Big Breakfast meal construction

Hi all!

Among the main 3 meals, thrive changed my habits dramatically about breakfast! 

Previously I used to eat only brioche filled with creams/jams/chocolate.... plus a cup of cappuccino. This is a typical fast breakfast many italians have when they are not home. I always thought that this was not the best option, especially for one reason: after 1 hour I was already hungry, but I had to wait for lunch in order to satisfy hunger! Moreover those brioches, full of sugars... I guessed they were not so "healthy", and I also used to put sugar on my cappuccino to make it sweeter...  before following thrive I was a complete sugar addicted! At this point I think I learnt to avoid refined sugars from any meal, and my taste changed as well! So no more sugar added on milk and/or coffee, brioche avoided at any cost! And I feel good!

 My habits changed mainly when I got to Step 5: Breakfast protein. Since then I tried to construct a breakfast based on protein and fats, and to avoid carbs as much as possible. And this is still my biggest challenge.

Now let's get to the point. For a few weeks I've been trying to eat two big size eggs, fried in grass-fed butter... then a big cup of whole cow milk with coffee... no sugar added, of course! I think this is my best option, but since a few days I feel not so entusiasthic to eat those eggs. Morevoer the last step requires a BIG breakfast! Since a few days, I feel that eating the same meal day by day could be a problem... So I'm thinking about other options to choose, in order to have alternative and also biggest meals!  

The problem is that if I have to avoid carbs I have almost no other options. Currently the only adding/alternative one I can manage with pleasure and with the minimal amount of carbs is the one I used to have until a few weeks ago : Greek yogurt with strawberries and wallnuts.

Yeah, I know, strawberries count as carbs, I guess I should avoid them, but I can't stand the taste of greek yogurt alone. I tried with coffee, but actually I really need to make it "sweeter", just to hide the tart taste of greek yogurt. Jeff, some time ago you suggest me that among fruits berries were the best option... My idea is to add them as less as possible: Let's say no more than two-three units.

Another option typical of my country is rusk (just like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwieback),  covered on with jams and butter... I thought to avoid jams, because they are full of sugars, so only rusk and butter...  but still bread remains... that was the reason for which I never thought to consider this option, even though butter is a good great option. 

Basically, if I want to add and/or choose other options, in order to satisfy my taste I should add some carbs, and that is my concern. In the case that I must avoid carbs at any cost I think I should consider only the first option mentioned (eggs + milk), and eventually add more eggs to eat in future. Maybe the greek yogurt + 2/3 strawberries and wallnuts is still feasible, so even though is not the best I could add it ... probably the third one is the worst and I should reject it! What are your recommendations, Jeff?

THANK YOU!!

Good post and lots to cover. First some 'going back to basics' 

The breakfast only requires that you add a fat and protein. So lets exclusively focus on that until it is complete then we can move on to removing carbs if you like. But, removing carbs at the same time is adding an implied step and once you add one you will add two and so on.

Adding a protein and fat to breakfast: yep the eggs and milk work and yep eggs get old fast. Ive had to take breaks from eggs as long as 6 months at a time. Since then I recommend you alternate your meals. You would never eat the same dinner 4 days a week why even try it with breakfast? Eggs are a every other day thing at best and I would also request that you change the preparation each of those times - omelette, over easy, boiled, etc. Yogurt is great choice and adding the nuts and fruit is no problem. There is a lot of really great things about berries. 

Rusk can be mitigated. Eat it with some charcuterie and cheese. The total amount of calories from rusk will be limited by comparison to the other two dense sources of fat and protein. 

Don't get fixated on how you win. Just be obsessively fixate on winning the game of Thrive. Don't worry about trying to compete all the steps and add more in there. Focus on completing the steps and getting to the next one but I do appreciate your effort. 

@Jeff Serven It's a step 19 question so I'm assuming he has to look at removing the carbs :-)

@Alessandro Di Sanzo A breakfast I am enjoying a lot (yes, I'm French ;-) is just eating between a half and a full Camembert cheese as breakfast. No prep, easy to eat, I can workout almost immediately after and if kids/work make it so I have no time for me in the morning, I just eat my camembert while preparing their breakfast, lunch, etc. :-) Unless Jeff says not to that or you cannot stomach this, I find this a highlight of my day ;-)

Yea, Julien we will get the carbs out of his breakfast soon enough but for now we want to focus on adding the protein and fat. Once that is a solid habit we will cut out the carbs. It would be like if you were teaching me to speak french - you would teach me the alphabet before requiring I read Voltaire. Crawl, walk, run as we say in the SEAL Teams not run, fall, walk, fall, crawl. 

@Julien Le Nestour, if I could afford it, I would eat exclusively Camembert for breakfast I love that you do that. I'm not the only one who loves cheese so much! Actually, there's a goat cheese that has a rind like camembert (called Bucheron) that is absolutely fantastic. I would love to add that into my breakfast rotation! I highly recommend it. 

@Alessandro Di Sanzo, I feel your pain. I don't like meat that much and I really don't care much for eggs (I can only stomach them occasionally, fried over medium or soft boiled). I typically eat a grass-fed greek yogurt that is very lightly sweetened (Jeff gave me the ok on it; it's called Siggi's, not sure if they sell in your area) with something else (high-quality charcuterie, breakfast sausage crumble, etc.).

Also, Jeff knocks it (because he's too chicken to try it!) but I enjoy whole milk blended with two raw/pasteurized eggs, nutmeg, and either a tsp coconut sugar (very low glycemic) or a packet of splenda. Add some heavy cream to make it richer/more satisfying. It tastes like egg nog Not something I have very day, but some nice variety in the rotation!  

But I'd also love to know what others eat for breakfast. Always looking for new ideas that don't involve a lot of prep time!

Ciao Alessandro, how about ham or some of the various other delicacies (salame, mortadella, rigatino, finocchiona,...  apologies for using the Italian names). Given the correlation between processed meat and some types of cancer it may not be the best thing to have them every day though. I heard that cured ham (prosciutto crudo) is not to be considered processed meat in this regard - I like to believe it, but I am not sure it is true. Cheese is another option. One thing which worked well with me is smoked salmon.

Of course with many of these you will want something to go with and temper the flavour. Bread would be the typical Italian choice but that is what we are trying to avoid. For me yoghurt works well with the salmon, but you don't like yoghurt very  much so I do not know if that could work. There are various kinds of full fat white yoghurt which are quite different in texture and flavour, maybe experimenting a bit you'll find something more palatable for you. Butter would work except I usually put it on some bread... Celeries, fennel or grapes go well with cheese, but again they contain carbs. I suppose rice and or potato could work, but I am not very enthusiastic myself about this last option.

Actually if anyone has any advice on what can replace bread in accompanying other foods I would also be interested.

@Julia Quigley Yes, really enjoy my camembert in the morning ;-) Cost-wise, it's not that bad for me (in Australia), a 200g camembert is around $8 when choosing wisely, and that's for grassfed artisan cheese. The eggs we buy here, from hens grazing on pastures with low density and near daily rotations on the pastures, cost around $10 a dozen, so eggs would be cheapest but not by a large margin.

More importantly, eggs means I need to get 15 quiet mins at least for myself in the morning, which is rare these days, as I'm not enjoying eating eggs while pushing my daughters to go through their morning tasks to get ready :-) If I'm up early and they're not, eggs for me. All other days, I eat my camembert while going through the morning routine.

Cost-wise: doing this also allows me to prepare my own lunch, which means I'm saving around $10 on my meal as compared to buying in the city (I have a great healthy option in the CBD, but comes at a cost :-).

10 hours ago, Guido Franchetti said:

Ciao Alessandro, how about ham or some of the various other delicacies (salame, mortadella, rigatino, finocchiona,...  apologies for using the Italian names). Given the correlation between processed meat and some types of cancer it may not be the best thing to have them every day though. I heard that cured ham (prosciutto crudo) is not to be considered processed meat in this regard - I like to believe it, but I am not sure it is true. Cheese is another option. One thing which worked well with me is smoked salmon.

Of course with many of these you will want something to go with and temper the flavour. Bread would be the typical Italian choice but that is what we are trying to avoid. For me yoghurt works well with the salmon, but you don't like yoghurt very  much so I do not know if that could work. There are various kinds of full fat white yoghurt which are quite different in texture and flavour, maybe experimenting a bit you'll find something more palatable for you. Butter would work except I usually put it on some bread... Celeries, fennel or grapes go well with cheese, but again they contain carbs. I suppose rice and or potato could work, but I am not very enthusiastic myself about this last option.

Actually if anyone has any advice on what can replace bread in accompanying other foods I would also be interested.

Ciao Guido!

 I guess greek yogurt is the best option among full fat white yogurt I can find, considering the highest amount of protein... and that is also highly recommended in thrive course...  It is not so expensive (like smoked salmon for example), ready to eat, and it covers fat and protein all-in-one. Moreover, considering that I am half greek as well, why don't support my second country? 

I considered other options you also mentioned, like bread, but as you said, I would like to avoid it. Greek yoghurt + honey + wallnuts is a very typical combination, but I guess I should consider honey just like sugar. I never considered ham and similar, sincerely I don't know which one ("prosciutto cotto", "prosciutto crudo", mortadella, speck) could be best, or they are all good!

The current option I've been tasting, i.e. greek yogurt combined with strawberries and wallnuts seems to be the one with the less amount of carbs added and with the best benefits. I've been trying to lessen the amount and size of strawberries and little by little I feel I can sustain the taste of greek yoghurt itself... I think I'm going to move on with this option for now. Of course, I've been trying different options... I'm not a fan of cheese in terms of taste, but luckily I like eggs and whole milk for example...  

Moreover, considering also Jeff suggestion, I feel that considering only one option for breakfast is not the best way to achieve a good habit. As I started to add eggs, after only one week I didn't feel so much "happy" to eat them... For this reason I don't think to avoid the greek yoghurt + carbs added option, even though eggs ( + milk ) is the best one (basically no carbs added). Of course I can consider an ultimate combo like greek yoghurt + eggs + milk, why not?  I think that will be a great BIG breakfast!

Good stuff

8 hours ago, Alessandro Di Sanzo said:

Ciao Guido!

 I guess greek yogurt is the best option among full fat white yogurt I can find, considering the highest amount of protein... and that is also highly recommended in thrive course...  It is not so expensive (like smoked salmon for example), ready to eat, and it covers fat and protein all-in-one. Moreover, considering that I am half greek as well, why don't support my second country? 

I considered other options you also mentioned, like bread, but as you said, I would like to avoid it. Greek yoghurt + honey + wallnuts is a very typical combination, but I guess I should consider honey just like sugar. I never considered ham and similar, sincerely I don't know which one ("prosciutto cotto", "prosciutto crudo", mortadella, speck) could be best, or they are all good!

The current option I've been tasting, i.e. greek yogurt combined with strawberries and wallnuts seems to be the one with the less amount of carbs added and with the best benefits. I've been trying to lessen the amount and size of strawberries and little by little I feel I can sustain the taste of greek yoghurt itself... I think I'm going to move on with this option for now. Of course, I've been trying different options... I'm not a fan of cheese in terms of taste, but luckily I like eggs and whole milk for example...  

Moreover, considering also Jeff suggestion, I feel that considering only one option for breakfast is not the best way to achieve a good habit. As I started to add eggs, after only one week I didn't feel so much "happy" to eat them... For this reason I don't think to avoid the greek yoghurt + carbs added option, even though eggs ( + milk ) is the best one (basically no carbs added). Of course I can consider an ultimate combo like greek yoghurt + eggs + milk, why not?  I think that will be a great BIG breakfast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are fine with Greek yoghurt I had no intention to take you away from it!

Unfortunately smoked salmon is a bit expensive, but for me it is worth the price. And I agree that it is essential to have some variety.

Regarding ham and similar I think that prosciutto crudo (cured ham) is the best. Here is a link with some details for non-italians http://www.delallo.com/articles/prosciutto-lean-tasty-salume-0
Salame, mortadella, sausages may be more tasty, but I think they are done with lesser parts of the pig and/or more processed. Still from time to time... Real cured ham instead is not to be considered processed meat. And according to my mother is one of the first meaty thing you can give to a baby... (blame her of you disagree)

Have you experimented with cheese? There are so many flavours, there's bound to be one that you like! There is the world famous mozzarella/mozzarella di bufala (the real thing, not the pale imitations of it ready to be sliced on similarly dreadful pizzas you find in cheap supermarkets).

On the creamy, mature side there is taleggio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleggio_cheese
 vaguely similar to camambert, brie, reblochon.

Among hard cheese I really like pecorino
http://www.cheese.com/pecorino/
(but not particularly pecorino romano), which is actually a quite generic name and comes in so many different types/flavours. And  provola, provolone, fontina, and surely so many others even if restricting oneself to the Italian ones.

Thanks Guido for your your reply! 

I've never considered dry-cured hams or similars as breakfast, in Italy they are tipically eaten on lunch and/or dinner! The same about cheese and mozzarella (that I use to put on my salads on lunch as healthy fat).

As you wrote, there are many kinds of dried cured-ham. I made just for fun a table of the macronutrient compositions for 100 g of some of them that can be found on italian markets. I reported also smoked salmon for a direct comparison.

Actually Bresaola is  air-dried, salted beef. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresaola , and It is very famous for being very poor on fats.

Speck is referred as the italian Speck produded in Alto-Adige - Sudthyrol (.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speck_Alto_Adige_PGI).

I see that, compared to smoked salmon, the amount of protein is at least the same, even higher.  

They are also higher in fats, even though I am confused about the difference of satured and unsatured type. All of them have almost no carbs!

As I said, I used to eat them more often on dinner/lunch... but your suggestion looks good! 

You suggested prosciutto crudo, but I'm a bit concerned about the amount of sodium... it looks very high, but I don't know if it could be a problem.

Jeff, what are your thoughts? Could it be reasonable to add each of them? 

16 hours ago, Guido Franchetti said:

If you are fine with Greek yoghurt I had no intention to take you away from it!

Unfortunately smoked salmon is a bit expensive, but for me it is worth the price. And I agree that it is essential to have some variety.

Regarding ham and similar I think that prosciutto crudo (cured ham) is the best. Here is a link with some details for non-italians http://www.delallo.com/articles/prosciutto-lean-tasty-salume-0
Salame, mortadella, sausages may be more tasty, but I think they are done with lesser parts of the pig and/or more processed. Still from time to time... Real cured ham instead is not to be considered processed meat. And according to my mother is one of the first meaty thing you can give to a baby... (blame her of you disagree)

Have you experimented with cheese? There are so many flavours, there's bound to be one that you like! There is the world famous mozzarella/mozzarella di bufala (the real thing, not the pale imitations of it ready to be sliced on similarly dreadful pizzas you find in cheap supermarkets).

On the creamy, mature side there is taleggio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleggio_cheese
 vaguely similar to camambert, brie, reblochon.

Among hard cheese I really like pecorino
http://www.cheese.com/pecorino/
(but not particularly pecorino romano), which is actually a quite generic name and comes in so many different types/flavours. And  provola, provolone, fontina, and surely so many others even if restricting oneself to the Italian ones.

Thanks Guido for your your reply! 

I've never considered dry-cured hams or similars as breakfast, in Italy they are tipically eaten on lunch and/or dinner! The same about cheese and mozzarella (that I use to put on my salads on lunch as healthy fat).

As you wrote, there are many kinds of dried cured-ham. I made just for fun a table of the macronutrient compositions for 100 g of some of them that can be found on italian markets. I reported also smoked salmon for a direct comparison.

Actually Bresaola is air-dried , salted beef   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresaola , and It is very famous for being very poor on fats.

Speck is referred as the italian Speck produded in Alto-Adige - Sudthyrol (.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speck_Alto_Adige_PGI).

I see that, compared to smoked salmon, the amount of protein is at least the same, even higher.  

They are also higher in fats, even though I am confused about the difference of satured and unsatured type. All of them have almost no carbs!

As I said, I used to eat them more often on dinner/lunch... but your suggestion looks good! 

You suggested prosciutto crudo, but I'm a bit concerned about the amount of sodium... it looks very high, but I don't know if it could be a problem.

Jeff, what are your thoughts? Could it be reasonable to add each of them? 

Carbs come from intra muscular glycogen or added sugar or something similar. I would not worry too much about them in real aged meats. The American grocery store version is something to worry about. 

In quality aged meats there is going to be a high sodium level but that is okay the sodium bicarbonate is what cures the meat. No sodium no cured meat. 

The fat is okay too, given once again it is high quality. Just stay with in the serving size limits. 

Just to point out that finally I removed fruits from greek yoghurt! now I can eat a whole cup of 150 mg and enjoy the taste of greek yoghurt with no carb/sugar additions! Just a few pieces of wallnuts, but I consider them as healthy fat, so we are there! 

You are! Good work! How long did it take? 

3 minutes ago, Jeff Serven said:

You are! Good work! How long did it take? 

Thanks Jeff! It was a long process, firstly I focused to construct breakfast in order to add permanently fat and protein ... Since April onwards I removed little by little fruits ... But I must thank them, since they helped me to add greek yoghurt, so now I can choose between more options when I wake up. 

Now the main point to fix is to avoid pasta on lunch/dinner, but I can say we are there!  basically now my favourite starches are potatoes and white rice!

Good to hear. I think this post will be good for folks with the same struggle.