Well, last night was a Sunday night like any other...at about 8pm I realized that we didn't have anything for breakfast in the morning. Sigh, typical! I teach an 8:30 class, which means breakfast must be something that I can put together in 10 - 15 minutes with a minimum of "sloshiness" later (hint: food sloshing in the belly during yoga = bad). I need real food that will last through my morning, and at 8pm there isn't a lot that can be quickly baked.
Our typical breakfast includes some sort of homemade muffin/fruit bread or store-bought french loaf which we toast. We make tea and cook eggs or scramble some tofu or, for variety, have a small bowl of yogurt. What we do not start our day with is cereal. In fact, cereal is relegated to "emergency use only" status in our home. And what we do have on hand is not cereal by American standards, oh no! We have a box of muesli (though admittedly it took us a few weeks to stop calling it "Mueslix", which is something VERY different!) which we will occasionally eat Euro-style.
We stopped eating cereal at about the same time we decided to cut waaaaay back on our consumption of processed foods, sugar, additives and (for me, at least) wheat & dairy. Along with chips, crackers, cookies and fake-me-out "juices", cereal is a major link in the processed food chain. It was also around the same time we brought home our first dog, and we couldn't help but notice the resemblance between HIS food, and ours. Yech. Anything that bears ZERO resemblance to it's natural state does not, in general, merit access to our bodies. That includes "extruded" products. I mean, just say that word. Feel how your mouth kind of puckers and your face squinches up (or is that just my reaction)? Do you want to eat something that has you making such a face upon uttering the process that brings it into existence?
And what, you may ask, has all of this "un-American" cereal defiance gotten us? Well, for starters, I don't crash halfway between breakfast and lunch like I used to, nor do I feel the need to snack in order to keep my blood sugar at a respectable (read, "friendly" in my case) level. Also, cutting back on wheat and diary helps me keep my sinuses less clogged, and helps me not have tummy aches (due to the milk). We like knowing precisely what goes into our food, and prefer to actually make/bake it ourselves AND be able to pronounce all of the ingredients.
Sure, it takes a little planning and some orderliness - unlike my Sunday evening which quickly became disorderly - but we have found it a very worthwhile lifestyle change. And make no bones about it, it WAS a lifestyle change. Now we have a nice breakfast, we chat and/or listen to NPR. We're able to digest a bit before we go off to our respective days' activities. It's really a great way to start the day!
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