Keeping Fit 2 — Diet

Louise Peacock
Nov 6 · 4 min read
Breakfast eggs. Photo by Louise Peacock

Diet misconceptions!

I was pretty sure that we had a very healthy diet.


Turns out I was very wrong.

Recently my husband, Bruce, became extremely concerned about the significant increase in his belly size. He happened to see two photos I had taken of him, 10 years apart, in almost an identical pose and did not like what he saw in the latest one. He said that in the latest photo it showed that he had developed a considerable belly bulge! Bruce is 5'8" and weighed in at 158 Lbs.

This resulted in us visiting our nutritionist-health product people (Marilyn Mitchell and Frank Pirri) at their health supplies store located within The Apple Market.

Over the past 10 years of shopping at their Health supplements store, I have gotten to know Frank and Marilyn quite well and have grown to greatly appreciate their knowledge and advice. They have given me tons of great tips for better eating, and since they are qualified nutritionists, it seemed logical to pay them a visit to discuss the Bruce belly bulge issue.

Bruce booked a one-on-one assessment with Frank Pirri.

We had confidently listed everything that we eat on a daily basis so that Frank could make recommendations. I felt that the list showed responsible and healthy food choices.

Breakfast: 3 stewed prunes, 1/2 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen), 1/3 cup of bran buds, 1/2 glass or orange juice, 2 slices of light rye toast, 1 teaspoon olive oil margarine, 1 teaspoon low sugar jam, 2 eggs.

Lunch: 2 slices light rye, 1 teaspoon olive oil margarine, 2 slices roast beef or 2 slices of naturally processed ham and 1/2 slice of old Cheddar, 1/2 raw tomato, 12 grapes.

Dinner: small portion Lasagna/chicken fettuccini/macaroni cheese or several times weekly fresh bbqd fish served with small side of rice or pasta, and a 250 ml glass of raw juice from Carrots, celery and apples.

Frank went through the list and x-nayed practically everything. He looked at it and the first thing he said was “sugar, sugar, sugar, not enough protein”.


From the entire food list, he liked only the raw juice, the blueberries, the prunes, and the bran buds. Most everything else, he said, was a sugar trap. (Even though the light rye bread provides protein, it converts to sugar, and anyone who is not working out on a regular basis is not burning off that sugar, and guess what? Sugars, left to themselves migrate straight to the middle!). Frank ultimately wanted Bruce to mostly lose the rye bead. Frank also opined that the breakfast on our list was basically a double breakfast.

What? No? What about that meme “Breakfast like a King, lunch like a Duke and dine like a pauper”? “No dice,” said Frank. For a sedentary person (Bruce spends most of his time parked in front of his computer, except for one 35-minute brisk daily walk), and considering that middle bulge, if change is to happen, a different diet will be required.

He wanted Bruce to move to an either or choice for breakfast — the eggs and side dishes option or the cereal with blueberries option.

Franks’ breakfast suggestions

Eggs — two (10–14 grams of protein), with two rashers of turkey bacon (4.7 grams of protein), peppers, tomatoes, one slice of light rye ( 3 grams of protein) as sides. An alternate side for the eggs could be 1/2 cup mixed beans (5–7 grams of protein), fried with tomato and onion pieces and browned in coconut oil.

Bean mix for breakfast side dish. Photo by Louise Peacock

Cereal: 3 stewed prunes, 1/2 cup Blueberries, 1/3 cup bran buds, a 2 gram serving of plain, Greek yogurt (5 grams of protein), with the possible addition of 2 pieces of dark chocolate chopped (2 grams of protein)and 12 almonds (3 grams of protein) for interest, protein and flavour.

Note on the Blueberries. They have a score of 53 on the glycemic index (GI), which is low and they are high in fibre. Frank is super concerned about the GI of foods.

So, with Franks's recommendations noted, we returned home and I began the new meal routine, starting with breakfast.

One thing we noticed at once was that Bruce was not left hungry with either breakfast option.

To be continued…

Weeds & Wildflowers

Stories of Dennett (Wildflower) & Ben (Weed) & Our Guests

Louise Peacock

Written by

Louise Peacock is a writer, garden designer, Reiki practitioner, singer-songwriter & animal activist. Favorite insult “Eat cake & choke”

Weeds & Wildflowers

Stories of Dennett (Wildflower) & Ben (Weed) & Our Guests

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