Day 30: The Last Supper

Well the big finish is here at last. I just consumed my last meal on the challenge. I'm looking forward to getting back to some more abundant food selections, but I want to hold on to a lot of what I've learned on this journey. I'll reflect upon those lessons later in the post, but wanted to first document my last day with some photos. Breakfast was the usual oatmeal with raisins which was fine. For lunch I made some more refried beans and had those with brown rice, a fried egg and 3 corn tortillas. They made for some great tasting bargain tacos...

For dinner I used my last bonus egg for another rendition of egg fried rice. It's so simple to make and it's filling and pretty tasty. I still had quite a bit of cabbage and more than enough carrots remaining, so I made a little more than usual and sauteed those separately before scrambling the egg and mixing in the rice. But the crowning moment was something I've been saving up for. I love baked potatoes. So I managed my potato ration in such a way that I had a substantial portion of a whole potato remaining today. So I wrapped it in foil and threw it in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour and a half. Cracked it open and seasoned it with what else but Season-All. It was such a welcome variety change that I might as well have had a steak! 

One surprising fact to note as I finish up the last day is what was left. Some of the leftovers came as a result of the off-and-on aversions and from watching my appetite shrink over the 30 days. Here's what I've got on hand at the end of day 30, click to enlarge if you're curious...

Reflections on lessons learned... 

I can cook! The main lesson I've learned from all of this is just the simple fact that I hold in my power the ability to create food that is healthy, satisfying, creative and tasty. If I can do this on $1/day, how much more can I do this moving forward with a more liberal budget! Yesterday I mentioned receiving a used cookbook I ordered, and today I received two more used cookbooks (how timely!): Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India, and Authentic Recipes from India. I'm eager to start experimenting. Cooking may come as second nature to some of you, but for me, it's a whole new world. So many times my knee-jerk reaction to satisfying a craving for food is to run out and spend money for someone else to make the food for me. I never really thought of it that way before, but essentially that's what I've been doing. Not that there's anything wrong with that necessarily, but it's just the liberation of knowing that I can do it myself if I want to, and in the process save money to be more generous toward the causes God has called me to support. 

Empathy for the poor. I've also arrived at a closer empathy of what the poor contend with on a daily basis. These thoughts are reality for millions every day: If only I could afford some cooking oil. If only I could afford some tomato sauce for my pasta tonight. If only I could afford a stick of real butter. If only I could afford some chicken. If only I could afford... fill in the blank with anything basic that you take for granted on a daily basis. For many, sadly, it's just... if only I could afford clean drinking water for my children.

New perspective on hunger. In 2006 I did a 1-year trial run on going vegetarian. But it was a completely different challenge than this one. Mainly because, as a vegetarian, you still have access to all the fatty and sweet foods, not to mention the fact that you can easily match the caloric intake of a non-vegetarian diet. One thing I've learned from this challenge is that the human body is highly adaptable, and quickly adaptable. If you've followed my blog you've read on a few occasions about me being surprised by my lack of hunger for the most part (it was definitely there, but just not as bad as you might suspect, on most days). I have a friend who fasts often as a spiritual discipline. He says one of the side benefits is that you're just not really bothered by missing a meal, or by eating a late lunch, while for most of us, we end up saying things like "man, I'm starving" or "I'm not going to be able to get anything done on an empty stomach" etc. I've done fasts like the Daniel Fast and other shorter fasts, but none that required this much discipline. I have gained a whole new perspective on hunger and what it is to go without for a long period of time. So much so that I imagine it would take a lot for me to be thrown off by missing a meal or two in the future, or doing without a staple ingredient for an extended period of time. 

How to lose weight and feel better. Another lesson learned is on weight loss. I lost 20 pounds during this 30 days. However I was not even setting out to do that. I guess the lesson learned is, if you want to lose weight, you don't have to follow some complicated plan. Just eat less and eat simply, and you will lose weight. And you'll feel better. Shedding all of the sugar and fats gave me more energy and healed my heartburn problems completely. Oddly enough, these two benefits I think aided greatly in helping me overcome the hunger. 

Practical advice for those wanting to give this a try. If I had to do it again, I would shuffle the deck a little on my list. Biggest mistake was overestimating my oatmeal needs. I really could have done with just one 42 oz. box instead of two. With that money ($2.29) I could have added plenty of 20-cent 8-oz. cans of tomato sauce, which I was really craving after I ran out. I also would have purchased at least one more 20-cent lemon. I think I would have done a little more research on what could be done with bread making or cornmeal for cornbread, etc. and bought the according flour, etc. Five pounds of pinto beans would have been plenty, vs. my 6 pounds. I would have been able to reallocate 59 cents right there. I would have tried to find a way to fit in cooking oil, but that is a challenge because it is not typically sold in small quantities. Also would have considered trying to find a small portion of soy sauce, but again, a challenge, and not a priority. 10 packs of Ramen probably would have been plenty. I think I wasted 30 cents by buying 12. The basics: drink tons of water. Buy the spicy Ramen packs if you even remotely like spicy foods, or just want to add a little kick to your soups. Even a small amount of their spicy seasoning packs go a long way. Corn tortillas, if you can find them as cheap as I did (90 for $1.99) are indispensable in their versatility, but keep them refrigerated. If you're looking for an adaptation of this challenge, one thought is to consider your existing spices and cooking oils as available for "purchase" in increments. Like find out what your bottle of canola oil cost you, and "purchase" x number of ounces from your existing supply, and count that into your $30 budget. Same could go with salt and spices. That would have made things a lot easier, cooking-wise, while still having to take on the challenge of living off of $30 of food.

Thanks for the links, visits, and comments. I wanted to say thanks to all of you who have followed my blog and left comments of encouragement or advice. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's received over 1300 visits from over 600 unique visitors in 21 countries! Thanks for helping me spread the word. I think it has made an impact of awareness, and for that, it's made all of this worth it. If you have websites or blogs, please continue to link here even though the challenge is over. I think there's a lot to learn here for people searching for ways to simplify or challenge themselves on what they're spending on food.

Final prayer focus: Pray for all of those who don't have a day 31. Their challenge keeps going on perpetually. This is a humbling thought and one that will motivate me to pray for quite some time. 

Estimated Savings for Day 30 & Grand Total: We had a catered staff lunch today at our church, so I would not have spent any money on that. (I ate my little bean, rice and egg tacos as everyone else feasted, but it really didn't bother me). It was a really rainy day with a lot on my schedule, so I honestly don't think I would have spent anything else. For this final day, I'm just calculating for my minimum estimated savings of $6. This brings the grand total of my orphanage donation up to $440.60, which represents over 14 months' wages among the poor of South Asia. It's also about what it would cost us at Peace Gospel to sponsor an orphan's expenses at one of our orphanages for 17 months. It also represents what it would cost us to provide life-saving polio immunizations for about 1500 children. Puts a lot into perspective.