Day 14 Cereal: All Things ReConsidered

As a kid, I loved cereal for breakfast, the sugar kind, that is. Frankenberry, Count Chocula, Booberry, you name it, poured into a bowl the size of a bird bath and covered with Domino Pure Cane Sugar. If sugar cubes were marketed as "Eskimo Bite Cereal", I'd gobble those down too. During that rare, celestial shopping event, "when Jupiter aligned with Mars", Mom would splurge and shell out a buck thirty nine for the eight individual boxes of assorted cereals. We kids thought we'd died and gone to Family Affair heaven. I'd approach my mini box of Sugar Smacks as if it were a dead frog in biology class, dissecting the perforated line down the middle of the box, through the cardboard and wax lining, folding back the shutters and pouring in the Vitamin D.
Then came the age of nutrition and it was no longer healthy, wealthy or wise to eat sugared cereal. Go0d bye Captain, Tang and chocolate Space Food Sticks. Hello sugar laden packets of instant oatmeal (go figure), dry whole wheat toast with one egg (scrambled in Pam), and Uncle Sam cereal.
As I left Sugar Mountain to live on the USDA Food Pyramid, I always felt guilty if I ate Froot Loops, even though I pined for them and all their other magically delicious pals. What I should have been eating is All Bran right? Or Grape Nuts? At least a cereal with a healthy word in its name has got to be good for you; nuts, oats, fiber, honey, whole grain.
I suppose, but, here's the clincher: when I eat a 3/4 cup of Fruity Cheerios or Corn Pops for 100 calories and feel grrrreaaaaaaat, why would I gulp down a measly 1/4 cup of Grape Nuts for 110? I'm aware of the epicurban legend about how Grape Nuts blows up in your stomach like inflatable sponges, and keeps you full for seven years, but it tastes like wet sheet rock. Check this out: Alpen Muesli (sounds so yodelly-mountain air-Birkenstocky) packs a 389 calorie punch per cup. Now, that's not such a Smart Start, is it? And granola? 372 calories per cup of Kellogg's Low Fat Granola.
I'd rather enjoy a coveted cup of Cocoa Krispies (or two) and feel undeprived all day.
I have already disqualified myself with any type of professional "ist", degree of expertise but I can read.
Check out boxes of Special K Vanilla Almond, General Mills Fruity Cheerios and Post Honey Bunches of Oats. What a midge madge of nutritional info.
Special K/Fruity Cheerios/Honey Bunches of Oats
Zinc 0 2% 25%

Carbs 25g 25g 23g
Sugars 9g 6g 9g
Vitamin C 35% 0 25%
Folic Acid 35% 50% 0
Total Fat 1.5g 2.5g 1g
Calcium 0 0 10
Niacin 35% 25% 25%
Sodium 160mg 150mg 135mg
Fiber 1g 2g 2g

The comparison goes on, but don't take my word for it, you can read them for yourself. Who would think, without diligently searching for the fine print that, Special K would have less fiber and MORE carbs, sugar and fat that Fruity Cheerios? Not so "special" now, is it? If you really want a bowl of Honeycomb, substituting Bran Buds just won't cut it. You can eat Bran Buds, til the cows come home (or you hit 1500 calories, whichever comes first) and you still won't feel satisfied. Think of it like this: You're craving a Hostess orange cupcake (130) but opt for the "good' Panera Everything bagel, toasted with a smear of cream cheese (450) because you believe, or have been conditioned to believe that the bagel is the smarter choice. So you eat the bagel with a thought cloud floating over your head containing a smiley faced you sitting in front of that desired orangey puck with the fluffy white filling. Now, you just feel deprived, probably a little pissed off , and certainly unsatisfied. What happens a couple hours later as the cupcake keeps swirling about your unconscious? You hit the fridge in a determined rage and binge on Everything but the Kohler kitchen sink. Who wins? Certainly not you and it's pretty much a given that the binge will bring you right back to where you started. Full circle. To the Hostess Orange Cupcake with the curly- q line of frosting down the center.
Frank Bruni, The New York Times food critic, gets paid to eat and approaches food without denying himself what he craves and still stays fit. "There are may times I would love to just go buy and eat a pint of ice cream, " he tells
Bon Appetit food writer, Melissa Clark, "but I don't do it. But I also won't deprive myself of a sesame bagel with Swiss cheese and tomato if that's what I want for breakfast. A person can eat 700 calories of stuff that they really didn't want But think it would be good for them) and then be haunted for the next two hours, feeling unsatisfied. So they backslide by eating another 400 calories. I'd rather just eat the 600 calories that I really wanted in the first place."
The 20/90 Plan is about counting calories and feeling satisfied. You can lose weight by eating cereals made for kids and silly rabbits. I did. You've read my food diaries. Keep reading labels, weigh your choices and decide what is best for you. If you love Lucky Charms, eat them and count them.
Day 14 Calorie Count: 1420 and 45 minutes of (very brisk) walking