Two Challenges: Breakfast and Caffeine

In keeping with the "living as if you're pregnant" rule suggestion I've begrudgingly (if I am to be honest) been trying to make two, albeit healthy, changes in my life.

One: eat some sort of breakfast most mornings of the week.
Two: decrease caffeine consumption.

Oh I know loads of you out there already do these things, and yes I recognize that they are good changes (which is why I'm doing them), but they are Kinda a Big Deal (sorry, just watched Anchorman and couldn't resist).

Eat Some Sort of Breakfast Most Days of the Week

(This was my breakfast one morning!)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yes I know. Historically, I've either been nauseous every morning (it took years to figure out it was likely reflux... lovely) and when that was taken care of my sensitive stomach really just doesn't handle anything before 10am very well. Add to that the fact that I generally see clients all morning and eating breakfast isn't the easiest feat.

BUT... Last week I tried and sorta succeeded! By sort of, I ate a breakfast three out of the five mornings! YES! (On weekends we sleep in ridiculously late because we can...).

I owe this sorta-success to Chef Michael Smith... and his overnight oatmeal in a jar recipe (In Family Meals). (Unbelievably Andrew and I have TWO of his cookbooks and they are actually amazing. Highly recommend). Now, I don't actually really like oatmeal, but this recipe is pretty tasty and preps the night before which is fantastic.

Chef Michael Smith's Overnight Oatmeal Jar (w some EcoYogini mods)
1/2 cup rolled oats (organic is best!)
1/2 cup of milk
drizzle of maple syrup (or other sugar)
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

Add to a 500ml mason jar and shake vigorously (with the lid on...). Add copious amounts of frozen berries (raspberries and blueberries are delish!) but leave room for the yogourt in the morning! Chill in the fridge overnight. In the morning add a dollop of yummy yogourt (I splurge for the rich fat and highly berried stuff). You could add some crunch. DONE.

I make two jars at a time since it will keep for one extra day!

Decreasing Caffeine

Now, I am a "one cup a day" coffee drinker as it is. But... that one cup is actually my Klean Kanteen thermos, which is really closer to two cups if we were being honest. Going full on decaf just sounds ridonculous and crazytown. Who willingly DOES THAT?

Sigh. But I *GUESS* I could try to decrease my coffee.

Which is what a co-worker suggest I do- not cut out (which would cause massive caffeine withdrawal headaches) but cut down.

Another co-worker, who was forced to go decaf when she was pregnant- sad I know, who was also a coffee snob so I could trust our tastes would be similar (I am not even pretending here), said that the BEST decaf beans were from Smiling Goat. Which are roasted at Java Blend.

If I'm going to do this it is going to be no holds barred, Andrew has to as well, and only during the weekdays. I still want my fancy full caffeine coffees on the weekend.

For the past two weeks I have been putting half decaf, half caffeine beans (1.5 scoops each) into the grinder and, gasp, mixing them together. Both locally roasted organic fair trade beans (Goddess I am such a hipster), both fancy and delicious.

And it has WORKED. No headaches, no extra tiredness, no awful disgusting taste. *Pumps fist in air*

One reason why I feel fairly confident both these new life changes will stick? My total lack of all-or-nothing approach. I often feel that as a society we often have unreasonable and, let's be honest here, crazy expectations when making changes in how we live. All these crash/30daychallenges with yoga/diets/cleanses (the last which is absolutely bonkers- our body never needs to be "cleansed") are never sustainable, sometimes dangerous and as a result never meant to be integrated into a feasible daily practice.

Small, attainable and easy steps to help me feel success, accustom to change and eat my darn breakfast.