DAY 5: I've cracked!

The basics: apples, oranges and bananas.

Ten-year-old me would be scoffing at 26-year-old me right now. That’s because 10-year-old me would’ve had a little broccoli with her white sauce, yet here is 26-year-old me, eating this superfood vegetable twice in one day with no sauce whatsoever to mask the taste.


I’ve really come to enjoy my fruits and vegetables. Broccoli is one of the best veggie superfoods around -- it is loaded with nutrients that reduce the risk of cancer and most notably, just one average serving has over twice your daily requirement of vitamin C. It also has small amounts of iron. Vitamin C and iron in one little package -- good news for my newly-discovered anaemia.

Talking about vitamin C, I’ve been stocking up on citrus fruits, hoping it will help ward off my sniffles. This vitamin is not only great for absorbing iron, but also reducing the risk of a heart attack (probably not an issue for me right now, but let’s get a head start, shall we?) and speeding up the healing of wounds. Do you think it works on bruises too?

Two of my other favourite “everyday” fruits, however, are apples and bananas. Both are also considered to be superfoods in their own right, but probably not to as great a degree as citrus fruits. Bananas are packed with potassium to help with normalised blood pressure and proper heart function. They’re also a natural antacid for heartburn. But I don’t tend to eat one everyday because they can be quite high in calories compared to most other fruits.

What I do eat everyday is apples; at least one apple a day. You know what they say: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. They’re great for weight control because they’re low GI and they have loads and loads of antioxidants for healthy skin and gums.

Here’s what was on today’s menu:

Breakfast: a slice of whole-wheat toast with smoked salmon and an apple.
Lunch: leftover lentil curry, jasmine rice and broccoli.
Snack: an orange and a banana.
Dinner: pan-fried chicken breast with onions with sides of yellow rice, butternut squash and broccoli.

Though I had lots of fruit and vegetables today, I feel myself losing steam with this challenge. I again cheated with some chocolate today. "Yes, I've cracked! So what, huh? HUH?!" I shouted at my brother as a scoffed my chocolate finger. It was really scary, you guys (at least for my brother).

This cheat once again confirms that I was right all along -- it’s impossible for me to stick to a fixed eating plan. Still, there’s a silver lining: tomorrow’s the last day of the six-day challenge!