vinyl

Of course. I'm simply discussing it from a nutrition stand-point and curiosity. It's not healthy and I'm looking for ways to get my body back on track with a proper diet. But I do appreciate your point, it's an important one.

Ghostly

Vinyl - First, congrats on 15 days. I should have written that before. That is great. Second, congrats on beating cancer.

Again, I am not saying that eating breakfast is unhealthy. I am absolutely saying it can be healthy to skip it.

I am not disputing that many people, including Dr's and nutritionists suggest it is healthy, and even necessary, to eat breakfast. Many (maybe most) Dr's do not have a lot of nutrition training / experience, and they are repeating popular belief. Nutritionists gave us vegetable oil to cook with and corn syrup to sweeten with. That worked out wonderfully. No offense meant to Dr's or nutritionists at all. Many learned from flawed studies with - economic / political / good intended - slants. Fat makes us fat too right?

Eat whole foods, and eat when you are hungry. From there adjust accordingly. Forcing yourself to eat when you are not hungry is usually unnecessary for most people. If skipping breakfast makes you hungry, and then you overeat...then try to eat it.

I'm not looking to convince anyone, or debate this. People will believe what they believe. I used to believe many nutrition / eating / food myths until I got interested in this subject and started reading about it. Here is one link relative to this topic:

The Breakfast Myth, Part 1: How Did Breakfast Become Snacks And Dessert? - GNOLLS.ORG

Regardless of what anyone believes on this subject, most will agree, being sober and skipping breakfast is much better than stuffing yourself during a hangover.

Good luck.

thoughts

I don't think it really matters all that much if we get our nutrition from breakfast, so much that we get at some point throughout the day. The benefit from eating breakfast seems to be that we don't have to somehow find a time to cram two servings of vegetables, a serving a fruit, some oats, and another serving of dairy that we could have eaten at breakfast.

I mean, have you looked at the food pyramid lately? That's a lot of healthy food to squeeze in between good food.

vinyl

Ghostly, here's a few links on the importance of eating breakfast. Just thought I'd share. Either way, I respect your opinion and wish you the best in skipping your breakfasts.

I think I'll keep working on balancing my meals and eating a healthy breakfast, once I can get my body to agree.

Importance of Healthy Breakfast: Why Skipping Is Harmful

Why You Should Eat a Healthy Breakfast

How Important is Breakfast?

This is the Why Breakfast is Good for You Sermon

Why Breakfast Is Important

Breakfast: How does it help weight control? - MayoClinic.com

Why Is Breakfast So Important?

Why Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day Food Science | The Kitchn

GrowingDaily

It's quite easy to get locked into unhealthy eating patterns. You can't always trust your hunger to be your guide. A common thread among the overweight is going the whole morning, or the whole day, without eating, then gorging at night when their hunger kicks in. I myself used to do exactly that. I could go the whole day without a bite and not be one bit hungry. But I was FAR from healthy.

I now eat many small, frequent meals throughout the day, and stop 3 hours before bedtime. In the morning I eat breakfast, because i have too.. I'm starving! So yeah - now I can let my hunger be my guide. But that was not the case before. I had to retrain my eating habits. In the beginning, that meant eating breakfast even when I wasn't hungry.

Took me about a week or two for my body to adjust.

vinyl

Best advice yet, thanks.

topspin

I read 25 years ago to eat only fruit before 10. Something about our universal daily "elimination" cycle ending late morning and it being easily and quickly digestible. I tried it.
I liked the effect.

So, .....it doesn't keep me from eating a big breakfast occasionally.

Esp. if I want to feel sluggish , for a while !?!


One of the greatest gifts of our sobriety; ....is the ability to "listen" to our bodies for food choices.


Congrats on your early sobriety !!!!

ReadyAndAble

Hey, Vinyl. I'm serial breakfast skipper (pun intended!). Not sure it's related to alcoholism though—I think I've always been that way. I used to be a lunch skipper too, but am making a point to eat at least two squares a day. I've read reports lately along the lines of what GrowingDaily is saying—the ideal is to have many small meals throughout the day.

Thanks for the post. This issue needs to be front and center for me. I get a lot of exercise and am pretty darn healthy now about what I eat. When I eat is the last untamed frontier for me...

And congrats on 15 days. That's huge—you are on your way now!

Lenina

I think when I first get up, I need to set the tone. When I was active in AA, it was making the commitment to be sober that day. That was part of my morning meditation. That was part of setting up a healthy way of life.

Today, I use RR and AVRT. My commitment to not drink is settled. But I still need to make the decision on how my day is going to go. I think we choose to be content and at peace. So, having breakfast is a big part of sobriety. I don't always make the bed but then I'm in hotels a lot! LOL

hope this helps.

Love from Lenina

ReadyAndAble

Awesome, Lenina. Thanks for so beautifully characterizing precisely the place I find myself!

pattylulu

Hi Lenina, off topic, but I am curious, I was wondering why your sponsor recomended having a more organized life? I'm wondering how it helps in recovery. Asking because I have been very unorganized and recently have been trying to develop a routine for bed time and getting up. I find it just makes me feel better. I am interested in the subject and interested in getting more organized!

stairs

I was thinking about this thread because I made breakfast as 8:30 a.m. today which is a FIRST. And it's because yesterday I only ate a banana, a veggie burger w/lettuce/tomato/and some chocolate chip cookies.
Slept fine and woke up around 5:30 a.m. and by 8:30 I was ravenous. I cooked a big breakfast, eggs, hash browns, corned beef hash, 12 grain toast, and orange juice. I hope to stick with it, maybe not such a ginormous greasy one every day!, but to get a more "civilized" - GREAT word - routine going with meals.

desertsong

I've never been much of a breakfast eater, and since I quit drinking, lunch doesn't much appeal to me either. I dunno why but I haven't had much of an appetite since I got sober (I ate way more when I was drunk). I'm not complaining about the 40 pound weight loss but I'm sure it's not healthy to eat as little as I do! I like to exercise so instead of doing that in the afternoons, I've started doing it in the mornings and that has helped a little with my appetite. When I do get hungry, I don't eat very much so I try to make what I DO eat something healthy. I have always heard that breakfast is the most important meal, as it gives your body the fuel it needs to do whatever you're going to be doing during the day. I've definitely found that to be true for me - when I manage to choke SOMETHING down in the morning, I have more energy. Coffee is great but I've kinda made it it's own food group.

InsertNameHere

Hahaha same here, though now I find myself drinking more energy drinks and soda's not cool but I will sorry about that later. Actually after a month my eating has done a dramatic 180. I was scarffing down everything I could get my hands on. Now I find myself nibbling through the day and having one good sized meal usually lunch, with a lite snack or part of what was intended to be a meal for dinner. It might be due to lack of activity meaning that I have been fairly sedentary latley, but that is hopefully going to change soon. I am not sure if I look forward to the gym and more run time but I might look forward to being able to eat more. Thats me trying to force myself to focus on the positive side haha.

Muunray

I like food. Wish I only ate to live and didn't think about it so much.

stairs

I remembered why I don't usually eat breakfast. It makes me sleepy.
So since I'm not going anywhere today, I'm hanging out in my sweats for the first time in like two and a half weeks with nothing on the agenda.
So I took a nap, and woke up wanting something sweet. I baked cookies. Those slice and bake ones with the peanut butter cup pieces in them. Mmmhmm.
Now I'm thinking veggie burger.
It's like eating that early makes me hungrier all day, or maybe it's just being home all day....I'm going to make that veggie burger.

dawnrunner

One of the physical effects of alcohol is spiking blood glucose (sugar), and then dropping fast when not drinking.

So in early sobriety, our hunger is not just a signal that we need to eat; it's also a reflection of blood chemistry adjusting itself. Hence craving for sweets, odd hungers and lack of appetite; everything has to rebalance and this takes time.

One of the best ways to help is to make sure you are getting good quality protein regularly throughout the day: yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, lean meat tofu, eggs.

These will make a stable platform for the rest of your nutrition, which should also include vegetables and fruit and complex carbs (brown rice, whole wheat, grains).

Breakfast should include or even center on protein. What makes me feel the best is an almost entirely protein breakfast (protein shake, or two eggs scrambled with some spinach, or plain yogurt with walnuts and some blueberries).

Try something quite small: 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt, with nuts and berries. You just need to reset your appetite and give your body enough fuel to let your healing continue.

I am a huge believer in the helpfulness of good nutrition for maintaining sobriety!!!

langkah

Drinking plays havoc with our bodies normal processes of releasing sugar into the bloodstream. It takes time before those kick back in, and more time before they stabilize.

We don't get the feelings from what we've eaten for 20 minutes. That fools people who get an urge for something sweet and eat it, expecting to be satisfied immediately. If they eat a sh**load of ice cream for 20 minutes they feel satisfied, but that satisfaction is from what they ate off the bat, before they overindulged for no reason or benefit.

Newly sober people should eat a little something of decent quality every 2-3 hours during the day to even emotions and help with mental acuity. Responding to low sugar levels is a catchup game and you don't want to spend your day going over and under the mark.

Eventually your body heals and can deal better with eating sporadically and missing food groups, but babying it at the beginning helps all round.

So eat breakfast or pay the price.

Lenina

Patty lulu,

My life had very little routine. I work crazy hours, crazy days and nights. I would lose track of days and time (still do! But I'm old now) and my darling sponsor E (rip) knew I had to start somewhere. Just setting a decent daily routine really helped me. Besdies the nutritional importance of having regular diet, being able to have a few minutes to think, meditate, make decisions about my day was really helpful for me. E gave me things to read for inspiration and self-improvement.

For me, structure in my life was needed. Just having that little bit of time every morning helped me build on a healthier, calmer mental attitude.

I hope this helps!

Love from Lenina