Battle of the Bulge - Breakfast

For my dieting psychology, eating a good breakfast is very important. The definition of good is:

• I feel like I have eaten substantially
• It carries me through the morning to lunch without hunger pangs
• I have a feeling of enjoyment from the meal

This is my standard, at home breakfast that fills these needs. There are five components. These are:

• A substantial portion of fruit - in this case it is a whole grapefruit. This is key. It provides a lot of bulk and a lot of flavor.
• A reasonable amount of carbohydrate - that's the bread. This is probably the largest amount of carbs that I will eat during the day.
• Three protein/fat components carefully rationed to minimize caloric intake and carefully selected to maximize flavor enjoyment - I like a European style breakfast so I usually have a small amount of some very good cheese, some kind of cured meat or fish (there's smoked salmon on this plate - I also eat a lot of prosciutto) and a few olives. You could substitute eggs, breakfast meats, etc.

The total here is around 600-700 calories.

I eat out a lot for business purposes. So I tend to go to the same places where I can design a breakfast where I can achieve the same goals - a lot of feeling of indulging/taste satisfaction while limiting caloric damage. I usually do this by focusing on an item I like a deleting items I can do without. For example at one restaurant they have a frittata with sausage in it. It is served with cheese and sour cream on it. I have that held off. I will have potatoes or toast but not both with an egg meal. Almost never other than above mentioned frittata will I eat breakfast meats.

Again what I've found works for me is making sure that I do not feel deprived-rather I've enjoyed myself, that I'm carried through the morning, and I stay within the caloric boundry.