It is officially day one of the SNAP Challenge, and I must say, words cannot express how many times I felt hunger today. I thought to myself that this thing has only just begun.
I ate a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, a normal breakfast for me. I was ready for my peanut butter and jelly sandwich by lunchtime. I usually have a few additional items besides just a sandwich, but additional items did not fit in the budget for the week.
Again, I thought I was going to outsmart the process by saving my banana, that was intended for lunch, for an afternoon snack. It was all good and dandy until 3:30pm rolled around and I was hungry again.
I had a hard time concentrating the last hour of work. All I could think about was rushing home and making dinner.
As I was making dinner, I was thinking about how much spaghetti to fix? I am prone to making way too much pasta and having leftovers for a week and a half. But, I was thinking about someone that had to be conscious of how much food they fixed for a meal to ensure they had enough to last them a few weeks or even the duration of the month. Something I never really gave too much thought to because I knew I could always go back out and buy more if need be.
I sat down for dinner and scarfed my meal of spaghetti, corn and a slice of wheat bread down in under 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I knew we didn’t have room in our SNAP budget for any snacks, so no late night ice cream or popcorn for this girl.
8:30pm rolled around and I was starting to feel hungry again. You never really give much thought to how easy it is go grab a snack out of the pantry until you don’t have the funds to do so. This experience has already been very eye opening.
I prepared Chris’ meal and made sure to prepare a larger portion – something I always tend to do. He got home and wasn’t feeling that great, so he gave me some of his meal. To say I was ecstatic to be able to eat a little more before bed would be an understatement.
This is going to be a long week…..
No comments:
Post a Comment