Peekabu’s upset tummy added to my already way too long To-Do list. Being “too busy” is  no excuse for skipping breakfast. But it is a great way to gain weight!

Well this morning I fell into a very old weight gain habit – I got so busy this morning I forgot to eat breakfast. I’ve got a lot to do before we leave for the mountains of West Virginia tomorrow morning. Why didn’t I put “Eat Breakfast” on the list?

This morning I shot out of bed and immediately started on my to-do list. Less than a minute in, Peekabu, our Old English Sheep Dog, decided it’s the perfect time to get sick. Ugh!

Twenty minutes and a clean carpet later, I’m back in business.  Then our precious, evil overlord cat decided to flip over the dogs’ water bowl, spewing water all over my hardwood floor. Then he immediately began purring and rubbing against my leg looking for praise. Not going to happen this morning.

Five minutes later the floor’s dried and I’m back to my list. It’s after 10:00 a.m. – normally the time I eat my morning snack – that my headache hits and I realize what I forgot to do.

Slow Down, Eat
I started to reach for the first thing I saw – the trail mix for the hike. Just something quick to deal with my hunger and headache. Of course, the trail mix of peanuts, M&Ms and raisins is for my hike with full backpack in the mountains…during a full body workout over 3.8 miles. I don’t eat trail mix while I’m running errands.

Thankfully I snapped out of it and thought about what to eat. I settled on an Atkins breakfast bar and shake for my late breakfast (6 carbs and 10 PointsPlus total).

Yes, I’m backpacking tomorrow, but there is nothing on the list so important that justifies skipping breakfast. I jettisoned myself out of the busy lifestyle last year when I realized it contributed to my 100+ lbs. weight gain.

In those days, I never ate breakfast at home – I was in too much of a hurry to sit in rush hour traffic.  At the office, it was either one meeting after another or the crisis of the day to manage. I’d get so hungry that I shoved in my mouth what ever was convenient – chips, sodas, candy bars.

I jumped off the merry-go-round last year and this morning stepped back on because of a to-do list. I really don’t understand what is it about being so busy that eating that goes by the wayside?  All it does is make me hungrier and increase the risk that I grab the first thing I see and eat too much of it.

Do I really worry I’ll pack on the pounds because I forgot to eat breakfast this morning? No. But I know it’s a lot easier to fall back on bad habits than create new ones.  “Too busy to eat” is an excuse. Lord knows I was the queen of that weight gain excuse. I relinquished that crown last year and I don’t want it back.