Thursday, January 17, 2008

Good morning, BAGEL and MILK!

I was having dinner in Mitch's house the other day and his mom asked me of what my family usually makes for breakfast. I know this might sound weird, but I didn't know what to answer her. Sheepishly, I said. "Nothing. We're really not breakfast people, there's no breakfast or anything of that sort. What usually happens is they would just buy hot pandesal, put it on the table, and it's like every man for himself. Some, not me, request boiled eggs, coffee or sometimes, but it's one of those out-of-the blue moments."

She smiled and told me that breakfast is something MAJOR in their household. She sometimes find it equally odd that breakfast more of like resembles a big lunch to them. And I thought, why the hell didn't I grow up getting used to having a conventional breakfast? But then again I remember, my family, a kind of quirky and positively dysfunctional folks and children, well I didn't search for anymore explanations and just let it be.


All my life from Pre-school to grade school to high school to college, for the life of me...I never grew up having 'breakfast'. In our household, breakfast is a meal that happens when we have relatives or guests staying over. But when the house is devoid of any guests, it is also devoid of breakfast.

I'm not sure why, but we're really not a fan of it. My mom never did have any breakfast before and after she worked. My sister and I didn't even look for breakfast ever since we were kids, although we are forced to drink SUSTAGEN in the bathroom just before we take a shower. It's really not counted because sometimes out of sheer rush, we don't actually drink it. Sustagen was like a reminder of "Here's your attempt for morning energy, breakfast all-in-one."

But then again, there's recess right? Every kid appreciates recess, but several skip breakfast at home. It's still different. That's why whenever I go visiting or having slumber parties at some of my friends' house, I get an overwhelming bloated and off balanced feeling because of what they usually have, heavy breakfast. And it's a shame to decline, right?

It was just a couple of years ago when I read through health and wellness magazines that skipping breakfast is not very advisable. Some in fact regard Breakfast as the MOST important meal of the day. Studies have shown that CHILDREN who eat breakfast do better in school, and children who DO NOT EAT BREAKFAST are tired and moody in the morning, and worse, it is one of the major factors of weight gain. Since the body runs low in energy in the morning, we tend to eat more during lunch and mid-day snacks, in result metabolism declines.

Okay, I get it. I am not really a morning person, by nature, I think breakfast has something to do with it. I'm generally a moody person,I think breakfast contributed to it. And I'm not sporting an ideal weight....yet, so maybe breakfast really has something to do with it.

And after years and years of skipping breakfast, a ghost meal, I suddenly found myself for the past year having a simple conventional breakfast. I've been constantly looking for scrambled eggs and ham on weekends. My lifestyle changed wherein I couldn't afford to do activities in the morning and wait for lunch. My stomach's not used to the empty morning feeling anymore. By 9 am, I usually look for something to munch.

And I just realized since the start of the year 2008, I've been having a usual set of breakfast I couldn't get tired of. I usually get dropped at the office at 7:30 am. I wake up at 6, leave the house at 7, but I always tell the driver to have a quick stop at some convenient store near my office. What I usually buy there is the cute Nestle Repackaged milk that costs 39 pesos (a skyrocketing increase of 10 pesos more than the usual grocery stores). I sometimes buy crackers or fruit cups, which are convenient. After the stop at the convenient store, I get dropped off at our office, and I pass by Starbucks and buy the deliciously made multi-grain bagel, or banana loaf, or multi-grain croissant for breakfast. If you have read one of my previous blogs about marketing, I have already established a profile and relationship with starbucks baristas for my morning attendance. Sometimes, I would go on a luxury buy and get some coffee or frapp, like right now I am proud to say that for 4 days straight I've been getting either croissant or bagel with jam and unsalted butter for breakfast.

Bottomline is that my system now longs for breakfast, whether it may be bagel, mcdonald's, quick stop at some convenient store, or Starbucks or Coffee Bean Stops. Of course, there are some situations whereintime doesn't give me any grace period for breakfasts, but compared to before, this has become rare.

I'm now 90% a breakfast person, I'm surprised at the change, but loving it. There's nothing bad about it actually, and when you come to think about it, I have less reason to indulge in lunch and in between meal snacks. So I hope this would be one of my very first good change for 2008.

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