You don’t realize how much you value your food and your dietary choices until they are completely taken from you.
If you love eating, the World Race will be good for you. If you love good/clean/healthy/organic eating, the World Race will be challenging for you but still advantageous.
FOR THE PERSON WHO PUTS VALUE IN EATING
Advice from someone who has been there before: Get over it before you leave. Get over the fact that you will eat carbohydrates all the time and veggies will be scarce. You’ll dream about green things to crunch into nightly. At least you’ll be eating.
Get over the fact that you will be required to eat whatever is put on the plate in front of you because it HONORS your hosts, ministries, friends, etc.
Get over the fact that you “don’t want to,” or you “don’t have to,” or your “body cannot do it.” Your body will submit to whatever your mind asks it to.
Get over the fact that your body WILL NOT look the same when you return home. You’ll get to work hard when you get back and practice the self-discipline you learned while away.
God will show up. He will ask you to step out of your comfort zone and you may struggle with food MORE on the Race than you do back home. Regarding food, I’ll tell you a little about my own struggle on the Race and where you can prepare your heart, and the actuality of eating on the Race.
My advice to future World Racers that have any inclination to not do the Race because they cannot workout or more specifically eat food that nourishes/honors their body, I rebuke that and tell you to change your mindset. If God is calling you to do a year of missions with AIM, He will lead you, He will comfort you, He will clothe you, He will grow you, and He WILL FEED YOU.
There will be food provided for you but it’s not always the food you feel you deserve or ought to be eating. You will no longer be in America. And really, part of the whole integration into this discipleship program (#11n11) IS learning to submit to the culture you are serving amidst.
You will eat chicken with all the bones cut up and still attached.
You will treat any green vegetable like it’s the most beautiful specimen of deliciousness you have ever seen.
You will find that ice cream, chips, and chocolate bars become your taste of America and an unhealthy habit of comfort.
You will spend hours and hours on the toilet draining your body of all the unmentionable things you ingested via a liquid exit (maybe a worm or two.)
You will (if in Asia) eat white rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
You will be welcomed into people’s homes to try their finest cuisine and encouraged to try everything, to give up your preexisting notions, and just love people and eat.
You will disrespect and offend someone if you turn your nose up at a meal that they spent all day preparing for YOU, their special guest. You will offend someone by not finishing your plate.
You will learn that the food we eat enables us to further serve the Lord through providing energy and as much as it’s true that your body is a temple.
God will expect you to have morality and high principles in a new way other than micromanaging your foods.
FOR THE PERSON WHO WANTS TO EAT HEALTHY ON THE RACE
Before the Race I had a healthy balance of physical activity in my social circles, found myself at the gym a few times a week, and ate fairly well for myself on a college budget and with limited time. I was hugely into juicing and smoothies when my bank account gave me permission to and never genuinely took advantage of the sustenance we have access to in the United States of America.
In telling my friends, family, and supporters where their donations would be going towards I remember distinctly each time making sure to add in that meals were included-That I wouldn’t have to make my wallet stretch or honestly even worry about spending personal money on food.
Month two I found myself in the hospital with a $350 hospital bill along with other squadmates because of things ranging from E coli to dehydration to traveler’s diarrhea. This wasn’t planned and it was absolutely because of the food that I ate, but that shouldn’t deter you from following the Lord in full obedience but also don’t let those around you guilt trip you into spending more than was allotted to you from your treasurer on good food often.
That’s the biggest invention (lie) of the Race. If you want to be FULL, if you want to feel healthy, if you want to stay hydrated and bond over the event that is eating you WILL SPEND YOUR OWN MONEY.
Just as I detailed the ways in which your perspective should change I think God meets us in the balance of both, making peace with having no control over your eating but on the contrary choosing what honors Him and your spending WHEN the options are available.
If you intend to go to those small little organic cafes on your breaks in between countries or splurge on a wheatgrass shot (like Jordan always does) in the airports or snack on things like peanut butter/granola/almonds I would suggest you raise another $500-$2,000 to eat off of (or pay for your inevitable hospital bills) before you leave the states. Believe me, you’ll thank me for this advice and find it to be a true piece of information.
