Food Update

So, it's been a week and I figured it was probably time to share how I am doing with my rice and beans fast.

Breakfast is the hardest. I'm not much of a breakfast eater to begin with so finding something that I was able to eat at 5:30 AM which didn't nauseate me was pretty tough. After some prayer, God gave me the idea of rice cakes. So far, so good! And, thankfully there are plenty of varieties of rice cakes so I should be able to last the whole month having them for breakfast each day. This does mean I'll need to venture into a grocery store next week but I'm actually looking forward to the challenge.

Dinner has become a fun experiment, combining items and spices. And, so far, everything has been edible! I'm very thankful that there are so many varieties of rice and beans.

I've been really surprised at how easily I've given up drinking milk. For those of you who don't know me, I am a huge milk drinker. Milk is to me what coffee or soda is to other people. Thankfully, my body seems to be handling the lack of it just fine.

Other than the first two days when I had really bad headaches, I've been feeling fine. My energy level has been down but I'm not sure if that is because of the fast or because this was my first week back at work after vacation.

I am hungry all the time though. I never feel like I'm full, and I'm always thinking of what I can eat next. It's been a really good lesson for me to see how much time I'm currently devoting to thinking about food, preparing food, wanting food, and eating food. Yesterday I was reading Matthew 6:25-27 and was reminded of how God reigns over this fast I am in. Hopefully, in this new week, I'll spend less time in thought about food and more time in service.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

Despite some of the difficulties I mentioned above, I refuse to complain. I may be restricted to rice and beans but I have the means to have as much of those two things as I want. And, I, of course, have all the clean water I could want.

But more important than all of the above... 21 people now have clean water because of your donations! My restricted diet is a small price to pay for providing water to many more. I can't wait to see what happens next week.


(Thanks to Mom, Amy, Kim, and Allyson for cooking for me and/or providing recipes!)