Beans and Rice Week

This week at Crossroads (my church) we've taken on the challenge of eating beans and rice instead of our usual meals for two reasons

1.  To identify with the millions of people around the globe who don't have access to food other than rice and beans (if that)

2.  We're taking the money we would otherwise spend on groceries and eating out, and donating it to several charities in our city and around the world.

Today began the challenge and the last non beans and rice thing that I had was a cup of coffee during service.  I almost forgot to start soaking my beans earlier today which meant that I couldn't start cooking them until after 7pm.  Whoops!  

First lesson learned already: if you can't plan ahead, you can't eat.  I'm used to sitting around on my butt or running around doing errands and then I realize I'm starving so I pop into a drive-through or whip something up quickly.  My diet mostly consists of pasta and juice smoothies so I never have to wait long for food or think about it in advance.  

I've basically forgotten what it was like to sit and be hungry.  Sometimes all I do all day is snack on what is basically expensive poison.  I can go through an entire box of chocolates in one sitting (can't we all?) or half a bag of frozen burritos in one day.

Also this is taking some life skills I didn't know I didn't have.  Like this:  

Is rice supposed to do that?....

If you would like to join us on our challenge you can either give to Crossroads online or choose a charity on your own!  We're bonding together over Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook so you won't feel alone!