Seven: Food - Day 1

People, we're doing this. This month is scary. Media month seems daunting, but when you mess with my food choices - oh watch the heck out. It's day one at 6:30pm and I am hangry (hungry + angry = hangry). For serious though, this one will mess with me to the core, I can already tell.

I got this text from the hubs at 3pm: "I just ate my last meal I brought to work and I'm still so hungry." On a global scale, we are clearly overfed because with what we've eaten today, any kid in Haiti or Africa would be stuffed to the brim and praising Jesus for so much food... and we're both hungry and can't stop talking/thinking about it. Wow. Reality check #1.

Jen picked seven foods and ate them for the entire month (minus the tortillas she categorized as bread, don't blame her one bit). We are trying 10 foods because 7 seemed mentally insane to us, but trust me - it's very different from what we normally do (tortilla chips, ice cream, wine, cookie dough, etc). All I can say is the amount of chicken, beans avocados and sweet potatoes we're about to consume is intense. Our bodies will be oh-so-clean by October 30 - just in time to ruin all we worked for by celebrating the heck out of my birthday :)

Here's been my epiphany with food month while preparing for it: we have friends that live in other countries, lots of them. They eat differently than us, particularly our friends who live in Haiti. Sweet Kelsea was here visiting us 2 weeks ago and she and I were sitting at the kitchen table over breakfast talking about Seven, about the monthly sacrifices and we got stuck on food. We got stuck because Kelsea started thinking about she and her husband's life in Haiti and told me that she thinks they really truly eat no more than seven foods in their house, give or take a few. She has no running water right now, no electricity and the outdoor market is a 30 minute walk down the hill. Kelsea is American - she's lived in Colorado and California and since her move to Haiti, she's literally paired down her eating to about seven things. Things that can be purchased at a low price and cooked on the stove. That and fruit are really their only options. Holy smokes... But you know what? She may have never put that together had I not mentioned it - she's content, she's satisfied and she's the healthiest I've ever seen her, minus a recent bout with dengue fever.

This was so convicting for me. What makes me think that I can't live on seven(ish) foods for one month if Kelsea, who grew up just as privileged as I did can live on seven foods everyday of her life. Not to mention the kids who live down the street from her who eat three - porridge, beans and rice. And they're all alive, happy and completely satisfied. This want versus need thing is really ripping me apart these days. God is stripping us down to the basics of humanity and we've already learned that we don't need media and we only need a very minimal amount of food. But sweet Jesus, I'd give my right pinky toe for a Chipotle burrito right now. Wish us luck!