Day 4 of the Food Stamp Challenge - a new twist
It's Day 4 of the Challenge, and I'm home sick from work today. I'm laying on the couch, bored, and thinking about what I can eat. I have about an hour before it would be reasonable to break into my lunchmeat, but, again, that oatmeal just didn't do it for me this morning.
I know this isn't really about hunger, rather the choices people have to make. Being used to having pretty much whatever I want whenever I want is hard to get over, though. What I'm realizing is that, for me, the hardest choice is to not waste money on snacks. Take a look at what I bought so far, and you'll notice something missing - snacks!
Well, ok, there are those cookies, but like I said - I consider those a critical part of my personal nutrition pyramid. I guess that's a great example of a conscious choice I made. I could have gotten another crown of broccoli for the same price, but cookies are what make me human.
Before I get too dramatic, let me get back to the point. Since this began I've been going back and forth each night between turkey burgers and spaghetti. It seems to be enough food but is it the right food? Just eating spaghetti last night left me hungry - lack of protein? Usually I go into the grocery store and get pretty much whatever looks good at the moment. I end up wasting plenty of food since I seem to be unable to accurately estimate how much of any given fruit or vegetable I can eat before it spoils. But, even though it's wasteful I am able to get a wide variety in my diet. I'm realizing that for many people that variety within a week isn't cost-efficient.
I think I'll spend this time at home today thinking through how to spend my last few dollars.
I hope you feel better soon...
There seems to be a cold bug going around the office, and timing could not be worse. Good nutrition helps support a healthy immune system, and there are close to 20 people in our office who've taken some serious shortcuts for this challenge. I'm not surprised to hear you're not feeling well, and it will not surprise me to see several more of us getting sick this week, which makes me think of the things my mom would encourage me to do when I'm sick... drink lots of organge juice, eat some homemade chicken soup, etc. All of which are not in this week's budget, and are likely not an option for food insecure households.
Evidently, this budget does not allow for snacking, though, interestingly, the USDA sample menus do include and recommend healthy snacks as part of a balanced diet.
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