My Ration Challenge Experience (Part 3)

NOTE: Because my idiot blog decided to stop displaying text halfway through, the rest of the post is screenshots.

Welp, I’m in the home stretch now, everyone! I knew I’d make it, but I didn’t realize how strenuous an experience this was going to be. As of now, I’m capping off Day 6 and getting ready to slog through tomorrow. Until then, let me dish about how the past couple of days have been…

 

Day 5

 

This was a particularly big day for me. Not just because it was June 20^th, otherwise know as World Refugee Day. But because I had quite a bit to get done throughout that day. Between going to Chino Hills (a city that’s approximately 30 miles away from my residence) and attending my job’s mandatory sexual harassment training, I still had to do my part to raise awareness about the struggles refugees face and the good they do for society once they’re integrated into their new country. Every hour, between my humble meals and the tasks that I had to cross off of my to-do list, I posted an infographic or an article about refugees. There were a few that even made me cry. (Interestingly enough, my tears were the saltiest thing I’ve tasted all week.)

I woke up at 6:30 to do my laundry, prepare the rice and beans for the next few days and to do my makeup and get ready. Between my trip to Chino Hills and my sexual harassment training, I took a quick nap so I could regain my strength.

That was a big mistake. I was as light as air in the morning, navigating through my day with ease and praising the Lord for everything He’s blessed me with. But after the nap, I was sluggish and sore. I had a headache that wrapped itself around my entire skull like a headband. My eye wouldn’t stop twitching and my kidneys screamed out in pain every time I sat for a prolonged period of time. (I’m pre-diabetic because of my PCOS. And because rice is packed with carbs, it’s been doing a number on my kidneys lately.)

My sense of smell has greatly improved, since I’ve been able to smell a person’s lunch lingering on their breath or oozing out of their pores lately. I even joked with my boyfriend that I was going to run him a nice (boiling) bath because he smelled like garlic fries.

The cravings did start to kick in by this point, but they’re not nearly as maddening as I thought they’d be. And by this point, I’ve been starting to get an uncomfortable “nothing” taste in my mouth from eating unsalted food for so long.

 

In the morning, I had badly made crepes with fried rice and tofu again. I figured that since I was getting to the end of the challenge and I needed my strength in the morning, I’d have a nice big helping of my rations for breakfast.

For lunch, I finally had my coveted rice and beans. It’s funny that all my life, I was forced to eat (salted and seasoned) rice and beans for dinner every night. (I’m half Mexican and half Brazilian.) I used to complain that my little friends would be having meatloaf and mashed potatoes or even hamburgers and hot dogs and that I wanted to eat dinner just like them. But when you grow up and decide to take the Ration Challenge, you begin to value your kidney beans like a can of precious rubies. Granted that they did add some flavor to my rice, I feel like they made my blood sugar spike through the roof somehow.

For dinner, I had a little bit of fried rice with tea and with the rest of my badly made (but super tasty and charred) falafel. I wasn’t hungry, but I was advised by a fellow challenger to eat all my meals. Even if I wasn’t hungry. But what made me especially fatigued about eating dinner was having to cook it with my aunt around.

For some reason, every time I go to the kitchen to cook something, she has to be there as well. And if you know her, you know how impossible she is when you invade her space. She murmurs and complains even if you go in there to get a yogurt or to wash a spoon. It’s been especially unbearable lately since she’s been giving unsolicited advice about cooking or staring at me as I fry something. But, I try to keep my cool no matter what. If she complains or heckles me, I just completely ignore her. It isn’t worth it to say something you don’t mean when you’re hangry, after all. In the grand scope of things, the Ration Challenge has especially taught me to value the loved ones you have in close quarters. You never know if tomorrow they’ll be gone. And that goes for both refugees in a camp and people living the good life in a first world country.

Day 6

 

Fortunately, I didn’t have anything important to do today. So, I tried to sleep in as long as I could. I advise any Ration Challengers to sleep in on your days off, to stay at home and to avoid social media, television and movies at all costs. If you can avoid the sight of tasty treats, it’s best that you do. Makes the refugee experience far more realistic, too.

I only went out to sign up my mother and I for an 8-week workout “boot camp” and to accompany her to the local pan-Asian supermarket. You’d think that I’d be going crazy, wanting to eat everything in sight. Fortunately, 99 Ranch has an entire aisle dedicated to rice and the smell of it is enough to suppress my appetite right now.

My eye continues to twitch. I’ve only had my second bowel movement this entire week. (Normally I go twice a day.) And my personal fluids are starting to take on a strong unanticipated smell, like nail polish remover. (Hey, I’m here to provide all the nasty details, okay? First time Ration Challengers deserve to know this stuff.)

 

For breakfast, I had congee with rice. Because I’ve had so much unseasoned rice this week, I no longer wretched as I ate it.