Breakfast, the exercise

It is amazing how much bad stock photography of breakfast plate smiley-faces there are....

I've been contemplating breakfast lately. I've been working from home almost exclusively since June, and slowly my lock-step of eating almost the same thing every day in a 5-day weekly rotation has been evolving. However, my breakfast has been pretty locked into three parts, the third which is a rotation of three things:

• Pint of iced green tea, no calories and a low dose of caffeine. And due to cold brewing, pretty much is guaranteed to be naturally not bitter in the least.
• Fresh vegetable and fruit juice. Low on the fruit (just 1/2 a large apple and carrot, which is not a fruit but almost has as much sugar as one) and high on the nasty kale and beet. Tastes nasty, but makes me physically well.
• Two of the first two, one of the third:

1. Steel cut oatmeal (prepared the long way, with everything needed to make it taste wonderful)
2. Fage Yogurt (full fat and plain, sweetened with just a touch of honey to knock off the bitterest notes and amped up with homemade vanilla extract and a healthy sprinkle of roasted, salted almonds
3. Fruit Smoothie (made with banana, a selection of frozen fruits, yogurt, chia soaked in pomegranate juice and a proper dash of salt and vanilla.)

To recap: grain based, boxed breakfast cereals are bullshit.  Millenials, who have less exposure to the advertising and the emotional connection, are rejecting it as over-processed sugar traps. Recently I've been using my weekends to indulge in comfort breakfasts like BLT on a bagel, pancakes and waffles, and lately I've been working my way through the breakfast cereals of my youth: "healthy" cereals like corn flakes, rice crispies, crispex, Special K. All of them taste oddly sweet to me, and looking at the ingredients it's not hard to see why -- there is plenty of sugar processed into these "unsweetened" cereals. I also grew up on Raisin Bran, but I actually rejected them from my weekend eating because they had the added sugar equivalent of a "Honey Smacks" or "Frosted Flakes", a level of sugar that literally puts my body feeling funky and weird.

How I feel on too much sugar.

So I've been trawling the internets lately looking for a new breakfast direction to work into my routine, and found this piece about what nutritionists eat for breakfast.  It's a listicle with 9 breakfasts, and it can be categorized as such

• Oatmeal (2, 4, 7)
• Eggs (1, 9)
• Oatmeal & eggs (6)
• Yogurt (5)
• Juice/Smoothie (3)
• Whole grain toast (9)

If these are all nutritionist-approved breakfasts, I shouldn't be surprised -- they are nutritionists, not chefs looking to push the boundaries. Seems my breakfast rundown already falls in their perimeters with the exception of the absence of eggs. Personally, eggs are out of the question for me for reasons I've stated in these pages before. I try to limit my grains over all as they are calorie dense, nutritionally light and prevent space for vegetables both raw and cooked -- if I were to include rice in my weekly Chipotle burrito, it would make an already big meal kinda silly.

Rather than cleverly putting an egg on the oatmeal, perhaps I should look into waking some bacon on it? Fat and protein to help improve the ratio to carbs.

Part of me considers skipping breakfast, but that is just as bullshit as breakfast cereals. Hormones are naturally quieter in the earlier hours, making it easier to eat less or nothing, but it is at your peril if you choose to skip the meal then endure those same hormones coming back at you 2 to 3 times as hard commanding you to eat because you tripped the starvation trigger.

Hmmm. That was a fun mental exercise at re-examining breakfast, but what did it get me? Add bacon. Of course, I could just say f it all, put my faith in the culinary excitement that food scientists know I crave and go ALL-AMURICAN:

HOUSEKEEPING
Goin' to England next week, going to skip a week. When I get back, there will be a monthly weigh in, and then I will only post once a month. The monthly posts will be an essay, a monthly way in, and a large set of food diaries. I think this is the best because I think the quality of my essays have gone down in recent months as my work and family life have become more intense. Less fat, more muscle!
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2651
Not bad. Riding ramping up.
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MONDAY COUNT: 2510
SLEPT: 9:30pm - 6am, 8.5 hrs
Well

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1 : 8:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, beef patty, chicken soup, momma salad, pickles, 600 cal

DINNER: 7pm, lemon sole, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, popcorn, kind bar, snippet of banana bread, +/- 650 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 630 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2460

SLEPT: 9pm-5:30am,  8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:30pm, Fage with honey, vanilla almonds,  450 cal

LUNCH: 3pm, chicken meatballs with mushroom curry, steamed string beans, pickles, 640 cal

BIKE SNACK: 5pm, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

DINNER: 7pm, stouffer's french bread pizzas, poppa salad, 1040 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, chocolate milk,  500 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2860

SLEPT: 9pm-1am, 4am-6am, 5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 8:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 11:15pm, quarter pounder, kid's fries, diet coke, 2 nuggets, +/- 750 cal

PM SNACK: 2pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, poppa salad with dressing, veggie straws, 330 cal

DINNER: 7:45pm, burrito, diet coke, 920 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, handful of peanut butter pretzels, +/- 150 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 630
THURSDAY COUNT: 2775

SLEPT: 9:45pm-3:15am, 5.5 hr

AM SNACK: 3:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BIKE SNACK: 10:45am, homemade granola bar, 315 cal

BREAKFAST: 12:15pm,  steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, peanut butter crackers, 240 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, good grilled cheese, poppa salad, pickle, banana bread, +/- 1000 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm, momma salad, veggie straws, 240 cal

DINNER: 7pm, Vietnamese food, store bought deserts, +/- 1000 cal 
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2650

SLEPT: 9:30pm-6am, 8.5hrs

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: noon, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:45pm, Fage with honey, vanilla almonds,  450 cal

LUNCH: 4pm, poppa salad with dressing, pork loin, 500  cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, momma salad, veggie straws, 240 cal

DINNER PT 1: 5:15pm, fries, bit of hotdog, spoonful of ice cream, +/- 400 cal

DINNER PT 2: 7pm, sausages, a beer, a few potato chips, bite of brussel sprouts, scoop of ice cream +/- 900 cal