*Test - One Week Of Nothing But Beans And Rice*
First Attempt
By: Thoth8
01 March 2011

I started out to test myself to see what it’s like to just eat rice and beans (yes I know it’s not really a complete protein) with no seasonings at first, just plain Jane. Well that was the plan anyway.

We have:

• Navy beans
• Pinto Beans
• Cranberry Beans
• Red Beans (not shown)
• Black Beans
• Lentils (in the Coke bottle)
• White rice

My plan was to eat a different bean every day and on the last day I planned to mix all the beans together in a bean soup. Things that needed to be soaked were soaked at night time on the day before. I then used the water to water the house plants. Then I refilled the crock pot and cooked the beans.

• Day 1: Bland and kind of boring.

• Day 2: Kind of already dreading it. (Food aversion starting to kick in after 5th time eating it ). At dinner time I added beef bouillon cubes.

• Day 3: Starting to think "This is stupid and no point.". Kind of dreading eating. Starting to put off meals till I get really hungry. I started just eating as quick as I could just to get it over with.

• Day 4: This is where it started to really go downhill (10th time in a row). Adding all kinds of spices to the mix. Starting to really dread meal time. Wife is noticing a change in my behavior ( I'm getting grouchy). Noticed a lot more energy. Could be that I’m just ticked off all the time now.

• Day 5: I skipped breakfast. Just don't really want to eat. I go into the kitchen and then the "bean smell" hits me. Around dinner time an onion committed suicide on my chopping board and all the pieces jumped into my beans.

• Day 6: Angry and rationalizing my way out. I went into the pantry many times and said to myself, "It will not really be like this, so the test is all crap.". McDonald's for breakfast. I quit. I have lots of food put away so I don’t have to do this crap. If there was no food in the world, then fine. But as of right now? No way! I don't mind adding beans and rice to my food. But every day just beans and rice? That's just not going to happen.

What did I learn from this?

• Most of the time I ate separately from the wife as I did not want to smell her food. In fact I was getting a bit resentful of her.
• Now I know. I have developed certain eating habits and, when they get interrupted, I know I will have a mental change even on a full belly. What will others have when they are starving?
• I had my gallbladder removed about a year ago, so I might be different from others. Grease and oils have an "exlax" effect without the gallbladder to meter the bile from the liver.
• I seemed to poop less often but it was more, ummm, consolidated and a feeling of being bloated. Had some gas but it passed, lol. Other than that, no problems for the few short days I did it.

Things that could have been done better?

• I should have been checking my blood sugar and increased my liquid intake.
• I should have used spices from the start.
• I should have paid close attention to how my body was reacting.
• I should have checked my weight before and after the experiment.
• I should have used the Kill-A-Watt meter to do an energy audit on this.

:-)

I might try this again one day with full spices and adding things to the beans and rice to make it the best that I can.

But... Don't think that just because you have rice and beans you're good to go (at least not in my case). This just goes to prove... “Store what you eat”.
Thoth8

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