The Food and Mood Quarantine Guide
Spending 14 days in Australia’s hotel quarantine was not how I imagined I would begin 2021.
After landing in Brisbane airport, and making my way through the tedious yet relatively streamlined security process, I was on a bus en route to the Westin Hotel in the Brisbane CBD. And while I was incredibly relieved to be one of the lucky ones to have made it back home, I knew the next two weeks would be a huge challenge to my mental health and wellbeing.
The dietitian in me, however, was naturally very excited and curious to learn about how the hotel had organised the food service — including the delivery of meals, the menu design, as well as the quality of the food itself. In the same breath, as someone with coeliac disease, I was also equally nervous about the situation.
Fast forward to my final day of quarantine, and I’ve been reflecting on some of the questions asked by family and friends about my experiences here. I thought I’d share some of the questions — mainly about food, exercise and mental health — in the hope that it might help the next poor soul about to enter quarantine.
What did you do all day to keep occupied?
As expected, the days were very monotonous. What I found most helpful was creating a daily routine, providing a sense of structure and normality.
As soon as I recovered from jetlag, I created a super simple and generic plan for each day. For me, that routine was: wake up, exercise, shower, eat, work, watch TV, sleep, and repeat. While I tried to make my days relatively consistent, I also picked out certain times to have a glass of red wine (alcohol is available to purchase from the hotel), or order from Uber Eats on Friday night — things I might do in ‘normal’ life.
How do you get your meals delivered?
About the meals — the most important part.
You get three meals a day, arriving at 7am, 12pm and 6pm. A staff member knocks on your door, and you are advised to wait at least 10 seconds before collecting your brown paper bag (to avoid the risk of infecting the poor staff). The menu rotates weekly, but they also prepare themed food for special events — on Australia day, they gave us BBQ sausages and Pavlova.
How healthy was the hotel food?
All in all, the Westin Hotel have done a fantastic job in light of a really tough situation. From a nutritional standpoint, there was a lot of variety, high quality meats and vegetables, and plenty of snacks (mostly healthy) to keep you going throughout the day. Here were some of my highlights:
It seemed they also made a huge effort to cater for those requiring special diets — even providing gluten free pastries and home-made pizza! Only once did they accidentally give me a “gluten-full” sandwich — after immediately recognising the tell-tale signs and calling reception, I was swiftly provided with a replacement.
What would you change about the meals?
If I’m being particularly picky, my only one concern was that some of the meals were relatively low in fibre. For example, I was only given white bread for sandwiches and was often served the same rotation of vegetables at dinner (mainly potatoes and steamed broccoli). Like I said, overall it was great and for such a short period of time, this is fine. However, after a long flight, dehydration, and minimal physical activity, having a low-fibre diet and minimal plant-based variety is likely to lead to constipation and other gut-related symptoms for some people.
Beyond that, I was also worried about the health of my microbial friends. In fact, I shared my one-bedroom hotel room with trillions of bacteria, fungi and archaea that reside in my gut, collectively known as the gut microbiome. And believe me, my microbes were just as frustrated about the current predicament. The gut microbiome is notorious for being sensitive to environmental shifts. Dramatic changes to circadian rhythm (your sleep-wake cycle), diet, physical activity, hydration, stress, and access to fresh air and green spaces can cause major upset to your gut health. Unfortunately, these changes are often unavoidable during long-haul flights or within confined air-conditioned hotel rooms.
So if you tend to suffer from travel-related gut-symptoms or want to restore the health of your gut microbes, this is what I’d recommend:
- Try and bring some fibre-filled snacks including oats, muesli, nuts, seeds and dried fruit (e.g. prunes)
- Try a natural fibre supplement, such as psyllium husk (add to breakfast cereal or oats, or mixed in water)
- Drink plenty of water (I created a “water” target each day and yes, I know how boring that sounds but whatever gets you through right?)
- Movement, exercise and mindfulness (tips later)!
How do you get food delivered from outside the hotel?
The hotel lets you have food brought to your room. I took advantage of food delivery options, for example, Woolworths offers priority delivery to those requiring government mandated self-isolation. Delivery companies, including Uber Eats and Deliveroo, provide options to deliver grocery items and essential products. If possible, ask friends and family members to drop off care packages to reception.
In a couple of desperate moments, I ordered a single coffee from Uber Eats. The staff delivered it to my door within minutes of the driver arriving. However, the cost of delivery for one coffee is not environmentally or economically efficient, so I wouldn’t recommend it. Plus the hotel gives you complementary coffee and tea, so it’s not strictly necessary.
Were you allowed to exercise outside?
Unfortunately, no. A week before I arrived, the QLD government revoked the 15-minute “fresh air breaks”, meaning I’d have to be a bit more creative when it came to exercise.
Before my flight, I started to look into companies that would deliver exercise equipment to Brisbane hotels. As it turned out, services to help ‘pimp your quarantine’ are fast becoming a new side hussle for many Aussies. As I didn’t want to commit to placing an order too early (in case my flight was rescheduled), I ended up booking a stationary exercise bike with Veloroo on the first night in the hotel. The bike was delivered to my door the next morning!
To break up the cycling, I also had family members drop off a yoga mat, hand weights, and resistance bands. I took advantage of mobile apps, and YouTube workouts: my favourites were the Down Dog app (which has strength, HIIT, yoga, and barre workouts), and Dimity Skye’s online yoga videos. But if you aren’t into organised exercise, I’d say just crank up the music and have a dance.
What are your top tips for someone about to enter hotel quarantine?
- If possible, try and bring (or get delivered) a bowl or plate (I ended up eating muesli from a small plastic container) and a cutting knife (some of the meals were difficult to eat with a plastic knife)
- Use air-freshener, or perfume to remove the accumulating smell of hot foods (as many hotels won’t have opening windows)
- Bring a yoga mat, some weights, or other exercise-related equipment
- Set up Uber-eats and Woolworths priority services so that they are ready to go when you need them
- Sign up to Netflix, Stan, or other streaming services — and bring an HDMI cable in case the hotel doesn’t have a Google Chromecast
- Try and organise video calls with family or friends as often as you can
- Before the quarantine, make a list of personal admin tasks — there’s no better time than in isolation
- Try some meditation or mindfulness — there are some free apps that you can trial for a week
Finally, stay positive, be kind to yourself, and the staff — once you’ve finished the first week, the rest of the time flies by!
