All in a day's work: Jennifer Ward-Lealand the actress

Jennifer Ward-Lealand is an actress and student at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. As a freelancer, every week is different. If she is working in the theatre, she’s up with the children at 7am, makes her breakfast (home-made in every way), packs lunch to take to rehearsals and is out the door by 9am.

Given her study schedule, she has to juggle her other work which makes for long days and busy weekends. Would she say her diet is typical of others in her profession? “My actor friends tell me my diet is not like theirs! I rarely buy takeaways and usually have a pot of homemade dahl and some crusty rye bread. If my schedule gets too hectic I’ll pick up a salad from Ripe in Grey Lynn — usually comprising a combination of raw energy (beetroot, carrot, pumpkin seeds etc) and some kind of lentil or bean salad. Yum.”

7.15am

Lemon and grated raw ginger hot drink. Homemade muesli, yoghurt and fruit— we still have delicious stewed plums from last summer’s harvest on Waiheke in the freezer.

10.15am

Almonds and a few pieces of 70 per cent dark cocoa chocolate. Cup of vanilla tea.

12.30pm

Two pieces of toasted rye bread with hummus and parsley. A piece of leftover bacon and egg pie.

3pm

An orange, some almonds and a couple pieces of chocolate.

7pm

An omelette (eggs from friends with hens) with parsley, green beans, piece of rye toast.

All in all, it’s a pretty light food day for me today.

Nadia Lim’s nutrition quick fix

You do very well at eating regular meals and finding a balance between healthy foods and more treat type foods such as the chocolate and bacon and egg pie. A healthy relationship with food is one where you can incorporate these indulgences in your diet in moderation and not feel guilty, so well done.

A few small squares of your favourite dark chocolate, savoured and enjoyed is far more satisfying than a large "fat-free'’ chocolate muffin, and you won’t end up over-eating. You are getting a significant amount of your protein from non-meat sources too (eggs, nuts, hummus) which is good.