The 5-Ring Diet: living exclusively off Olympic sponsors’ products
Imagine fashioning a bra out of Always maxi pads, or washing your hair in the sink for 24 days with a bottle of Dasani water and Pantene Pro V shampoo. Imagine sleeping on a bed made out of packs of Charmin toilet paper.
This lifestyle sounds like that of someone on an extreme camping trip or a homeless person; however, it is 28-year-old Chicago copywriter Terin Izil living this life, and she’s doing it all for charity.
Izil is currently partaking in what she calls the “5-Ring diet”, a campaign to live exclusively off of Olympic-sponsored products for the entirety of the 2012 Olympics in order to raise money for Camp Promise, an overnight camp in the Pacific Northwest for people living with neuromuscular diseases. Izil, a co-founder of the camp, is hoping to raise $25,000 during the 24-day Olympics in order to provide campers with an unforgettable week-long experience as a camper at Camp Promise.
Throughout her 24-day journey, Izil has only been using products with the Olympic rings on them, which excludes companies many people believe to be Olympic sponsors (such as Subway, who are not sponsors despite their involvement with Michael Phelps and Apolo Anton Ohno). Izil has been living off of Kellogs cereal, Chobani yogurt and McDonalds, and she cannot eat most of the food at McDonalds since she is a vegetarian. Olympic ring underwear is apparently hard to find, but since she was in London at the beginning of the Olympics for work, she was able to purchase a Team GB bathing suit that she’s been using as underwear for the duration of her “5-Ring Diet”.
“It’s amazing. It’s comfortable. It breathes. It’s easy to wash. And it’s even dry by morning because it’s a swimsuit,” Izil said on the website she set up to chronicle her journey, 5ringdiet.tumblr.com.
With less than 48 hours until the closing ceremonies, Izil is only slightly more than $4,000 away from her goal of raising $25,000 for Camp Promise. To follow the end of her journey or donate to Camp Promise, go here.
