teagantromsness-blog

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Post Challenge Reflection

Reflecting back on this week I have learned that food plays such a huge role in my life. After going back to my normal diet today, I realized just how much more energy I got when I was able to snack a little throughout the day and start the day off with a coffee. I have learned that food affects everyone emotionally, physically, mentally, and socially.

There have been times in the week where I have felt the emotional effects of reducing my food intake. It may have been because of the lack of caffeine, but it was more likely to be the change in food, which caused me to not want to be around anyone and everything that anyone said to me I reacted to negatively.

Physically I have felt so unmotivated to leave my house. Part of that may have been due to the social isolation and distancing from COVID-19, but it took a lot to get me to move around my house and do anything. I did not have any energy to do any exercise or be creative.

Mentally, I have felt that my school work was affected by the lack of food that I had because there were tie in the week where I was just so unmotivated to do any schoolwork and I would just sit there on my computer and try to find anything I wound not have to work hard to do or even anything that would require much thinking. Even on my nightly blog posts I could feel that there were days where I had nothing to say, and other days where I had more to say and I could think of more creative things to talk about.

The social effects of being on this challenge was the biggest challenge for me. I didn’t want to be around anyone because I was eating differently from what everyone else was eating. I didn’t want to know what anyone was eating and I didn’t want to be around anyone else that could buy whatever they wanted to eat and not worry about what they were spending on their food.

I now realize that those who go through such a thing every day are probably those people that we see as alone in society. They go through so much because they don’t have as much food as I do. I know that when I was doing this challenge that I was inconstant worry about what I was going to eat and how I was going to make my money stretch so that I could eat smartly. I knew that if I was going to spend time around others that I would feel bad about my food compared to what others eat. I know that I would be judged for not being to buy a coffee or a bag of chips, even though it is only $1.50. Those who live on a welfare diet are also probably those that struggle to get ahead in their school work. Food is so important for brain functioning. One article that I read throughout the week stated that “dietary manipulations are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities and protecting the brain from damage”. Those that live on such a small budget for food need to spend it carefully that they are actually not going to get the nutrients that they need. Without the essential nutrients, the average brain will not be able to achieve higher level functioning and will not be able to excel in their education.

This challenge forever changed the way that I thing about others around me. I cannot be judgemental about how I see others in society and around me. I cannot be the person to judge why someone is or isn’t getting a coffee when all of their friends are. Everyone has different things going on in their lives and they might need to spend their money on coffee that week, while others might spend it on something special at the store. I know that if I had normal classes this week that I would have been looked at differently because I would have been eating so differently from everyone around me. I also would have spent less time around other people because I know that they would have offered me food or said “hey let’s go get a coffee”, which I would have had to decline because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. I also would have been looked upon differently because coffee is a very social thing, and a lot of times social events happen around food. It would have been a very isolating week if it was normal.

Therefore, this week has been full of learning for me personally. I do not think that I have ever been through such a challenge where it felt like everything was drained from me. It will be something that I will bring with me for the rest of my life!

Gómez-Pinilla, F. (2008, July). Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805706/

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Day 7 - March 23rd, 2020

Well, today is the final day of this challenge. It is almost sad as it comes to an end, yet I am glad that I get to eat my normal food tomorrow.

For breakfast today I had the last maple oatmeal from the variety pack, along with the last of the yogurt. I am sort of surprised that the yogurt lasted me all week. At the start of the week I was worried that I was taking too much with each serving. I ended up having the biggest serving today, though, so that was a nice surprise! I realize that if I was living on welfare, that I most likely not have been able to afford to put oats on my yogurt, so that was a luxury this past week.

For lunch I finished off my loaf of bread and since the slices were so small I had peanut butter toast with my carrot and hard-boiled egg. I figured that that would have been a smart way to stretch the food that I had. Since I could not spend any money for anything else, and one of the pieces was a half the size of a normal piece of bread. At the end of it all, I had half a jar of peanut butter left. If I had only this much money for food each week, I would use this extra few dollars that I saved from not needing to buy a new jar to buy some more veggies or maybe some meat for the nest week.

For dinner again I had spaghetti noodles and beans. I ended up having my last egg as a snack in the middle of the afternoon so my supper was not the biggest. Plain pasta is so boring. I didn’t quite realize how tasteless and bland it was until today when I was eating it with the beans and I wanted to taste more of the beans than the pasta. I practically inhaled my food just so that I would not have to spend extra time tasting it. The noodles were so small that I could practically swallow them. I am so happy that today was my last day of this challenge because tomorrow I will finally be able to eat food that has some resemblance of flavour again!

Honestly though, this challenge has taught me so much about food and what I need to eat to get through the day, and what it takes to eat on only a budget of $21. From my research, for one adult living on their own they get $147 per month for food alone in Alberta. That breaks it down to $34.30 a week in a 30 day month. I got that number from the Income Support portion of the Government of Alberta website. I thought that it was interesting that they provided a number for those that need food alone. They also broke it down for household with two adults and how much is added for each child. I also thought that it was interesting that the government had a section for those that need money for just food. However, you have to be applicable, of course, which could take a while to process for income support. And for those that need more help than just food, there are different charts for what each individual would be applicable for. I had never looked into it before, so it was interesting to look into and learn about the different types of support for those on income support.

Income Support – What you get. (2019, January 1). Retrieved from https://www.alberta.ca/income-support-what-you-get.aspx

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Day 6 - March 22nd, 2020

Well I discovered today that I have the biggest bags underneath my eyes because of this challenge. I got a good 9 hours of sleep last night, yet when I smile it looks like I have been up for the last 5 nights. I didn’t realize the toll that the lack of food had on my physically until I took a good look in the mirror. I know that I was definitely feeling extra tired today but I had assumed that it was because I slept in and didn’t do much today. Now I think it is because the lack of nutritious food is finally catching up with me. I decided to research that today, because I was interested in the link between diet and sleep, and I came across something really interesting. From the Sleep Foundation, I discovered that “the psychological manifestations of fatigue, sleep and hunger are similar. Thus, when you’re feeling sleepy you might feel like you need to head for the fridge instead of bed”. I thought that was very interesting. Upon further research, I discovered that the Hypothalamus controls both sleep and hunger in the brain. So I figure that my body is accepting the fact that I am eating less, but my brain has not. Therefore, my brain says ‘well you’re not getting enough food so maybe let’s sleep instead’. So my hypothalamus is actually the reason that I have bags underneath my eyes, and not the fact that I ‘only’ got 9 hours of sleep last night. I mean, that is more sleep that I am used to getting on any normal day so that could affect why I felt more tired today. I think the more likely reason was that I have not have very nutritious food this week and not very much of it, so my body is deciding that I want to sleep more since I am not giving it any more food.

For breakfast today I went back to the maple oatmeal. I realized that the maple oatmeal is bigger than the apple oatmeal today. Like there was more oats in the bag, not just adding more water. I was sort of mad that they would do that to me. Because if I am going to get the variety kind of oatmeal, you would think that I would want it all to be the same amount, right? I guess not! Let’s give them less of the one that they are going to like more, so that they will buy more of the one that they like more, and they will buy that one more overall as they discover that they could have more of the oatmeal! Whatever. I still have one maple oatmeal left so I’ll finish off the week with that one and have a ‘bigger’ breakfast with that and an egg. The yogurt was also really good today. I added some more of the spices from the cinnamon spice oatmeal and it went really nice.

For lunch today I had a peanut butter sandwich with carrots and a hard-boiled egg. Surprise surprise! The sandwich is good, because it is normal and filling. But the pieces of bread are getting smaller as I get to the end of the loaf. But that is what happens when you only have $21 to spend on groceries. You get the same thing all day every day. The carrot is the only vegetable that I get in my day, so it is nice having it at lunch because then it is in the middle of the day, and hopefully would give me some energy for the afternoon.

For dinner I had fusilli pasta with an egg and the rest of the soybeans. The soybeans were really crunchy today, but I think that is because I re-heated them without any water or anything in them. The egg is good with dinner because that gives me the protein that I am used to having with my dinner to get me through the rest of the night. I am not tired of pasta yet! But I think that is because I change the shape of the pasta every night, so I am eating something ‘different’ each night. I highly recommend having different shapes of pasta every night so that you don’t get tired of it. Because if I had spaghetti every night, I would be sick and tired of it. The style of grain that makes up the pasta is the same, though, so it is getting really bland because there is hardly any ‘sauce’ to go with it.

Today was a day of just getting through it. I got through the day, and I got through some of my school work, but not as much as I wanted to. Once I go back to eating what I normally eat, I know that I will have plenty of energy to get it all done! For now though, I shall drink my water and wait until morning to have my somewhat bland oatmeal

Nutrition, Exercise & Sleep. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/diet-exercise-and-sleep

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Day 5 - March 21st, 2020

Today surprisingly felt like it was just another normal day where I wasn’t on this diet. I did not feel any social or mental impacts from the food so that is a good thing. However, I believe that the reason that I feel normal is not due to the fact that it is day 5, although it does play a part in it, but due to the fact that I have not left my house in 4 days. The only time that I left my house was to go to the grocery store for some beans. Thank you, COVID-19. I know that grocery stores as of Tuesday had pretty much no food that was cheap or long-lasting by the time that I got there. Thanks to the many people stock-pilling food ‘just in case’ I know that many are going to feel the effects of that when they go grocery shopping. I read an article today where the authors said that “Most of the 40.6 million people living in poverty in the US have no savings to weather a lack of income, and even stocking up on food can represent an impossible financial hurdle”. I felt this when I was at the store the other day. I know that I did not have enough money to buy enough for the week, let alone buy any extra food for next week. Or buy anything in bulk that I normally would have considered a good deal. It has been an amazing experience doing this challenge this week and seeing how the world has been responding to the pandemic. It is only making me think about the challenges that those who have less than I do are facing. The uncertainty that they have, they know that they are going to have a certain amount of money for food, and with the grocery store being short on food the mental health challenges that they are facing at this time.

For breakfast today I had apple oatmeal with Greek yogurt and oats in it. I woke up hungry this morning but I still pushed off my breakfast a little bit so I could have lunch later. I do this so I don’t feel like I need a snack or want a snack in the afternoon. I surprisingly have gotten really used to having no coffee after 5 days. But I miss having the time that it took me to drink my coffee in the morning to read my book before I start the day. So now I feel silly sitting there drinking a mug of water reading, but that is some resemblance of what I am used to.

I also believe that part of the reason that it felt like a normal day was because my peanut butter sandwich had a nice thick layer of peanut butter on it today. My carrot and hard-boiled egg were the same as they have been, but doubling up on the peanut butter really went the extra mile today. It felt like a whole new sandwich! The rest of this week I will definitely have to continue making a nice thick sandwich so that I won’t be hungry in the middle of the afternoon! It is amazing how much more food you get when you add just that much more peanut butter to your sandwich!

Another reason that it felt normal is that I am no longer really ‘experimenting’ with my dinners and what food I have for them. I had beans on my spaghetti noodles today, and instead of frying an egg on the stove top I just cooked it in the microwave. I also feel like I had more pasta than I have the last few days. I am getting tired of pasta though. I only have two more days then I can eat something new! The normalcy is what I need to make it through the rest of this week.

One thing that I am noticing is that I have less and less to say in these reflections. I am not sure if that is because I am eating the same thing each day, or if it is because I am getting less nutrients than I normally do and my brain power is decreasing because of my diet. I cannot think what having a small diet like this would do to someone in the nursing program normally. I am so fortunate!

US: Address Impact of Covid-19 on Poor. (2020, March 19). Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/us-address-impact-covid-19-poor

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Day 4 - March 20th, 2020

Today was the day that my body got used to this new diet. I had a lot more energy today than I have the last few days. I also was not thinking about having other food as much as I have the last few days. And I have not been getting as irritable as I have been because of the lack of coffee and the lack of sugary and fatty foods that my body is used to having. It has actually been quite surprising seeing how much I don’t need cookies or chips or sweet things. I always thought that cookies were an essential part to my diet, yet I have made it this far without needing any!

The only thing that I have been feeling really is lack of motivation to do much work, but I believe that is more due to the self-isolation, social distancing, classes being canceled that is having that effect on me. I do believe it to be in part because of the lack of sugary foods, however. I normally have a snack around 4:00pm, with a second coffee or something extra. I got bored today around 4:00 when I would normally be looking forward to a snack or a something to break up the afternoon. I needed to call my sister in order to be able to focus on my school work again. That shows what impact food has on my life socially. If I wasn’t eating something I figured that I would socialise with my sister who I knew would be having something to eat and I could enjoy her company that way. Staying in my house by myself pretty much these past four days I have not realized how social meals are, and that they are a time that I normally use to catch up on what is happening in people’s lives. I have been eating my own thing at my own time the past few days, and since I have been eating earlier than my roommate when we normally eat at the same time, I have not seen them in a few days because we are both just so busy with everything else that is going on in our lives.

There is not much new to say in the way of my breakfast today. I am getting really sick of oatmeal though. It all tastes the same to me now. It might just be because it is the same company and I am not having anything extra with my oatmeal to shake it up. It is also all really mushy. Like more mushy than the last few days with a flavour that needed more water in it. Yogurt is also good. I really look forward to starting my say with my yogurt because it is one of the few things I eat that has dairy in it. I definitely miss milk and cheese. I have had to eat my oatmeal without any milk on it which I am used to doing so that sucks. Only 3 more days I am telling myself then I can drink milk again.

I went back to a peanut butter sandwich today. I was worried that I was going to run out of peanut butter when I was making my first few sandwiches. Today I realized that I was over halfway done the challenge after I made my sandwich I have only used up ¼ of the peanut butter. So I have plenty left! I miss having the possibility of having more than just a carrot with my lunch, but I am still happy that I was able to get some fresh veggies with my price range. However, I wish that I had more money to spend on fruits and vegetables, because I am used to having more than just one serving a day. I know that it is not very healthy to have this type of diet, but I have to live with it. Because what else do I have to eat?

For dinner today I made fusilli pasta with soybeans. I was actually really surprised in what the soybeans were like when they were cooked. They practically tripled in size! I was so shocked! I don’t think that I cooked them properly because they were sort of crunchy after a few hours, but that was fine because they went really well with my noodles. I ended up eating only having half of them because I wanted some more for tomorrow. And they were really bland to, almost tasteless. But I needed to eat them so I did. I feel like I have to eat everything I bought because I had such a limited budget, not because I like it or want to eat it. So I am carefully planning when I need to eat what in order so I do not go hungry.

The one thing that I have noticed in the last few days is that with this ‘diet’ I use a lot of water to cook what I need to eat. I use water for my oatmeal, my beverage with all of my meals, to cook my hard-boiled egg, my pasta, and my soybeans. And that was just my water use today. I googled unclean water in Canada/unsafe drinking water in Canada because water affects everyone. In 2016 in Prince Rupert, BC, there was boil-water advisory for 6 weeks which “left 12,000 people without drinking water… [which] has overwhelmingly affected Indigenous communities” (Orellana, 2019). People were forced to buy bottled water just to be able to move throughout their day in a semi-normal manner. I cannot think about those that were unable to afford bottled water in the grocery stores just to be able to survive the 6 weeks without safe drinking water. With the budget that I had for this week, the majority of the food that I could afford required water to cook. Without that basic necessity, I do not think that I would be able to find anything that I could afford that would be able to last me as long as my food has thus far.

Doing this challenge has really made me think about things related to food that I have never thought about before. I have never thought what it would be like to live with such a restricted budget for all of my grocery needs. It is amazing the differences that I have experienced so far with this only being the 4th day of the challenge. It makes me wonder what else I will experience before this is over in three days.

Orellana, M. (2019, April 4). Freshwater Canada's Dirty Water Secret. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/04/freshwater-canadas-dirty-water-secret

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Day 3 - March 19th, 2020

Today was a day. I really want original potato chips. Alas, I cannot have them. I will wait until next week.

But those that live on welfare cannot afford potato chips. Or anything that would be considered every day for me, like cookies, cake, or even meat. That is devastating to me. It makes me wonder about what is available at food banks for people to have as an extra in their day. I know that my food bank back home only accepts non-perishable foods, so even meat would be hard to come by. It makes me wonder how many people are ‘forced vegetarians’, as I am calling it. I took some time to research Red Deer Food Banks, just to see what I could get if I needed to utilize a food bank on a regular basis. The first food bank that came up was the Red Deer Food Bank Society, located on 49 Ave. As a person that does not rely on the food bank, there are three ways that I could help out those that do need to use the food bank. The first is to donate money so they can buy food, the second is to volunteer at the food bank, and the third is to drop off non-perishable food at select locations throughout Red Deer. I thought it was interesting how there are 7 main areas where people can donate food to the food bank. I think that it is a great initiative that the food bank is taking because that does not give people the excuse that they are not close enough to donate food to the food bank.

I had the same breakfast today that I did yesterday. Eventually I am going to get really tired of oatmeal. And not having coffee. That is one thing I miss about doing this challenge. Having a coffee in the morning motivates me to get out of bed and eat earlier, but without coffee I am not motivated to get out of bed as fast to have coffee. I had my yogurt before I ate my oatmeal today, and it was a really great way to start off the day. One of these days I am going to have to switch up when I have my oatmeal and toast. I might have toast for breakfast, and then have oatmeal for lunch. But that would be wrong because oatmeal is not a lunch food, and oatmeal would not last me as long until I eat dinner as a sandwich does.

I am getting used to having a hard-boiled egg with my lunch. I guess that is what happens when you have the same thing every day for multiple days in a row. I changed up my lunch today, however. I had peanut better toast, not a peanut butter sandwich! The peanut butter on my toast was sticky, but I was not expecting it because I have not had peanut butter for years! Having the toast it felt like I was eating more because it took longer for me to eat the two separate pieces of bread. However, I was scared that if I ate peanut butter toast for the rest of the week that I would run out of peanut butter. I should be able to manage, and have some left over. I have never had an entire jar of peanut butter to myself before, so I do not know how to judge how much to have so it will last me long enough.

I am finally starting to feel like a stereotypical college student. Today for supper, I had spaghetti with a scrambled egg and some brown beans. At first I had it all separate, then I put the beans on my pasta part way through and it was excellent. The sauce that the beans came in created a nice sauce for my pasta, and the protein from the beans was a nice topping. Except I almost wanted more after the beans were added as a sauce, now that I was halfway through my meal. Tonight I am going to try and cook my soybeans that I got yesterday. Hopefully I will be able to cook them properly so they go well with my pasta tomorrow! I am not very hopeful, though, because I have never cooked them before. Or eaten them before. Good thing I did not get that many so if I fail I will not have to live with eating a lot! The egg was also better when I scrambled it, it made it seem like there was more there (when in reality I know that there was not more egg). I think that it was interesting to see how perception affects your meal. Having the same amount of food but presented in a different way really changed how I ate my meals today.

I have started having my lunches later because otherwise I know that I will need a snack in the middle of the afternoon. So having lunch at 1/1:30 has made it easier to get through the day without a snack. I have to eat breakfast later, though, or else I would not be able to have lunch later. I have also started eating dinner earlier than I normally would. I have realized that having ‘set’ times for my meals has allowed me to sort of anticipate what and when I am going to eat without wondering if I need to eat something extra in between. The only thing that I have noticed is that I get hungry before I go to bed, so I went to bed hungry last night. I cannot possible imagine going to bed hungry every night. I do not think that I have ever experienced this before, because I have always been able to grab something extra to eat. With my limited budget, I have not been able to do that because I only have so much food for each day. I have definitely started feeling some of the mental effects of having limited food. I think about food constantly, because it is everywhere. The freedom that people have to eat whatever they want whenever they want is crazy to me. I can’t believe that I cannot do that anymore. If I ever had to live with such a limited budget for my food for months at a time, I would not be able to live with the thought of food all the time.

Today the hardest thing that I dealt with definitely would have been the mental challenges of having a limited budget for my meals. I am hoping that since tomorrow will be half way through the challenge that after tomorrow I won’t be so focused of other food and that I will be used to what I am eating. However, the best I can do is to just hold on to what I have and that is that.

Red Deer Food Bank Society. (n.d.). 3 Ways to Donate. Retrieved from https://reddeerfoodbank.com/how-to-help

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Day 2 - March 18th, 2020

Having no snacks is killing me. I really want to just go to my pantry and grab some crackers, but I am refusing to do that because I want to stick to the challenge as best as I can.

Today for breakfast I had the same thing I did yesterday, except I had maple and brown sugar oatmeal and I put some of the cinnamon and spice dried oatmeal on my yogurt. My yogurt was good today with the uncooked oatmeal on it. Having the texture and the spices on it definitely made it more enjoyable to eat. My oatmeal, however, did not taste like anything. I expected it to be really sweet, because it was maple and brown sugar flavour, but it was pretty much just mush. It was not crunchy today, though, so that was a bonus!

For lunch I had the same thing that I had yesterday. I am not minding having peanut butter, as long as the bread is slightly toasted. If I had to eat it as a plain sandwich, I would probably not ‘enjoy’ it as much as I do. I was worried when I was picking out my carrots that I was not going to have enough veggies with my lunch. It has turned out the last few days to be similar to what I am used to for my lunch. My egg, once again, was fabulous. It was the perfect thing to finish off my lunch to last me until I ate dinner.

I feel like I am on the game of survivor and I have only been given pasta to eat instead of rice. For dinner tonight I had fusilli pasta but this time I managed to cook an egg to go on top for some sauce. It did not work out how I thought it was going to, there was a lot less yolk than I thought there was going to be. I did cook it properly, so that was a bonus! Also with the egg my meal did not feel like I was missing something, so that was also nice. I might try scrambling an egg, just so it feels more substantial with my dinner tomorrow, along with some of the beans that I got at the store today.

One of the hardest things is watching TV and seeing all of the commercials for food and roll up the rim. I’ll be watching TV, and then a Tim Hortons commercial will come on and I think “Oh I should get one tomorrow”, but I cannot because of my budget for the week does not allow for any room to buy coffee. I cannot wait to be able to eat snacks after this week is over. I am already wanting to just grab some crackers or even a glass of milk from the fridge. That has been the hardest thing today, as well as knowing that other people are able to grab whatever they want to eat or go get a coffee just because they want one. That was a very hard obstacle to face today. I was able to get through the day without much of a coffee headache, so that was a good thing.

I also went to the grocery store today. I needed something else to go with my supper meal, so I went to see if I could find some cheap vegetables or beans that were in the $1.50 I had left in my budget. That was hard to do, because I have more than just $1.50 left in my wallet. It was also hard because the shelves were still very empty from the weekend. In the end, I got one can of brown beans and some bulk soybeans that were cheap. Tomorrow, I am going to include one of these in my meal. That little bit of protein will be helpful because it will give me more of the energy that I am used to.

I have always known that food affects mood. Today I have felt it more than I ever have. Normally when I eat lunch too late I get hangry, but even as I was making my meals today and sitting down for lunch I could feel myself gaining more energy and getting happier. In my research, (Department of Health & Human Services, 2017) said that there is no one food that helps to lift mood, and that it is diet that lifts mood. One thing that spoke to me was when the Department of Health & Human Services, (2017) said that “Wholegrains…can promote the growth of good gut bacteria that may have a positive effect on mental health”. I have been eating more grains than I normally would these past few days. With every meal, I have had grains, except for lunch. For lunch I have had white bread for my sandwiches, because that was the loaf of bread that had 14 pieces of bread for sandwiches. My supper last night and tonight has been healthy 5 ancient grains pasta. That would be the reason for my increase in energy while I am eating.

It was a good thing that I was alone today. I was able to deal with the fatigue that I felt from not having any coffee today. It gave me the chance to sit in my room and do some school work. In my research I came across a website that described how kindergartners are affected by food insecurity. Hoxworth (2018) said that children that come from a home with food insecurity are less likely to be prepared to enter kindergarten than those that come from a home with food security. This made me think about how I am eating this week, and how if a child had to live off of this diet, they would not be very well prepared to go into kindergarten and start their school journey. Being unprepared to enter kindergarten could have such a big impact on the rest of their school journey. With this knowledge, I am definitely going to be more supportive of a breakfast program and food banks. The nutritional value that food gives to education and the preparedness level to learn is so important that with a poor diet they will not be able to be prepared to learn. This made me think about how much food I eat in a typical day to get what I need in order to focus on my school work. I think that if I had to last on what I am eating this week on a typical school week, I would find it very hard to focus and make good decisions about my school work, let alone interact with teachers and classmates.

Overall, I think today was a better day than yesterday was. I am hoping that as I go along that I will have more energy from my food for longer periods of time, as I teach my body what it is like to live without coffee for a change.

Department of Health & Human Services. (2017, October 31). Mood and food. Retrieved from https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/healthyliving/mood-and-food

Hoxworth, L. (2018, January 4). Brain Food: Exploring the Connections Between Nutrition and Learning. Retrieved from https://news.virginia.edu/content/brain-food-exploring-connections-between-nutrition-and-learning

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Day 1 - March 17th, 2020

For breakfast this morning, I had apple cinnamon oatmeal with Greek yogurt. The oatmeal was decent for being a no-name brand, since I am used to Quaker Oatmeal. However, I either did not put enough water in it or did not cook it for long enough because it was crunchy. Tomorrow I am going to have to try it a little differently in order to not have crunchy oatmeal. My Greek yogurt was sort of gross without anything in it, so tomorrow I might try putting in a little bit of oats from a different oatmeal type, because my box came with 10 packs in it. I normally have coffee with breakfast, but today I just had water with breakfast.

For lunch I ended up having a peanut butter sandwich with 1 carrot and a hard-boiled egg. It was a pretty decent lunch! I am not the world’s biggest fan on peanut butter, I would rather have a jam sandwich. I chose to get peanut butter at the store, however, because it was cheaper and came in a bigger jar than the jam did, and there is more nutritional value in peanut butter than jam. The carrot that I had today was also a big carrot, so that was a good thing. I normally have a few carrots with lunch, so the fact that I was able to find some decently sized carrots was a bonus. The hard-boiled egg was probably the highlight of my lunch. I had cooked it perfectly, so it was a nice treat at the end of my meal! Eggs also have protein in them, and since I did not get any meat or beans at the store for my protein, I had to settle on eggs as my main source of protein.

Because I had to make myself get peanut butter at the grocery store, it made me think about what it would be like for someone that actually lives on welfare to shop for groceries. I wonder how many times in the store they see something that they really want, such as a jar of strawberry jam, but end up settling for what they don’t want but know that they need.

For supper I had spaghetti. It was pretty decent spaghetti, since it was 5 grain ancient grains or something like that so it was healthy. However, it would not have been my first choice of pasta. I would have chosen something that would not have been as healthy, which would have made my meal not as healthy. Normally I have sauce with my pasta or at least cheese on top of it, so my meal definitely felt like it was missing something. I did not have anything with my pasta, but tomorrow I am going to try and cook an egg so that the yolk can be like a sauce for the noodles. With this, I will be able to have some protein in my meal, as well as have a sauce for my pasta. I have never done this before, so I am hoping that it works out but it probably will not. I am feeling much more energized after dinner though. I am not sure if it is because I have eaten something that will give me energy, or if it took my mind off of the headache that I have from the lack of coffee.

I ended up making myself a mocha with some powder that I got for free once from the college since I had a killer headache from only drinking water throughout the day. Since I did not pay for that powder, I felt okay with cheating by using it today, but I am going to try and not use it tomorrow. It really helped with my caffeine headache for a few hours, but a real cup of coffee would have really helped. Some of the main symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are headache, fatigue, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, depressed mood, irritability, tremors, and low energy (Kubala, 2018). I ended up with a headache, fatigue, irritability, and low energy. I expected to have a headache, based on what my classmates have said while doing this challenge. I was surprised at how early in the day I got irritable. It was before I made my lunch and my sister was asking me about lunch that I snapped, and then as I was eating my lunch she asked me a question and I snapped again. Some suggestions to reduce the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are to cut back slowly, stay hydrated, and get enough sleep (Kubala, 2018). I tried to cut back slowly but I did not cut back enough before the challenge started, obviously, since my head hurt each time I moved. I definitely stayed hydrated today, but I could have drank more water. I am going to sleep early tonight because of the caffeine headache, fatigue, and low energy I had throughout the day.

Having the egg as my source of protein also got me thinking about how hard it is to get decent protein with such a limited budget. White meat is typically seen as the healthiest meat for someone to eat, but it is not very cheap. When I was shopping, I came across some turkey strips that would have been great for one meal a day, except for the fact that it would have taken up 1/3 of my budget. There were also no beans at the store, which made it hard to incorporate protein in my meals. Tomorrow I am going to go to Save-On Foods and see if I can find some beans or something that has some more protein or maybe some cheese for my supper meal. The food group that I ended up having the most was grains. I only had one vegetable, which if not recommended for the Canada food guide, as they recommend having fruits and vegetables be half of your daily food intake. I also ate more grains than is recommended, since I had grains with every meal, but grains are recommended to only be ¼ of your daily food intake (Government of Canada, 2020). I was surprised to see that there was not a recommended intake for dairy, since that was on the food guide when I was younger. I guess since more and more people are becoming lactose intolerant that makes it hard for them to reach a standard intake amount. I only had dairy with my breakfast with my yogurt. Hopefully I will be able to find cheap cheese or vegetables to go with my pasta tomorrow night at the grocery store! I doubt that I will be able to find anything.

Overall, I think that today was a pretty successful start to the challenge. I believe that I mainly felt the lack of caffeine today, and not much of the emotional or mental challenges that I believe will happen the longer I am on this ‘diet’. So for now, I will head off to bed and try to get a good night’s sleep to be able to focus on school work tomorrow!

Government of Canada. (2020, January 13). Canada's food guide. Retrieved from https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

Kubala, J. (2018). 8 symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/caffeine-withdrawal-symptoms#section4

[teagantromsness-blog]

Welfare Food Challenge Pre-Challenge Reflection

Hello everyone,

My name is Teagan and I am second year nursing student at Red Deer College. I have decided to attempt the food welfare challenge this week. The food welfare challenge originated in British Columbia which challenges the BC government and how much money they give to those on welfare that they have for food. The living rates in British Columbia are so high that those that live on welfare are left with only $18. I was challenged to get all of my groceries for seven consecutive days spending only $21. The point of this challenge was to prove to the British Columbia government that those who depend on welfare do not have enough money to have a balanced diet.

Of course, the week that I decided to complete the challenge was the week that everyone started stockpiling food for the COVID-19 pandemic. This made it very hard to shop and find affordable food at the store that did not require much preparation because that is what a lot of people were buying. In the week before starting this challenge, I really thought about what I was going to eat and what I needed to do in order to not have a big shock when I started eating less. Every morning I start with a coffee, and most days I have a second one at some point in the middle of the afternoon. To plan for the challenge because I knew that I would not have any money for coffee so I only had my morning coffee. I hope that this will be enough to plan for the inevitable headache I get from the lack of caffeine! I also started eating less with my meals and did not eat as many snacks. I know that this will be hard for me because I love food J One thing that I am not looking forward to is not being able to have a cup of tea in the evening. I like to have a cup of tea before I go to bed, so it will be interesting to see how that affects my sleep, along with the lack of food.

When I was planning on going to the grocery store, I look at other people’s blogs about this challenge to get some inspiration for food. I also looked at what I normally eat and tried to decide what I would keep the same and what I would have to change for the challenge. I also had to consider what would be in my budget, and what I would have to miss out on because of budget restrictions. I was also going to go with a friend that is also doing the challenge, but I had to go with my sister because they left town. It was a good thing that I went with my sister because I had the hardest time deciding what to get at the store with my very limited options. I also had to decide what store to shop from. I am in walking distance from a Save-On Foods, but I decided that Superstore would have the most affordable prices for my budget. I realize that some people might not have the ability to choose what store to shop from, so I feel lucky that I was able to afford gas to go across town to shop at the cheapest grocery store!

This is what I ended up getting at the store after browsing the shelves for 45 minutes:

Peanut Butter - $3.48 Oatmeal - $2.98 Spaghetti Noodles - $1.98 Fusilli Noodles - $1.98 12 Large Eggs - $2.76 Plain Yogurt - $2.00 7 Carrots - $2.55 1 Loaf of Bread - $1.77 Total: $19.50

While I was browsing the shelves and constantly checking the how much I was spending, a lady shopping overheard us and asked if we needed money for groceries. It was completely unexpected because the store was very busy with people shopping for their own groceries, worrying about having enough food if they need to self-isolate for 2 weeks if they have COVID-19. I then explained that it was a challenge that I chose to spend only $21 dollars on groceries for the week. It was still very hard because you want to try and have a well-balanced diet, but with the limited grocery options and the price of groceries I could not be picky. I am going to end up eating the same thing each day, except for the flavour of oatmeal and the shape of pasta that I have. All I know is that I am going to probably end up hating pasta at the end of this challenge. I wonder how much of this I am going to end up. If I don’t want to eat a big dinner because it is the exact same thing every single day, I will probably eat smaller portions and starve myself. This will be a very good look into how those that live on welfare eat every day. I hope that by the end of this challenge I am going to be more open to giving to food banks and supporting local charities that help out those that live on welfare.

I am quite happy that I managed to spend less than $21. With the $1.50 I have left over hopefully I will be able to afford one coffee! For now, though, I will enjoy one last hot chocolate from Tim Horton's before I officially start tomorrow!

Any extra information about the challenge can be found here: https://welfarefoodchallenge.org/2016challenge/

5th Annual Welfare Food Challenge. (2017, October 2). Retrieved from https://welfarefoodchallenge.org/2016challenge/