Reforming breakfast

The process of going from a scary/unhealthy/artery-wrecking lifestyle to a healthier/happier/kinder lifestyle is not a simple process. It involves solving lots of food and exercise problems and turning not-so-great choices into better choices.

In my case, I have approached this by hitting one habit cluster at a time. Each representing a dragon to slay and a kingdom to free. Truth be told, I have not slayed all of my dragons yet, but many of the big lumbering (and most destructive ones) have been vanquished.

Breakfast is a good example. First off, I believe that breakfast is an incredibly important meal and it should not be skipped. (Given how much I like to eat, choosing not to skip breakfast was not really a difficult accomplishment.) However, my breakfast choices were suspect at best, particularly when I took the time to determine what I was actually putting into my body.

For many, many years, I have been a very regular and loyal Starbucks customer. I have an abused loyalty card to prove it. To its credit, Starbucks has worked hard to create some healthy food options for breakfast. I just didn't eat them. I went a different way by worshipping at the altar of the coffee cake and the scone. I LOVE pastry/muffins/breads of all sorts, and these guys make tasty ones.

One day I took the time to go to the Starbucks website where they helpfully provide nutritional

information on all their menu items. They even do this on a store-by-store basis as they often use different food providers in different areas. Suffice it to say, what I discovered about my favorite breakfast snacks was a little alarming. As of today, a Classic Coffee Cake clocks in at 10 POINTS (down from 13 POINTS a few years ago) while a blueberry scone has about 11 POINTS. Ouch! Particularly painful when considering the fact that the portions were not exactly huge and filling (although very tasty).

So I moved onto a new breakfast food frontier in the form of Yogurt Parfait sold by my local

Pax Foods chain. Hey, it's yogurt! It's got fruit! It must be a great deal! Except for the fact that one 16 oz serving dishes out about 9 POINTS. A slight improvement, but not where I wanted to be particularly for the perceived amount of food.

What I wanted was a LOT of food that would be really filling and only cost me 6 or 7 POINTS. Drum roll...

My new breakfast of champions:

• One Weight Watchers oatmeal: 2 POINTS
• Fruit to stuff into the oatmeal: 1 banana (2 POINTS) and 4 strawberries (0 POINTS)
• Splash of skim milk on the oatmeal (0 POINTS)
• One non-fat greek yogurt (2 POINTS) (more on this little gem of a food later)
• Total = 6 POINTS for a veritable truckload of food

Stuffing the oatmeal with fruit is a great way to turn a non-mannish portion into one that is giant-like and brutish in size. I will provide a photo later to prove my point.

I'm a creature of habit, so I'm thrilled to eat this meal every weekday. Tastes great. Totally filling. I'm not hungry until lunch. Only 6 POINTS. Problem solved.