Day 4: Food

We feel like we're somewhat settling into a routine. There is the daily walk, calls with family & friends, some TV watching, reading etc.

Food has taken on added importance as the two hour delivery window for each meal punctuates the passage of the day. We chose our meals for each day at the start of our stay but have since forgotten what it was we chose, so looking in the brown paper bags that arrive always provides some surprise and excitement. The fact we can get excited about this is probably a reflection of the new pace of life.

The food arrives in neatly lined up bags outside of our room ...

The food has varied in quality. We've had some very tasty meals and others have been not that great. We are being kept alive though and we've got to be appreciative for that.

One thing that has been noticeable is the amount of food we're getting. There is always so much food. So much in fact that we decided to stop one of the lunch orders as two lunches were enough to feed three people, and means we're not putting unused food out in the rubbish which feels so wasteful. 

Typical breakfast/morning tea, lunch/afternoon tea and dinner orders are below:

Having some time on my hands, as well as being a curious scientist type, I've gone through and calculated the kJ content of the above meals. I've had to make guesses for some of the items and the total comes in at 13,000 kJ. Now an average adult needs 8,700 kJ per day, meaning there is 50% extra kJ being provided.

While I'm in the healthy BMI range I am taller than average, which means using the calculator from 8700.com.au that I'd be needing 11,500 kJ per day to maintain my current body weight, so from that measure there is only 13% extra kJ. With the Melbourne lockdown adding a few extra kg than I'd prefer, I could afford to lose some weight and to achieve a loss of 0.5 kg/week means a daily intake of 9,500 kJ. So with this all in mind it is a good thing to have turned off one of the lunches and we may choose to do this again for other occasional meals.

We've wondered what the thinking is that goes into the meal planning. There are certainly a number of people who will need the full 13,000 kJ to maintain their current weights, so to avoid complaints perhaps the chefs have chosen to go down this path. NZ residents returning for over 90 days aren't charged for their stays, but for those that are paying perhaps they'd feel disgruntled if the food being supplied wasn't sufficient. Of course the option is ours to not eat all of the food provided.

The disposable nature of all the packaging and the waste generated is big. That can be a topic for another day ...

We had a face-to-face check-in with the nursing staff, who took our temperatures and asked us a bunch of questions. They also confirmed our Day 3 Covid test for tomorrow, which we're all curious about but also feeling a bit hesitant as to how it will feel having a long stick shoved up our noses in the direction of our brains.