Ah, cereal. Memories of childhood breakfasts abound. When I was a kid, I was hardcore addicted to Rice Krispies. Like, I couldn’t make it through life unless I had a nice big bowl every morning. I ate them so much, I eventually got sick of them, and now I honestly cannot remember the last time that I ate Rice Krispies at all (with the exception of a Rice Krispie square now and then!).

At some point, I switched to eating exclusively Special K. Fun fact: There used to be a completely different recipe of Special K for the Canadian market, and it has since disappeared from the shelves years ago when the Canadian factory closed down. I loved that version and I miss it a lot.

Anywho…I ate bowls and bowls of Special K for many years through my teens and into my early 20’s. Cereal used to be my main snack in the evenings as well as my breakfasts. I used to think that I was eating something healthy. After all, isn’t Special K advertised as being one of the best foods out there for weight loss? With their “Special K Challenge” being one of the main food advertisements that I heard about, I thought I was doing great things for myself!

When I first started counting calories, I almost didn’t think I needed to count my Special K, because it was such a healthy thing for me to be eating. It didn’t take long for me to investigate though, and I realized that I was consuming way too much cereal. A normal bowl of Special K for me was coming in at around 400+ calories. In general, not too horrible if it were on it’s own, but it wasn’t. I was eating other snacks too, and sometimes I would have more than one bowl.

Over time, I realized that cereal wasn’t exactly the best thing for me to be eating. There are so many options out there that are better and more filling for less or similar calories. It took a couple years for me to slowly lower my intake of cereal, because I loved it so much. I didn’t want to give up something that I loved so easily. I slowly tried to transition my cereal into a meal on it’s own, or maybe a dessert if I really wanted that late night snack.

I knew that my portion sizes were way too big, so I tried downsizing. But if I ate the suggested serving size, it definitely was not enough to make a difference for my hunger. It was much too small, and not worthwhile. Since I loved it so much, I also wanted to eat it extremely fast and let me tell you…1/2 cup of cereal doesn’t last long.

Eventually I decided it’s just not worth it at all. Cereal is not worth trying to fit into my life when it isn’t filling. I figured why bother eating something that takes so many calories away and still leaves me hungry? I’d much rather eat a large bowl of fresh fruit, or some healthy proteins over a bowl of processed sugars and carbs any day.

Cereal totally has it’s place in the world, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with eating it. For me, it just didn’t fit into my life anymore, and cutting it out of my life was a good thing. I guarantee this is one of the changes that really helped me to change my life and lose weight.