Gli uomini come lei se li mangia a colazione*

In Europe, or at least in Spain, France, and Italy, breakfast seems to consist of a cup of coffee(only one: a tiny cup) and a roll of some sort.. Not much for this chowhound.

My routine, while living in the monastery in Italy, would be to get up as soon as the sun rose which was around 6 am. Flies landing on me would prod me into action. I would drink some water and eat a bit of starch of some sort and hit the road running. I would be back around 7 before the shower hogs were up so I could have a chance of getting clean before the showers  flooded. Breakfast was at 8 (colazione: love that word. Part of the expression *she eats men like you for breakfast). Titziana would ask if we would want latte freddo o caldo emphasizing that caldo = hot, not cold as it sounds. The starch selections would consist of toast or packaged junk food. One of the selections was called Plumcake, not a translation even though there is no 'k' in the Italian alphabet (or j, y, or x). There were no plums in it. It seemed to be a Twinkie. There was Nutella and really good cherry jam for the toast. I would always have 2 cups of my caffe latte (in Italy, if you ask for a latte, you get milk). There was no fruit or juice. Two hours after my run, I was hungry and I was left unsatisfied.

But this is typical for those countries. Conventional wisdom here (probably spread by the cereal industry) is that a hearty breakfast is associated with thinness and good health. But these scanty breakfast eaters, particularly in France and Spain, are much thinner than their American counterparts. What is my point? I think I will start eating like a European and maybe their thinness will wear off on me. When I wake up, I am not especially hungry. I take my thyroid replacement as soon as I get up. Food, especially that containing calcium, interferes with its bioavailability. I do crave coffee, with half and half and sugar in it. I drink some juice for hydration and glucose and I am out running. I get hungry around lunch. We'll see if this causes some weight loss.