It must be the first time ever in my life to investigate what food I eat and what are their nutrition facts. The first post will talk about nutrition of one specific day, January 21. I have tracked the food I ate on this day from morning until evening.

Meal #1 – Strawberry Banana Juice Smoothie (15.2fl oz)

I usually do not eat breakfast since I wake up at 9 a.m and I have to go to my first class at 10 a.m. I grabbed one of my favorite drinks, the strawberry banana juice smoothie. The reason why I often drink this juice smoothie for my breakfast in busy days is because it makes me feel full and satiated.

The table above is nutrition facts of strawberry banana juice smoothie. It does not contain any fats at all. However, it contains high amount of potassium and some amounts of carbs and vitamin C, which are good for our health. Especially, potassium maintains heartbeat and is important in many metabolic reactions in our bodies. Consuming food with high potassium might help prevent bone loss.

Many people including myself skip breakfast for different reasons. It is very important to eat proper breakfast. Lack of food in the morning will leave us grumpy and hungry that when lunch time comes, we are more likely to choose high calorie food. It will also make weight control difficult. Eating breakfast wakes up the body system, being ready to work throughout the day, and keeps us in a good mood. I personally recommend drinking fruit smoothies with other fresh and healthy food because they invigorate our bodies and give energy.

Meal #2 – Panda Express

Lunch out at Panda Express

<beijing beef, kung pao chicken, chow mein noodles, and fried brown rice>

Most food served in Panda Express taste good, but they have pretty high calories. It was my first day to try kung pao chicken and I liked it! Back to our mutton, the calories of food I ate which are shown in the table below seem not that high but, those are the calories for the small serving size that I ate. After eating lunch, I got double chocolate chip frappuccino after a long time. It can be inferred that it has high calorie. I should not drink chocolate frappuccino often. However, food I ate contain high amount of sodium. The recommended amount of sodium per day is between 1500mg and 2300mg. If sodium intake is high, risk for high blood pressure and stroke is greater. Moreover, thirst occurs, causing dehydration, but the sodium levels may return to normal level if drink fluids a lot.

Meal #3 – West commons

For dinner, I went to West commons dining hall, and I ate honey orange pork loin, creamy chicken alfredo, lettuce salad with tuna and cheddar cheese with some light ranch dressing on it. In dining hall, each food has a tag that shows name, serving size and calorie, which is convenient for people who are curious about what they are eating.

This chart is recommended daily intake. According to the chart above,  I have taken 72g of protein, 74.8g of fat, 251g of carbohydrate, 1950.7mg of sodium.

This is a lot of food I guess! I usually eat twice per day, lunch and dinner. I become grumpy and cranky if I get hungry. I realized that I have to eat regularly everyday and try to eat healthy food. As you can see the detailed nutrition facts of food, I eat fairly low carb and protein food, but high sodium food. I spend most of my time sitting and studying which is not pretty good. The recommended amount of calories for sedentary woman like me is 1800 ~ 2000 calories. I consumed 1,845 calories, and i believe average amount of calorie I consume is around 2000 calories. From now on, I will reduce drinking frappuccino this year and exercise frequently to sustain healthy body. Finally, I will take time to figure out what makes me feel satisfied and energetic for days.