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Thursday, March 18, 2010
So this morning I got up and had my bowl of cereal and glass of milk but I also had a banana this morning. Then I went to class and when I came home for lunch I brought my friend home with me. We both had some of the leftover salmon casserole and hung out. So here’s where we come to a pickle. I don’t know whether to count the food my friend ate or not. I think I have to because technically it was my food. Also, there was the beavertails again today. So usually there is a Beavertail stand on campus two to three times a year. This week it was there on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! I had to walk by the deep fried goodness for three days! One Beavertail is over $5.00! So for those of you who don’t know what a Beavertail is, it is deep fried batter in the shape of a Beavertail and topped with various toppings. Anyway, so today I was walking by with my friend Meredith and she wanted one. So I waited in line with her and finally decided that no, I was going to be good so I didn’t get one. But Meredith let me have a couple bites of hers with had cinnamon and sugar and lemon on it. It was delicious!! Anyway, so after that, during rehearsal I started to get dizzy. I wasn’t hungry, but I tried eating anyway thinking that might be it. I still felt dizzy and queasy so I called in sick to work, giving up my free meal for tonight. I wasn’t really feeling up to making anything tonight so I just finished off the salmon casserole and had a glass of V8 juice. So the total money spent on food today was $7.72 and I had 3 servings of vegetables, 6 servings of grains, 3 servings of dairy, and 2 servings of meat.
Sarah Baker
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Blog 12:
“You don’t know what you got until its gone…” …that is something very applicable to my Day 12 experience. You see, water is a very key component of what I do to get by on $7.50 per day or less. I need it for pasta, frozen veggies, KD, other food, and of course I drink lots of it! However, yesterday was rather difficult because the water at my townhouse was turned off due to repairs being done on some pipes. I could not do any of those things (along with not being able to do dishes or have a shower…). Luckily, I worked out today and just showered at the gym (which I like to avoid because the showers at the gym are really bad and freezing cold). However, I was not able to compensate very well for the lack of water while at home. I did buy some cheese and tomatoes on sale today (a break down of my grocery shop will come soon!) and I had some bread left so I made a grill cheese sandwich with tomato slices–quite good for you actually (minus the high fat cheese, but cheese is good for you though, just not in high quantities–not to mention it is expensive). The tomato is great too because you get a serving of veggies with your grill cheese and it make it taste better too (add some ketchup in there and that helps a bit BUT one must remember the high sugar and sodium content in ketchup!). So here is how the diet broke down today: cereal (whats the over/under bet going on right now for amount of days in a row eating cereal? haha), grill cheese, and pizza (back in the swing of things). The pizza slice was bought, but i was also lucky that a buddy of mine gave me an extra free slice and another buddy gave me some blueberry yogourt (great for you–not often cheap though); people have been very accomodating and helpful throughout this campaign to help me out when they could. I try to politely decline their offers as much as possible but when you are very hungry and/or someone offers you something healthy like yogourt, I feel positively inclined to take them up on the offer! Tonight’s performance went well! The crowd was very good and us performers had a great time as well! Tomorrow should be interesting! Two performances in one day with only a couple hours of free time in between–I ll let you know how it goes!
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Food For Thought: Day 11
My Thursday dawned bright and sunny around 12:15pm when I finally dragged myself out of bed. Day 3 of the cold – an unpleasant experience of runny and stuffed up nose, headache, sore throat, and fever. I had a few dizzy spells yesterday, but those have passed. Personally, I’m blaming the sickness of this ridiculous diet and my comparative lack of Vitamin C. One of the ways I keep myself healthy normally is to consume between 100% and 200% of the recommended daily intake every day, and always push towards the higher end if I feel myself getting sick. Unfortunately, at $7.50 a day I simply can’t afford to stock up on a lot of the things I’d need to do that. Where I might normally grab a bottle of orange juice on campus to supplement myself if I felt something coming on, it’s simply not within reach at this level of expenditure per day.
As a result of the once again off-kilter eating schedule, and the confusion that inherently comes with a day spent sleeping in late and with a lot of time on the couch, I have decided not to record my food for the day. However, due to my continuing poor health, I won’t be fasting tomorrow, so perhaps I shall update things once again then. Of course, this weekend is the OUSA General Assembly, where I am to be a delegate, so I shall once again be enjoying free food. I sure do seem to luck out on that front, don’t I?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges that exist to living on $7.50 a day, and I sure am glad I’m just the average student in a lot of ways. Can a 135 pound, 5’9, relatively physically inactive guy live on this per day? Sure I can. Could a 240 pound 6’3 linebacker for the Western Mustangs do it? I’m not so sure. And that has been my Food For Thought today.
Andrew
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Food For Thought: Day 10
I woke up today with an extremely nasty cold of some sort; I thought I felt it coming on last night, but I shrugged it off and hoped for the best. What did you do for St. Patrick’s Day? I stayed home, slept in really late, and loaded up on Vitamin C. I didn’t get out of bed until around noon, and my eating schedule for today was at least as messed up as it was yesterday. Thus, once again, I don’t think I’m going to even try and track it for food guide calculations.
Basically I spent most of the day in bed or on the couch. Someone had been telling me how good the new Spartacus special is, so I watched a few episodes. I give it an alright. Anyway, not much to tell about today, other than that I drank a lot of orange juice, ate a lot of carrots, and had a banana or two. I hope I don’t run out of fruit and vegetables.
Andrew
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Food For Thought: Day 9
So, I slept in really late today; I think I’m just exhausted from everything that has been going on in life of late. I was supposed to get up at 8:00 to head to campus by 9:00, but I didn’t claw my way out of bed until around 11:15. As such, my whole day’s food intake was kind of thrown off-kilter; there was no real breakfast/lunch divide. I ate a nice brunch of sorts, and then headed off to campus for a meeting at 12:30.
Today was another fortunate day for me, because I had another free dinner courtesy of our student council. This was the third (and final) portion of our Annual General Meeting, and we had a brief awards banquet, which included speeches by our outgoing executive members and the presentation of the “key to the USC” to those of us who have served three or more years as a member of the USC. It was all very nice, and dinner was quite good – we even had some delicious deserts. This is just another one of those days that I was fortunate enough to score some free food, and I must say that it’s helping me to keep on budget with some ease. Of course, not every student on OSAP will be fortunate enough to score as many free meals as I have, which is perhaps some Food For Thought in and of itself.
I decided not to do a break-down of meals and estimate on food guide today, simply because my meals were so all over the place, and estimating what I ate for that dinner would be extremely difficult. I’ll try to get back on board tomorrow or the day after.
Andrew
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Blog 11:
I finished my first performance tonight for the annual charity dance and fashion show called Fashion N Motion. It was a great night and it was great to see a great turnout from the crowd including my parents and brother and sister who came from my hometown 2.5 hours away. What was also great is the fact that they brought me some homemade/baked food (muffins!) which will help me during the course of these few days with my performances, events and meetings all crammed into 4 days. Tomorrow I will also be able to do a quick grocery shop since they will be able to drive me to the local Zehrs. Today was a rather busy day. First, I got up and starting doing my final editting of a paper due today, then I had to get my hair cut for the show (free–since I am a model in the show), then I finished off the paper and handed it in, went home and did some more work, had a quick power nap, visited with my family a bit, got ready for the show, went to the show, performed, and finally I went out to the on-campus restaurant to hang with my cast-mates (did not buy anything). It was a very busy day! My diet worked out like this: cereal (the streak stays alive–Cal Ripken Jr. comparisons anyone? haha), pasta with pork and beans in the sauce (good for you: has high protein and fibre but high sodium–its cheap too), and then had a cheeseburger and icecream at McDonalds after the show ($2.92), followed by a bit of food at the campus restaurant that others just gave to me because they weren’t going to eat it and I hadn’t ordered anything because I did not have enough money. I still am missing veggies and I think it has contributed to the cold I have right now, but I think I have been able to keep it from totalling wiping out my energy by staying active, staying hydrated, and getting a good amount of sleep. Hopefully tomorrow I will get a chance to get some vegetables and fruits to finally get in my diet again. I will break down the costs with you tomorrow.
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Food for Thought – Day 11
Today, I woke up just in time to purchase Brock student early bird special from The Early Bird Restaurant. $5 (which included a 1st serving of 5to10)
After breakfast, I did some work and prepared for some upcoming meetings. I also managed to pack a lunch before heading to campus. Deli (short for Delicious, no doubt) smoked turkey meat, cucumbers (2nd) and honey mustard on a pita. $1.25
Just as I was debating whether or not to head over budget and purchase a snack to hold me over, my coworkers treated us to humus and baby carrots (3rd) at our weekly debrief.
For dinner, Cous Cous with a medley of peppers, green onions and olives (4th.. 5th.. 6th? There were a lot of veggies). $1.75
TOTAL for Day 11 = $8
Rach
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Rachel Crane
Bachelor of Business Administration, Brock University
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Food for Thought – Day 10
Top O’ the mornin to ye.
Mmmm Mmm… at a cost of about .40 per unit, I think I’ll kick off the day with some potato pancakes. ( x 3 + an orange and to fulfill my 1st of 5to10 = about $2.20)
Bangers and Mash for lunch, anyone?
FOR THE BANGERS
2 tbsp EVOO
4 thick sausages (beef, pork, or flavoured as you wish)
FOR THE MASH
2 lb peeled potatoes, quartered
6 tbsp milk
1/2 stick of butter, cubed
Salt and ground black pepper
Invite some broccoli to join us for and save half for dinner (at least 3 more servings of vege) to equal about $5.75
TOTAL for Day 10 = $7.95
Yikes. I went a little over budget again.
Merry St. Patty’s Day!
Rach
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Blog Day 10: Man I am looking forward to having my family over tomorrow. Hopefully it will mean that I will eat something other than KD and pizza. Today I had cereal (and a snack bar), pizza, and KD (with veggies). I read through my recipe book today and narrowed down a few recipes I want to try asap. However, Im missing some ingredients and do not have the time for a grocery shop until at least next week (unless my family helps out on that front). Since I am still feeling a bit under the weather, and I had a paper to complete, I did not go out today to participate in any St. Patty’s day festivities (of which there were several things to do!). However, even if I was feeling 100% and I did not have the paper to do, I would have been very limited as to what I could get to eat or buy in general. I do not drink–that helps on the money front. However, most meals at any typical restaurant will exceed $7.50 easily (or leave only pennies for the rest of the day); even many appetizers cost this much! The $7.50 budget simply does not allow you to go out once in a while without sacrificing your diet at other times during the day or for a few days after. For example, a plate of fries at a restaurant near campus that are called “all-dressed fries” (sauce, cheese, chives, and bacon) costs $7.39 without tax. That may be a bit of an extreme example because I think that is rather expensive but it does not differ that dramatically from other similar items at other restaurants (the on-campus restaurant offers that deal for $6.99 plus tax). The student should not be dining out at restaurants several times per week unless they can afford it, but they should have the ability to treat themselves once in a while. Clearly, $7.50 does not allow that to happen.
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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
So today started off again with miniwheats and milk. Then for the rest of the morning I was running around like a chicken with its head chopped off, doing a million things (including picking up a couple things at the grocery store) and then got home and immediately started working on an assignment. I was so into my assignment that my thought process went something like this: work, work, check calculations, work, work, check map, work, done!! YAY!!!!! Save. Print. *sense of relief* I’m starving. Oh crap! It is 3:38 and I am going to be late for rehearsal. So needless to say I did not get lunch (which was my own fault) but ate a couple granola bars and a banana on the way to rehearsal in the hopes that I would be alright. After rehearsal I went straight to work and ate a muffin before I started, again in hopes that I would not get sick. Due to the massive amount of people that called in sick on St. Patty’s Day (go figure) and the crazy amount of drunk people we had to deal with I did not eat dinner until about 9pm, at which point I had been ready to pass out for about an hour. But I ate and felt better. I had a pasta with broccoli and tomatoes and a tomato sauce. So this was not a good day food wise, because I was not paying attention and lost track of time. So I spent a total of $2.31 which covers the cereal, milk, banana and granola bars. I got 3 servings of vegetables, 5 servings of grains, 1 serving of milk and 1 serving of meat. Today was not a healthy day at all.
Sarah Baker
