My whole day revolves around food. From the moment I get up to when I go to bed at night, I’m thinking about what I want to eat next and when I’ll get to eat it. Learning how to take this compulsion and channel it into healthy eating habits has probably been the single greatest thing I’ve learned on the Plan.
This has all come back to me in a big way over the last couple weeks, as the twins are now getting up—and staying up—at 6 in the morning. That’s a full two hours before I ever used to wake up.
The lack of sleep is one thing, sure, but the real problem is being hungry for breakfast two hours earlier than I used to be. Eating breakfast earlier means I’m hungry for lunch earlier and therefore more likely to either overeat at lunch or do a lot of unhealthy snacking between breakfast and lunch.
So here’s what I’m doing: Eating more…fruits, that is. Instead of just having one thing for breakfast—like egg whites on whole wheat—I buy an apple, nectarine, pear and plum from a fruit stand on my way to work. If I eat one piece of fruit every 30-45 minutes, I’m pretty much constantly eating until lunch. And spending the extra couple of POINTS® values on the fruit is no biggie. Eating more fruit is a good thing and besides (as a colleague is fond of saying), it wasn’t fruit that makes us overweight in the first place.
-Justin Marks
Categories:
Family, Food