That’s it. We made it! Five days with only a bowl of rice each day and it was brutal. A bowl of rice a day is not near enough to fill one up. You are constantly hungry. Immediately after eating your bowl, the hunger pangs are eased, but you’re still not full. Your stomach gurgles and the irritating discomfort around your midsection makes it impossible to forget your hunger which makes you think about food which makes you think about your hunger and so on.

I’ve never thought as much about food as I have in the past five days.

For me, each day was harder than the last culminating in today, Friday. At points, I had the shakes. My stomach felt emptier than empty. I think the acids in there were trying to consume themselves. The whole day I had to interact and work with people and operate trying my best to disregard the raging hunger inside. I was afraid, at times, that I might flat out faint (I thankfully didn’t).

My friend Evan summed up the experience the best. He said, “It’s hard to believe a billion people live this way …”

Simple disbelief.

43. Eat only a bowl of rice a day for a week to remember
those who do that for most of their life (take a multivitamin).
Remember the 30,000 people who die each day of poverty and malnutrition.

I crave more than I hunger and when I actually do hunger, I never starve. I’ve grown up in a culture of excess. I spend more time thinking about how to work off the food I’ve eaten than where my next meal might come from. My undertaking of #43, along with my friend Evan, is just a tiny attempt to empathize with the millions all over the world who’s daily struggles I can’t even imagine.

For the next 5 days, we’ll be eating just one bowl of rice (as well as a multivitamin). It may be slightly cheating, but I’m using the biggest bowl I have in my house – it holds three cups of cooked rice – but it is still so much less than I’m used to eating. I’m on the back nine of my first day and I’ll confirm that it’s rough. I made the mistake of going into town today. Being surrounded by restaurants, food ads, and the smells that go along with both were a massive temptation and a reminder of the hollow feeling in my stomach (after only one day). On to day 2.

End of the week update.