A Healthful Breakfast

Welcome back. I thought I’d continue with last week’s food theme.

About a year ago, in blog posts on exercise and sleep, I mentioned (1) physical therapy and (2) breakfast. Although my blog posts were separate, the two came together once. I don’t recall what set off the physical therapist--perhaps I was too rigid--but in a rather accusatory tone, she said, “I bet you eat the same breakfast every day.”
 
Given how vulnerable I was, lying on the table, looking up at her young face through my sage old eyes (even without glasses), I chose not to respond. There were oh so many possible rejoinders. Yes, I eat the same breakfast every day. It didn’t just happen overnight.
 
Cold Cereal Breakfast
 

Eggs for breakfast?

I would never proclaim my breakfast fare is The Best. Each to his or her own, and that’s guided by numerous factors. For example, in high school, our son, Noah, chose sleep over sustenance. (OK, I’ll drive you to the bus stop if you eat something.) 
 
I stopped eating eggs in the 1960s or 70s when they got a bad rap for cholesterol. That rap changed like many other health recommendations; however, years had passed and I was already in a relationship with cold cereal.

Warren’s cold cereal bowl.

When it began, I would eat one cereal. Now and then, I would follow the first bowl with a second bowl of a different cereal. Because that was too much food, I started mixing the two cereals in a single bowl. That evolved into my current practice of filling an average size bowl with…ready?...five (5) different cereals. Stop laughing!

The nutrition label from one

of Warren’s five cereals.

Since I don’t want to be responsible for everyone rushing out and emptying supermarket shelves of these cereals, I won’t identify them here. I will say that I dislike sweet, avoid calories and saturated fat, and brake for whole grain, fiber and protein.

No, I’m not nuts or anal. Well, at least I’m not nuts. I don’t have to have the five cereals. If I’m traveling, I might pack one cereal. If you invite me to a restaurant for breakfast, I’ll probably order pancakes or hotcakes or flapjacks, depending on the menu wording.

Cereal Additions

OK, so do my cereals just sit there mingling dryly? Absolutely not; I add milk. When I was growing up, the only milk that was delivered (milkman, not cows) was whole milk. I stopped drinking milk in college but eventually started adding 2 percent and then skim milk to cereal. More recently, I started topping the cereal with plain yogurt.

I’m not big on juice, but I do add fruit to the cereal--grapes. I know: Grapes? Try it. Unlike the gargantuan strawberries I buy for my wife, I don’t have to slice grapes and they keep longer in the frig. Sure, on occasion, I might displace the cereal with a single strawberry or blueberries if they're on sale. But grapes and a whole, not-too-big banana are the final items I would have listed for the physical therapist. She would have loved it.

Strawberries and grapes.

Wrap Up
 
If all this has you thinking about inviting me to join you for breakfast, that would be very nice. If breakfast doesn’t work, I can do lunch. You will be surprised to learn that I eat essentially the same lunch every day. Would you like me to tell you about it?

Thanks for stopping by.