Evil Sodium

by DMC

I have not lost any weight in about two days. I wonder if it's because I've been subsisting on the leftover rice and beans from Dos Coyotes? I'm only eating about 3/4 of a cup of the leftovers a day, in addition to a small square of polenta. However, when I looked up the nutritional information on the web, it seems like there is a LOT of sodium in the rice and beans. The rice and beans I make here has very little sodium.

So, I've boiled a batch of rice and mixed in the lentils with the leftovers to dilute the sodium. I think I have about enough food to get me through at least half the week, maybe more... if it all keeps, that is. Of course, with that much sodium, it'll probably last until the next Presidential election.

I am looking forward to the end of this food strike. It is getting harder and harder not to munch of food. Yesterday, I visited someone's house and saw a bowl of chocolates on the table. I almost asked for one, forgetting momentarily about the food strike.

Yesterday, I cheated a tad. I had opened the cabinet to look for the package of rice, and I saw the can of mixed nuts on the top shelf. I was soooo hungry. I opened the lid and picked out a tiny cashew and put it in my mouth.

God, a cashew never tasted so good. The flavor seemed to literally explode all over my tongue, and it lasted for at least a minute after I'd disposed of the cashew.

Now, if I open the cabinet, the nuts are still there, tempting me. So far, I've been able to resist. I keep telling myself I have a week left, and then Jackie and I will dine at Fresh Choice and treat ourselves to lots of green salad and maybe even a corn muffin!

Details of Ling and Lee captivity emerge

by DMC

Laura Ling has provided tiny bits of insight into what they experienced during their captivity. The two women were separated, each in tiny cells, where they were fed rice mixed with rocks. She would also get very small amounts of vegetables and tiny bits of fried fish (she developed a reaction to the fish). Both women lost weight, apparently.

According to Laura Ling's aunt Mrs. Ling Pierce, Laura Ling was coerced out of fear for her life to confess to a crime of doctoring the film for propaganda.

Jackie and I will have food freedom again on August 17th. We've already marked Fresh Choice as our food establishment of choice for that day, thanks to its abundant salad bar and the ability to pick and choose however much or little food our stomachs can handle. We figure we'll start off very small on the 17th, with a tiny salad (ah! fresh greens!) and maybe, if I dare dream, a corn muffin.

Jackie: Starvation

This is not getting easier and easier; it's getting harder and harder. My stomach has been growling for about two days. It's all I can do to avoid overeating.

Jackie: Lisa on food

Lisa Ling, in a story in People, commented on her sister's N. Korean diet.

Ling, according to Lisa, not only was happy to be home but also to be able to eat fresh food.

"She was telling us how there were rocks in her rice [in North Korea]," revealed Lisa. "She's anxious just to eat fresh food. I know there's going to be a sushi dinner very soon!"

Man, I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in that house, and learn more about what goes on over there. The conversations must be absolutely enthralling. So much for the current gossip that in the "guest house," the two women were eating like queens.

Now the two will get the chance to eat, eat, eat. Can't wait til I can, too!

Jackie: HUNGRY

Yes, that's the same as what I eat. I'm feeling finished with cabbage, although I know I need to eat it. I let the last batch rot. I think I'll go get a fresh cabbage tonight and start over.

And I'm SO hungry! Yet I let food rot. I had couscous and beans today instead of rice and beans, just for some variety, but it ain't cutting it. For the first time in many days, my stomach is growling and I feel like sleeping just to pass the time. I feel like this is getting harder, not easier, so perhaps my body is now feeling desperate. I am about to lose the second clothes size since this started.

I notice that Euna Lee and Laura Ling were a far cry from plump when they got off that plane with President Clinton.

Give us our daily...rice and beans

by DMC

What you're looking at is the daily amount of rice and beans Jackie and I have been surviving on. The plate is a tea cup saucer. The spoon is a small spoon. That should give you an idea of proportion.

In addition to this tiny amount of rice and beans, we usually eat a small slice of cornmeal measuring about 2 inches square--or at least I do. There have been many days, however, where I've gone without the polenta simply because I just cannot stomach it. This morning, I cooked a new batch of polenta, and I mixed in whole corn kernels canned only in water.

Oh, and the scale is down another pound and a half since yesterday.

Dos Coyotes

by DMC

Jackie and I returned to Dos Coyotes because, frankly, neither one of us could bear to make another batch of rice, beans, and polenta AND Dos Coyotes makes rice and beans way better than we do. So, this time when we both ordered the small side plate (with different cashiers), I received mine without any problem, but Jackie's cashier told her he could not give her the small side plate because that is only to be added to an existing entree. In other words, you have to order something ELSE to get it. He could give her a large plate of rice and beans for about $8.50. Well, after she objected and mentioned she'd had it just a few days before, he said he could give her a $2.50 plate.

So, here is what we both ended up with. I get the tiny plate (what you see represents half... I put the other half in a to go box immediately for the next day) and Jackie gets a much larger plate (probably about 3-4 days worth of food on that plate!) Of course, she only ate a small portion of the food on that plate!

All in all, I estimate the calories in my 1/2 of the plate to be about 250-300. That's all I had for the day (since they also mix in corn and I added a small amount of tomato from the salsa bar). As you can see, the front of the fork is almost as big as the serving of food! I'm so tired of polenta...it's worth the one tiny meal a day to have something that doesn't taste like drywall!

And just to bring this back to reality, the current prisoners in the North Korean labor camps don't even get the rice and beans. They generally get only cornmeal and cabbage soup, on good days. In the prefamine days of the 90s, prisoners got a very meager helping of rice and beans--sometimes--when that wasn't stolen by the guards! We've decided to incorporate rice and beans into our diet to mimic the prefamine "best case" diet of the North Korean prisoners, mainly so that we don't actually kill ourselves during these 30 days!