It's almost like a tradition here, on this blog, to dedicate at least an article every year to mornings. This time, it is mostly a retrospective and about breakfast.

There’s something magical about Sunday mornings, and especially now, in the winter, the tranquility and peace that come with the territory are zen-inducing. Also, unbeknownst to me and possibly you, on November 14 healthy people celebrated “World Diabetes Day”, laughing and scratching, while the not-so-healthy ones cowered in some corner coming up with yet another resolution they were going to break anyway.

Why not use this winter as an opportunity to improve your diet and lifestyle choices?

I don’t know what works for you. I’ll tell you what works for me.

Not long ago, I used to make myself an omelette with bacon, grated cheese, mushrooms, peppers and onion nearly every morning, but it didn’t take long to realise I felt crappy. A few weird symptoms later I tried switching to cereals (the “antimasturbatory” breakfast created by Dr Kellog and universally adopted by “concerned” parents and ignorant kids almost everywhere in the Western world) only to realize that that made me feel even worse, due to the humungous amounts of sugar I was not aware I was getting at that time.

Then I heard about oatmeal (Romanian: “fulgi de ovăz”). It is an amazing “cereal” and if you buy it in raw form, with large flakes, without sugar or the “instant” crap, it’s incredibly healthy. The soluble fibre is supposedly excellent for your cardiovascular system. I follow the instructions on the package (usually 1:2 or 3:4 ratio of oatmeal to water), microwave it for 3 minutes on high (sometimes 6, depending on the quantity as well), and in this time I cut in little pieces a pineapple and banana, or an apple and banana, or strawberries, or other berries. I use fresh fruit and I vary it, because oatmeal by itself is rather boring. Once it’s done, I add one or two raw eggs, mix them with it and let the hot oatmeal cook them slightly. I then add some nuts – most of the time walnuts, but sometimes almonds, pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

This combination is so tasty, I have to control myself so that I don’t eat it for lunch and dinner as well. I go through about 1kg of oatmeal per week, sometimes more. I also tried variations such as “steel-cut”, but that takes too long and it’s harder to get right. The instant one is too amorphous and I don’t like it. Rice is suboptimal because in the Western world it has an arsenic problem. Quinoa is not bad, but it’s way more expensive and you have to boil it, spending far more time in the process (good luck microwaving it)!

LE: Reading what others have written on the breakfast subject, it became apparent that some people sometimes skip breakfast or don't feel like eating it. That’s hard for me to comprehend, perhaps because I’ve always been a morning person and skipping breakfast strikes me as dumb. Then again, some may think of themselves as “creative types” or “midnight owls” and their biological clock is adapted to late dinners and waking up late. If that works for you, maybe it’s better that way. However, if for whatever reason you’ve decided you want to stop skipping breakfast, the first thing you need to do (and it should also be quite obvious) is stop eating late – no more eating after 6pm. Not only that you’ll wake up hungry, but you’ll also sleep better. Additionally, what you eat in the morning does not “deposit” as much as dinner, so you can eat as much as you want for breakfast. Just make sure it’s a balanced food, having both complex carbs (which release energy slowly and also provide satiety) and protein, which should be present in every meal for numerous reasons. Oatmeal does both very well and as a bonus, if you have the gluten obsession, it has none of that unfairly demonized compound.

Oatmeal is a particularly good breakfast food because of its not-so-high glycemic index (look this database up, it’s extremely important). Making it every morning while varying fruits provides enough variation that I don’t get bored while avoiding the decision-making anxiety of coming up daily with something else. It’s actually healthy and tasty enough to eat by itself when I run out of fruit. However, it’s not the only good thing I do for myself.

I wake up early, before 7, even on the week-ends and even when there’s somebody next to me who does her best to use my energy on her. I then do a bunch of physical exercises – mostly push ups, sit ups and the like. I do quite a lot and end up a bit sweaty, which is great, because the morning shower feels even more refreshing, especially after drinking a bottle of water. (Needless to say, breakfast comes only after the morning shower.)

One of the most important things you can do for yourself, whether you’re a blogger or simply work with computers, is to avoid sitting down. Make a standing workstation for yourself, it’s not that hard. Work standing for a week – it’s hard the next day, but then it gets better, you’ll feel tired and you’ll sleep much better. And if you get to also go through some kind of physical activity, such as one hour of swimming daily, then life’s a peach.

Sources / More info: CompLife, work-standing