40 Hour Famine - Recap

I LIVED!!!

So. Now that we've gotten past that nice intro that makes everyone relieved because they wanted to hear the ending of my story, I can move onto the important facts.

I LIVED, AND I'M STILL ALIVE.

Would you believe it? Shocking, right?

I thought that I could share with all what it was like to not-eat for 40 hours. Several of these things are stuff I wrote while it was happening, other stuff is what I remembered and attempting to guess what time it was when it happened.


Friday 6:30 - we finished dinner. This is it. Ate extra lots so it would take longer before I was hungry again. Officially 'started.'

Fri 6:40- licked the burrito meat spoon (after considering the consequences: decided it was worth it anyway) and had to delay the official beginning back a couple of minutes.

Fri 8-9:30 - watched "Anastasia" (the bat thingy was HILARIOUS) then went to bed.

Saturday 7:00 - woke up feeling hungry. Well...that didn't take long. Lay around in bed for a while because...there wasn't much inspiration for getting up.

Sat 7:30 - sat at the breakfast bench and watched my little 2 year old sister complaining that she 'didn't like' her breakfast. At least she was allowed to eat it. Pretended that drinking a glassful of water was satisfying enough for breakfast.

Sat 8-9:30 - wrote some Monsieur Scattlocke for much shorter time than normal because the lack of breakfast was making me uninspired.

Sat 10:00 - my stomach rumbled. Woe is me. Disappeared into my bedroom and had a stomach grumbling party with Alice. It's amazing how weird it felt; when you're stomach growls, you naturally want to go eat something but...nope. I attempted to console myself with the fact that there was only a bit over 24 hours left. I discovered that 24 hours left is not a very consoling statement.

Sat 10:30-12:45 - (that time is just a rough guess) distracted myself rather successfully with reading my friend and cabin mate Savannah Perran's (more commonly known to some as Savvy) novella Killing Snow. It was cool. I mean, beta reading for friends is always cool, but it's extra cool when the book's also cool. Like, Snow White retelling with Snow as the villain? COOL. Assassins and mass murderers? DOUBLE COOL. Bards? Airships? Futuristic? I AM TOTALLY IN THIS FOR LIFE. So yeah, it was pretty cool.

Sat 1:00 - Alice dared to bring out the things I had been dreading: barley sugars. The only thing you're allowed to eat (presumably so the sugar gives you energy and stuff), and basically everyone you ask tell you they are horrible (and they're fluro orange *shudders*). I ate one, it wasn't as bad as I had expected. We decided that since we went this long without eating anything maybe we should have two each.

Sat 1:30 - may or may not have gone hyper from the sugar overload...

Sat 2-4:00 - wrote out my beta reader comments for Killing Snow. Didn't have enough time to send them off and had to start getting ready for a friend's 18th bonfire birthday party.

Sat 4:30 - Traveled the half an hour to the party. In the car, it was very strange. I sat still almost the entire time. I NEVER sit still. Normally: I sit, my legs are jiggling, fingers tapping. Then: NOTHING. I honestly just couldn't be bothered to move at all. It was very weird. I was sitting there just staring at myself because it almost felt like my body wasn't mine, At least I was still breathing and still alive. Always a plus.

Sat 5-8:30 - at bonfire party, trying to ignore my dear sister Clare's taunting as she eats chips really loud next to my ear, or flaunts past with a sausage and bread. Luckily Sarah (known to some as Ninja) was a nicer friend and actually half-starved with me just to be nice. I successfully made Zach (it was his party) wary most of the night because of my threatening hints that I might have a glitter bomb birthday present for him. Unfortunately I just couldn't have been bothered to do anything so it was nothing all along. He was still wary though, so it was definitely worth it. Sat talking stories with Sarah while Clare grinned at me as she ate pavlova. NOT FAIR. Pav is the best. (Also, random question for my American followers, do you know what pavlova is? (And I just discovered like, three seconds ago, that pavlova isn't actually an Aussie/NZ thing...uh, okay. Still, I want know if you eat it)) At least there was no pizza (although it had been threatened).

Sat 8:30-9:30 - got home very exhausted and tired. The strange thing was that it wasn't the normal tired. Not the 'my eyes are tired of seeing, my body has no more strength to do anything' but it was a 'I'M HUNGRYYY AND I COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO MAKE MYSELF DO ANYTHING EXCEPT SLEEP' (or eat, but I wasn't about to just give up). Also, my brain was like a slug. Or there's the way I put it at the time...which was slightly...creative? This is something I wrote at nine to my cousin:

“My brain is mush. It don’t think proper. Won’t. Wow. I’m completely mad. And tired. 
Soup. That’s what my brain is. My brain is soup. 
Hmm...I like soup.
Soup is nice.
Even Broccoli soup, although I’ve never had any. 
Right now, broccoli soup would be just wonderful.
Or pumpkin.
Pumpkin soup is good.
My brain is also a bit like roast pumpkin.
It looks hard on the outside but inside = MUSHY”

Aaand I might've skipped out several of the more crazy lines...You get the picture though.

Sat 9:30-Sunday 7:00 - Slept. Or tried to at least. Getting to sleep was easy, but the rest of the night?...not so much. I woke up, felt hungry, rolled over, went back to sleep. An hour later: woke up, felt hungry, rolled over, went back to sleep. Eventually it was morning though and I could wake up properly and just feel hungry.

Sun 7:30-9:00 - Had a purposefully long shower to give everyone else time to eat breakfast while I was occupied, lay on the bedroom floor reading the bible. Alice and I both agreed wholeheartedly that we didn't need to eat any barley sugars. I knew they'd probably give me more energy and be good for me but I honestly could stand the thought of eating one. I was hungry for something savoury. At normal times, sweet isn't my thing, but when I'm hungry, definitely not. So we kept lying on the floor instead.
Clare came in and decided Alice and I looked completely dead just lying there. I disagreed. I felt uninspired to move, yeah, but dead? *checks breathing* Nope, I'm all good. 

After a while I decided to move and started playing guitar. I played around a bit and...the weirdest thing, when I stopped because it was time to go to church I had a bunch of energy. Nowhere near what I normal have, but it was there. For no reason. It was cool.

Sun 9:30-10:40 - church. It was one of those very rare weeks when our family wasn't actually on anything so we could just come. It was hungry, and surprisingly hard to sing while your stomach is in a perpetual state of almost-grumbling. 

Sun 10:45 - DONE! The first thing we ate was a cubic centimeter of bread for communion. I don't think it's ever tasted that good before. When the service was done we started eating through a packet of Saos (for those who don't know what these are *clears throat* *finds definition on google* Sao biscuits are a savoury cracker biscuit that was launched in Australia in 1906 blah blah blah, you get it now. They're pretty nice. Eating them with Vegemite is quite tasty.) and I'm pretty sure we only ate half the packet between us...

Sun 11:15 - Alice and I went shopping to buy a hot roast chicken or two for a celebratory lunch (YUM).

Sun 12-1:00 - got home, started making lunch. Ate lunch (YUMMY YUM). Basically: WE LIVED!


It was a really cool experience, and I can think of tons of reasons to do it. It made me actually think about all those other people who don't have the blessing of as much food as they want. It raised money toward supporting them (not my insane 5,000 goal that I honestly wasn't expecting to meet anyway. but enough to bless many lives). I realised how blessed I am, with all the things God has given me.

And naturally I had to bring this up: I'll now be able to write more accurately what it's like to actually be hungry. Which is cool.

So the big question, am I doing it again next time?

Hopefully.

My mum used to do it every year for quite a while, and I've always thought it was a kind of interesting idea. So I want to do it again, help out those people who are hungry and don't have the privileges of a hot chicken after 40 hours. It's not much, but it's something (uh, the helping out, not the hot chicken. THAT was something).

What about you? Do you want to give it a shot one year?

Now I can go back to jittering around, eating pizza (virtual and real) and hopefully sparing a thought for those who don't have such things.

This post was actually surprisingly longer than I expected. Hopefully it didn't drag on too much. :)

So, do you know what pavlova is?

(If so, have you eaten any?)

Jane Maree