fast break

i woke up this morning thinking about breakfast.  a dinner of indian food had my stomach upset and necessitated a double benedryl nightcap.  this morning, i just needed to get up and get to breakfast.  it was calling to me, "come, sit, relax, put the reactions behind you".  when asked if i thought breakfast was important, and i replied, "it's the most important meal of the day", it sets the tone for the rest of the day.

when i think of breakfast i have two visions in my head.  the first is of bill cosby explaining to an inner-city diverse group of kids that their bodies are engines which need to be fed so they run well.  if you don't feed the engine it will stop running, you will run out of gas and will be unable to get through the day.  the second is sharing a six-burner stove with cartoons in the background to fill a sunday morning before games and errands took over the day.

breakfast is something i now do while spinning through email and making phone calls to catchup on overnight events.  it's not unknown for me to start a morning with multi-continent conference calls and espresso.  the surprising thing is that the conference call is the stimulation and the espresso is used to calm the jolt of the day. 

while in the US, weekday breakfast was either rushed starbucks with their marginal carbohydrate offerings, or on a bagel day, a sweet danish and a comfortable pause.  bagel days weren't everyday, because they were special; they meant taking a fast pause in the day.  the danish was good, but taking a few moments and realizing that it mattered more than the need to rush was the real break.

weekends in KL are a busy, not as busy as the week but they take focus to get though.  a deli afternoon, one with a sweet start, some time to detox and music to set the mood is my preference.  more important than the food is the mood, it is relaxed and easy.  the fact i can go and simply think, work, write and rationalize the time away is what draws me.  this is my private time; it is my personal work/life balance.

lunch during the week is normally skipped, or will happen as an office meeting.  dinner is squeezed in before a kitchen closes, and is wifi-enabled to stop it from getting in the way of communication.  the difference between these meals and my most important meal of the day is that the early one is harder to miss, it sets the tone for day and is a hard requirement.  it can't be called in ahead and is not "tau pow"-able, because it's time, not food that matters.  it does bring energy, but not the carbohydrate type.

cosby was right, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  it is a time to rev up, you can pour in the caffeine, and customize your energy with something sweet or savory.  you can have meetings, or go solo to find your focus.  but no matter what choices you make, you must ensure that your breakfast supports your needs for the day and gives you the energy that you require; even if its a fast break that you need to take.

because that's what breakfast is, the most balanced meal of the day.