Day 5

Confession time!

My birthday was last Saturday. One of the presents I got was a big jar of chocolate-covered raisins. I received other snacky presents because everyone knows I'm a snacky person. But these raisins have been sitting out in our dining room the whole week because my wife believed me when I said on Tuesday that I would be fine if she leaves them out.

So this afternoon, when I decided that I was too tired and cranky to take my daughter to one more place (Hey, she's the one who woke me up at 4:15am and then 6:30am on a Saturday), I ate a handful of choclate-covered raisins to bring me back up. I figured, "If I was poor, people would still buy me things for my birthday." Right?

Otherwise, I've stuck to the Challenge. The chicken/shredded carrot/Ramen noodle concoction was eaten for lunch on Friday. It was okay except 1) I didn't heat it long enough, and 2) the carrot flavor was surprisingly strong. Today I made another batch with just the chicken and noodles. I'll eat that one of these nights for dinner. My other lunches have been the same yummy PB&J on a bagel with a piece of fruit. I have one more banana and one more apple. Dinner each night has been chicken with a carrot and either a potato or noodles. I have one potato and one Ramen package left, not counting the noodles I have cooked with the chicken. I have two chicken breasts remaining. Well, I think they're chicken. The "breast" I ate last night was so large and so flat that I had to wonder what kind of chicked it was. If someone were to come in and test the DNA of that meat, I would not be surprised in the least if the result came back as "turtle" or somesuch.

Saturday is traditionally known in our household as "Donut Day". That is the day when daddy goes to the store in the morning and gets pastries for everyone. For some time now I am the only one who ever gets a donut(s), but my daughter insists on calling it Donut Day, regardless. I spent $0.65 of my money on a maple fritter. That leaves me with $0.20. You could say that I spent that much on the raisins, but I have no idea how much such things cost on a per ounce basis.

Sometime around Thursday, I started anticipating what I would eat when this challenge was over - Where would I go out to eat? What will I order? How many shakes from Steak 'n' Shake could one person safely consume in a single day? Then I wondered how poor people handle it. When there is nothing to anticipate, do you just accept your fate or do you become increasingly frustrated? It's probably different for each person. But I'm guessing that the knowledge that I can and will buy whatever I want in the near future makes it easier to get through this week.

I had a weird observation, too. One of the days I was running around and picking up food drives, I had a sense of burning "clean" energy in my system. Does that make sense to anyone? I eat fruits ocassionally, but not every day. And I certainly do not eat Total every day. I would normally eat high-fat or high-calorie snacks. Could I feel different that quickly? On another note, one day our warehouse staff told me the weight I had picked up from one site where the donations had been collected loose in grocery carts causing me to handle every little bag or single can as I loaded our van: over 1,300 pounds! Sounds incredible, but there were at least seven overflowing grocery carts and I know it completely filled a 5' high tote (one of those giant cardboard boxes that sits squarely on a pallet) in our warehouse. Yeah, I got a bit of a workout this past week.