadn’t become okay with it, I most likely wouldn’t have made it all month only eating rice but since I am very stubborn and determined there was nothing else for me to do but live with it. Now that this is almost over I realize that I have become even more determined and probably a little bit more stubborn (if that’s even possible). If I am going to do something I am going to do it right and as best I can. There is a poster in one of my class rooms that says – If you have time to do it once poorly, then you have time to do it again right. That is so true for me, I don’t want to do something not to the best of my ability then have to go back and do it over again. (Mum please realize I am not talking about vacuuming or unloading the dish washer right now)For the amount of time it took me to do something poorly, it would have taken me the same amount of time to do it right the first time. That is what I am going to try even harder to do now, everything right the first time so that I don’t disappoint anyone else but really so that I don’t disappoint myself most. I haven’t disappointed myself with this adventure, I am very proud of myself for going a whole month only on rice. Not many people I live around could say they have done that.

There's a Light

The end is in sight, only 3 days away now. But this past week has went by just a little slower than most weeks since I am counting down the days until I can eat again. I have planned out what I am going to do on November 1 and then re-planned it many times, just so that I have the best first day back ever. This month will stick with me forever, never to be forgotten.  I know or at least pretty sure that my stomach has gotten smaller, how much smaller? I am not sure but I probably will not be able to eat as much as I could have before. Frankly I am kind of alright with that. I am a snacker but now my snacks can be more healthy because I have tried all these yummy veggies. I am beyond excited about this being over, I know that it was a good thing I was doing but it’s wasn’t the most fun thing I could have done for a month. There were many other things I could have done for my spiritual growth project but of course I chose one that is strange and different.

Some things I have learned during this month is that the amount of food we eat and get in restaurants is way too much. Our portions are more than enough for one person, but our culture tells us that we have to eat that much and that it’s normal. However, for most of the world it is not normal to eat so much and waste so much food. I made it through most of my day on two average size bowls of rice; getting protein at supper was truly a blessing. By supper I was getting hungry and needed something to help me stay strong and alive. But again it wasn’t a mass amount of protein, just enough to get by until morning for my next bowl.

Hello Again

So it is coming to an end. I only have this week left to get through. But I think with the ending of this it’s almost as if I am a baby about to learn how to eat again. Learn what it’s like to have real whole food.  After mainly a whole month without it, there is something strangely exciting about eating. Not only because I have missed my food but because during this time I have tried many new foods and wonder what my eating habits will be like once I can eat again. Will I snack as much? Will I eat as much at each meal? All of the what if’s are getting into my mind and making me super curious.

Last night was hard. There was no reason for it to be hard. It just was. I wanted food and am getting tired of not being able to eat. I just want food. I think it would be easier if I was actually not able to eat, like if I had some disease where I wasn’t allowed too. That would make this way easier but then again I would probably never get to eat again after that so maybe not.

Always Snacking

October first came as a bit of a surprise to me. I had been writing up my proposal for my rice eating adventure. However, I still hadn’t put that much thought in to it. At least not as much thought as I would have like walking into a month of only rice. I should have had a plan, with saying that I don’t mean I wasn’t prepared because I was fairly prepared just not in the right way. I was physically prepared, as in my fridge had the right kind of food in it and ready for me to eat, but I wasn’t as mentally ready, as I should have been. I hadn’t thought it through and done enough research to feel prepared and really know what I was getting myself into. But thankfully I can come up with reasons and thoughts about this adventure fairly quick when asked ‘what I was doing and why I was doing it’. Now with only 10 days left, I know exactly what I need to say to people when asked about my rice. But with saying all that, I do feel like I have learned things.
Firstly, I would NEVER give up my food again (now, that I have said that I probably will at some point). Anyways, the amount of food people in third world countries eat is actually a lot of food. It is plenty for me to eat. But we, as in North America, eat so much and are always snacking. Food is a must with everything we do. It’s kind of like we find food we want to eat then plan our events around the food. To me now, that is very sad. Not everything needs food; we don’t need to always be eating.
Secondly, my family and I have actually saved quite a bit of money with only buying the little food I need and the amount of food my parents need to eat. Our fridge is not as full and neither are any of our cupboards. This is a good life style change and it’s actually possible. Before this I would have never thought I can go without eating after school, between classes and whenever I am bored.  But now I know I can. I know I can live off of only three meals a day and they don’t have to be crazy big meals either. They are smaller amounts than I would normally eat but still healthy and satisfying.
I have been eating other peoples meals for 19 days now and can now understand why we shouldn’t waste food. After eating the same food over and over again, it can get fairly boring. When we waste food, it is like telling someone in a different place that we are better than them and have the right because of where we live or who’s family we are in that we don’t have to finish. But honestly, we should always finish our meals because you never know when something might happen where it could be your last real meal.

The Movies

Saturday and Sunday were both easy days. I just sat at home hanging with my brother, watching movies and doing homework. I wasn’t hungry but that’s probably because I was busy thinking about other things. But I did get a lot of homework done thankfully.

Many people have told me that the first few days of fasting are very hard but after you get past that it’s not bad at all. I am guessing it is the same for me and giving up most of my food but rice. After the first week was over, I was fine. My body has adjusted and no hunger pains. For that reason I think I would probably be very good at fasting since my body had an aright time adjusting for this.

The rest of this week has also been very easy. It’s as if I have been doing this my whole life. Like its normal the amount I am eating. However, for me normally it is not. But I guess my body has just made the changes it needs so that I will survive. Many people also have told me that I lost weigh but frankly I don’t think so we will find out at the end when I weigh myself again what has actually happened in my body over this past month.
I have started a count down. There are only 10 days left. Since I had already planned to go to Saskatoon and visit a friend or two. This means I will be taking Friday lunch through Saturday lunch off.  It will be a nice break to get me through the last 9 days. I am getting more and more excited every day for November 1. I have big plans for that day, it will be great.