I’m not a very good cook.
If it wasn’t for pre-cooked chicken that all I had to do was heat up in the oven and a steamer that made cooking broccoli a snap, I’d be pretty much screwed when it came to making a decent meal on my own.
And it’s not because I can’t. Given enough time and the right ingredients, I’m more than capable of cooking a legitimately good meal – healthy or otherwise.
It’s just that I’m lazy and the time that it takes to spend cooking myself a healthy lunch I’d rather spend watching The Price is Right or catching up blog posts that I missed during the day.
So that means that breakfast is always a debacle for me.
Before I decided to start this little journey, my breakfasts – when I had them – either came from a foil package or from the fast food restaurant I felt like at the time.
Lots of Pop Tarts. Lots of Egg McMuffins.
But lately, for a variety of reasons, making sure that I eat something in the morning hasn’t necessarily been on the top of my priority list. I have noticed that my appetite isn’t necessarily what it once was, and I was never much of a breakfast eater even when I ate a lot of food. But I also know that it’s the most important meal of the day so I’ve been working on ways to make sure I get something in body before I head out the door to face the day.
It wasn’t until I was at Costco picking up some of those wonderfully easy chicken breasts that I finally found the perfect idea.
Protein shakes.
While I’ve spent a fair amount of money in the past at GNC in one of my little fitness spurts – convincing myself that buying a bunch of vitamins and health shakes would somehow do me good and send me on the right path – nothing that I ever purchased did me any good.
And that’s because like almost everything that I start when it comes to getting myself back in shape, or at least healthier, I stop after a very short period of time.
Waking up, putting a bunch of chalky powder in a shaker cup, and trying to choke it down while picturing the six-pack that’s just around the corner just is not for me.
Now while I know that it’s not the cheapest route, pre-mixed protein drinks are the easiest possible way to make sure that I get some nutrients in my body before heading out to either work or the gym in the morning.
They’re surprisingly good as well.
I mean, they’re not nearly as good as the packaging would have you believe, but they don’t have that water-down and chalky taste that I always got when I made my own in the morning – for the seven straight days that actually happened.
No, it’s not the same as scrambled eggs and fresh fruit, and I still try and mix that in when possible.
But a protein shake and a banana is far better for me than two packages of Pop Tarts were – or that amazing toaster strudel with the packages of icing I would eat straight from the container or even the entire package of apple turnovers I would scarf down from the supermarket bakery.
I’ve put those days behind me, and it was a nice revelation to find something that’s actually easy to incorporate and good for me at the same time.
It might be a lazy way to go, but it’s not quite as lazy as not consuming anything at all.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.