Breakfast

I posted a web site in an earlier thread on this blog to calculate how many calories you need to maintain your weight based upon height, age and exercise. I did not do this before I went on my diet and lost the weight but it may give you a rough estimate where to start.

If I use moderate as my exercise entry, it comes out to 2000 cals per day. I would consider walking 40 minutes at a very brisk pace moderate exercise (at least for a senior) but maybe not. But I know if I ate 2000 calories I would actually gain weight. But it is a good starting point if you are counting calories. I have a good idea of what the calories are in the ordinary foods I eat and make rought estimates - actually I round the calories off to the next 50 or 100 in my head. Say a banana is about 80 cals and I round it off to 100 - over estimate a bit but then maybe not count the bit of milk I put in my coffee.

If I am going to LOSE weight I know that I have to keep the calories down to 1000-1200 a day. Listen, I know, that is eating "like a bird"! But someone wrote that for every decade of life you have to reduce your intake by 100 calories a day JUST TO MAINTAIN your weight. Phew!

So now you see why it is SO important to get the appetite under control before beginning. I can live with this low intake pretty comfortably believe it or not. I do that by just keeping my blood sugar steady and avoiding anything that would make it spike and valley. I am pretty ridgid about that. It is like a life line that you don't dare let go of. So those people who say it is OK to treat yourself once in a while - well, not for now. Will rant on that at another time.

I also know that I can't eat much more than 1200 cals on a daily basis or I will lose ground and go back to gaining. I think of that as taking money out of the bank account. Actually a negative account when it comes to weight. That is where you have to have the mental attitude necessary to eat the right things. I wrote a little about that in another thread.

Now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of what to eat if you are on a diet. If you have been reducing your sugar intake as low as possible for a week this is going to be easy.

You know you have to cut back so you just start cutting back at each meal. If you don't lose a pound or 2 in a week then you know you have to cut back more. You keep track of what you have been eating and see what you can cut back on - low quality foods or quantity - your choice.

Well, you can eat anything you want as long as it comes out to 1/4 of your daily calories. You can have another 1/4 for lunch and dinner. The other 1/4 you can divvy up between snacks and a little more for one meal. (e.g. 400 cals for dinner and 2, 100 cal snacks).

Now choose the foods YOU like that add up to 300 cals for breakfast. It can be breakfast food or lunch food or dinner food. Just you should not skip breakfast. That's because after a night's sleep your blood sugar is at its all time daily low. As soon as you begin moving around it is going to drop more. If you don't eat something to gradually bring the level up you are going to get really hungry in mid morning. It is OK if you divide your breakfast in half if you absolutely "can't eat breakfast" but if you are really dieting, you can adjust yourself to eating a light breakfast. Remember light is where it's at when it comes to diets anyway.

I advise against eating many so-called "diet" foods unless you actually like them. I like my coffee and cereal sweet so I use Splenda (the others have a bad after taste to me). The other is 0 fat and 0 cal liquid margerine spray (like I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray). I don't mind them at all now. In fact Splenda tastes sweeter than sugar now and the spray margerine is like a nice sauce on veggies (that's what my husband said when he tried mine and he actually likes it and he's not on a diet!).

These are examples of what I have for breakfast. Note - that's what I eat. You choose your own according to you taste but obviously you hve to forget the white starchy things like doughnuts or regualr pancakes. Syrup? You gotta be kidding! You can write them off for a good long time.

I always have a cup of coffee with 1% milk.
1/2 a banana and/or 1/2 a pear (there is some sugar here and that is all you need). Any half fruit is OK but I avoid the sugary ones except the banana because it has so many good nutrients. You can have a small glass of tomato or V8 juice instead. I never drink orange juice or citrus because they are mostly sugar. When you are on a diet you have to weight the number of grams of sugar against the nutrients.

The combination of the above comes to about 100 calories or less.

Then for the rest of my breakfast I choose among:

1)
2 any kind of eggs (a large egg is about 70 cals). If I scramble I add a little 1% milk; fried in a non stick pan with olive oil Pam or store brand spray; fried poached or boiled.
+ a piece of 100% whole wheat toast or bread.

(that comes to about 200 cals more).

If I am really cutting back, I have only have 1 egg and save the calories (or the other hard boiled egg) for a late morning snack.

OR

2) a half sandwich or low carb wrap with some low fat sandwich meats - any kind as long as it adds up to no more than 200 cals. I warm it up slightly but do not add any sauces. A spoonful of salsa might be good or a few slices of tomato could be your fruit selection.

OR

3) a large bowl of whole grain cereal - any kind as long as the sugar is 3 g or less per serving. Those are mostly the old fashioned cereals like Cheerios or unfrosted Mini-Wheats. Fill the bowl to approximate 200 cals including the milk. Sweeten with Splenda. Don't let the designer cereals fool you - check the sugar grams and you will often find they are at least 6 grams of sugar per serving.

OR

4) hot oatmeal. I use Quick Oats which I keep with the fixings in the breakfast nook. You can fix it just as fast as the instant. I add a dash of salt, several big dashes of cinnamon and 10 raisins/serving (mostly for flavor). [Many prepared cereals add a lot of sugar with excess raisins so avoid them.] I bring it to a boil on the stove or in the micro and let it sit a half minute. Stir and add some milk and a dash of spray margarine which makes it creamy. (My sister like real Scottish oats that take a half hour to cook but it doesn't matter to me and I prefer saving the time) you can always make oatmeal the night before and warm it up in the morning if you want to save a few seconds more.