Describe your "typical" breakfast (what do you eat before lunch)

[NY2TX]

Generally, I have a 2 oz. Egg Beaters omelet (28 cals) on either a Mission Carb Balance tortilla (80 cals) or a Thomas English Multi-grain wheat Muffin (100 cals). I add a half slice of Hormel Canadian Bacon (35 cals) or 2-3 slices of Turkey Pepperoni (5 cals/slice) and a 1/3-1/2 oz of 2% Kraft Sharp Cheddar Cheese (90 cals per ounce). Total = 162 to 180 calories.  Nothing between breakfast and lunch.

[FrenchieMama]

In my world before diabetes appeared...it would have been Capt Crunch for the win!!' It made me remember the taste so well haha!! @RobertoME

[ErickFitbit]

@RobertoME You really do get hungry in the morning! 

@Robcorc LOL oat razor still cut oats. I've never had Ezekiel 4:9 bread, I want to try it now.

@FrenchieMama As weird as this sounds, I've never even tried oats in my lifetime. Sounds like I will be buying myself a bag of steel cut oats in the near future. What do you have it with? Water? Milk?

[Robcorc]

French

Sent from my iPad

[FrenchieMama]

@ErickFitbit I make it with water and I eat it with about 1/3 cup of blueberries and a tsp of maple syrup and about 2 tablespoons of milk on top..it's DELISH and sticks to your ribs! I am T2D and it doesn't make my BS go out of range..I follow that with an egg thing..omelet or whatever but usually egg/whites with veggies. I eat a huge brekkie and I lost 63.1 walking with my zip Fitbit 🙂 since April.

[oakiedoakie]

I'm new to this (fitbit and logging food intake) and I'm finding it really helpful. I'm finding that by having to log the food I eat, the psychology towards the food I eat has changed, I'm more mindful of how 'natural' or 'processed' foods are and how it can be easily logged into the website. I'm also finding that because I have log the food I eat I'm making healthier choices because I don't like to see the unhealthier foods in my log. Like you I too have found that I am looking at where my energy is coming from, i.e. am I having too much fat or carbs and where I can improve.

[oakiedoakie]

The food log is a huge eye opener! I find I'm cooking at home more because of the food log, even then I'm finding that fat and sodium intake is sneaky even when you're not adding any oil, margarine/butter or salt whilst cooking.

[RobertoME]

@oakiedoakie I would like to keep track of all my food like you do, however I always forget to make my entries, but as @ErickFitbit said; I do get hungry a lot, so I'm always eating.

@FrenchieMama, I love Cap'n Crunch but note that not always I can't eat my typical breakfast, especially when I'm in hurry to get to my work on time.  But when this happen, I have my good friend @AndreaFitbit. She sometimes gave me a pastrami sandwich that is so delicious, that I can't find the words to describe it. 

[ErickFitbit]

@FrenchieMama Diabetes runs in my family so I have been working on removing high sugar content foods from my diet. I've already accustomed myself to drinking my coffee black with no sugar or creamer.

That sounds delicious with blueberries!

What an accomplishment! Your story is definitely a source of inspiration! Keep up the great work! 

[FrenchieMama]

Thanks so much @ErickFitbit! The other thing you can do is when you eat carbs, make them complex carbs!! Good for diabetes! 🙂 You definitely would love steel cut oats!! They take long to cook but you can just nuke the portion you want during the week. 🙂 had them this morning 😞

[FrenchieMama]

That was meant to be a smiling face haha

[oakiedoakie]

Hi Roberto,
I know what you mean, I found I was always eating because I thought I was hungry and I now find I'm asking myself 'am I really hungry or am I just thirsty?' So I just eat as simply as possible so it's easy to recall and log, if I'm ever unsure of portion I over estimate the portion so I know to be wary of what I'm consuming.

I have trouble logging exercise so I just let the fitbit take are of steps and exercise intensity. I'm never sure of how fast I walk or how many kilometers I've covered and things like that.

[RobertoME]

@oakiedoakie, you right! Sometimes I wonder if I'm really hungry or not and I'm just want to eat to kill time, LOL. But what can I say, I love food. The great news is that after I saw your post, I felt more encourage to log all my food entries. It's hard for me because I don't use my phone so often, except for work. I'm following your advice and indeed is more easy to keep track of my meals. I'm still eating a lot but now I'm trying to eat only during my breakfast and lunch time avoiding any after meal snacks.

I'm also don't pay to much attention to my steps or any other exercise information. For that I have my tracker but I try to do biking or long walks when I found the time to compensate all the food I like to eat.

[ErickFitbit]

@FrenchieMama I will go out and buy some tonight and get them cooking this week and will let you know what I think of them sometime next week. I'm looking forward to trying them out, thanks for the tips and suggestion. 

[froggy730]

During the week it's hard for me b cuz I have two kids and divorced. Even though they're old enough I still have to make sure they get ready to make it to school on time. I kept telling myself that I had to get up earlier.... Now I'm trying to atleast have some cream of wheat or toast with peanut butter. I'm also on weight watchers.

[Mrthekla]

I agree, logging your food intake is eye opening. Even if you only stick to it a few weeks to get an idea of how to adjust your daily choices its well worth the effort. 

My "go to" breakfast is typically a protein shake. I'll do a green (hemp protein with greens and maybe a bit of fruit), or chocolate (spirulina based protein with a banana and chocolate almond milk), or vanilla (Spirulina based protein with frozen fruit and almond milk). On occasion I'll add an avocado, coconut milk or Greek yogurt to add some fat. Especially if I know lunch will be late, or lite. A little bit of fat seems to help with not feeling hungry by lunch.

If I'm being lazy the cafeteria at work has oatmeal and I'll add some dried fruit, nuts, chia and/or granola to it. I find I get too much sugar from the dried fruit and not enough protein, so I try not to be lazy every day. Also this breakfast is not as satiating, so I find I'm hungry by lunch, so a mid morning snack is needed. Usually an Apple does the trick, but I do find I tend toward larger lunches on oatmeal days compared to protein shake days. 

I'm not too worried about getting the Carb/fat/Protein balance perfect. I'm focused on finding some recipes that I like and are easy enough to whip up in the morning that I actually stick to it. My prior breakfast habits were more along the line of a bagel with butter, cheese and bacon with a Starbuck's mocha to wash it down. So, I've already taken a big step in a healthier direction and my waistline shows it.

[Sweepy]

What I normally eat for breakfast is a chopped up banana and Lite n Fit yogurt mixed. Nothing special but gives me a little energy and something sweet at the same time to start my day. Oh and of course a coffee. 🙂 I have to eat low fat so eating meats in the morning I usually dont do. I'm slowly starting to lose weight, but I'm happy just seeing a pound go. 🙂

[ErickFitbit]

@froggy730 I'm sure the little ones appreciate watching you eating healthier too.

@Mrthekla I've never thought about adding yogurt to a protein shake to keep your hunger down. I will give that a try!

You're definitely moving in the right direction! Keep it going! 

@Sweepy The best motivation is seeing those numbers go down, right?!

[Sweepy]

Absolutely! My hardest thing is portions. I finally got a scale so I can make sure I enter the right amount and monitor what I eat more easily. 🙂

[PATTIE67]

2 MULTI GRAIN WAFFLES, 1 TABLESPOON PEANUT BUTTER, TOPPED WITH A BANANA.

[NY2TX]

---

@NY2TX wrote:

---

@carl669 wrote:

i do not believe that high carb intake will necessarily prevent weight loss.  everyone is different.  however, i believe that high carb intake requires additional exercise if you want to lose weight.

by lowering my carb intake, i was able to lose weight without increasing exercise.  for the first four months, the only exercise i got was walking the dog for 30 minutes a day.  and that was a casual walk, maybe a mile or so (mostly so he could sniff around and play with some other dogs).  also, it was not an increase in exercise (even before my weight loss, i took the dog for a 30 minute walk).  during that 4 months though, i dropped 50 lbs, no additional exercise required.  in addition, my energy levels skyrocketed.

i always hear people say something like, "i had a piece of cake at the birthday party so now i have to put in an extra 30 minutes on the treadmill".  funny thing is, i've never had to say "i had a couple extra slices of bacon, so now i have to walk the dog a few more miles".

do you know what your carb intake was prior to exercising more?  was it around the same and was your weight increasing?  i'd be curious to know what would happen if you'd eaten those 200+ grams of carbs per day and not increased your exercise level at all.  or, imagine if you'd done that amount of exercise AND had a low carb intake.  your thoughts?  

---

Answer: I started my program at 254 pounds and it likely that I was consuming more carbs than I am now. I think as time passes I need to reduce my carb intake and maintain my exercise routine.  I burn between 600-1200 calories according to Runkeeper each time I go out for one of my walks.  I walk between 3.5-5.5 miles a day M-F and between 7-10 miles on Saturday and Sunday.

Since I am hoping that the lifestyle change of exercise is permanent, the issues of carb intake may be moot. Example though, yesterday I consumed 241.5 grams of carb (according to the FB program).  Large amounts came from my Multi-grain Lite English Muffin for breakfast (26g), 2 peaches during the day (28g), a roll at lunch on which I ate my chicken sandwich (34g), an ear of corn at dinner (25g) and other after dinner treats like ice cream or beer (too many carbs). I need a nutritionist to help me balance what I am doing.

---

@carl669 Well, considering I wrote the initial post about 18 months ago, I'd say that my experiences now suggest that I burn everything that I eat so my carb intake means very little. But since I go to a nutritionist as well as my medical doctor and physical therapist, I monitor everything that I eat and do. To stem my weight loss and to help in muscle healing after my exercise workouts, I've actually been taking a carb supplement. My carb intake (according to the FitBit food app) is in the range of 350-400 grams per day.

To give you an idea, however, in 2015, I maintained my weight at the exact level I started (weight on 1/1/16 and 1/1/15 was identical). According to FitBit, I burned over a millon calories. Based on my Runkeeper app, I walked slightly over 1500 miles and rode my stationary bike when I didn't street walk for another 2600 miles. Since all of these calorie numbers are estimates, I have to observe that when my Runkeeper app tell me that I burned 867 calories yesterday during my 6.96 mile walk (at 12:33/mile), I more than likely burned at least 25% more calories.