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June 23, 2005
An Excuse to Skip Breakfast!
Hahaha!
I have been eating breakfast, as you know, ever since I read that MR post that says "There's whacks of evidence that not eating breakfast makes you wacko and stoopid."
When I first read it I thought:
1) Is "whacks of" a Canadian expression? Americans do not say that.
Just like straight American males rarely say, "You go girl." Whereas two Canadian men have said that to me. Interestingly enough, they are brothers, so maybe it's just their family. Their father, whom I've also met, has never to my knowledge said, "You go girl," and doesn't seem like the type to say it, but one never knows, hopefully we will all live long enough to find out.
2) Oh great, now I have to eat breakfast. I hate eating breakfast!
My entire life, I was a big breakfast person. I ate weird stuff for breakfast, like chicken noodle soup, and I hated all cereals (except for Grape Nuts which I do like but not in the morning and not with milk), but I ate breakfast. But back in about 2000 I stopped eating breakfast and lost a bunch of weight. I got in the habit of not eating breakfast. Then, during the margarita and nacho era, I went back to eating breakfast, but this time with the Dunkin Donuts bagel with cream cheese and coffee with cream and sugar as the breakfast food of choice. So when I first started CR, I dumped the breakfast entirely.
Then MR said I had to eat breakfast. Well, he posted to the list that we in general should eat breakfast but as you know I take everything he writes very personally. So I figured I'd better eat breakfast.
Then we had the exciting adventure with the whey protein, and finally the dawn of the eon of eggwhites.
But I've never quite gotten used to the idea of eating in the morning again, and I don't usually eat nearly as close to rising time as MR thinks I should. I tend to get up before 5 am and eat breakfast as late as 7:30 or 8, making it the last thing I do before leaving for work. MR thinks we should eat breakfast within an hour of rising, else it becomes brunch and something terrible happens to us. I point out that eating breakfast later gives my Strontium time to dissolve... MR is not impressed with this argument. I eat breakfast at the right time when he's around, of course, because we like to enjoy our CR meals together. It's fun to eat my tiny eggwhite breakfast in a minute or two and then have half an hour to watch him consume a salad the size of what I eat in a week... I've always enjoyed watching men eat vegetables... but I digress.
A part of me has always rebelled against the dictatorship of the breakfast people.
Well, now I've got it. The perfect excuse to skip breakfast. The one and only reason for forgoing that morning eggwhite and flax oil and Carolina barbeque sauce mess that I've come to love so much that I lick the plate after eating, but secretly wish I could eat at 10 am (which for me would be five hours after rising, and definitely not breakfast.)
I'm getting my blood tests tomorrow!!!
Of course I should have gotten this done long ago. But I finally got my family doctor to order the tests, as you will recall, a process which involved actually contacting the random dude listed on my insurance card and attempting to explain CR to him. And after climbing a long and agonizing phone tree at my insurance company, I finally got an assurance that for a $5 co-pay I can get all the tests done and insurance will pay. Yea!!! It's amazing what they'll do if a doctor orders it. Maybe my health insurance isn't so bad after all... all you can eat bloodtest buffet... sounds like it's tailor made to appeal to vampires.
So I'm going in at 8 tomorrow morning to have blood drawn and guess what that means... no breakfast! Haha! I don't have to eat breakfast! I am looking forward to it already. Think of all the exciting fun things I can do with the extra five minutes freed up by not cooking my eggwhites! Maybe I'll scrub the kitchen floor, or take my cat for a walk on the balcony! Maybe I'll add another ingredient to my lunch salad, one that would require chopping! Maybe I'll... blog.
There is one small problem, however.
No coffee till after the blood tests.
You can bet that the first thing I do after I am relieved of a little bit of my blood will be to run straight over to the neighorhood corner Starbucks (where the employees have health insurance so they too could get their blood drawn and have an excuse to skip breakfast!) and order a Venti coffee, no room for cream, no sugar, no splenda, no artificial sweetener, dash of cinnamon and cocoa on top. Or if it's hot outside: Venti iced coffee, extra ice, not sweetened, not shaken, not stirred, totally undisturbed, please do not jar the icecubes in my iced coffee it makes them melt faster which makes the coffee less icy cold, and as we all know, I like extremes in everything, from the temperature of my beverages to the personalities of my friends.
I'm not going to eat breakfast... you can't make me... and you have to be happy about it!
So there.
I will now attempt to go back to acting my age. CR seems to have not only slowed my rate of biological aging, but caused a temporary (I trust) regression in my emotional maturity, so that I am currently more fit for the elementary school playground than for my responsible, high-powered job in which I supervise people and hold important aspects of nurses's lives in my tiny little hands.
Sticks and stones may break my bones but old posts can't make me eat breakfast! Saturated fat may clog my arteries, but I get to skip breakfast!
For one whole day!
Posted by april at June 23, 2005 7:27 AM
Comments
I'm certain MR is right about breakfast but I also really, really do not want anything except coffee until I've been up for at least 2 hours. I've been like that for at least 35 years. Maybe it's some female thing .... On the other hand, I've been known to drive to the store still wearing my nightgown under my long winter coat, while it's still dark out & at minus 37 degree temperatures, just to get some light cream for my coffee!! Another female thing???? JD ;-)
Posted by: Judith at June 23, 2005 11:23 AM
Oh, no, Judith, I'm female and I literally LIVE for breakfast. I wake up at 6 am and start eating at 6:05. I'd eat sooner, but the dogs need to be let out first.
Good luck on your bloodwork, April. I'm getting mine done in August (I have to pay for it myself, my lousy insurance won't cover it) and I dread it precisely because of the skipping breakfast (not to mention that first essential cup of tea) part. I'm afraid I might become a serial killer or something on the way to the lab. Anyway, I'm sure your results will be whacks of stellar and do us all proud. Go team.
-Liz
Posted by: Elizabeth at June 23, 2005 8:50 PM
April, I laughed a lot! good luck with your lab works; I'm sure you are going to shere those damned results with as in a few days.
On the other hand, I really don't believe in MR's arguments for eating breakfast. I don't say it's better to skip it, but definitively don't think meal timing was of (such) importance. I actually started skipping breakfast when turned from getting up at 7:00 to do it at 5:00; no healthy stomach can stand eat so soon in the morning! And as a matter of fact, I have my sugar more stable when eating twice a day than when grazing all day. Maybe one's sugar is stable when eating five times a day, but at 110! You want to have your sugar and insulin leves low the more time you could, and I prefer 18 hours at 80, 2 at 160, 2 at 120, 2 at 100 than 12 hours between 100-120 and the rest at 85. I had followed both methods (grazing vs. two meals) and my insulin levels and glycated HbAC1 % speak for themselves towards the second option.
Hmmm... And thanks for your supporting comment in my blog; I can say I really needed an injection of optimism for this my current injured mood :-)
Posted by: Willie at June 24, 2005 2:10 AM
Good luck at the lab! When I recently had some tests done, they didn't finish until 1:00, and I had fasted from the night before. I was ready to eat the plebotomist! I literally tore open the balance bar in my purse as I walked through the hospital to the car. I love breakfast. I would be much more likely to skip dinner than my morning meal. Most days I get up at 5:00, drive to the gym, work out, and get to work by 7:30. I have breakfast at the office at 7:30, and nobody better get in my way! Have a great day!
Laura
Posted by: Laura at June 24, 2005 7:02 AM
I get my blood work done many times a year, so help fine tune nutrition and hormone therapy. One time, I forgot to fast and still had my normal breakfast. When I got to the lab I suddenly remembered I was suppose to fast and told the lab tech that I ate, but I wanted to get the lab anyway just to see how much eating affected the results.
Turns out that there was no difference, and that my blood sugar was still low 90's, same as it is after a night of fasting.
I attribute this to all of the insulin controlling supplements and tactics I use daily. The doctor was amazed.
Posted by: Scott Miller at June 24, 2005 8:29 AM
Hi
Who is MR?
After reading all this about breakfast. What is the best way so far to practise CR?
Is 2, 3 or 5 meals better than the other? I know for myself if l eat breakfast l am starving for lunchtime. But l do eat less for dinner.
So which is better for insulin, blood pressure and biomarkers of health on longevity?
Breakfast or no Breakfast?? That is still the un answered question?
Are there any studies being done on this at present?
Cheers Snez
Posted by: Snez at August 21, 2005 11:50 PM