Bill Rea, Food Box Challenge Participant

As of 3 p.m. Thursday:

Regarding the question I left you all hanging with at the end of my last offering, namely “What’s for dinner?” the answer was pasta.

My wife Beth has been sharing parts of this ordeal with me, so we bought double the allotment of pasta. She prepared half of it for dinner last night, and it nicely filled two plates. Truth be told, I was just about full by the time I finished.

So far today, I’ve had two pieces of toast (one for breakfast and one for lunch), a small handful of crackers and a coffee. The supply of rations is holding out.

I was talking to one of my fellow participants this morning, and he expects he’s easily going to have food left over. I’m in the same spot. I haven’t touched my corn yet, or my can of meat or soup, and Beth is obligingly eating lentils for me. I’ve only had one egg so far, although Beth indicated to me that an omelet and my allotment of rice might be on the dinner menu for tonight. I think I’m looking forward to it.

Part of the problem, which probably led to my difficulties earlier in the week, is I am at heart a hoarder. Heading into this, I thought it important to make sure I didn’t run out of food. So I was cautious in the early going. I think the record shows I was too cautious, and that probably explains the headache problems I had Tuesday afternoon. Being a rookie, I hadn’t yet learned to pace myself.

The question is, “Could you survive of $8 and a box of food for a week?”

It’s becoming clear to me that the answer is yes, with a certain amount of thought and planning. The problem is there is not a lot of variety. There’s very little meat. True, I was able to secure a supply of eggs and cheese, two items of which I am very fond, but that was about it as far as “treats” were concerned.

We all have to eat to survive, but we were give taste buds for a reasons, and they have to be indulged to some extent. I’m finding there’s not a lot of room for that.

Putting it another way, I can live on this diet, but I’m not having a lot of fun.

And I am very mindful of the fact that I only have to live with it for a couple of days.

Whoever came up with the expression “Man does not live by bread alone” certainly knew something.