My thoughts so far....

Sup yaaallll,
                  I've had a few thoughts so far about this process and what it must mean for people who live like this all the time, I'm not convinced that any of my opinions are exciting or original, they're probably horribly clichéd but you can read about them all the same....

I have found so far that when trying to explain what I'm doing this week I've been met with confusion and occasionally ignorance; one of my colleagues said today "Oh go on, eat this sandwich, poor people would just go to a soup kitchen once they've spent their pound anyway." Her saying that demonstrated the sheer lack of understanding to me. Yes there are some people in poverty that have access to free food but the majority of people have to suffer in anonymity and isolation without the "luxury" of volunteers offering soup and a roll. People assume that extreme poverty means the homeless, but actually there are those that are malnourished and living below the poverty line in some form of housing that might go unnoticed. These ones do not have the opportunity to just eat a sandwich or enjoy surplus sweets and cake. (These things permanently fill my office at work!)

The main thing I feel I have personally learnt so far is that I have been really hungry! Shocking I know.... When living on £1 a day my daily calorie intake has been 1000 or less. This is at least half the government's recommended daily consumption for a woman, so it is of little surprise that those in this position are more susceptible to illness, fatigue and malnutrition. The long term effects of such a limited diet are startling.

Following on from feeling hunger, I have also found the meals I eat despite my body needing them to be very disappointing. I normally look forward to cooking and eating such a lot, I probably think about food much more than I should. What's been interesting here is that even though I want to eat and I look forward to not having an empty stomach the food that I'm consuming is not in any way exciting, it doesn't do the things I feel food should. It has become totally functional. In some senses I'm so glad to have this perspective, I feel already that I've been reminded about what food should be, what my body needs it to be, not what I psychologically crave or what I eat as an emotional response to situations. All too often I carry on eating when I've had enough simply because my mouth wants more of the taste....this can lead to indulgence on a regular basis that just isn't healthy.

I do think we should be able to enjoy food, we should savour each delicious mouthful and appreciate the variety of choice we have but we need to remember that while food is often used as the centre of social occasions that is not its PRIMARY purpose. I do not for a second envy people who eat only as a functionality but I do not think that my previous attitude to food was appropriate either.

I think for me it is really important to remember this balance as a daily choice in my eating habits and as I plan our portion size for mealtimes. I'm so aware of the amount of nice food Charlie and I eat and how often this is eaten in ridiculously large amounts. So I'm hoping to adjust this in order to shy away from just being greedy and live a life that is generally less excessive.

A few more days to go, I'll hit you up with some more thoughts then.....