With only five days to eat five more meals, I tried another one tonight. ( wasn’t too adventurous so I heated up the Chicken Teriyaki.

The pictures on the website led me to believe that there would be two compartments: one for the chicken + rice, and one for the vegetables. Nope. It was all mixed into one. This is what it looked like coming out of the microwave oven:

I only ended up eating three bites. It looked, smelled, and tasted terrible. The rice was not cooked (hard) even thought I following the heating instructions exactly. Like all microwaved teriyaki dishes, it had this strong odor, not at all like teriyaki dishes from restaurants. I ended up nibbling on the chicken pieces and almost threw up again. After 15 minutes, I tossed about 95% of the dish. I would give it 1 or 2 out of 10 and I’ve also decided I’m done with Freshly. I’m not ordering from them ever again.

Nutritional Item	Chicken Teriyaki	% DV
Serving Size	354 g
Calories	420
Total Fat	13 g	17 %
Saturated Fat	3.5 g	18 %
Trans Fat	0 g
Cholesterol	105 ng	35 %
Sodium	1,100 mg	48 %
Total Carbohydrates	49 g	18 %
Dietary Fiber	5 g	18 %
Total Sugars	17 g
Vitamin D		0 %
Protein	26 g
Calcium		6 %
Iron		15 %
Potassium		35 %

I guess the nutritional information doesn’t matter that much if you don’t actually eat any of the dish.

Everything has been fine until this evening. After throwing up again at dinner, I tried taking a few measuments with my EKG. The heart rate is pretty normal but the beat is irregular again. The EKG analysis thinks I have a-fib, again.

Here is one of the EKG readings. In row 2, it’s obvious that beats two and seven are a but early. I don’t know when this started but I did have a huge blowup with my parents during dinner. Maybe the a-fib us temporary due to the extra stress.

==========

I just took a few more readings and they came back normal. Hmm… maybe the previous a-fib readings were caused by emotional distress. That sucks.

I received my first delivery today. It came in a big heavy box even though I ordered only six meals. Inside the box was a lot of foam packing and two huge ice packs that were still mostly frozen. Seems kind of wasteful but not sure how else they are going to delivery perishable food.

Since it was my first order, I went small and ordered six meals. I also found a coupon so I think it was $45(?) for all six meals. The first one I tried was the Swede-ish Meatballs with peas/carrots and cauliflower-potato mash. This is the PR photo on the website:

This is what it looks like in real life after three minutes in the microwave oven:

I ate about 75% of the meal, both meatball (3/4) and vegetable-wise. Overall taste was probably a 6 out of 10. I used to get Marie Calendar frozen meals from supermarkets a lot and the taste is not that different except Freshly is much more expensive. I still have five more meals to try but will probably skip the coming week until I decide if I like the taste and the cost. I didn’t specify any nutritional restrictions so it’s not really heart/kidney healthy:

Nutritional Item	Swede-ish Meatballs	% DV
Serving Size	396 g
Calories	620
Total Fat	39 g	50 %
Saturated Fat	19 g	95 %
Trans Fat	1.5 g
Cholesterol	185 mg	62%
Sodium	950 mg	41 %
Total Carbohydrates	36 G	13 %
Dietary Fiber	8 g	29 %
Total Sugars	10 g
Protein	32 g
Vitamin D		0 %
Calcium		20 %
Iron		30 %
Potassium		60 %

Since I only ate 3/4 of the meal and it was my only meal of the day, it wasn’t too bad overall. The worst items are probably the saturated fat and potassium. The ingredients did not show any food preservatives so not sure where all the extra potassium came from. The cream sauce appears to be made of Greek yogurt so the taste is a bit strange for me. Hopefully some of the other meals are healthier.

At least I didn’t throw up… yet.

I used to eat at Pei Wei’s quite a bit because my boss really like their food, and there were locations close to work. I think a lot of Pei Wei locations closed in California and there are only three left in the state. Fortunately, there is one relatively close by in The District in Tustin. For lunch, I got their Mongolian Beef with white rice. I should have asked for light sauce because it’s super salty. Here is the nutritional information:

Nutritional Item	Mongolian (Reg)	Steak	White Rice (Reg)
Calories	350	410	400
Calories from Fat	180	260	0
Fat (g)	20	29	0
Saturated Fat (g)	3	7	0
Trans Fat (g)	0	0	0
Cholesterol (mg)	0	30	0
Sodium (mg)	2,020	510	0
Carbohydrates (g)	36	8	90
Dietary Fiber (g)	1	2	2
Sugars (g)	29	0	2
Protein (g)	4	29	7

Hmm, salty. Total is about 2,500 mg of sodium. I only ate about half the food so I guess I can finish it for dinner. Since this is the only thing I’m eating today (probably), it’s not too bad compared to a DV of 2,000 mg. I wish they would also show the potassium and phosphorus content as well since those are the other two items I’m most worried about after sodium.

I ended up eating some noodles mom made for dinner and promptly threw up. Sigh…

Thus nausea sucks. I’ve thrown up a few days in a row now. I basically just eat breakfast plus a tiny snack for lunch. During dinner time, I can’t hold down much food and would end up drinking a Nepro protein shake.

I just went downstairs to eat a small bowl of cereal at 2:30 am since my stomach was hurting from hunger. I think I have to order out more since I can tolerate a few restaurants’ food more than my mom’s home cooking.

I’ve walked by our local Jersey Mike’s restaurant many times since it’s right next to a local Vietnamese pho place. My dad usually goes to a Subway that’s really nearby but the sandwiches are not that great, and Subway subs have a very particular smell that’s not too appetizing. A few days ago, I ordered a club sub online from Jersey Mike’s. Here is the nutritional information from their website.

Nutritional Item	#8 Club Sub	#2	#7	#13
Total Calories	1,100 cal	820 cal	780 cal	940 cal
Total Fat	71.55 g	43 g	39 g	53 g
Saturated Fat	13.34 g	10 g	9 g	13 g
Trans Fat	1.41 g	1 g	1 g	1 g
Cholesterol	95.26 mg	52 mg	83 mg	75 mg
Sodium	2,483.31 mg	1,987 mg	2,026 mg	2,531 mg
Total Carbohydrates	68.95 g	69 g	66 g	71 g
Dietary Fiber	4.25 g	4 g	4 g	4 g
Sugars	8.3 g	9 g	7 g	11 g
Protein	42.50 g	36 g	40 g	44 g

First, having numbers to two decimal places seems ridiculous. Can they really measure 0.01 mg of anything? Second, wow that a lot of sodium. The website actually lists nutritional information for each ingredient in the sandwich. There is about 500 mg of sodium in each of the ham and turkey used in the sandwich. For total fat, there was a lot in both the mayo and the olive oil blend. The sandwich tasted great though.

I did make a mistake in the order. Jersey Mike’s specialty appears to be Italian subs which explains the olive oil blend and oregano. If I order a club sub/sandwich next time, I think I will skip those ingredients. They taste kinda weird on a club sandwich. I’ll probably go with a mini sandwich too. There’s still too much sodium (1,574 mg) but it’s better than the regular sandwich.

I added a few more sandwiches that looks great and rounded the nutritional information. The sodium levels are crazy high on all choices so I don’t know if I can eat there that much (or at all). Sigh…

I had trouble keeping down some chicken katsu curry my mom made using an air fryer. It’s the same issue: I would chew a few bites and suddenly want to throw up. There are only a few things I can eat from her cooking, otherwise I have to order out from local restaurants.

After looking up a few choices, I signed up and ordered six meals from Freshly. Instead of shipping you ingredients and having you cook your own means like Blue Apron, Freshly entrees are fully cooked and just need to be microwaved. That increases the chance that the meal will suck but I don’t feel like spending an hour cooking one serving.

Here’s my first order. It was $60 for six meals with shipping but I found a $15 off coupon (good for first four weekly orders) so it’s only $45. It’s a bit more expensive than the food kit companies but the food comes already cooked. Hopefully the food is edible. My other choices include order dinner each night from Urban Plates nearby for ~$14 including tax but that will probably get old soon.

Nutritional Facts	Grilled Chicken	Roasted Potatoes	Brussels Sprouts	Bread	Total
Weight	5 oz	6 oz	6 oz	1 slice	17+ oz
Calories	230	160	180	130	700
Fat Calories	80	40	110	30	260
Total Fat	9 g	4.5 g	13 g	4 g	30.5 g
Saturated Fat	3 g	0 g	1.5 g	0.5 g	5 g
Trans Fat	0 g	0 g	0 g	0 g	0 g
Cholesterol	180 mg	0 mg	<5 mg	0 mg	185 mg
Sodium	840 mg	260 mg	150 mg	330 mg	1,580 mg
Carbs	0 g	28 g	15 g	24 g	67 g
Dietary Fiber	0 g	3 g	5 g	<1 g	9 g
Sugars	0 g	2 g	4 g	0 g	6 g
Protein	35 g	3 g	5 g	4 g	47 g

I didn’t finish the Brussels Sprouts not the bread so take a bit off the total nutritional values. It was okay overall. My sister had her air conditioner on full blast and it cooled and hardened the chicken pretty fast. I ended up eating only half the chicken too and fed the rest to their two dogs. I guess it was pretty nutritious since I only ate about half the food.

Ugh. I just saw the news that Souplantation restaurants are not opening post-COVID-19. I guess in the post-virus era, the buffet business model will be hard to sustain. Since all the food is just sitting out there, it’s hard to prevent contamination.

There is a Souplantation about 15 minutes from my house that we go to a lot. Mainly I would get their Asian salad and chicken noodle soup. I get coupons emailed to me regularly so it’s a cheap meal and we usually end up eating too much. Now I’m worried about all the other buffet-style restaurants. Also, what about Las Vegas? Each casino has a huge buffet restaurant, some of them pretty expensive.

Wok Hei is a primarily takeout/delivery “Chinese” food restaurant. When I say Chinese, I mean American Chinese food. Whenever you see stuff like Moo Goo Gai Pan (蘑菇雞片) listed on the menu, you know it’s not authentic Chinese food. Sometimes that’s okay. My boss and I used to go to Pei Wei all the time for lunch. Pei Wei is owned by P.F. Chang’s, where P.F. stands for Paul Fleming. Anyway, I’ve order from there a few times before. I was going to get a 2-dish family meal but I remember my dad not liking their food so I ended up getting one dish, plus used some points to get some fried egg rolls.

I ended up getting something called Wok Tossed NY ($10.95) which has beef, mushrooms, carrots, scallions, and lots of garlic in a sweet sauce. When they say “sweet”, they really mean it. There was a lot of tender beef slices but it was way too sweet. It came with a small container of white rice, which I finished quickly since I needed something bland to mix with the overpowering sweetness of the sauce. I only ate about half of the dish; I guess I can cook some rice and finish it for dinner. It’s not bad but not really good. I’d probably give it 3/5 stars if I had to grade it. It was the same for the other two times I ordered from there: okay but not really memorable.

Incidentally, they used to have two locations: Villa Park and Tustin. I used to go to the Villa Park location since it was closer. That location shut down several months ago so I had to go to the other location for pick up after dialysis. I think we’re just outside their delivery area.

My dad texted me to pick up some In-N-Out burgers for lunch. The drive-through line was crazy long, probably 30 cars. It did move pretty quick though. I ordered and was out in about 15 minutes. Like Raising Canes, they had several workers in masks take orders in line. Since I didn’t really eat dinner for two days, I got a double-double with grilled onions, well-done fries, and a chocolate shake. For some reason, the fries were super salty so I only ate a couple of fries. I found nutrition information on In-N-Out’s website:

Nutritional Item	Double-Double	French Fries	Chocolate Shake
Serving Size	330 g	125 g	15 oz
Total Calories	670	370	580
Calories from Fat	370	140	250
Total Fat	41 g	15 g	28 g
Saturate Fat	18 g	1.5 g	18 g
Trans Fat	1 g	0 g	1 g
Cholesterol	120 mg	0 mg	110 mg
Sodium	1,440 mg	250 mg	400 mg
Total Carbs	39 g	52 g	84 g
Dietary Fiber	3 g	6 g	<1 g
Sugars	10 g	0 g	65 g
Protein	37 g	6 g	10 g

I thought the burger was a bit salty but not 1,440 mg salty. Add some fries and the shake, I’m probably at the 2,000 mg daily limit. Likewise for fat. The recommended daily value for saturated fat is only 20 g so either the burger or the shake will put you at the limit. Definitely can’t eat this every day.

My parents ordered lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Orange called Fortune Cookie. I think we’ve eaten there several times before the pandemic and the food was okay. The decor was definitely nicer that your typical Chinese restaurant will nice upholstered booths. They ordered three dishes: spicy/cashew chicken, braised string beans, and chicken lettuce wrap. It was probably the worst tasting restaurant Chinese I’ve had in a long time. The string beans were not seasoned and the stir-fried chicken dish had stinky bamboo shoots. Afterwards, my dad called to ask them what’s up and they said their main chef skipped work due to the coronavirus. I guess they had their line cooks make the food and it shows. The restaurant said they will cook another dish for us for free. Not sure if my dad took them up on it since it will probably taste just as bad.