The One-Meal-at-a-Time, No-Diet Diet

In my determination to lose weight without dieting, I’ve decided to tackle my eating habits one meal at a time. Starting with breakfast.

I blow every diet with the first thing I put in my mouth – my coffee. I happen to like my coffee light with half and half and one sugar. And two cups of it, thank you very much. Without my coffee made that way, I feel deprived and miserable. So any diet I go on is destined to fail. Because if you start your day out feeling deprived, then it’s just a matter of time before you start to overeat.

The other problem with me and diet breakfasts is that they required a huge lifestyle change – getting up earlier to make breakfast and eat it at home. Oh, sure, I can get motivated, head to the store on Sunday night to stock in what I need for the week, set the alarm and do the right thing. I can even keep that up for a few days or a few weeks. But then throw in a 5 am migraine an early morning meeting, or a weekend too busy to shop for food and before you know it, I’m rushing to my friend Mark’s deli on the way to work, picking up my usual coffee and croissant or an egg and cheese on a roll and eating at my desk.

One of these days I hope to be one of those get up at 5 am, work out for an hour, eat a homemade smoothie and raw egg, pack a healthy lunch with 2 snacks and head off to work kinda’ gal. But I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that it’s just not gonna’ happen all at once.

After all, our eating habits are tied into our whole daily schedule. So going on a diet means changing everything. No wonder we fail. It’s just too much at once.

Now where was I? Oh, right – breakfast.

One day last month, my daughter was having what looked like a delicious breakfast – peanut butter with a tad of honey on bread. I tried it – delicious! Then I got bold and made myself a cup of coffee with a little low fat milk to go with it. And do you know what? Next to the peanut butter sandwich, that coffee was perfect! I didn’t miss my half and half and sugar at all! I think the peanut butter makes up for the cream and the teensy bit of honey for the sugar.

I’ve modified the sandwich a bit – I use 7 grain bread, less than a tbsp of peanut butter, just 2-3 teeny tiny drops of honey and skim milk in the coffee. Add a bit of fruit and bang – a great breakfast! Mark can make it for me at the deli (even deliver it to the office) if I don’t have time myself at home, so that part is solved too.

I’ve had this breakfast enough days now that it has the same homey, heart-warming feeling my old breakfasts had. I am convinced that for me, food has many psychological overtones. If it doesn’t have that warm cozy feeling, I don’t feel like I’ve eaten anything. So, instead of fighting those feelings, I think I need to find healthy foods that give them to me.

In the past two weeks, I’ve started working on lunch. Still haven’t found the sweet spot on that one yet, but I’m eating healthier in the searching process.

The result? I’m down 6 lbs. in less than a month.

I’m calling it the One-Meal-at-a-Time, No-Diet Diet. Think Oprah would go on it with me?