Breakfast

As I mentioned, I made myself a massive amount of juice this morning, and it was so so good!

The hardest thing about live below the line is how uniform everything tastes. We actually finished with about 1/2 a chicken left over (we were both being so cautious at the beginning of the week) and three eggs. The things is, you can't buy 1/2 a box of eggs, and we got the chicken at a really low price, so less wouldn't have been cheaper.

There really was just no way we could budget in fruit. We barely had any vegetables as it was.

I think it's the lack of carbohydrates that was making me feel a little light headed because with in a few minutes of drinking my juice my mood was visibly brighter and I was convinced I was having a mild 'caffeine buzz' (despite no caffeine) and my head was clearing.

It's horrible to think that for some people this isn't just an unpleasant week, but a lifestyle.

How long can the body cope on that kind of diet, without long term damaging effects? Sure, I felt a little foggy and light headed, but if this was my long term diet, would I be causing serious damage?
Is there a link between poverty and learning disabilities?
Is that why children from poorer areas achieve less?

Live below the line has once again made me so thankful for things like breakfast cake, but more importantly for the privilege of being able to feed my children, good nourishing foods, make the best choices for their educations and give them opportunities that millions of people around the globe will never have.

It makes me thank God for where I was born, and when I was born.

Saving Seeds

Waste has become much more important to me in the last 48 hours (much as it did last year during our live below the line experience).

It's so difficult to watch your children leave food on a plate and know that, although it would easily double me and Matts dinner tonight, realistically it's going in the bin. I guess that's one thing the poor don't have to deal with, because their children would be starving too.

Not that I'm saying I'd rather my children were starving, just that it's hard to let that food go to waste.

My mum used to say 'there's children starving in Africa' when I didn't eat my dinner as a kid. I knew full well the food wouldn't magically get to them whether or not I ate it, but being on the hungry end of that equation really does make me resent the waste a whole lot more.

In the interest of not wasting this weeks vegetable box (I forgot to cancel my standing order) I've been preserving it, when it suddenly hit me, that I could also save the seeds.

Matt and I had a conversation earlier about how much easier live below the line would be if our garden was a bit more established (is that cheating?) and whether we should include costs like seeds. That's when I realised I have a steady supply of healthy, organic, seeds - regularly going into my compost bin!

It probably wouldn't have occurred to me if I hadn't seen Food Inc and been so shocked by the farmers loss of rights to save seeds for next years planting. It's such a normal part of traditional food production, to save your best seeds and replant.

It's horrifying to think that so many farmers are being kept in debt, and that poverty and food 'shortages' continue because large companies can find legal ways to wipe out traditional farming.

You can do something about it. Educate yourself and get involved in the campaign against Monsanto

One Week to go...

So there's only one week left until we start the 'Live Below The Line' challenge, and this year it's going to be harder than ever. This is on the most part because although I said I wasn't going to start the GAPS diet until after live below the line, we actually already started and seeing the improvement in our health, I don't want to go back.

I recently watched a documentary called 'Food Inc' too.

Now it's not just about health, but an ethical decision to want to stick to the diet. How can I justify getting sponsorship to raise awareness of extreme poverty, whilst buying products which exploit the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people?

That's right, people.

It's not just the animals that are abused in battery farming. Illegal immigrant workers are used for cheap labour in slaughter houses throughout the industry, whilst the subsidised corn prices in the US put third world farmers out of business and create famine, and genetic copyright laws are putting farmers under crippling debt or out of business.

If you haven't seen Food inc, you really should. You can watch it on netflix, who will give you a one month trial for free if you sign up with your facebook details, no obligation and you can cancel right after you watch it.

The most heart breaking section of the documentary is when they follow a family who have just $1 a day to buy food, so they buy fast food burgers from a 99c menu. The parents want to feed their children better, but they take a trip round a supermarket and show you that they can't afford broccoli ($1.29) or pears ($1 would only buy two, which wouldn't fill them up for the day). One of the reasons they can't afford any more is because the father is on medication for severe diabetes - caused by their diet. They can't afford the medication and a change of diet, and don't want to risk losing the father by coming off the meds.

These are the decisions faced by families in extreme poverty every day.

I'm going to be making some really difficult decisions about what I eat for the next week. I think that homemade yoghurt is going to be key once again as it only costs me 55p to make just over a pint, but I'm honestly not sure where else I can save. Some very careful budgetting is going to need to happen if we are going to eat real food in an ethical way and stay below budget.

Just finished on duty and feeling very hungry.

After a long afternoon, 75g of plain rice didn't quite cut it. Add to that giving the boys flakes and dairy milk for their suppers then buying the meat and drinks for the man training barbecue tomorrow and I am starting to feel pretty empty.

I am waking up to the fact that I snack a lot more than I realise. I am also waking up to just how instant our society is. We don't prepare or make our own food, Tesco has eliminated the need for that. No wonder recession is such a worry, all of our living is based on the easy and fast availability of cash.

As you can tell from my ramblings, I am a bit tired and hungry!! Off to bed