You know how some people need their coffee before they can be pleasant people? Well, I need breakfast before I can tolerate, well, anything.
If you read as much health and fitness stuff on the internet as I do (I devote a solid three hours a day to reading anything and everything about nutrition and weightlifting), then you might have seen that people have been going on about the fact breakfast has been demoted from “most important meal of the day” to just “a meal”. In other words, if you skip breakfast, it may not make that much of a difference.
Well, I love testing out theories on myself, so this week I’m trying out intermittent fasting, in which I eat during an eight-hour window each day and don’t eat during the other 16 hours of the day (I’m not condoning it or otherwise, so don’t blame me if you try it out and end up gorging on ice-cream sandwiches in hunger), and it’s been quite an eye-opener.
Firstly, even when I know that the only reason I am annoyed is that I am hungry, I still can’t stop it. I am mean. I sat down at my desk on Monday at 9.30am and I could already think of three people I had been irritable with, despite the fact I had only been awake for an hour and a half.
I grunted at tuktuk drivers who offered me a lift because, at 8am before breakfast, I can’t just shake my head and instantly get on with my day, oh no; instead I get affronted about the fact that they only ask me and not the Thai people in front of me — do they think I am some kind of tourist they can potentially rip off? HOW DARE THEY.
Then I got annoyed that the boat driver pulled away exactly as I arrived on the pier. Couldn’t he wait 10 more seconds for me? I don’t care if he’s on a schedule.
Then I’ll get irritated by people meandering down the busy street, oblivious to the fact they are taking up the whole path due to their poor skills at walking while texting (I am the queen of doing this efficiently, by the way). I get frustrated that I can’t find the key card for my building’s lift, or the key to my office. In fact, everything is against me when I am peckish.
The other side effect of not eating breakfast is that, instead of typing about fashion or hotels, or whatever it is I have on my agenda for the day, I am constantly distracted by the thought about what I might munch on when 1pm finally comes around. It’s not ideal when you’re trying to be productive to have your brain not-so-intermittently suggesting delicious lunch options.
At lunchtime, I am racing through crowds (I would give Olympic hurdlers a run for their money with my speed and agility as I race to the canteen) and then, the moment I have a bite to eat, I’m happy. It’s instant.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that intermittent fasting might not be for me. If you run into me before 1pm I think you would agree with me that, for me and anyone who comes into contact with me, breakfast most certainly is the most important meal of the day.
