Pushing Thirty and Suddenly Caring About Sodium

Pushing thirty as a Gen Z means becoming more conscious about my health—and that’s one thing about our generation that I’m proud of. Not only have I grasped the importance of working out from a young age (saying this while thinking about my 2 kg dumbbells at home), I’ve also become more aware of what I put into my body.

I mean, this is me we’re talking about. I’m the least athletic person I know, and even I’m making an actual effort.

If you’ve been following my blog since last year, you might already know that I’ve been using a catering service for quite a while. Last month, I even subscribed to its low-calorie package for dinner (to which ChatGPT rated my overall food intake a 9/10 in terms of healthiness).

But since I need to allocate extra savings for an upcoming trip (which I’m SO EXCITED ABOUT, YAY), I decided to pause the low-calorie catering service for a while. So lately, I’ve been eating from my office canteen…

Which is good, really. The chef is talented—no debate there.

It’s just that… the food is super, super, super salty and oily. There’s a popular myth in my area that overly salty food means the cook wants to get married quickly. And at this point, I’m guessing my office chef is on the verge of quitting her job just to say, “I do.” Because who else doesn’t want to get married, yet still uses that much salt, right?

But that’s beside the point. To compensate for the crazily high sodium intake, I’ve been trying (read: half-forcing) myself to eat healthier breakfasts and snacks.

That’s why you’ll currently find jars of nuts sitting on my desk. So far, I’ve tried roasted pumpkin seeds, almonds, and cashews. Here’s my official review:

Roasted pumpkin seeds: a little plain, but once you start eating them, you just can’t stop. I don’t know why, but they taste like the healthiest option.

Roasted almonds: not as good as the ones I usually get with frozen yogurt, but still crunchy, nutty, and slightly sweet. Overall, I like them better than the pumpkin seeds.

Roasted cashews: I don’t know why, but my brain keeps trying to convince me they’re unhealthy because of how good they taste. Even Google hasn’t been able to change my mind.

These past couple of days, I’ve also been eating the latter two with plain yogurt. I’m thinking about switching to Greek yogurt too—I’ll let you know if I end up liking it more.

P.S. I never meant for this post to become this… chit-chatty, but let’s just say I’m still in the transition phase back to my old blogging self. It’s been a while since I posted regularly, and I’m still trying to remember how I used to write here. Was I always this talkative??? Do you guys still recognize me??? I genuinely hope so.

If you like this post, you might also enjoy My Recent (Healthier) Snack Hauls and A Honey-Roasted Sweet Potato to the Rescue.