Wholistic Jen

What Breakfast at a Silent Retreat Reminded Me About Healthy Eating

By Jennifer Whitmire, MS, MEd, MH, CHES, NEP

If you read Wednesday’s blog, you know I just returned from a 12-day silent meditation retreat. I learned so much during those 12 days, and apparently some of those lessons happened at the breakfast table.

One of the things I wondered about before I left was what I was going to eat.

I knew they would accommodate gluten-free and plant-based diets (They served ayurvedic meals which are vegetarian and told me beforehand that all food would be marked if it had gluten or was glutenfree), but I also knew I wouldn’t have control over the menu. I wasn’t taking food with me, I couldn’t run to the grocery store, and once the retreat started, I wasn’t exactly going to be asking the kitchen staff a lot of questions.

Remember, we weren’t talking!

The first morning, breakfast was oatmeal, stewed plums, cold cereals, yogurt, and fruit. The oatmeal contained gluten, as did two of the cereals, and the yogurt was dairy, so I started looking around to see what I could put together.

I added some of the stewed plums to my bowl and then noticed there were spices and toppings tucked over in the corner.

Voilà!

I found ground flax, ground chia, cinnamon, and sunflower seeds. There were also several different milks for the cereal. My first choice would normally have been the almond milk, but when I checked the boxes, I discovered the soy milk was actually the same brand I use at home, made with organic soybeans and water.

Suddenly I had an apple, stewed plums, soy milk, sunflower seeds, flax, chia, and cinnamon.

It was just like breakfast at home.

Well, almost.

I Didn’t Need My Kitchen. I Needed to Know How to Create a Meal.

I’ve been thinking about that since I came home.

I think sometimes we make healthy eating much more difficult than it needs to be, because we think we need our exact foods, our exact recipes, or our normal routine to eat well.

I didn’t have any of those things.

I couldn’t make my homemade nut-and-seed yogurt. I didn’t have the beans I normally add to breakfast. I didn’t have my usual berries, hemp hearts, or everything else I keep stocked in my own kitchen.

I simply looked at what was available and asked myself what I could do with it.

There was fruit. Great.

What could I add for protein and healthy fat?

Soy milk and sunflower seeds.

Where could I get more fiber, more protein, and omega-3s?

Chia and flax.

What could add flavor without needing sugar?

Cinnamon and ginger.

It wasn’t the breakfast I would have made at home, but it worked.

Actually, for the first several days, it worked really well.

Then I got tired of it.

By Day Six, I Needed Something Different

I love variety, and apparently 12 days of silence did not change that!

By Day 6, I couldn’t eat the same breakfast one more time. For one, I don’t really like sweet, and even though fruit is a whole food, it gets too sweet for me after a while.

There were rice cakes available, so I crumbled one into soy milk and added chia seeds and tahini. It gave me a completely different texture and flavor, and I was thrilled to eat something that felt different.

Was it the breakfast I would normally recommend?

No.

Rice cakes are higher glycemic than the intact grains and other whole foods I usually choose, and I was very aware of that. I also thought I might be starting to react to something I was eating, so I backed away from everything I was eating for a few days.

The next time I tried the rice cake, I got a little more creative. I used some of the hot water provided for tea to soften the rice cake and then added the seeds and other foods I had available.

Again, I was making do with what I had.

I think that’s an important part of healthy eating that we don’t talk about enough.

Every Meal Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect

When we’re at home, we can get very particular about food.

I know I can.

I want my colorful plants, protein, healthy fats, fiber, herbs and spices. I want foods that support healthy blood sugar and feed my gut microbiota. I want as much variety as I can get.

Those things matter to me, and they didn’t suddenly stop mattering, because I was on retreat.

What changed was how I approached them.

Instead of thinking, I can’t eat the breakfast they’re serving, I started looking for the pieces I could use.

There are going to be times when we’re traveling, eating at someone else’s house, staying at a hotel, attending a conference, or getting to the end of the week when the refrigerator is almost empty.

We can focus on everything that isn’t available, or we can look around and ask, What can I make with what I have?

I think the more we understand the basic building blocks of a healthy meal, the easier that becomes.

My Make-Do Breakfast Bowl

This isn’t really a recipe, because that’s the whole point!

It’s a framework based on the breakfast I created at the retreat. Use what you have and change it as needed.

For one bowl:

• 1–1½ cups fresh fruit
• ½ cup stewed or cooked fruit, if available
• ¾–1 cup unsweetened soy milk 
• 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 1–2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• Plenty of cinnamon

Put everything together in a bowl and eat!

If I were making this at home, I’d probably add some of my homemade nut-and-seed yogurt, hemp hearts, berries, or even some white beans for additional protein and fiber. Then, I would put it in the fridge overnight to thicken.

If I were standing in a dining room with limited choices again?

I’d happily eat the retreat version.

Make It With What YOU Have

This is where I want you to make the recipe your own.

No sunflower seeds? Use pumpkin seeds or walnuts.

No soy milk? Use another unsweetened plant milk.

No stewed plums? Use berries, chopped apple, pear, peaches, or whatever fruit is in season.

Have some homemade yogurt? Add it.

Have hemp hearts? Toss them in.

Have leftover cannellini beans? You already know I’m going to tell you they can go into breakfast!

The goal isn’t to recreate exactly what I ate at the retreat but to look at what you already have and figure out how to build something nourishing from it.

The Bigger Lesson

I went to this retreat expecting to learn about meditation.

I did not expect breakfast to teach me anything, yet here I am.

For 12 days, I couldn’t run to the store, because I didn’t like what was being served. I couldn’t order something different. I didn’t have a pantry full of my normal foods waiting for me.

I had to work with what was there, and I was fine.

Actually, it reminded me that knowing how to put food together is much more useful than memorizing a hundred recipes.

We don’t need the perfect ingredient.

We don’t need the perfect meal.

Sometimes we just need to look at what’s in front of us, use what we know, and make the best choice we can with what we have.

Apparently, that’s another lesson I brought home from 12 days of silence.