Today I’m tired. I woke up with hunger pangs, more than usual. At 6:30am I had quite a big breakfast since I had such a big day of school ahead of me. Two fried eggs, two pieces of toast and oats with yogurt and banana. I only have one banana left after today but since it’s almost the weekend I thought I would eat my last bananas on Monday. I want to eat high energy fruit on school days. I will go without fruit over the weekend. It was hard to figure out what to pack for lunches and snacks as I was uninspired by everything I have. I’m growing tired of the chili since it’s quite bland, but I packed it for lunch because it was ready and I was in a hurry. My breakfast kept me satisfied through class, but I was worried about how to plan my snacks. I could only take chickpeas and one carrot for snack since they are both are running out and I want to eat at least one vegetable a day for the rest of the week. I was able to wait until noon to have my chickpeas and carrot. By then I was very hungry.

I was able to wait until just around 2pm before eating my lunch. I wanted to hold off as long as I could so that I wouldn’t get too hungry before dinner. I’ve been trying to have my dinners closer to bed time so that I’m not too hungry throughout the night. Lunch today has been the lowest point so far. It was an emotional experience, sitting at a desk at school, eating my chili and thinking about how much planning had gone into the timing of my meals so that I would not end the day uncomfortably hungry. It was only 2pm and up until that point the only thing that had been on my mind was what to eat, how to eat it and when. The fear of being hungry is all consuming, and I can only imagine, a debilitating concern. It should not be this way for anyone.

I haven’t been biking to school as I normally do since I am concerned about expending too much energy. My bike ride to school is about 45 minutes, which is a lot considering I’m not even getting my baseline calorie, macronutrient and micronutrient needs. This is a noticeable and unwelcome change in my lifestyle, since biking is my exercise and the fresh air is my escape from the busy day.

My roommate Kaleigh is taking the challenge with me, so it was nice to get home tonight and eat dinner together, and chat about the week so far. We made breaded perch (breaded with the stale bread we bought), plain brown rice and half a carrot each.  Collectively, between the two of us, we have $3 left. We are going to look for some peanut butter tonight. The sweetness, protein and fat will be a nice change.

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