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. 

Filling food

One of the new food items. Trace and I had a feast on these chicken nuggets yesterday. I felt as if I was coasting and the challenge was going easy. They tasted great, but when I looked into them they didn't even look comparable to your average fast food chicken nugget. It looked like the company used some kind of fillers. This is the type of food you get when you are purchasing groceries on a budget. You really get what you pay for. And that's a problem for so many people where they can't even have access to foods that are good for them due to financial reasons. 

Can't lie. They still tasted better than most things I had during the week. 

Caught em...

Caught a couple of my group members taking a kind exception to the rules. One of the conflicts in the rules was whether we are allowed to take free food handouts at school events. It was of much discussion in my group alone as well as the class as a whole. The argument that is usually raised is that people subject to hunger problems are not typically finding themselves in places where their school provides them with nice food... 

I don't want this to take away from the great job these guys have done this week. 

Happiness on a scale

Dalyan asked a couple of days ago if he was allowed to break the rules and have one piece of fruit a day. Trace and I in response had to explain how these foods are generally too expensive and not even of access to people living off food stamps. At walmart we somehow stumbled across an awesome deal of 49 cents for a pound of bananas. Six bananas then cost us only one dollar. Simply incredible. This is not something I expected but we were more than happy to realize that some healthy foods can be affordable. Maybe it's prime banana season right now, I'm not sure, maybe it isn't but either way we got a great deal that I hope people dealing with hunger across the US can capitalize on too. 

Things are looking up

As we were almost completely out of food, trace and I decided to go on a grocery run, finally, to keep our fight against this challenge going. We decided to pool our individual alottments, which were actually $23 not $22 like I said before, together. Dalyan also jumped in on this allowing us to have a total of $69 to work with. 

We journied to walmart and I have to say It was the most ecstatic I have been to go to a grocery store. With just under $70 to spend we quickly realized that we could afford a lot more than we were previously living off of. We were like kids at a candy store but instead we were grabbing cereal, milk, bananas, frozen chicken, bread and luch meets. Finally food with some substance. We even got ice cream sandwiches. Not only that but we still have $21 left to spend for Sundays food as this recent grocery run will only last us from today until Saturday night. 

With this new positive energy coming from this food, the group outlook is looking much better. Nicole made it known to me that she is not backing down. Trace and Dalyan are still remaining strong. It's looking pretty good for group huffle puff. 

The only reason that we are in this great position is because of the great budgeting and sacrifices we made during the begin it of the week. Those first three days were terrible as I recorded but because we planned on having more money for the latter half we are going to be able to survive the challenge. I almost feel like I am cheating with all this good grub we now have. 

Update on the IM soccer game:

I was very nervous that I was going to let the team down playing on an empty stomach but with the beautiful discovery of rice I was ok. I was able to come into the game with energy from a big meal of rice an soy sauce. Rice is an excellent cheap food option. 

Who needs warm breakfast.....

I decided to keep my trend going of eating food in the morning. I don't think I can say this time that I made breakfast. I don't even know if I could call what I ate breakfast; iced over pasta noodles. As our food supply is technically supposed to be used up by now (Monday - Wednesday), I am eating anything I can find. 

My group and I were supposed to refresh our resources last night with a trip to the grocery store but due to time conflicts no one could go... Nor did it sound like anyone really wanted to. Hopefully no one has broken the challenge in my group although based on the hanger (hungry anger) I saw last night, I don't really know what to expect right now. 

At the start of the week we pooled our money together to buy the initial items. With that only being around 29 dollars we have a lot of leftover funds. As I mentioned, we couldn't make it to the grocery store and the group attitude is rapidly declining. At this point in time I think it is necessary maybe to cut us all rogue. By this I mean allowing each group member to have their own budget. If we do this there is $22.14 availalable per person from here until Sunday night (4 days). I feel that I can make it without being hungry if I make the right choices. I may go buy a bulk amount of ramen and see how long I can live off of that or I may stick to the huge rice bag I just realized my group has. 

I was pretty excited to find  out that there was a bag of rice we hadn't tapped into. If you haven't tried it rice topped with sugar is a secret Chinese recipe. It's incredible. Looks like I will have to go borrow some sugar packets from Tyler's or 8:15. 

Hanger update:

So far not too angry today. I was right when I woke up. Besides that I just feel a general fatigue and sense of tiredness. Hopefully I can find a way to get some energy as I have a big IM soccer game tonight (first playoff game). 

Fondu on Christmas

My family has a special tradition of eating fondu for dinner on Christmas. This is my favorite meal of the year. Couldn't tell you how much I look forward to it. 

Well... This is how I feel about this undercooked, olive oil free pasta that is lathered in meat sauce without the meat. 

Washing it down with a rewarding glass of delicious water.