Day 1: Breakfast

Breakfast has always been a challenge for me since I have been out of college. I would rather sleep that extra ten minutes than get up and prepare breakfast. Needless to say my breakfasts are either really bad for me (stopping somewhere and getting fast food breakfast) or I just don't eat breakfast.

The most important thing in this diet I am on is to eat three meals a day and to have snacks if I get hungry between meals. So, I made sure I got up earlier this morning than I usually do so I could make breakfast. This posed another challenge for me as well -- what was I going to eat that would keep me full for more than a couple of hours? I have a job where I can't just get up and walk away and get something to eat whenever. So, this is one of the reasons breakfast has always been challenging. When I was younger and even in college I would just have cereal, but I could eat basically whenever I wanted, so it didn't bother me to only eat cereal. Cereal doesn't keep me full at all these days. I eat it and an hour later I am starving. I find I have to have a combination of carbs and protein for breakfast. If I just eat protein, I am starving in a couple of hours. This morning definitely presented a challenge for me. This is why I started preparing breakfast ideas last night.

I settled on a half of one of the chicken sausage links I bought this weekend, and some buckwheat cooked and mixed in with some homemade canned peaches. Buckwheat is very interesting. I am not sure if I cooked it right or what, but it has a nutty flavor to it and definitely has a hot cereal\oatmeal feel to it. I don't like plain oatmeal, so I wasn't sure I would like the buckwheat plain, so I mixed in some peaches with it and it made it palatable. The chicken sausage was very spicy, but I loved it! So after drinking a full glass of water with my supplements, my "protein" shake (which is not a meal replacement as I don't drink a lot of it), the sausage, and the buckwheat with peaches I was very full. I packed a banana\almond milk smoothie for my morning snack, but I am still very full and not feeling hungry at all.

I am feeling a little dizzy from the supplements, but I am sure I will adjust to that. As for the bad things - I had to have a Diet Pepsi because I can't work with those headaches. Starting tomorrow I will go caffeine free.

Here is the recipe for the buckwheat and fruit and banana smoothie.

Creamy Buckwheat With Fruit
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup of buckwheat
Fresh fruit or canned fruit (if you use store bought, make sure it is no sugar added and in light syrup).

Add the buckwheat and water to a pan. Bring to a rolling boil and then continue to cook for 2-4 minutes until desired creamy consistency. Pour in a bowl and add the fruit and mix it together.


Almond Banana Milk Smoothie
1 Frozen Banana
1 cup of almond milk (unsweetened and unflavored)

Add banana and almond milk to blender or food processor and blend until mixed together.

Again, I will be researching how to cook buckwheat because I don't think I did it right because my cereal looked more like grape nuts than cream 'o' wheat. It was good, just different.

On the menu for lunch: Grilled chicken salad with sesame ginger dressing and grapes. And a baggie of cashews, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds for my afternoon snack. Check back later for the report on that!