I try to start every day with a high-protein breakfast, loaded with as many calories as is reasonable so early in the morning. I grew up on cereal, but I’ve recently needed to switch to eggs because of the progressive nature of diabetes, and I am trying to stop the glucose trend I’m on with diet alone. So far, so good. Here is what my breakfast looks like:

Let’s run down what’s in this monster meal, shall we?

• 3 large eggs, scrambled up with 2 tbsp of cold water, 2 tsp salt, and 2 tsp of pepper. When I’m in the mood, I’ll drizzle some olive oil in, too.
• 3 slices of American cheese, not cheese food!
• 5 slices of thin honey ham.
• 12 oz of sweet tea.
• Publix-brand Boost Plus drink (ice cold)

This takes me about 6-10 minutes to make, depending on how awake I am in order to condense steps… like turning on the burner early. I’d swear that one of these days the sheer weight of the omelet will break the glasstop stove when I flip it over. Grand total nutritional content: 970 Calories, 50.5g fat, and 53g of protein… and all before 7:30am!

On a cereal day, use whole, vitamin D milk, a lower-sugar cereal, like Corn Chex or Shredded Wheat, and drink something like Boost or Ensure for even more protein.