After the United States Navy eliminated flogging around the mid-1800s, ship captains began ordering bread and water confinement for sailors in need of discipline. The nonjudicial punishment consisted of three days in the brig to subsist solely on bread and water. Captains used the punishment for minor infractions by sailors in the lowest three pay grades. The practice continued until it was banned on Jan. 1st, 2019.
Periodically, I set restrictions on my diet, like only eating rice and beans for a month or implementing rules for beer consumption. Recently, I sentenced myself to three days bread and water. My first day started alright. Then on the second day, I got a little lightheaded, and I had a hard time falling asleep because I was hungry. I had run out of bread and planned to get more in the morning. However, in the middle of the night, I threw in the towel and wolfed down several peanut butter cracker packages to quell my revolting body. Already defeated, I forwent the trip to the grocery store on the third day and ate beans instead. Eating beans kept the ascetic theme going, but ultimately, I knew I had failed.
The next weekend, I filled my grocery cart with bread: soft french rolls, sour dough, butter bread, farm bread, plain bagels, and Russian rye. I started my three days of bread and water once more. The first day went well. For dinner I consumed a ridiculous amount of bread so that I would not have a grumbling stomach as I tried to go to sleep nor would I wake up to one in the middle of the night. I slept until 4:45 am when I awoke hungry. Time for bread.
On the first day I had taken in about 1,300 calories and on the second day I upped the calories to about 1,700. What kept me going through the second day was knowing that the next day would be the last day. On the third day, I consumed about 2,000 calories of bread, nearly half of that at dinner. The next morning, I celebrated with Cap’n Crunch for breakfast–a bowl of the original flavor followed by a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch!
Results and Reflections on my Three Days of Bread and Water
Body. In reading the nutritional labels of the breads I ate, I could see there wasn’t really much! Throughout my three day experiment, I continued with moderate exercise, running a few miles each morning and lifting weights on day two. Between the exercise and the empty calories, I lost three pounds.
Simplicity. I enjoyed the simplicity and efficiency of the diet. I never had to think about what I should eat or spend time preparing meals–sort of the eating version of wearing the same outfits everyday.
Self-control. I was pleased to test my will and self-control and to succeed the second time around. Self-control is like a muscle; you have to exercise it or it can get weak. Self-control is also a character trait, and if we don’t remind ourselves of its importance, we can lose the trait without even knowing it. It is easy to react when someone is provoking us, for example. It takes a well exercised character trait of self-control, though, to stay calm and constructive.
There are myriad other examples in our lives of losing self-control–sometimes in small ways and sometimes in big ways and always at a cost. Money wasted. Health compromised. Words said. Things done. People hurt. I want to avoid those costs as much as possible so I plan to keep hitting the self-control gym.
Empathy. Restricting myself to bread and water reminded me of the millions in the world who are in need of proper nutrition. Even in the United States of America, many people are struggling to feed themselves and their families.
“One of the most terrifying points of 2020 for Christian Sullins” of North Carolina “was not when she was unemployed as a result of pregnancy complications following the birth of her son in January. It was not when she was working as a waitress serving customers in March as the coronavirus pandemic began to rip through the U.S. And it was not when she lost her job just two weeks after returning to work when North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper issued state-wide stay-at-home orders.
No, the worst moment came when Sullins, a 32-year-old mother of two, ran out of food.…. ‘I’ve been out of work for three weeks. I have no income. My kids are starving — I need food.….'” You can read the rest of the article, here:
I had the luxury to contrive a small sense of the deprivation that is very real, very painful, very scary, and much, much worse for millions of people. I’ll need to think about ways I can do more to help.
Gratefulness. My dietary restrictions lasted three days, only a short time. Within the confines of my restrictions, I still had a plentiful and varied supply of bread to consume. I had unlimited clean water to drink. The restrictions were of my choosing, and I could eliminate them at any time. I can be nothing but grateful.
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present
Relevant Links:
Navy to scrap bread-and-water confinement, by Scott Wyland, Stars and Stripes
Happy holidays, Seaman Timmy! No more confinement on bread and water for you, by Geoff Ziezulewicz, Navy Times
Bringing in the New Year with Rice and Beans, by P. Gustav Mueller
Gustav’s Guidelines for Beer Consumption, by P. Gustav Mueller