Ok so I know there are some people on the forum who are really passionate and knowledgeable about health, and I'd love your input! For those of you who don't consider it an area of expertise, that's ok! If you have something to say that you think would help, I'd love to hear it 
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Here's the problem: I hate breakfast! In fact, since I was about 12, I've just skipped it altogether, because I literally have to force myself to eat it and it made me feel nasty afterward. I just...don't want it. I am not hungry at all until 2-3 hours after I get up, and by that time it seems too close to lunch to bother with breakfast.
Then, a year or two ago I heard that not breakfasting was terrible for the metabolism, so just in the last six months or so I've been trying to eat breakfast again. I don't always get it everyday, but I've been trying! I discovered I eat better if I have something hot--eggs, cooked cereals like oatmeal or cornmeal mush, sauteed veggies, fried potatoes, leftover soup/stew/meat from the night before. To one of these I add a fruit and/or some milk, and something naturally fermented like sauerkraut.
I found I could actually eat this stuff! I think between the lacto-fermentation and the hot food, it made me feel a lot better. So I ate happily, fully believing I was on my way to a better, healthier metabolism level.
Fast forward to now, this is the only thing I've changed in my eating/exercising habits, and I am packing on the pounds like crazy, and even more tired and less energized, if that is possible. I'm not a figure-freak. I don't care if I'm not perfectly trim, but I want my God-given body to be healthy, and I want to feel good! So, what am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions or comments?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and respond!
.Here's the problem: I hate breakfast! In fact, since I was about 12, I've just skipped it altogether, because I literally have to force myself to eat it and it made me feel nasty afterward. I just...don't want it. I am not hungry at all until 2-3 hours after I get up, and by that time it seems too close to lunch to bother with breakfast.
Then, a year or two ago I heard that not breakfasting was terrible for the metabolism, so just in the last six months or so I've been trying to eat breakfast again. I don't always get it everyday, but I've been trying! I discovered I eat better if I have something hot--eggs, cooked cereals like oatmeal or cornmeal mush, sauteed veggies, fried potatoes, leftover soup/stew/meat from the night before. To one of these I add a fruit and/or some milk, and something naturally fermented like sauerkraut.
I found I could actually eat this stuff! I think between the lacto-fermentation and the hot food, it made me feel a lot better. So I ate happily, fully believing I was on my way to a better, healthier metabolism level.
Fast forward to now, this is the only thing I've changed in my eating/exercising habits, and I am packing on the pounds like crazy, and even more tired and less energized, if that is possible. I'm not a figure-freak. I don't care if I'm not perfectly trim, but I want my God-given body to be healthy, and I want to feel good! So, what am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions or comments?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and respond!
What I see happening here is that you were already taking in the proper amount of calories to maintain your body weight for each day when you weren't eating breakfast... And your body was already used to not getting any food in the mornings and was able to get you through without you feeling hungry or deprived...When you started eating breakfast you added extra calories to your daily total, so your body stores those extra calories as fat, but rapid weight gain is also retained water... Your breakfast choices seem healthy enough so I don't think that is part of the problem, except for the fried potatoes, which might be attributing to your feeling sluggish. I think the sluggishness is probably from eating too heavy of a breakfast.
If you want to continue eating breakfast, I suggest reducing the size of the meal and also restricting the heavy stuff like meat, mushy oatmeal, potatoes, etc... to only 2 or 3 ounces at most. Then eat some fruits or veggies or salad and eggs.
Now... to take care of the problem of extra calories you have a few choices..
1) You can spread the same amount of food/calories you ate before you started eating breakfast over three meals instead of two. This would require that you to eat a smaller lunch and dinner than you did before..
2) You can stop eating breakfast and go back to how you were eating before. If you were fine before, there is really no need to start eating breakfast despite what anyone says. It is not going to cause any medical issues or health issues. In fact...
What you were actually doing was intermittent fasting (whether you realized it or not) and intermittent fasting is actually recommended by some doctors and nutritionists and seems to be proving itself as a healthy thing to do.
So going back to your old ways would be a good choice in my opinion. 3) Lastly, you can make up for the extra calories by increasing your physical activity each day so you burn them off. This could work if you can be consistent with exercise, but there is an old saying among nutritionists... "You can't exercise your way out of a poor diet" Its not impossible, but it would require dedication and commitment..
I hope that helps.
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