Well last night I felt really wired and wondered if it’s because I’m drinking so much more tea at the moment! Though it’s all from the same teabag so unlikely to be huge in the caffiene stakes!

This morning however I woke up feeling lethargic and sluggish and SLOW. My brain really struggled to wake up properly.

Had a cup of tea with milk and a half teaspoon of sugar to help me wake up and then cooked my rice for the day to portion up.

Today’s rice is for today AND tomorrow as I have something different on the menu! Already excited about dinner tonight as it’s not rice!

Lentil and Bean burgers for tonight’s dinner! Woohoo!

Had a small bowl of plain rice for breakfast (well plain rice cooked with chicken stock, so it was chickeny rice really!). Simple and ok.

I have managed to keep up my workouts so I don’t get out of the habit but have reduced them to short 10-15mins classes so I get a mini-workout without overdoing it. Today I managed to fit it in to wake me up a bit.

Lunch was the usual rice and bean sauce with the last bit of my sardines, and a nice glass of cold fruit tea – it’s surprisingly nice cold!

Although I felt really sluggish and tired this morning, and not very hungry, by the afternoon my appetite was back and I REALLY enjoyed making and eating my lentil and bean burgers! I have learnt my lesson from last year and avoided adding too much water – the recipe amount isn’t quite right and they were too wet last time! This time the lentil mixture was nice and firm and I fried up my kidney beans with some chorizo and spring onion and a few spices.

Mashed it all together… (and set a little aside for another treat – a kind of flatbread pasty that I want to make another day!)

This time it made a nice firm patty and it fried up really well, though my flatbreads were not great – the pan wasn’t hot enough so they didn’t puff up well and weren’t rolled thin enough.

And finally I made my burger, complete with some of my spicy tomato “ketchup” that I prepped on Sunday.

It was actualy delicous and a delightful break from rice! Having just rice and tea for 3 days made me really appreciate this meal!

Although this evening I was still feeling hungry and so I made some more rice crackers and I had a brainwave and put some more fruit tea into a wine glass – psychologically it really felt like a treat! I pretended it was Rose´ in my head!

Started off with a cup of tea – I added a little milk this time. Forgot to take a photo until I’d drunk most of it!

Did a bit more meal prepping yesterday and today – yesterday I cooked an extra ration of rice, blended it in the blender with some oil, water and spices so I have a couple of tubs of it ready to make rice crackers!

I also cooked today’s portion of rice up with a stock cube again – here is my rice cracker mixture (That’s the orange goo!) and today’s rice.

I had a small bowl of rice and bean sauce for my breakfast. As predicted I feel less hungry today than I did yesterday so don’t think I will need as much to eat but we’ll see how I feel as the day goes on!

Last night after I had my fruit tea I left the teabag in the thermos with more hot water overnight (still very hot this morning!!) and have decanted it into a jar to cool in the fridge as a treat/cold drink to have later on. it was lovely as a nice cold drink!

For lunch: More rice with a small half of a sardine and some beany sauce and a bit of spring onion, along with some salt, paprika and chilli powder. Delicious and very filling. I also had some of my cold fruit tea which was lovely! Fresh and tasted lovely! Again I usually don’t get much flavour from a fruit teabag on 2nd usage but leaving it to soak overnight seems to have helped a lot.

For dinner: Another stir-fry with chorizo and spring onion and some more beany sauce. I wasn’t feeling very hungry so ate it quite late and forgot to take a photo of it!

Coping ok with the sugar withdrawals so far. Definitely felt less hungry today than I did yesterday.

I did make some rice crackers in the evening but to be honest I wasn’t hungry and probably shouldn’t have bothered, I was more making a snack out of habit as I usually want something snacky in the evenings!

I had a cup of black tea for breakfast while the girls had toast this morning, and then immediately put my used teabag in a thermos with more hot water and left it to steep (last year I set aside my teabags to re-use but once they have dried out a bit they are quite weak on second use – this way I got a second cup of tea just as strong as the first one!).

I’ve decided to save my milk rations for my tea later in the week when I might need it more! I also have 2 teaspoons of sugar I can use so will save that for later when I need a boost!

I did my usual morning workout but a much shorter one as I didn’t want to get too tired and hungry on my first day!

Then I cooked my daily portion of rice with a chicken stock cube for flavour, and had a late breakfast with a little chopped spring onion and a drizzle of my prepped beannaise sauce.

For lunch I ate a little more rice with bean sauce, spring onion and a bit of my sardines ration. It was actually delicious and I sprinkled a little salt, chilli powder and paprika on it.

For dinner I fried up the rest of the leftover rice from today’s rations with chorizo and spring onion as a stir-fry and once again added a litle bean sauce for extra flavour.

Last year when I did my first ration challenge, I was worried about running out of food and had very plain meals the first couple of days. This time I feel a bit more confident about how much I will have leftover so have opted to crack into things like my bean sauce and sardines earlier on.

I remember last year the first day was hard, and as I went along it got easier (and I got less hungry) so this year I decided to ease in a bit more gently with more flavour and rations straight from the get-go.

Also I must say using stock cubes as a spice is a game-changer! Makes my plain rice much more tasty and delicious!

In the evening I had a cup of fruit tea and some rice crackers for a snack. Then I put my fruit tea bag into the thermos to steep overnight!

Overall I felt full and not too hungry, as I think I ate more this time around than on my first day last year, and I didn’t have any sugar cravings so far…

The night before I started my challenge I took a picture of all my rations and did a bit of meal prepping.

As a reminder, I’m going to eat only refugee rations for 7 days. The base rations for 7 days for one person are:

• 1.92kg Rice
• 400g Flour
• 170g Red Lentils
• 85g Dried Chickpeas
• 1 x small tin Sardines
• 1 x 400g tin Kidney Beans
• 300ml Cooking oil

In addition to these rations, I have also raised enough money to “earn” some extra rations (similar to refugees who manage to earn a little extra money here and there), and I have a joined a team so I can share resources/spices much like real refugees and families would do. My additional rations are:

• Salt (unlimited)
• 1 x clove garlic
• 1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
• 210ml Milk
• 10 teabags
• 170g of any vegetable (I have chosen spring onions, same as last year)
• 120g of protein (I have chosen chorizo to make the flavour go further – last year I tried bacon)
• 6 x shared team spices (my team have chosen Turmeric, Cumin, Paprika, Stock cubes, Garlic Powder, and Chilli) – these are unlimited and make a HUGE difference!
• 50g Fruit (Pomelo) – this year I have inspired 2 other people to sign up and do it with me so this is a new reward for me
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 x hot or cold drink of my choice (up to 330ml)