I have to say when I read the title of this article I could relate! I have eaten oatmeal every single day for breakfast forever it seems like! I have been changing it up lately but this helps with finding fiber in other foods! Enjoy the article!

ONE SMALL CHANGE

Tired of Oatmeal?

Joe Kita February 19, 2010

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I’m fed up with oatmeal—literally. I’ve been eating a heaping bowl every morning for the past 3 weeks in an attempt to get a jump on the additional 14 grams of daily fiber that research says is needed to lose weight. Oatmeal, especially the organic steel-cut kind, is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet, but no matter how hard I’ve tried to dress it up (almonds, raisins, blueberries, bananas, apples, a snazzy bowtie…) it remains oatmeal. While it’s satisfying for the body, it just doesn’t do much for my palate.

One of the tenets of weight loss is to never embark on a diet that you can’t sustain for the rest of your life. And for me, oatmeal every morning falls into this category. I mean, why do you think God created huevos rancheros?

So I’ve decided to shift gears in my month-long experiment and take the advice of Athletes’ Performance nutritionists who recommend working at least 3 additional grams of fiber into every meal. If I do this for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks, I’ll be getting 15 additional grams of fiber per day, which is right on target. While it’s more work than just eating oatmeal, such a strategy allows the body to process the fiber more easily, keeps you feeling full throughout the day, and provides a steady stream of quality energy, according toDanielle LaFata, an Athletes’ Performance nutritionist.

So with this in mind I put together the following shopping list of 21 whole foods that contain approximately 3 grams of fiber. All I have to do to stick to my diet is add one of these to each meal and snack:

• 1 banana
• 1 kiwi
• 1 slice of whole wheat bread
• 1 ounce of almonds or pistachios
• 1/3 of an avocado (guacamole!)
• ½ cup of raspberries
• ½ cup of spinach (add the frozen kind to soups and sauces)
• 1/3 cup green peas (also handy frozen)
• 1 medium baked potato with the skin
• 1½ large raw carrots
• 1 orange
• 13 Kashi Island Vanilla Whole Wheat Biscuits (great to snack on right out of box or with milk)
• 1 Apple Pie Larabar ¼ cup black, pinto, kidney or even baked beans
• 1 apple
• 2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ
• 1 pear
• 3 cups of Romaine lettuce
• 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• 2 shots of espresso
• 1 ounce of dark chocolate (more than 70% cocoa)
• 1 serving chocolate-covered espresso beans

So as you can see, there’s a lot more than oatmeal available for the fiber fanatic. By making sure you have plenty of these foods on hand, you’ll be able to quickly add a little extra roughage to each meal and never get bored. Rather than providing additional calories, I’ve found they help me feel fuller so I actually eat less overall. For further proof that fiber is indeed edible, pick up a copy of the Fiber Up Slim Down Cookbook. It has lots of great tasting, easy-to-make recipes, including Chicken Apricot Kebabs, Home-Style Turkey Pot Pie, Spicy Beef Baked Penne, Hearty Minestrone, and Berry Peach Sundaes. Who needs oatmeal?