Breakfast Avalanche of Coffee, Sugar and Milk

The Days Inn that I stayed in at Kingston, Ontario last night had a Dennys Restaurant. After having my apple, orange and herbal tea in the room, I thought I've give them a shot. Maybe they had something besides "grand slam" salt, sugar and fat feasts. That reminds me of the Ham and Eggery on 163rd in North Miami that advertises themselves as "cholesterol heaven" - they make no bones about it.

I sat at the counter. The first waitress that walked by asked if I wanted coffee. The entire eating establishment American and Canadian thinks we have to start the day with coffee! Then I asked if they had any hot cereal. Yes she said "We have the instant oatmeal in the packet." I ordered that and a plain toasted bagel along with a small orange juice.

After she served the oatmeal, she placed a cup of whole milk, five packets of brown sugar and a selection of so called "spreadable fruit" in front of me. When the bagel was ready, my waitress asked another near me to serve the bagel and hold the cream cheese. Assumptions again - if you're going to have a bagel, it has to at least be with cream cheese.

Since the bagel was white, it probably wouldn't make it into Fuhrman's recommended diet. In addition with all of the goodies spread in front of me, I "broke down" and had strawberry spread on the bagel. It really shouldn't be called spreadable fruit since it tasted more like colored sugar laced with artificial strawberry flavor.

My breakfast experiment taught me that eating out sometimes feels like I'm under a rock slide that can't be stopped. There are all kinds of things coming at me, milk, sugar, etc., that I don't want. Further it seems impossible to get them to stop. A major initiative was needed just to get a "plain" bagel. The "rock slide" feeling could be one of the reasons there is such a high recidivism for diet plans outside the cultural norm. Any but the superhuman would have to remain in a supportive monastic setting to have any hope of keeping their practice alive.