Day 2 Results.

Our second full day is complete. We did have our first challenge casualty, but overall, we are still standing.  I can't speak for everyone doing the challenge, but us Food Bankers are becoming a little obsessed with food.  We spent a significant more time  talking about food than we normally do.  And we work at a food bank.  Read below to see how everyone is doing.  

Amy Pezzani

Breakfast:  One hardboiled egg
Snack:  Popcorn, about 1 c. popped
Lunch:  Veggie wrap (same as day one) tortilla chips and carrots
Snack:  Yogurt and peach and a few peanuts
Dinner:  Pasta – we chose to buy the more expensive Barilla that has more protein and fiber than regular pasta.  We also bought a jar of Marinara sauce because we didn’t have enough to spend on spices for a homemade sauce.  I embellished the sauce with frozen spinach and chopped broccoli to give it more nutrients.  We had a salad with romaine and shredded carrots. 
Snack:  1 banana  

Do you have less energy today?  No, I feel just fine today because I feel like I had plenty of nutrients and calories yesterday.

Were you hungry at the end of the day?  No, I wasn’t hungry.

What did you miss most today?  Choice.  This morning I had a meeting in Denver.  Usually I am not hungry when I first wake up, it takes a couple hours.  So, I needed to take something with me.  I decided on one hardboiled egg.  I should have brought two because I was definitely hungry!  However, I was in the ration mentality which is why I chose one.  I had bread but nothing to put on it (peanut butter or jam) so that didn’t seem like a good option.  I also missed getting to choose what I wanted to eat for a snack.  My options were the same as yesterday (peanuts, popcorn, yogurt, fruit).  These are not bad options, they just seemed prohibitive since I didn’t have a choice.

Lauren Dewey

Breakfast:  1/4 cup of steel cut oats, frozen blueberries, and instant coffee.  
Lunch:  1/3 cup of egg salad on a bed of baby spinach, carrots, and a clementine.  
Dinner:  BBQ chicken, tortilla, 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, cilantro (homegrown) and sour cream.  
Snack: 2 clementines, 2 cups of popcorn, 1/2 of canned green beans.  

Do you have less energy today?  I had a 7 pm meeting and I was feeling a little drained when I was done.  

Were you hungry at the end of the day?  No, I wasn’t hungry.

What did you miss most today?  I missed drinking more than gross flavored coffee and water.  I am a big iced tea and club soda drinker.  Water just seems boring.  

Darrin Atteberry

Breakfast:  Special K Protein bar

Lunch:  Peanut Butter and bread sandwich, tomato and cucumber from his garden

Dinner:  Hamburger patty w/ tomato only (no bun or condiments)

Lauren Mingus

Do you have less energy today? I’m doing okay. Running last night before dinner was tough. My run this morning felt normal.  I’m nervous about making it through kick boxing class after work tonight.

Were you hungry at the end of the day? I was very hungry before dinner and still hungry after dinner, but felt better after a carrot and some cucumber slices. I also cheated while making my kids’ lunches and ate a strawberry. (They are not participating in the SNAP Challenge, BTW, so I didn’t actually steal food from my kids.)

What did you miss most today? I miss my usual breakfast – oatmeal, organic Greek yogurt and fresh berries.

John Kefalas and Beth Helmers

Breakfast: 1 egg scrambled with 2c fresh kale, onion & tomato, and coffee (John)

Lunch: 1 1/2 c lentil stew with 2 T yogurt (John) (Beth skipped lunch)

Dinner: 3 c vegetable  soup with 1/2 c garbanzos

Snacks:  1/2 c yogurt with 1/2 c frozen strawberries & 1/2 c banana, Popcorn, 1/2 c unpopped, w/ 2 T nutritional yeast (John), 4 oz. orange juice (John), 4 oz. chocolate milk (Beth)

I (Beth) did have less energy and I was hungry during the day, skipping lunch. But I was full after dinner, too full to have popcorn with John. 

What I missed was taking advantage of the free food that showed up at work today -- delicious looking deli sandwiches, extras from an outside group meeting in our building. This was at lunchtime, and they were very tempting. I finally took them to the kitchen, wrapped them in cellophane, and stuck 'em in the fridge. I left a note for co-workers where they could find them. Somehow I didn't want my leftover lentils after that.  John had a stressful day and missed having an adult beverage. Instead he went running -- eight miles. 

Adam Wiemold

Breakfast: Shredded chicken, shredded cheese, egg, potato and tortilla. This was great. Normally I do make my own breakfast burritos and freeze them so when I do want breakfast I can just grab one and go. Before I went out the door I used my chicken broth I had reserved and put the lentils, a Serrano, and a  clove of garlic into my crock pot.

Lunch: Today was the day of tortillas. I decided to make lunch less effort I would just bring cheese, a little cilantro, tortillas, shredded chicken, and onions into work. So lunch consisted of two tortillas with those ingredients mixed in. I have decided what I am going to do with the little bit of tomato puree I have left over, salsa. The puree, half a Serrano, two cloves of garlic, and a good chunk of cilantro. Throw this all into the blender quick and chop it all fine. It will make lunch so much better.

Dinner: Lentils, lemon pepper chicken thigh, and fried potatoes. This was also pretty good.

When I came home my place smelled like chicken thighs cooking. I couldn’t figure it out for a minute, but I think it was the broth from the chicken thighs. The lentils were maybe a little over done, but delicious. I love the amount of time I have needed to cook. It’s is taking 5-10 minutes to assemble each meal and I’m ready to go. I had to prep some on Sunday but this is great.  

I made the brownies. I was so excited for them to cool. They were not great, but they satisfied the lack of sweet food in my diet. I also made a batch of pizza dough. This was almost my undoing. I used all the flour I had left to make the dough and accidentally added a little too much water. I picked up the bag of flour with a sad face, looked inside, there was a layer stuck to the bottom of the bag. I got every little bit out and pulled off a pizza dough for 4 different pizzas. My flour is gone now. I also made the salsa. I probably cooked for another 30 minutes tonight. 

I feel like I had more energy today than I did on Monday. Monday night I was in bed by 10 and needed that late night snack. Last night I felt pretty good. Maybe it was the addition of sugar into my diet again though.

No, I really wasn’t. hungry at the end of the day. I am tired of the food that I have and trying to come up with new food ideas. I don’t eat leftovers the next day. I usually make a big dish and freeze it then eat leftovers in a week or two. This is basically all leftovers all week.

What I missed the most today was sweets. Lucky for me I misunderstood the rules a bit. I had heard the rules discussed several times building up to this, and I didn’t check the finalized rules.  I had spent all my money post tax, giving me an extra $.52.  I also bought all new spices because I didn’t think we were allowed to use ones we had in our home. Taking chili powder off my list of things I bought gave me another $.58 cents. BROWNIES!!! That’s right, as soon as I learned that I had a little extra cash I went to the store and picked up a small package of brownie mix. One egg, one-third cup oil, two tablespoons of water, and one dollar. I cut them into 16 small brownie pieces, one for lunch, one for dinner. It’s going to be great. 

Olivia Brown Fisher

Do you have less energy today? I didn't feel like I had less energy, but I found myself having a hard time concentrating at work. It made me think about the many students who struggle in school due to hunger's effects.

Were you hungry at the end of the day? I was so hungry! I had a second snack of Caprese salad at 5pm, then went to my regular Tuesday Capoeira class from 6:30-9pm. It was quite a work out! By the time I got home and made dinner it was close to 10pm. I had some lean protein, but I'm cutting back on my portion size to be able to afford organically raised chicken, and 2 ounces of chicken is very little!

What did you miss most today? I had a friend give me homemade kale pesto, but I explained I couldn't eat it due to the rules of the 5 Day SNAP Challenge (no accepting free food from friends, family, coworkers). My husband Chad decided to drop out of the challenge after he admitted that he was so hungry he ate a burger at a fast food restaurant. I have to admit I was also tempted to have some nachos after my Tuesday evening workout!

Megan Ehrlich

Do you have less energy? Yes!! I was very tired all day- to the point where it was affecting my work. I drank multiple cups of the instant coffee that I bought but that did not help. I calculated how many calories I was getting and it seemed like enough- around 1800 calories per day. I think the problem for me is that I am used to having small meals all day, so having large meals and then not eating for an extended period of time wears me out.

Were you hungry today? I was not hungry at the end of the day today, but I will note that I found myself obsessing about food all day even though I was not hungry. I think the question of whether your food will last or not has an effect on how you perceive food. It made me a little crazy if I am being honest.

What did you miss most today? I miss the small things like my good coffee and a piece of dark chocolate. I have enough food to eat but I feel restricted because I cannot go out and get a latte if I want or treat myself. I do think that would be very hard to deal with on a day-to-day basis. I think if I had to do this for an extended period of time I may end up sacrificing some of my healthy foods for the option to be able to buy discretionary foods.