Rice and Beans Days 6 & 7...

It is early Sunday morning and my week of rice and beans is over. After I finish this blog I will eat a cup of yogurt for breakfast, the first breakfast and the first food other than rice and beans that I have eaten in a week. I might even enjoy a cup of tea with honey. I am looking forward to today…

Aside from the angry dreams I had my sleep Friday night into Saturday morning, yesterday, my last rice and beans days, was a good day. I felt alert, had energy and generally had a positive outlook on the day. I don’t think anyone watching me would have known that I was concluding the final day of 6-day subsistence living fast eating only 500 calories a day and drinking only water.

I have so many thoughts and reflections running through my mind:

• Breaking the fast on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, was intentional and has deposited a joyous spirit within me…
• Angry dreams, very unusual for me; what might be going on underneath the surface and thoughts God seems to be sharing within me about it…
• The gift of food and delight of variety, I have a better sense of why the Israelites might have grumbled in the desert. I am hoping that Thanksgiving Day has a different, more truly thankful feel to it…

I will flesh these thoughts out possibly today and certainly later this week as I continue this blog for a while. But for now I want to savor my yogurt, send my time in devotionals & prayer, and prepare for worship in a few hours…

Blessed be the name of the Lord,

Blessed be the name of the Lord,

Blessed be the name of the Lord, most high!

Friday, Day 5 of Rice and Beans Week…

Newsflash for Greenwich locals, copies of the book, Too Small to Ignore, will be available at the PCOG Women’s Christmas Tea, Saturday Dec 4^th… Tremendous read on many levels. I will return to more thoughts on the book after chronicling my rice and beans week.

I think I spoke to soon, when I blogged yesterday. Today, Friday, did not continue on the high of yesterday. In the middle of the night, my wife who is also enjoying the rice and beans diet woke up not feeling well. And for the next whatever minutes I lay there wondering if it was from the diet, that clicked over to a trail of thoughts about what parents or spouses in hungry malnourished households dream about. I lay there wondering how I would feel if I couldn’t provide enough food for my family. It was not a restful time…

I woke tired and I felt a little light headed most of the day. I accomplished my days to do list, but I could tell that I wasn’t sharp. Living on subsistence diet even for 6 days is tougher than I anticipated.

I managed a light workout after work, which went fine, but I didn’t come close to pushing myself. Back home, I was hungry. Dinner dampened my hunger, but the lack of variety, no fun. I still was feeling a little lightheaded.

Later that evening I sat to watch a little TV, and I wished for some popcorn and something to drink other than water. I guess I am spoiled, I like variety.

Only one day to go… hooray.

Thursday, Day Four of Rice and Beans Week…

Before I write about my yesterday, let me point you to a list of scriptures that I have compiled revealing God’s heart for the poor (click this link for verses)

Wednesday seems as if it was hump day. I felt much better on Wednesday than the two days before. The gnawing hunger seems to be satiating. I felt good at the gym and did a complete workout - I am still loosing weight down 4-5 pounds now. And I don’t think this is water weight loss because I am drinking much more water than normal.

Throughout the day, I continued to feel good. I was able to concentrate at work and accomplish much. I suspect that my experience is similar to those who have been on extended fasts. Apparently, around 2-3 days into a fast you cross a line and your body resets to another normal.

BTW I am in no way advocating this kind of a diet or a fast for weight loss. That would be incredibly unhealthy. I am trying to image what happens when people do not have enough food. At first, assuming you are healthy before your food source disappears, the human body sustains its life on its stored up reserves. But once those reserves are gone malnutrition and all manner of related health conditions set in. I just keep thinking 800 million people, half of them children, live on a diet that is less than what their bodies need…

I keep repeating Bob’s Pierce’s prayer: Lord break my heart with the things that break yours.

Surely preventable poverty is a heart-breaker for God.

Wednesday, Day Three of Rice and Beans Week…

Yesterday was day 3 of this crazy subsistence diet. I felt so much better after my 9-hour night’s sleep. Up at the normal time and after putting our beans for Thursday – Saturday in the Crockpot I headed to the gym. My work out started well. I felt strong… but by the end I was exhausted. I couldn’t complete my final cardio workout. This is highly unusual for me.

Could a subsistence diet affect strength and endurance after only two days? If it did, how do the millions of chronically hungry people work? (Stepping on the scale I have lost 2-3 pounds... maybe it can affect your strength and endurance that quickly.)

The day was mostly uneventful, but there was lots of food talk in and around the office and at staff meeting… It seems that this subsistence diet has many of us thinking about food more than usual.

Then as if God wanted to inject a little levity into my life, I spied a post from my son in Germany on his Facebook page: 7 euro for all you can eat at Burger King... I ate 2 double steakhouse burgers, 1 whopper, 3 king chicken nuggets, 2 king fries, onion rings, an ice cream and 3 cokes... gained 2 kg (4.5 lbs)... and feels great!

I couldn’t resist, I went to the Burger King website and calculated the that he ate 4620 calories not counting the ice cream!… 1600 more than I will eat all week!

By the time dinner rolled around at 7 pm I was HUNGRY!!! Although bland, the beans and rice satisfied my hunger and I enjoyed a movie with my wife. A good day all in all.

Tuesday, Day Two of Rice and Beans Week…

The day didn’t start very well. I have been exhausted the last few weeks so pushed snooze and slept in an extra hour and a half, skipping the gym. Unfortunately I had some wild dreams that caused my extra sleep to be restless. I don’t recall the dream particulars (probably wouldn’t tell if I did) but I will admit that I was angry -very angry- in my dreams. I can’t say that minimal food for one day caused my angry wild dreams, but it does make me wonder…

The day itself was pretty normal, although I must admit that there is a LOT more food talk going on with those of us on the Rice and Beans diet. I am thinking that food is on our minds more than usual.

My wife and I had dinner together about 5:30… hmmm rice, beans and water. We did, however, enjoy some good conversations about things other than our food.

I planned to do some house chores that evening while my wife attended a meeting. But I was so tired. I bagged the chores and took a hot tub instead. Ahhh. I read for a bit and then slipped down into the hot water… there are 45 minutes I cannot account for. I suspect I fell asleep. I went straight from the tub to bed. I never heard my wife come home, which was only 15 minutes after I climbed beneath the sheets.

Is anyone else feeling more tired that usual?

I wonder if my 500 calorie/day diet is behind my tiredness, or is it exhaustion from my last two weeks, or no caffeine? I don’t know, but it has me thinking…

Day One of Rice and Beans Week…

Day 1 was a bit harder than I anticipated. First thing I did was to remove as much temptation as I could. I cleared our kitchen counters of fruit, which I froze; all other items were squirreled away in our pantry hoping out of sight meant out of mind.

Then I set to cooking the beans, which had been soaking all night in our refrigerator per instructions. Now they needed to be rinsed and cooked… 4-6 hours in a crockpot! I never realized it took so long to cook beans. I tried to imagine how much more work it would be if I were cooking them over a wood fire! I cooked our beans for the first half of the week.

Next I measured out 1.5 cups of rice, the daily portion for 2 people, and cooked it. Easy 20-minutes and ready to eat. Then came my first emotional disappointment. My wife and I reserve Monday as our day and we typically begin with a leisurely breakfast. Somehow rice a small dollop of rice changed the entire meal dynamic.

As Monday continued I found I was thinking about food much more than usual, wondering how the week would go and what it would be like by Friday eating only rice and beans all week. It wasn’t so much that I was hungry, it was the loss of variety that I was thinking about.

Lunch and dinner meal times were virtually nonexistent, since it only took 5 minutes to eat the small bowl of rice and beans.

Looking back over my day, I missed mealtime connections with my wife. Monday escalated this learning for me since we routinely eat leisurely meals and talk about everything. I was surprised how important the actual meal is for me in setting the atmosphere for these connection times.

A bit of laughter…

Yesterday ‘Rice and Beans’ Sunday came and about 80 PCOG-ers picked up their bags with 4.5 cups of rice and half-pound of beans for the week. Hmm... rice and beans for the week!

Susan picked up our two bags and suggested that we go out for lunch. We met at Panera Bread about 45 minutes later. As we cued in the line, I ordered a cup of soup and a half-sandwich… I scanned the list and choose black bean soup… ?!?

When I picked up our meals and sat down my choice of lunch hit me… I had ordered beans! Black bean soup, what was I thinking? All I could do is sit there and chuckle…