Day Two, 2/2

Basically, I had the same breakfast of milk and a granola bar. For the granola bar, there's 283 kcal per bar with 3.6g and 1.3g of saturated fat. There's also 56.8g of carbohydrates (a lot!) and 22.5g of dietary fibre, which is 90% of the daily value! I think I have my daily fibre, calcium (from milk) and carbohydrates down already.

I had wholemeal bread and almonds, as usual: giving me more carbohydrates, dietary fibre and (from the almonds) my dose of monosaturated fats. I actually tried to cut down on CNY goodies because I wasn't feeling very well and my throat would get sore, so today - which was reunion dinner day - I resisted the temptation to wolf down pineapple tarts. Thus explaining why my 'daily log' looks so healthy. The exact values of my bread and almonds can be found in the Day One post.

For lunch, I had boiled macaroni with bolognese sauce, sans meat. If I'm not wrong, we used Prego sauce and added some broccoli in. The serving of macaroni has 221kcal, 1.3g total fat and only 0.2g saturated fat. That's really healthy! There's 43.2g of carbohydrates - at this point, I think I just might be consuming too much - and 2.5g of dietary fibre, which is 10%. My Prego sauce has 80kcal, 3.0g of fat, 580mg of sodium (that's 24%!), 3.0g of dietary fibre and 13.0g of carbohydrates.

The exact values of the apple are: 130kcal and 34.0g carbohydrates, 25g sugar and 5.0g dietary fibre (20%). It's quite a lot of sugar, but this is the 'healthy sugar', I think, so that is a lot better than processed sugar found in more fattening foods. I had another dose of almonds (more and more monosaturated fats!) before heading off for reunion dinner.

I had one crabstick, because I'm not a fan of the bitter vegetables commonly found at reunion dinners and I can't stand the sight of raw meat (...except crabsticks). It has 26kcal, 3.6g carbohydrates and 2.5g protein, and compared to the other foods, I think the crabstick has the highest carb-to-protein ratio. I'm not sure if this is ideal, though.

The noodles were starchy yellow noodles, sort of like those in fishball noodles and the steamboat soup was really sweet and the kind that had had all the different ingredients dipped in (tofu, prawn etc.), so I'm not really sure what's the exact value of the soup, but I'll try my best. For the noodles and steamboat soup, I used the values of 'noodles, yellow, with prawn, tofu and vegetables' on the HPB website. There's 455kcal, 21g fat, 7.9g saturated fat and a surprising amount of 1358mg of sodium!

Reflections-wise, I think I eat a bit too much dietary fibre. My breakfast already has 90% of daily value and I still eat things like apples and vegetables and wholemeal bread. But I do need the amount of calories I'm getting; I try to maintain an 'active' lifestyle by running, so if I run on an empty stomach I will feel like collapsing.

Also, I think I can attempt making my own spaghetti sauce instead of using store-bought Prego as I will be able to control the amount of sodium, water, sugar etc. that goes into the sauce. The macaroni can also be replaced with whole wheat pasta instead to provide more nutrition.

I found the amount of sodium in yellow noodles with prawn etc. quite shocking because it's what Singaporeans eat everyday! We don't eat just that one meal, but two more, and some even snack. Especially on occasions like reunion dinners or Chinese New Year, there will be an excess of sodium in our snacks.

Using the healthy food pyramid, I think I consumed an appropriate amount of fat/oils/sugars today, which is good. However, I lack in protein; as I only eat white meat when cooked in certain forms and I skip out on red meat entirely, I don't get much protein, and my main source is milk. And even though I see a severe lack of vegetables, I attained enough dietary fibre because of the granola bar in the morning and the apple and other foods. I also think my carbohydrate intake is reasonable, considering my 'active' lifestyle.