Gimme A Break(fast)

Being a student means I'm no stranger to bad eating habits. Most people my age wake up too late to eat breakfast before going to class or work; instead they move right on to lunch, where they gorge on 800-calorie burritos or buffet-style Krishna food.

Well, that has its own consequences. Eating breakfast has been shown to help with weight loss because it speeds up your metabolism after you wake up and because you won't be tempted to eat a huge lunch later in the day.

But then there's those of us that wake up way too early for breakfast. I'm up at 7 to be at work by 8, but my body doesn't catch up and get hungry until at least 9, so until recently I would forget to scarf down a bowl of cereal or pack something to go. And being gluten-free poses its challenges too: I couldn't just swing in to Dunkin' Donuts or McDonald's on the way to work.

But I soon realized that the lack of food was definitely messing with my motivation once I got to work. By the time I got hungry at 9 I was just ready to go back to bed. A Google search for 'skipping breakfast' turned up a New York Times report stating, "Over the years, a number of studies have examined the subject [of skipping breakfast], and most have reached the same conclusion: starting a day without a solid meal tends to have slight but detectable effects on mood, memory and energy level."

Well if the NYT says it it has to be true (unless Jayson Blair wrote it), so I've changed my ways, making sure I keep some fruit in my purse in case I wake up too tired to cook an egg or something else full of protein to help keep me full through lunch. The little bit of nausea I feel from forcing myself to eat is a welcome trade off to the early-morning haze my brain used to have to work through.