Chapter 4 - Breaking the habits

In the past two weeks I´ve been analysing what exactly I´ve been doing wrong with my diet. A few very obvious reasons spring instantly to mind:


1.    My love of chocolate and inability to resist eating a whole bar at once
2.   Eating when stressed (I can be chilled out, but  do get STRESSED a lot)
3.   Not drinking enough (non-alcoholic beverages)
4.    Drinking too much (alcoholic beverages)
5.   Not eating enough fruit and vegetables
6.   Comfort eating…… soul-sandwiches, moody-macchiatos, pissed-off peanuts, calm-down-cakes, weepy-wines, bad-day-biscuits, grumpy-gummybears……etc…
7.   Consuming big sized portions and always clearing my plate and not stopping when I feel full.
8.   Eating too late at night, accompanied by eating a big lunch and dinner in evening
9.   Eating a repetitive and unbalanced diet 
10.  Not eating breakfast

These are just ten things which took me two minutes to write down. There are various other reasons. I´m sure my list would reach fifty if I sat down and analysed some more. 

I reckon if I try to change these ten food traps I will make good progress.  Number ten is my worst downfall. Not eating breakfast.  But, I am happy to announce that for the past twenty days I have actually joined the breakfast club and started to eat this traditional first meal of the day.

It never really bothered me not eating breakfast before. The theory says breakfast is  genuinely the most important meal of the day. It gets your body working and into gear.  I can´t imagine my car getting me to the office if it had no petrol inside.  Sure, I have enough whale blubber to survive on and always thought I don´t need any  power-porridge to kick-start my engine, but theory says, if I don´t do this, then my body won´t function properly. It gets no food, panics, and then stores the food it gets later on in the day.

So, exactly how did my body manage twenty days ago? Skipping breakfast, I would usually first eat lunch around 12:30 – drinking a milky coffee or two in the morning at work. If I was feeling hungry sometimes I grabbed a banana or a sandwich – but I could probably count these incidents on one hand.  Weekends are a different story. Having a slice or two of toast with lashings of Nutella together with DH is about the most I can manage. I feel quite sick and tired in the mornings. If I stay over in a hotel, strangely enough - I eat breakfast. Proof that I can do it.

Another reason for skipping brekky is my laziness. I´d rather lie in bed for an extra 15 minutes than mess around in the kitchen. All my school friends will remember this…..waiting on me to get my butt into gear and walk to school; probably eating a chocolate bar on the way.

It´s also a myth that British always eat bacon and fried eggs for breakfast. That’s not why I look the way I do. Perhaps that would have done me more good (well Dr. Atkins probably thinks so).

The past twenty days found me getting up a few minutes earlier, preparing stuff and forcing myself to eat early in the morning. (well….if you call 8:30 / 9:00 early that is). My breakfasts have consisted of some of the following: muesli with yogurt, toast with honey, black bread and low-fat cheese, weetabix, porridge, fruit and yogurt, rasin roll and bananas.  I feel much more alive in the mornings and yawn less. Proof that it really does make a difference.

Today was a special breakfast day. Two special friends stayed over so we had a girly  breakfast in our pyjamas with breads, eggs, ham and cheeses, yogurt, freshly squeezed orange juice…..and a long chat. The perfect kind of breakfast.  


One mission is accomplished. Now it´s onto the other nine! (or was it really fortynine?)