Ditch Your Pants, Dance & Give Eggs a Chance

At my thinnest, I played a secret game with myself. There was only one objective to this game: to be able to take a particular pair of jeans off without unbuttoning them. It's weird, I know. But they were the jeans that fit me when I first started losing weight and to be able to take them off still zipped and buttoned felt like a measure of success. It encouraged me. So I did it. I played the game. I wore the jeans in public, even to work. Then I would go into the bathroom and see if I could still 'pull it off.' I have, on more than one occasion done a little happy dance in a public restroom with those jeans around my ankles, still buttoned.

Now, at this point, you're likely thinking "What the hell? Are you ever gonna talk about food in this food blog?"

Well, just settle down, you.

Yes, yes I will. Today, in fact. But first I want to brag and tell you that I did that little happy dance again this morning. Different jeans; same dance. This time, no anorexia required.

I am not an expert or a doctor or an athlete or even a terribly bright person. But I know what's working for me. I know what's making me dance pantsless. And I am going to share it with you in the hopes that you, too, will one day do a partially nude dance of glee at the way your body is changing. (I'll teach you the dance moves in a later post.)

So here we go.
Seems logical to start with breakfast. Here's one you can try tomorrow morning.

Grocery list:
Whole wheat (double fiber) English Muffins
Eggs
Pre-packaged pico de gallo (or Roma tomatoes, white onion, fresh jalapenos and cilantro)

Saturday Morning Breakfast
This is my standard Saturday morning breakfast. I get up crazy early, drink some orange juice, and go to the gym to do Body Pump. After the class, it's still too early for lunch, but I am ravenous and need protein, so I make eggs. AWESOME eggs. I cannot say enough good stuff about eggs. Egg whites, in particular, are like the perfect food. Even if you are a heart patient, never stop eating eggs, just ditch the yolks.

In a non-stick frying pan (You don't have one? GET ONE.) bring water to a boil. Crack open the eggs and drop them straight in to poach. If you want just the whites, you can have twice as many. If you keep the yolks, use a spoon to pick up some of the boiling water and splash it onto the yolks - they cook more slowly because they're thicker, so get them hot on both sides. If you are not opposed to slightly runny eggs, this recipe tastes better if you only cook the eggs to about over easy. There is no butter or oil or anything, so it can be dry if you over cook the eggs.


Put the cooked eggs on an open-faced English muffin and top with pico. Season with sea salt or sodium-free substitute. I added a bit of basil because it was ready to come out of the garden. The finished product should look something like the picture below. And yes, it will totally taste better if served atop the latest issue of Southern Living.

With 2 whole eggs: 275 calories; 10g fat; 12 g protein; off-the-charts cholesterol

With 4 egg whites: 200 calories; 2g fat; 16g protein; no cholesterol

So, the egg-white route is clearly the better choice. It surprised me to learn you don't lose too much of the protein by eating just the whites and I promise if you put enough pico on there, you'll never miss the yolks.

Give that a whirl and let me know what you think. Comments, criticisms, questions and discoveries are always welcome in the comments section. Let's do this together.