Pictures and Words

Hello! My name is Peter C. Hayward, and for the month of February, I am only spending twenty-eight dollars on food. I hope I do not die…of boredom.

Bored now.

I’m going to be honest…I am completely over this project. I think it’s reached the point now that I’ve learned everything that I’m conceivably going to learn; I’ve (hopefully) suffered the worst of it with my two days of malnutrition, and now all that I see stretching ahead of me for the next 15 days is daily meals of rice, bread and potatoes, and no new conclusions to be drawn.

If I were to drop the project tomorrow, it would not be because of hunger or malnutrition, it would be because of boredom.

I’m not going to stop – not because I’m a glutton for punishment, but because if I stop now, I’ll just make myself go through it again next February, but I will be cutting down from two posts per day to just the one. My daily post will contain everything: my weight, food-dreams, the Cheesecake shots, the daily food intake, and From the Comments.

Today, I got hungry again. I thought I was past hunger, that my stomach had shrunk, but no, it keeps returning. My life is like a series of dodgy horror movie sequels. Perhaps my stomach grew for some reason, and is now restarting the shrinking process.

I slept for 9 hours, and shortly after I woke up, had two of my daily pieces of bread, which was a bad idea – I need to remember to have rice earlier in the day, because the energy lasts me longer. After bread, I’m hungry again an hour or two later. (this is probably because of all the sugar in it)

I haven’t had my orange juice for two days now, because I’m trying to save it to have with the potatoes. I don’t know that I’ll be able to afford another box once this orange juice is done, and it’s feeling pretty empty at the moment.

The rice was delicious. I’m thoroughly enjoying my rice and my bread; it’s not the specific foods that are a problem, it’s…well, my housemate Cannibal Kate had a bowl of Coco Pops today, then some two-minute noodles with peas and corn and beans, and was also considering getting a pizza. These are all options that are not available to me, and it’s driving me a little mad.

I didn’t get a chance to wash/mash potatoes today, but I’ll definitely do it tomorrow. Perhaps that will alleviate the boredom a little. (the “new” food, potatoes, not the washing/mashing. I don’t expect the washing/mashing to be at all exciting. That is a little bit the reason I haven’t done it yet.)

From the comments:

“Logan” lives in China:

Regarding the relative cost of various foods: in China, I can get a bowl of fried noodles with vegetables, easily a meal on its own, for 3RMB, or I can get a pizza for 90RMB. Steak is cheaper than pizza (if the pizza is made with real cheese). Making food yourself, you could feed yourself for even less than the price of the bowl of noodles, since the vendors have to make a profit somewhere. (Current currency conversion rates: $1AUD=4.5RMB)

So a pizza would be about 10 days worth of food (by my dollar/day standard)? They’re slightly cheaper here, but still pretty close. I think you could get a slab of steak over here for as low as four or five dollars, so steak is probably cheaper here, as well.

If “Chrissie” was a cat, she’d almost certainly be killed:

I’m seriously considering doing this for a month to see how much weight I’d lose.

I don’t recommend this as a diet – I had two unpleasant days of malnutrition, and I’m still spending each day a tiny bit hazy. If you’re going to try to lead a normal life, this diet is probably a terrible idea; I’m just lucky enough to work from home, and not have to worry about things like “Walking from place to place” or “Not pissing off my boss”.

Having said that, if you do want to try it, I reccomend writing about your experiences. For one, it’s an interesting read for the rest of us, and secondly, it gives you that extra bit of incentive to stay in it. One of the main reasons I’m staying in is because I’m curious as to how much weight I’ll lose over the month.

My commenters can suggest a much better eating plan than mine; “Em” and “Amy” seem to know what they’re talking about. I can hook you up, you can all be sensible together, and the rest of us will get another interesting food-related blog to read.

Speaking of Em, she sent me some links back on the Day 5 of this month, and I’ve just completely forgotten to post them until now. Sorry Em!

Medical Symptoms of Malnutrition – start looking out for these!

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/medical-symptoms-of-malnutrition-1742.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/conditions/malnutrition-2.html   
You are likely to accumulate more plaque and produce less saliva:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/114/11/2010

You may even become more sensitive to pain and stimulation:
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-879X1997000300016&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en
(note that it’s in neonatal rats though, during the lactation period, and it’s a correlation only).

And your short-term malnutrition may lead to you not healing that well for some time:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4049248

Although you may become less vulnerable to cancer:
http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/5/817

You never really hear about people in third-world countries dying of cancer, but I don’t think that this is the reason why.

And funnily enough you may even become less anxious:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6SYP-4KPFKC8-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2ce01f355942f656534f489a1fe0669a

PS. If you get a goitre, can I prod it?

If I get a goitre, I promise to let you prod it. I haven’t been feeling particularly less anxious, but then I’m not an anxious person at the best of times. (or the worst of times either!)

Lastly, someone showed me this link: This is why you’re fat. I can honestly say that I’ve tried none of those foods, nor have I ever been tempted to. Nor, I suspect, will I ever be tempted to. I thought I saw “Deep Fried Mars Bar” in there, which I have tried (and rather enjoyed…though it felt a little pointless. I enjoy Mars Bars plenty when they’re not deep fried. Deep frying it didn’t really add anything to the experience) but no, it turned out to be “Deep Fried Peanut Butter-covererd Brownie Wrapped in Cookie Dough.”

It is so decadent.

Tomorrow: A post combining both the Daily Weigh-in and the Daily Food Post!

(total money spent so far – $21.41)

Hello! My name is Peter C. Hayward, and for the month of February, I am only eating twenty-eight dollars worth of food…much less than I normally would! I hope I do not die!

69.8kg - 0.3kg down from yesterday.

 So far I’ve lost 3.5kg (6 ponds) over 11 days. I actually woke up and weighed myself several hours ago, but I’ve been procrastinating since then – this experiment may have sapped my motivation and focus, or maybe it’s just one of those days. It’s been raining all day, which always makes me sort of…vague.

Here, have a graph:

Remember, the camera weighs around 0.4kg, and is included in every day's weighings.

I was curious about whether or not I had reached an unhealthy weight yet, so I pulled up a BMI converter, and plugged in the data. (my current weight, 69.4kg, and my current height, 188cm.) My BMI was “19.6″, which apparently is just above underweight. I’m still in the normal range!

If I continue to lose the weight at the same rate, my calculations tell me that on February 28th, I shall weigh 63.99kg (why the crap is “lb” the abbreviation for “pound”? Damned imperial system.) – my BMI at that point, will be 18.1 - just underweight. Next month, I suspect I shall put the weight back on. (I am planning on exercising more next month – I’ve been avoiding it this month, because I don’t want to use up energy I don’t have.)

Daily cheesecake:

I would be a pretty girl.

My housemate Cannibal Kate informs me that lately I’ve been “a bit dull”, which could just be one of those generic insults that she randomly likes to throw out, or it could be an indication that my diet has lowered my energy. Who knows?

It’s mid-afternoon, and I’m still yet to start work, or wash/mash potatoes, but I’m confident that I’ll manage to get everything done before the day is through!

Tonight: Daily Food Post!

(total money spent so far – $21.41)