day seven.

I'm not hungry.

At least, I don't feel hungry.

Really, I don't feel hungry or thirsty.... but I've learned that headaches mean I'm thirsty, and today I learned that grumpiness means I'm hungry.

I also for the first time understood how people feels when they say something like "just take these cookies away from me, get them out of my sight". For as long as I can remember, that idea has been foreign to me. Tonight, at the party, with chicken wings, mountain dew, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, cheeseburgets, bratwursts, and more delicious items, I finally understood. Just being in the same room was difficult. I couldn't sit near it - the smells were overwhelming. I didn't feel particularly hungry, but I longed to taste that familiar food, flavors. Most of what I eat is relatively flavorless - rice, oatmeal, bread. It adds an interesting dimension to the experiment - people in impoverished countries don't have the ability to take multivitamns, but they don't have the same temptation that living in the USA gives.

In fact, many times, those people are happier, more satisfied with their lives, in my experience. When I was in Peru, we visited the city dump. There were children living in the dump, whose parents and grandparents also lived there. Three generations at least, if not more. These people were literally born in the city dump, and had never seen life outside those few square miles. We talked to them about Jesus, and about life outside of the dump. They were completely uninterested, and said that all they needed was Jesus and the life they had. They got all their food from picking through the trash, and build shelter from barrels and pieces of cardboard.

it's hard to miss something you've never had.

Another interesting thing so far has been people's responses. I've gotten messages of encouragement, bible verses, offers of food and other items. It's all nice, really, but in the end I still have all the food I need, a warm bed, and a Macbook Pro. :)

But on a more serious note, that brings up something that's been bothering me a lot since I've started this. Seeing food go to waste breaks my heart. True, you can't realistically ship a slice of pizza to starving children in africa, but you can save it and eat it another day, thus saving money that would otherwise be spent on food that day. And that money can be collected and given to the poor, the victims of injustice.

Finally, today I baked bread. It was delicious. Here is a picture:


It's only enough for about 3 sandwiches, where the publix loaf made 11, but that's great since it goes stale sooner without all the preservatives.

I can't believe I'm a quarter of the way through this!

Today:
1 pkg ramen - 380 calories, 10g protein
1/2 cup rice - 300 calories, 6g protein
1/4 cup peas 90 calories, 9g protein
1 tbsp spread, 70 calories
1 PB&J sandwich - 410 calories, 14g protein
total: 1250 calories, 39g protein