Trapped in a Breakfast Cliche? Break Free! by Joan Kent, PhD

In more than one article I’ve called fruit the “final frontier” in quitting sugar. But something else can cause just as much resistance as fruit. Maybe more.

 

Breakfast.

 

Even people who are fully committed to healthful eating can be trapped in breakfast clichés.

 

In a recent coaching session, a client wanted to know what I eat for breakfast. I described my breakfast that morning, fairly typical for me:  egg whites plus a salad of kale, spinach, walnuts, real sauerkraut (for the probiotics), olive oil, and wine vinegar.

 

My client thought it was “something unusual,” yet I follow the same guidelines I give my clients.

 

I just do it in the morning, too.

 

Does Your Breakfast Look Like Dinner?

 

There’s an idea in the U.S. that eating vegetables should be reserved for lunch and dinner. We seem to want breakfasts to resemble the familiar fare of our childhood.

 

Unfortunately, many of us grew up when no one ate healthful breakfasts. I certainly did.

 

Back then, standard breakfasts were pancakes, French toast, waffles. Cereal was always available, but not the healthy type. Instead, it was cereal that inspired the comment, “You could get more nutrition from eating the box.”

 

Alternatively, we might have had eggs and toast, with or without bacon. Compared to the other options above, that would have been the wisest choice.

 

As the World’s Foremost Recovered Sugar Addict, I had a history of preferring the French toast/pancake/waffle meals. Breakfast used to be my first chance of the day to eat white flour and/or sugar – don’t forget the syrup!

 

Those were truly the bad old days. But I digress.

 

Contemporary breakfasts still resemble traditional ones. They’ve just morphed into “healthier” versions – say, granola instead of Fruit Loops.

 

In many places, however – Scandinavian countries, Asian countries, midwestern U.S. states, and others – residents eat fish for breakfast.

 

So who says a kale-and-spinach salad can’t be a morning meal? Or lentil soup and tofu? I used to make a terrific vegetable soup that my husband loved to eat first thing in the morning.

 

Breakfast does not have to look like a photo from the IHOP menu.

 

My most compliant clients have always been bodybuilders. They’re so focused on results, they’ll eat whatever I recommend – and they don’t care what time of day they eat it.

 

Addiction Makes People Do Strange Stuff

 

Several years ago, I had a client who was quite addicted to fruit. During in-person coaching sessions or presentations of mine, he resisted my anti-fruit remarks with a cold, angry stare.

 

He also resisted my suggestions to choose a breakfast that looked like a lunch or a dinner. No sandwiches or soup for him, thank you! He wanted oatmeal.

 

During a phone coaching session, I finally uncovered the real cause of his resistance. He said he planned to change his brand of oatmeal to one that was lower in fat.

 

Well, the fat content of oatmeal is low and also pretty consistent from brand to brand. I immediately walked to my kitchen. When I mentioned that my brand of oatmeal had much less fat than his new replacement, my client confessed the facts.

 

He wasn’t eating oatmeal for breakfast. He was eating granola.

 

As you probably know, granola contains nuts. The fat content on the label came mostly from the nuts. But granola also contains dried fruit.

 

This client had lied in his food logs (and in our coaching sessions) to cover up his fruit consumption.

 

His resistance to a dinner-like breakfast came from his fruit addiction, not from clinging to breakfast clichés.

 

As a recovered sugar addict, I understood his addiction completely. Predictably, it took a while for this client to decide to quit fruit. Once he did, his breakfasts started looking like lunches. He started losing weight more easily. His lab tests improved. And he stopped the angry stares.

 

If you’re struggling with any type of food addiction, I can help. I’m committed to helping you conquer food addictions so you can reverse metabolic conditions, transform your moods, and feel fantastic. Just visit LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free copy of “3 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Trying to Quit Sugar.”

 

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar:  7 Simple Steps to Defeat Sugar Addiction, Lift Your Mood, and Transform Your Health.