More than one person has told me lately that breakfast is
the most important meal of the day. As a
busy mom with children who generally get up very early in the morning, I
usually sleep as long as I can and grab something small and portable for
breakfast (like coffee or a piece of toast) between changing diapers and feeding
the kids. But according to my much
thinner and fitness conscious friends, it is not only important to eat
breakfast every day, but also important to eat a good, hearty breakfast. In fact, if you think about it, it really
makes sense to eat the biggest meal of the day first, and the smallest meal
last – the opposite of how most people in our culture eat. Today, however, I was able to give the “big
breakfast” method a try.
Thanks to my dedicated husband, who is much more of a
morning person than me, I had a GREAT and BIG breakfast. He cooked me 2 slices of rye toast with butter,
2 over-easy eggs, about a cup of sliced, fresh cantaloupe, and 8 ounces of soy
milk. (Plus a cup of coffee, of course!) I have to say that eating a good meal first
thing in the morning not only gave me energy and a positive outlook on the day
ahead, but it also encouraged me to eat less throughout the morning. What I usually do is grab a piece of toast
when I can, quickly burn off those nutrient-starved calories, then half an hour
later start looking for snacks. This
leads me to feed my face with unhealthy carbohydrates like crackers and cookies
or cereal all morning. Today, however, I
ate breakfast at 7:15am and was able to resist snacking until around 11:00am
when I ate another piece of toast, then held off again until lunch at 1:30pm. I not only felt physically full, but
emotionally I felt satisfied that I had eaten a great breakfast and started the
day off right.
Now, in the spirit of full disclosure and honesty, I will
tell you that my great day ended rather poorly with about 2 dozen chocolate
covered mini-pretzels. That was just
something I could not say NO to today.
However, I am NOT going to let myself feel defeated because of
that. I will be proud of the times when
I was able to resist overeating, and just put the other times behind me. I will wake up tomorrow to a brand new day
FULL of opportunities to make better choices.
Until then, I raise my mug of decaf herbal tea to a job well done today,
and hope for an even better one tomorrow.
I've been enjoying your blog, Rebecca, and wish you nothing but success in your new endeavor with nutrition and healthy living. I wish to tell about some changes I've made that might interest you. We should talk on the phone, though. Classes end on Wed. for me, and I will have a much more flexible schedule after that. Let me know when a good time to chat might be. God bless you, Nick, and the kiddos! Tito
ReplyDeleteHey lady, I am rooting for you! I know you can do it. So many of us struggle, myself included, and I didn't even have children at the time. In fact I am hoping that I am able to lose weight after my baby comes. It is a lot of work at times, but don't forget you ARE beautiful and have tons of support out there.
ReplyDeleteUm...yep...I ate a whole bunch of those yummy pretzels last night too :). And my story is similar to yours...I'm hoping that this pregnancy continues to stay on track to not gain too much (so far I'm doing ok), and that afterwards I can lose the weight from both pregnancies! (And the pre-pregnancy year-long deployment weight!)
ReplyDeleteI have been following your example and doing some of the same things. Reading up on nutrition definitely helps and motivates me. I think I'll try eggs for breakfast tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHey Rebecca! Love reading your blog. It's helpful to know that someone else out there I know struggles like I do. I also really like how you look positively at the good things you did during the day instead of focusing on the pretzels. I totally would've focused on the pretzels and got down on myself and gave up. So good for you....I will use your blog as motivation & inspiration!! :) Miss you & Nick & fam!
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