Government recently published its 2007 report on poverty. It measured that a single adult living in Bermuda needs an average of 2,200 calories, which could be done by spending $8.19 a day.

The Royal Gazette asked reporter Nadia Arandjelovic to live on this amount for two weeks. Although she managed it, it was boring – consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cereal and apples, and according to a nutritionist did not meet necessary dietary requirements.

The report, called the Low Income Threshold, aimed to determine who was not sharing in Bermuda's economic success and steer Government in ways to help those individuals. It looked at 12 components of living, most notably food, shelter, clothing, transport and fuel and energy – and established that there were 3,680 households, 13 percent, in 2007 that fell below the poverty line; this included 1,114 single adult households, 88 percent of which were seniors.

I imagined I would be eating morsels of food, become grossly thin and be whisked away by an ambulance on day six of the experiment. Sure, I'm a little overdramatic, but these are all things that came to mind before I started.

Some people I talked to reacted in the same way and assured me it couldn't be done successfully, healthily or with any remaining sanity.

And it's no wonder. In Bermuda we are accustomed to paying $8 or more a day just for lunch, and many of us eat out on a regular basis.

Despite my reservations, I began my first week of the experiment on Wednesday, August 13, with a trip to Market Place in Hamilton. I abandoned my old shopping tactic of 'grab and go' and wandered slowly through each aisle double checking every item in my cart.

Most of my time was devoted to the vegetable, meat and dairy sections of the store and I had to skip over my favourite baked goods and snack food aisles entirely. Before this point I felt prepared for the week ahead; I made a shopping list on my lunch hour and checked the newspaper for Market Place's daily specials, but in reality a large portion of my list had to be abandoned.

The cheese, the bag of carrots, the deli meat – it was all too much and drastically put a dent in my eating plans.

Before reaching the check-out counter I calculated the items and realised I'd largely overspent. I put back the $3.99 yogurt and the pecans, which were just over $4, but decided to keep the Shoprite brand popcorn on hand for the rainy days ahead.

I spent a little more than a dollar over budget that week, even with the five percent Wednesday discount from the grocers.

As I left the store, there was a clear difference between my lonely bag of groceries and the overflowing carts beside me. In total, I managed to buy a bag of apples, a small piece of pumpkin, turkey bacon, a package of rice, spaghetti, pasta sauce, broccoli, cucumber, avocado, popcorn, iceberg lettuce, cornflakes, peanut butter, jelly, a loaf of bread, milk, chicken thighs and ground beef, all of which could be stuffed into one brown paper bag.

From day one, my diet was immediately filled with bowls of cereal and milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and lettuce and cucumber salads.

On the first day I learnt the hard way that some foods don't hold up well after eight hours at my desk. Probably for the first time in my life it annoyed me to watch food go to waste. I ate stiff, overcooked bacon and was entirely sad when I dropped cereal on the ground one Friday morning.

It was my third day on the diet when my grandmother decided to take the family to the Pickled Onion for lunch. I stuck to my plan, despite the wonderful smells wafting around our table, and was definitely the most miserable and snappy guest that afternoon.

While I was sipping on ice-cold tapwater I realised how important food was in my life. All of my family get-togethers involve food of some sort. It is a way to show how much we care about each other; a simple way to put a smile on a loved one's face and nourishment into their bodies.

It was terribly discouraging to have to miss out on that lunch, a dinner at Riddell's Bay Golf Club and a Sunday morning breakfast of codfish and potatoes, but I caved on the second week and accepted an invitation to dinner at Blackbeard's Hide Out in St. George's.

By day six, I hadn't suffered any real health problems, but I had watched most of my groceries dissipate and was struggling to put together meals for the following day. I settled for some lettuce leaves and half a sandwich for lunch.

On week two I was able to get more creative with my meals having several large items left over from before to work with. Instead of cereal and milk, I had scrambled eggs and bacon or muffins; I also took a well-deserved break from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and switched over to tuna.

Even though the meals were better, I still faced regular cravings for all the foods I tried, and the millions of foods I still wanted to try. I couldn't help but drool over recipes for focaccia bread one evening courtesy of Oprah.com. Sure, I was adding fuel to a fire, but at this stage in my experiment I couldn't help myself.

Overall, the meals, including cereal for breakfast, sandwiches or salads for lunch and pasta or rice for dinner, were filling (I can only remember being completely starving on one occasion – the Friday I left my lunch on the kitchen counter).

Still, I was terribly bored and noticed there was little room for me to experiment with new cuisines or recipes. The experiment also drained most of the pleasure out of eating. I was no longer enjoying foods like I used to. Instead I was eating to fulfil a basic need of survival.

As the diet slowly came to a close and I could literally taste my freedom again, I came to a realisation – it wasn't all that bad, but then again, I only had to do it for two weeks, not an entire lifetime.

* Since the report was done, Government estimates that the price of food has risen by six percent, or roughly 50 cents on $8.19.