Improving my breakfast and other meals: a paleo progress report
In the past couple of months, I’ve made some large changes in my diet. Fundamentally, I’ve moved in a paleo direction. The largest change was breakfast, where I completely gave up my old breakfast and replaced it. After some experimentation, I’ve finally arrived at a breakfast template that seems optimal for me (as gauged by my morning energy level and other criteria I discuss below).
As an example, here is what I ate this morning:
The ingredients, and what has changed, and why:
Recipe
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil
- 2 eggs, fried
- 1/2 clove of garlic
- some shakes of seasoning mix (salt, pepper, etc.)
- a dash of turmeric
- some red pepper flakes
- butternut squash
- spinach
- uncooked extra virgin olive oil on top of the veggies
- about 7 walnuts
- 1 tsp flax seeds, sprinkled on top of everything at the end
- 1 prune on the side
Changes and rationale
Carbs
I stopped my short experiment of eating potatoes or rice with breakfast because I found that my morning energy level was simply better without those high-glycemic carbs. I think there is a legitimate place for such carbs, but not in my current schedule, which does not (yet) include intensive exercise before breakfast.
Additions
I now always eat two eggs, instead of one. One wasn’t really enough to make me feel satisfied.
I recently added coconut oil, which I had not been using because some past experiments did not work out well. I think that was because of using too much. So I’m not using much now. Amusingly, my main use of coconut oil up till now has been to rub onto my skin during this dry winter season.
I’ve added more spices such as turmeric and hot red pepper to my breakfast because I like them and because they seem to give me a little wake-up boost and stimulate alertness.
The flax seeds are new, as well as the prune. The prune is probably not “paleo”, according to someone or other, but as I’ve mentioned before, I get confused by the different paleo schools of thought, and I don’t follow any of them, but just use them as practical sources of ideas for self-experimentation. I have a very specific rationale for the use of flax seeds and prunes: I have to confess that I dealt with constipation issues when initially moving away from my big oatmeal breakfast to my paleo-style breakfast. I tried various solutions, but one that seems to have worked is the addition of flax seeds (which I typically only add for breakfast, but sometimes will also do for another meal too) and the prune. I have had no constipation issues since adding these to my breakfast.
Other meals
I have been trying to kick my “addiction” to rice. I have gradually decreased my consumption of rice (white or brown). Almost imperceptibly, my craving for it has decreased continually. It’s now been a couple of days since I have been doing without rice for lunch, but I am still eating it for dinner.
I still love pizza, and have not yet eliminated it. It’s very hard to avoid both convenience and temptation when it’s provided at talks and meetings. However, on days when I plan to eat pizza, I have tried to get my metabolism up before eating it. That seems to help. I’ll still keep in my mind the idea of giving up pizza.
Conclusion
My experimentation with diet have continued over the months, and will continue.
I hope my report may be of use to you if you are considering changing up your breakfast patterns away from the “standard” American sugary breakfasts.
What do you eat for breakfast that works for you? What do you similarly or differently from me?
What I do differently is that I rarely eat the same thing for breakfast. If I don't have another plan or idea, I eat oatmeal, but usually I eat something else, which might be "regular meal" savory leftovers, fruit and nut butter, clif Z bar and milk, a sandwich (nut butter and fruit or cheese and veggies), or on days when I am home and want to cook, eggs, pancakes, or french toast. If I get hungry before lunch "time" I have snacks available such as nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, or raw veggies (depending on what town I am in). When we were in Hawaii we had Filipino-influenced island breakfasts several times that included noodle soups, eggs served with rice balls, fried rice, and kimchi. I found that I enjoyed having rice in the morning but I have yet to actually plan ahead enough to eat rice for breakfast. Then again I just got done working 18 days in a row. -Carrie
I don't eat exactly the same thing every day for breakfast. For example, one day this weekend I skipped the eggs and ate some anchovies. Today I had eggs, broccoli, artichokes, peas, carrots, beets, in a garlicky, oniony medley. It's particularly convenient using leftover veggies for breakfast.
I have nut jars at work for mini-snacks, and have also been trying to remember to bring in veggie sticks to munch on also.
I have always been scared away from coconut oil (and milk) because of the high saturated fat content. I see that you linked to a page claiming numerous health benefits. How persuasive do you really find those claims to be?
I don't treat anything as gospel truth, whether it's "mainstream" or "non-mainstream" ideas. The main thing I try to do is self-experiment. That has its own limits because unlike some self-experimenters, I don't go around getting my blood tested all the time, or exams of the condition of my heart or whatever, so long-term effects can't be predicted. However, one guideline I do have is to consider time-tested traditional ways of eating and moving, hence the "paleo" angle. I'm not convinced that saturated fat is in itself evil. In fact, I'm disappointed that in the war against saturated fat, trans fats were advocated and used for years, and it took forever for them to be found to be far worse.
Are your flax seeds whole or ground? I find that if I eat them whole, it's difficult to chew them because they're so small, and then a lot of them pass through me whole, which is not only uncomfortable but also implies that I'm not getting much benefit from them. So I grind them in the blender.
I think there are some people who thrive on grains and some who don't. I am one who does. I eat some type of grain food at almost every meal, including breakfast. Years ago I was briefly diagnosed (that is, the diagnosis turned out to be wrong) with a condition that was thought to be improved by a low-carb diet, so I tried eating no grains, but after about a week I was so constantly hungry and dizzy that I could not concentrate on anything. It doesn't seem to work for me! I do find that I feel better eating whole grains and fruit than simple carbs (for example, a doughnut eaten by itself will make me feel horrible about an hour later) and that it's best to eat some protein at breakfast--yogurt, eggs, or nut butter on my toast.
Regarding the flax seeds, we had been eating them whole. I have to confess that I did not do extensive investigation into exactly how many of the flax seeds are coming out unprocessed, but after I did some thinking and web research, Abby and I are going to try eating them ground (she created a batch today to put in the refrigerator). Thanks for the feedback!
As for grains, I've never been a big fan of them; growing up, my mother always made rice and I ate it, but we never focused on eating a lot of bread or pasta.
I still eat grains now because I lose weight in their absence, and I do not need to lose weight or energy. I have added more fat to my diet, and even more vegetables than when I was a vegetarian in 1999, and that helps; definitely it is unwise to suffer a massive caloric deficit on any regimen. Going lower on carbs means you have to replace the calories with something else.
Having protein definitely makes a huge difference in any case. Like, if I'm going to eat crackers at a party, I need to eat cheese to go along with them.
Donuts are pretty evil. One thing I've noticed, though, is that if I'm going to eat stuff like that (and I do once a month or so), having tea or coffee at the same time helps moderate the effects.