Getting down to 98 pounds for the first time during my sophomore wrestling season wasn't easy. I'd wrestled 98 pounds as a freshman but only weighed about 100 pounds naturally so it hadn't been a big deal making weight. But, when my sophomore season began I weighed 110 pounds and 12 pounds was a lot to lose when I was already fairly lean to begin with.
I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I didn't know anything about counting calories or dieting or losing weight. I just thought I could skip a few meals and sweat the rest off. That didn't work. So, I didn't eat or drink much of anything that final week leading up to the weigh-in for that first competition.
Somehow I made weight. But, I was starving. And, I was dehydrated and dying of thirst. Hence, the big breakfast I ordered that morning.
My mom took me to The Grill, a local restaurant, for breakfast that morning. I think she was a little surprised by the amount of food I ordered. The waitress didn't bat an eye as I made my order. I guess she was used to hungry wrestlers.
After I got used to making weight I wasn't always so hungry. In fact, sometimes I wasn't hungry at all. After making weight for the South Winneshiek Tournament, we all went to a local restaurant for breakfast. I guess cutting weight had affected my appetite because I only had a couple bites of eggs and a glass of milk. I got some Peanut M&M'S from a vending machine on the way out. It wasn't the healthiest breakfast. But, I won the tournament that day so I guess it didn't hurt.
The wrestlers from Riceville were in the restaurant that morning as well. We noticed that they all had pancakes. Perhaps it was a team tradition. After breakfast they all walked back to the high school instead of riding in their bus.
This combination of pancake eating and walking generated some theorizing by my teammates. Did the walk back aid in the digestion and assimilation of their high carbohydrate meal? Would this high carbohydrate meal give them stamina for the long day of wrestling ahead of us?
As I recall the Riceville wrestlers did very well that day. They may have won the tournament that day or been runner-up. The power of pancakes!
I ate breakfast at some other restaurants that season as well. At one of these restaurants, one of my teammates decided he wanted a candy bar in addition to what he had already ordered. He had an underclassman buy it for him because he was too embarrassed to do it himself after having already ordered a large breakfast.
We ate odd things at times. Have you ever had a chocolate shake at 7:30 AM? Well, when you're hungry and dehydrated it tastes pretty damn good. A Pepsi in the early morning hours tastes great too when you haven't had any liquids for twenty-four hours.
We ate odd things at times. Have you ever had a chocolate shake at 7:30 AM? Well, when you're hungry and dehydrated it tastes pretty damn good. A Pepsi in the early morning hours tastes great too when you haven't had any liquids for twenty-four hours.
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Several years later I found myself on a psychiatric unit being treated for an eating disorder. My weight was lower than even during my high school wrestling days. My weight hadn't been that low since junior high.
Now, I was literally in danger of starving to death. But, I still didn't feel much like eating. It was difficult at first. I hadn't eaten "normally" for a long time.
A typical breakfast on the unit consisted of a protein like scrambled eggs or sausage, cereal, a starch like toast or a muffin, milk, and juice or fruit. I'm sure the eggs were powdered, liquid, or boil-in-bag. They weren't too bad. You can't expect too much when eggs are made on a mass scale. Sometimes we had precooked omelets that were all uniform in size and texture as though they had been stamped out by a machine in cookie-cutter fashion.
Sometimes my fellow eating disorder patients and I had to make our own breakfasts in the occupational therapy kitchen. We were each given a laminated card specifying how many meats, grains, fruits, milks, and fats we had to consume for breakfast. As I recall, one egg equals one meat (protein) serving as does two sausages or two strips of bacon. We had plenty of grains (carbohydrates) to choose from. Frozen waffles and pancakes, bread for toasting, bagels, muffins, and hot and cold cereal were in abundance.
I almost always made scrambled eggs. I usually had three eggs to fulfil my protein requirements. One day I couldn't have eggs. I don't remember if they had run out of eggs or told me I had to try something different. So, I had six sausage links. Don't think I can handle it? F*ck it. I'll show you.
I didn't care much for OT kitchen. Danielle liked it. She enjoyed being able to make her own French toast. I'd rather just eat whatever is on the tray in front of me.
By the way, the French do eat French toast. But, they call it pain perdu (lost bread). You can soak a piece of hard or stale bread in a mixture of milk and egg and fry it. What would have been "lost" bread now becomes a tasty meal.
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It's interesting that I ate big breakfasts during those wrestling years and during those times I was hospitalized because as a kid I didn't care for breakfast much at all. Consuming food in the early morning hours just never appealed to me. I had to be awake and active for a few hours before I had any appetite. I think my mother remembers me "gagging" on cereal as a youngster. It didn't matter how much sugar I poured on it. I still couldn't handle a bowl of cereal too well.
We lived in a trailer until I was 6 or 7 years old as I recall. We had an addition built onto the trailer that housed our living room and my parents' bedroom. One morning I told my mother I was going to finish my cereal in the living room. There was a door at the front of the living room that opened to the outdoors. So, I took my bowl of cereal to the living room and walked out the door with it. I threw what was left in my bowl onto the ground a little ways from the trailer. Then I came back inside, waited what I believed to be a reasonable amount of time, and took my empty bowl to my mother claiming I had finished my cereal. She bought it!
I, of course, have no witnesses to back up this story. Maybe it's just some legend I made up and repeated over the years because I found it humorous. It must have happened though because it seems unlikely I would have such a memory if it hadn't actually occurred. I even seem to recall the cereal being Rice Krispies. I hated breakfast.
There were, however, exceptions to this breakfast-hating inclination. I have always enjoyed pancakes. Pancakes were popular in our household. In fact, they became a Saturday morning tradition. Sometimes my mom would make French toast or a big batch of scrambled eggs. If we were really lucky she'd get out the waffle maker. We had waffles a lot less frequently than pancakes but that made getting to have waffles extra special.
Sometimes my mom would make me a "pancake man." I would lift that heavy bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's and pour syrup on him. I might spread a little butter on him as well and then begin to slowly devour him. Just to clarify, I was a little boy when she made me pancake men. She didn't make me them when I as a teenager. I swear.
I also enjoyed presweetened breakfast cereals. Cap'n Crunch, Honey-Comb, Froot Loops, and Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles were all favorites just to name a few.
The makers of these cereals didn't even hide the fact that they were sugar coated. They celebrated it! For example, Frosted Flakes were originally called Sugar Frosted Flakes. And, Corn Pops were originally called Sugar Pops.
All that sugar? It was a selling point: It added energy! Flavor! It was baked right in so you didn't have to sprinkle it on yourself!
But, then sugar garnered an unfavorable reputation and sugar became a dirty word. And, that was the end of that. Sure, they didn't stop making sugar coated cereal. They just didn't highlight the fact any longer. For instance, Super Sugar Crisp was renamed Super Golden Crisp and then simply Golden Crisp.
Another great thing about these cereals is they often had a prize in the box. I could never be patient and wait for the prize. If the prize was on the bottom of the box I would tilt the box and dig into the cereal to get at the prize.
Sugary cereals with a prize in the box. Marketing genius!
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Brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch eaten usually in the late morning to early afternoon. The word brunch is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch.
I've eaten brunch on a few occasions in my life.
Livingood's Supper Club was a restaurant located in the small town of Frankville. I grew up on a farm near Frankville so my family ate there from time to time. At some point Livingood's began serving brunch on Sunday. The church my family attended was just down the street from Livingood's so brunch there was an easy option.
As I recall the brunch buffet included scrambled eggs, sausages, sweet and sour pork, hash browns, vegetarian lasagna, waffles, cinnamon rolls, and juice.
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While in college I worked in the foodservice (i.e. the cafeteria). The cafeteria served hot cereal every day. Sometimes it was oatmeal. Or, it might be Malt-O-Meal or Cream of Wheat. Cold cereal was available any time of day as I recall.
I think some sort of eggs were served daily.
I'm not sure if I'd ever eaten a bagel before going to college. I think having a bagel with cream cheese was a new experience for me. My family wasn't a bagel eating family I guess.
Toward the end of my college tenure the cafeteria added an omelet bar. You could only pick three ingredients to add to your omelet. Some guys went back for seconds so I think the administration made a rule limiting diners to one omelet.
The cafeteria also introduced self-service Belgian waffle makers. Diners could ladle some batter into the maker, flip it, and wait for the timer to go off. These Belgian waffles were often available in the evening in case none of the dinner options appealed to you.
When I was a senior I took to eating a lot of Pop Tarts. The cafeteria had Pop Tarts available every morning and they became my principal breakfast food. However, the cafeteria served pancakes every Wednesday morning. So, on Wednesdays I had pancakes.
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Back in my wrestling days I became kind of fascinated by so-called blockbuster breakfasts. Some places served these "blockbuster breakfasts" with some variation of the following: two eggs any style, your choice of breakfast meat (bacon, sausage, or ham), hash browns, and your choice of toast or pancakes.
Like I'm going to choose toast over pancakes. As if!
On a television travel program I once saw the female host go to The Ritz London for breakfast. She ordered the full English breakfast (aka the full English or fry-up). The full English breakfast often consists of bacon, fried egg, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, grilled tomatoes, and accompanied with tea or coffee.
There's an interesting scene in Phantom Thread where the character Reynolds Woodcock makes an extensive breakfast order when he encounters a lovely waitress named Alma.
"A Welsh Rabbit with a poached egg on top - not too runny. Bacon. Scones. Butter. Cream. Jam - not strawberry. "
After a brief pause he also orders a pot of lapsang tea and some sausages.
I'm not sure why he gives such a ridiculously long order. Is he truly that hungry? Is he trying to impress the waitress with the quantity of food he can ingest? Does he simply desire to keep the waitress in his presence as long as he can by slowly giving his long order? Yes, his breakfast order appears to be pure flirtation.
By the way, a Welsh Rabbit is a dish made with a savory sauce of melted cheese and various other ingredients and served hot after being poured over slices of toasted bread.
There's also a funny scene in Five Easy Pieces where a character played by Jack Nicholson is in a restaurant requesting a plain omelet, coffee, and a side order of wheat toast. He's informed that they don't have side orders of toast but that he can have an English muffin or a coffee roll. But, he wants toast.
So, he ingeniously orders a plain omelet, coffee, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast. Just hold the butter, lettuce, and mayonnaise he says. And, if she holds the chicken as well he can have his wheat toast and she won't be breaking any rules. And, he almost gets away with it but the waitress gets a bit snippy with him and he retaliates by telling her that he wants her to hold the chicken between her knees. So, she kicks him and his three companions out of the restaurant.
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Pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast foods. My family had pancakes almost every Saturday while I was growing up. We would also go to a place called Walden Pond from time to time to have sourdough pancakes with real maple syrup.
If there were ever any leftover pancakes from breakfast I would eat them later in the day as a snack. I would top a cold pancake with butter and sugar.
I think I learned how to make pancakes while in elementary school. I think we got to make breakfast one morning. I was in charge of pancakes but didn't know when to turn them. My teacher told me to cook the first side until bubbles formed on top and then the cakes were ready to flip.
I ate a lot of pancakes during my wrestling career. I ate pancakes for my breakfast before a tournament. I sometimes ate pancakes in the late afternoon as a pre-competition meal before dual meets.
I even had buttermilk pancakes at Perkins before wrestling in the state tournament.
A year earlier I attended the state tournament as a spectator. I went with a couple of fellow wrestlers. One morning we went to a diner for breakfast and Chris ordered pigs in a blanket. But, when he got his order he proceeded to take his pigs (sausages) out of their blankets (pancakes) and eat them in normal fashion which I thought was kind of funny. Surely, he could simply have ordered pancakes and sausage, right?
I recall Brad, Darren, and I ending up at Sheila's house a couple of times after midnight and her making us breakfast. Yes, pancakes were on the menu. I recall her making buckwheat pancakes. I guess her family must have liked the taste. I don't recall the buckwheat pancakes looking or tasting too different from regular pancakes. We just found it humorous.
"Hey, we're eating buckwheat pancakes!"
Yes, I've had McDonald's Hotcakes and Sausage. Yes, I like them. Why are they called hotcakes? I think it's just a marketing thing. I've never had a McGriddle Sandwich, nor have I had a Croissan'wich from their competitor Burger King. Yes, I've had Hardee's biscuits. I don't recall ever being in a Dunkin' Donuts or a Denny's or even a Starbucks.
I had to live in a care facility for a while a few years ago. I got a pass one Saturday morning and two lovely ladies took me out for breakfast at a popular local diner. Yes, I ordered pancakes. However, on that day I was really more interested in the female sitting next to me in the booth than the pancakes.
You may think that a guy so enamored with pancakes would have surely been to the International House of Pancakes (IHOP). But, no. I don't recall an IHOP being nearby while growing up. But, now I have no excuse because there's an IHOP a few miles away from where I live.
IHOP serves French toast and omelets as well as pancakes. But, of course, I'll order pancakes. It's the International House of Pancakes for crying out loud.
What else could I possibly order?
Of course if the waitress is cute I may get carried away and inadvertently end up making a ridiculously long order like Reynolds Woodcock.
"I'll have buttermilk pancakes - short stack. And French toast - original. And crepes - sweet cream cheese. And a Belgian waffle. And a ham and cheese omelet. Hash browns. Pork sausage links. And hot chocolate."
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