We made it!

After a long week I can proudly say we survived the food challenge. I really didn't think we would make it all the way when we were back in our hungry rage on Tuesday. Thanks to our incredible budgeting job from Nicole and Trace we were able to stick to our plan, allowing us more food for the second leg of the challenge. 

Trace, Dalyan and I celebrated last night with our last $22. In a unanimous decision, we enjoyed our final meal in style at Chipotle. I couldn't believe that we had saved enough money to buy a meal together. It goes to show you how important it is to team up and stick together in challenges such as this. As a collective group we were able to provide ourselves with the correct resources as well as a social system of incentives in which we would not want to fail and disappoint our peers. 

I think it goes without saying for me that I will not be looking at food the same way for a while. Thoughout this week, even when I was watching my friends eat, I would see how lucky we are for hunger to not be one of our everyday problems. I knew people struggled with hunger and I felt terrible about it yet I never really thought twice about it. I thought I was capable of being empathetic for victims of hunger. I was wrong. Barely eating for the first few days showed me how difficult it is to carry on a regular lifestyle. All you think about is how hungry you are which just brings your mood to the ground. I'm happy I did this challenge and experienced how unpleasant it can be because now I am capable of hopefully a little empathy for the people actually struggling with what I was challenged with...

Thanks to this challenge, I am beginning a new page today. I am going to work on eating three healthy meals a day. I am also going to try and make sure I get some exercise in. It goes to show you how this challenge has been an enlightenment to me me regarding my health. Knowing now that I am able to make sure it is not an issue of concern, I am going to keep it that way. If we are fortunate enough to eat decently well and when we want too, we should be responsible and gracious enough to take care of ourselves. 

One of my friends told my last year that the best knowledge is knowing you know nothing at all. This is so true when it comes to trying to imagine what it's like to be in someone else's shoes. We can try but we don't know what those shoes are like until we are actually in them.