Step 9 - Breakfast

Eat breakfast.
Every day.

Skinny people claim eating breakfast every day is one of the most important things an overweight person can do to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Numerous studies show people who regularly eat breakfast lose more weight, consume fewer calories and fat overall during the day, exercise more and are better able to keep the weight off than those of us who skip out on the first meal of the day.

So if it's so good for us why is it so damn hard to do?

First and foremost, it takes time – something we all have precious little of in the morning. As much as I'd love to start my day with an egg white omelet with fresh veggies and a cup of oats, I'm not willing to sacrifice twenty minutes of sleep to get it.

Plus, I'm just not hungry right when I wake up or even before I leave the house for work. Which begs the question, why the hell did I used to stop for fast food every morning? As a fat man trying to shed a few pounds, it seems counter-intuitive to eat when I'm not hungry when I'm struggling the rest of the day to not eat when I am hungry.

But that's evidently the whole point. By "breaking the fast" in the morning, I'm less likely to gorge myself come lunchtime and I'm kick starting my metabolism for the day – something I must admit, scares the hell out of me. Eating begets eating with me, so I'm doubtful that having breakfast every morning will actually lead to me eating less.

Still, I've bought into the hype and have committed to forcing down breakfast every morning as Step 9. But what to eat? Much like everything else I've tried to do on the Rehab Diet, I know if I don't keep it simple I won't be able to stick with it. So it's got to be something I can make in less than two minutes and eat as I'm running around the house getting ready. Then it occurred to me when I read this article about the eight foods you should eat every day, that a certain frozen yogurt treat from my childhood would actually knock out half of them before 9am:

Yogurt
Nuts (Almonds, Walnuts, etc)
Oats
Blueberries

For those of you not familiar with the legendary Humphrey Yogurt from Counter Culture the basic recipe is unflavored real yogurt (it's got to have that twang), granola, fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey. To keep prep time to a minimum I've substituted the fresh fruit with a handful of mixed fruit (blueberry, strawberry, blackberry & raspberry) from a bag I keep in the freezer. It's quick and easy to make and tastes like I'm having dessert for breakfast.

How's that for getting a fat person to eat something in the morning?