Day 3 - The Hunger Games

Day 3 - The Hunger Games

Thursday's Menu

Breakfast: 50g of porridge with cut up plum

Lunch: Tesco Value cup a soup and 1 scrambled egg

Dinner: Vegetable Rissotto (75g  of rice, 1 onion, stock and 3 tbsp of mixed veg) with half a pack of Tesco's strawberry whip.

Tuesday's menu

Thursday was very challenging. I just couldn't fight the hunger. I woke up feeling painfully hungry, you know that hunger where you almost feel sick, and I just couldn't truly satisfy it at all for the rest of the day. 

It was porridge again for breakfast, to which, I added a cut up plum. I have a very sweet tooth, and so had struggled on Day 1 eating the sugarless plain porridge and water, to be honest I had found it quite disgusting. I decided to experiment with the few sweet things that I have in an attempt to glam up my breakfasts a little each day. I know adding a plum to porridge isn't a Heston worthy recipe but it did make my breakfast palatable and so gave me a better start to the day. I actually felt fairly satisfied after breakfast and although still a little hungry was feeling positive about the day ahead. 

Tempting Pastries

I spent my day sales shopping with two of my girlfriends. Hunger wise, I hadn't really expected to find the trip at all challenging. I had packed a litre bottle of squash incase I was thirsty. I quite often skip lunch when I'm really busy, and so, wasn't worried that I didn't take anything else with me to eat. At lunch time we popped into Greg's to get the girls a bite to eat. Did you know food smells 100 times more delicious when you can't have it? Normally I'm not fussed at all by Greg's, being wheat intolerant I avoid the majority of its food at the best of times. However, walking in today, I was attacked by the smells of freshly baked goods. Oh my goodness it was incredible, this greasy bakery suddenly smelt like a michelin star restaurant, at one point I had to stop myself from plunging my face into a shelf of freshly baked bread in an attempt to smell its deliciousness. The hunger monster reared its ugly head, it took all my self restraint not buy any one of the yummy treats the shop had to offer, forget the intolerance, all I wanted was a pastry. My stomach started dancing around screaming 'feed me, feed me'.

Free Hot water at Starbucks

There was no doubting it I was starving (obviously not literally), but at this point I was not going to let it consume me. The day was being spent with two great friends and I wasn't going to let this pesky hunger ruin our lovely day. We finished off with a trip to Starbucks, where I was the picture of self restraint drinking just a hot water (no illegal teas today - lessons have been learnt).

I arrived home at about 3pm, and I was ravenous. I ate lunch (a cup a soup and one scrambled egg), which was wolfed that down, but didn't seem to satisfy at all. My stomach was still dancing around with hunger. I couldn't understand it. I drank pints of water to try to try suppress it, which worked initially, but hunger reared its head once more half an hour later. I am ashamed to say that I began to feel quite sorry for myself. All I wanted was some food that wasn't yellow and actually filled me up.

On Thursdays I volunteer with a charity called Faith, going out on one of their nightly soup runs to the streets of Reading. I had initially planned to eat dinner at 10, after volunteering, meaning I didn't have to go to bed feeling hungry. However, as the evening drew near I became aware how grumpy I was being and how little I could concentrate. I knew dinner would sort this mood. How selfish would I  be then to wait till after volunteering to eat. Yes I wouldn't go to bed feeling hungry, but I could guarantee I would not be in a good head space for the soup run.  My concentration was failing and all I was thinking about was how hungry I felt. There was no way that I would be able to give the people we were reaching out to my all, feeling like this, and so I ended up cooking and eating dinner prior to the soup run. I'm not going to lie, I  left the house not feeling fully satisfied and still a little sorry for myself.

Whilst volunteering I got chatting to a girl (I will call her Sarah for the sake of the blog) who is currently living on the streets in Reading. She was telling me how she hadn't eaten anything at all since Tuesday, she hasn't got anywhere to live, and doesn't feel safe whilst asleep, so has not been sleeping at all. Unfortunately she arrived as we were packing up, all the sandwiches had been given out and all we could offer was a 'cup a soup' or a cup of tea. Nothing to fill her up.  This is when it hit me, 'how ridiculous I have I been today'. I had been complaining about how hungry I was to anyone who would listen, and feeling very sorry for my self. Yes I have been feeling very hungry and there is no doubt this month is going to be very challenging. However, what was I thinking feeling sorry for myself. I still have a roof over my head. I feel safe enough to sleep at night. I have still eaten three times each day and yes the portions are small and uninspiring but it still was food! I actually chose to do this challenge. Sarah hasn't chosen the streets, she didn't choose not eat for 2 days. Today has given me a reality check. I need to get over myself, every time I start to feel negative about the challenge, I need to remember why I  am doing this. I need to be joyful and thankful that for me this is just a challenge and not a reality. 

I would really appreciate any donation big or small that you might be able to offer. Please click here to be taken to my just giving page. 

Thank you.