Food, an immediate joy and satisfaction for my taste buds, belly and mind. I love food, I always have. I remember one of my first loves, the Cadbury Crème Egg. Every Easter our family went down to Valhalla Park where they had the egg hunt for the kids. Back then they had hard boiled eggs colored with each color corresponding to a coin so the kids could trade in a red one for a quarter for example. Mixed in with the hard boiled eggs, was Cadbury Crème Eggs, mmmmmm. I would typically run straight to the far end of the field first and work my way back to front so I didn’t have to compete with all the other kids for the eggs. I cleaned house and then made myself sick each Easter trying to eat as many of the eggs as I could before we got back home during the five minute drive from the park.

I still have an affinity for Cadbury Crème Eggs and Peanut Butter Crunch, which I ate a whole box and a half in one sitting at Granny’s house. Then there was Grandma’s spiral macaroni and cheese that she put the cheese dog slices in for me and my sister. My fondness of food hasn’t stopped there. I feel like I always find something new that I fall in love with and eat for months straight. I mean after all, I am the country’s foremost egg salad sandwich connoisseur.

At the current moment and for the first time in my life it’s not a particular food that I’ve fallen in love with, it’s a category of food, breakfast. Oh my gosh let me tell you what, breakfast is the best, plain and simple. I’ve recently rediscovered my love for breakfast starting in my fabulous trip to Puerto Rico, fresh coffee like I’ve never tasted before, fresh coconuts, fresh fruit you name it. Everything was amazing. Then I get back to Seattle, the land of rain and clouds, no more coconuts, what the heck am I going to do? Am I going to starve without my coffee and coconut every morning? Will I go into lack of sunshine and coconut depression? The answer is no because I discovered the most wonderful thing of all at the Building 16 Café at work, Special No. 2.

Special No. 2 is my special (or at least I like to think so). It is amazing, each week a new featured special and the food is beyond good. The chefs here at work truly bake with love, tasty love in the form of eggs, bacon, potatoes all with a twist. Let me explain, three weeks ago was the Chorizo Burrito that has this perfectly blended combination of spice with egg, cheese, rice and meat. The next week was the bacon stuffed avocado, which sounds weird, but it was AMAZING! It was an avocado half stuffed with egg, tomato, topped with bacon and a side of hash browns, so good. Then as if it couldn’t get better, the bacon wrapped asparagus was last week’s special. Stalks of perfectly crisped asparagus wrapped in bacon with an egg and hash brown side. This week, a small, perfectly filleted steak with a fried egg and these cubed potatoes with peppers, onions, yum. It’s a taste bud sensation!

I’ve known that breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but I don’t think I’ve really experienced a balanced breakfast before post swim with proteins, veggies or fruits, carbs all together. I have a BIG breakfast, don’t skimp on anything, and I feel like I have more energy, my muscles are recovering quicker, and I’m more awake than I’ve ever been because of this amazing Café 16 breakfast. They make something special that is more than food. They cook joy, they cook the start to my day, they cook with smiles, they cook the scrumptious nutrients my body needs to recover.

Because this meal has become so important to me recently, I want to make sure everyone knows what a difference a good breakfast can really make in training and in your life. It has made worlds of difference for me, it gives me something to look forward to each morning and makes me work harder knowing I’m going to have such a great reward. Now time to go and see what is on my plate this morning, literally.   :o)