"Free" Continental Breakfast? Thanks but no thanks

I had to endure a long office orientation the other day that started at 8am and went until almost two o'clock in the afternoon with no breaks. "Breakfast" was provided, but what do you think was offered? Not bacon and eggs, I'll tell you that. Nothing but donuts and danishes, with some orange juice on the side.

The best I could manage was to scavenge a banana from the table there, which is not a low carb item but I figured it was my best bet to keep myself steady for hours of struggling to stay awake. It's amazing how strange the site of people sucking down jelly donuts and boston cremes has become to me; it doesn't even look good anymore.

I will admit that at one point later in the afternoon I snatched a plastic knife and cut myself maybe a twentieth of a jelly donut just to remind myself what it tasted like. I think this is important for anyone mainting a low carb diet to keep in mind: if you're going to break your diet, you don't have to go on a binge. You can take the extra 4 or 5 grams of sugar from a little mouthful as opposed to taking the hit on maybe 100 grams of pure sugar that you would get from eating the whole jelly donut.

Most of the time you will find, like I did in this situation, that the desire for the donut is pure conditioning: it doesn't actually taste very good at all! At least not to my highly sensitized low carb tongue! So I had my cake and my low daily carb count too. Needless to say, by lunchtime I was famished and enjoyed a big plate of meat and steamed veggies!

I find that I feel better with an empty, angry stomach than if I break down and satisfy my hunger with a bunch of carby breakfast foods. As low carbers we have the luxury of enjoying a steady and reliable blood sugar level, so don't be afraid of going a little bit hungry from time to time in order to keep that going.