Two weeks ago, a young woman wearing a black sweatshirt and headlamp muttered to herself as she dug through the trash.

This woman had a full-time job, a car and a place to stay. Yet here she was, sorting through garbage for food edible enough to sustain her for part or all of one week. And she didn't go hungry.

Yes, that was me behind your friendly neighborhood grocer or restaurant two weeks ago, creeping through darkness in the name of journalism, trying to find enough edible goodies to discover what it means to only eat what developed countries call "waste" food. You also might have already known it was me because I continuously blogged about my escapades the entire week.

For one week - including a weekend - I ignored all of the food in my cupboards and fridge to discover the "freegan" lifestyle (the food portion of it, anyway). A freegan is a person who chooses to forgo capitalistic ways, finding other ways to get food, shelter and supplies.

Without stealing, mooching or getting free meals from shelters, a big way they achieve that is out of Dumpsters.

To dive headfirst into this project, I had to let go of my pride, dignity, societal norms, notions of cleanliness and notions of what I believed to be waste, and climb over the edge of sanity and into metal trash containers.

What I discovered - besides the addictiveness of sneaking around and foraging for who-knows-what - is that food suppliers like grocery stores and restaurants throw out a lot of food. More than I ever would have imagined.

I went Dumpster diving three times during my week, and only once did I come away empty-handed. On Monday, I found what I called The Motherload, which consisted of a lot of loaves of bread, some fruit and unopened yogurts. Wednesday yielded the Produce Haul, which brought me enough vegetables and more fruits to last through the week.

Nearly half of all food grown and raised in the United States will never see a person's stomach, according to some estimates, and most of that is because of regulations regarding health codes and store sell-by dates. Though the only federally regulated products are infant formula and poultry slaughtered on the farm, states, manufacturers and grocery chains abide by informal regulations on best-by and best-if-used-before dates - meaning a lot of good food gets thrown out.

Read all about the experiment and the issues I encountered at wcfcourier.com/blogs/community.