Don’t Skip Breakfast

TW: eating disorders, weight loss, restricting

For the longest time, I believed that skipping out on my morning meal was the fastest way to losing weight. The longer I went without eating, I thought, the easier it would be to continue the streak. This resulted in me waiting until dinnertime every day before I had my first bite to eat.

I recently discovered a subreddit all about intermittent fasting, which is when people spend most of their day fasting and then eat all of their calories in a smaller time window. So many people have posted success stories and progress pictures there that my certainty in my eating habits grew stronger.

The other day however, I agreed with my therapist to partake in a small protein shake in the morning to start my day. I was dubious, and worried this would impede my descent in weight. I was proven wrong, however, and not only did I still lose weight, I felt much better doing it.

Fasting all day led to a few problems: energy, mood, and medicinal efficacy.

I take my psychiatric meds in the morning and at night, and while I know that they are supposed to be taken with food I stopped seeing the harm in taking them on an empty stomach. Yesterday and today, when I drank my shake with meds, I felt them kick like they haven’t in months. I finally felt the full effects of the pills I’d been downing every morning to no avail.

I also had been experiencing a serious crash in mood in the evenings, probably due to a day full of fasting. I would become irritable and gloomy right about when my husband got off work, meaning the quality of our time spent together was seriously diminished. Adding in a morning dose of energy reduced the crash, making me less grouchy and a lot more fun to be around.

Perhaps the most important difference I’ve noticed since adding breakfast to my routine is that I have so much more energy throughout the day. I still get a little dizzy at times, or have a hard time getting going, but I was able to do a full days worth of chores and schoolwork, as well as a workout, once I had some nutrients in me.

I feel like this is a big step in the right direction. I’m still not taking in exactly a healthy amount of calories per day, but I think it’s something that I’m allowing myself to add this into my meal plan. I feel better, stronger, and more healthy.

Moral of the story, don’t skip breakfast folks.