50- Breakfast Success in the US
Lindsay: This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 50.
Gabby: 50!! ! Lindsay: Yeah! Meeting Monday, “Breakfast Success in the US.”
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Gabby: Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you'll finally get real, native English conversation. Now here are your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer' and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel,' coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Lindsay: In today's episode, you'll learn how to eat a smart breakfast and how to avoid gaining weight while you're living in the US.
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Lindsay: So hey Gabby. What's happening?
Gabby: Hey Lindsay. Not much. What's up with you?
Lindsay: Not too much. Today we're gonna (going to) talk about the most important meal of the day and that is…
Gabby: Breakfast.
Lindsay: Breakfast. So I like to eat breakfast. How ‘bout (about) you? Do you like to eat breakfast?
Gabby: I love to eat breakfast.
Lindsay: Absolutely.
Gabby: And so…
Lindsay: (Uh-huh).
Gabby: Yeah, no, (I mean), in the US, I think we have a really great breakfast culture. Breakfast may be my favorite meal of the day.
Lindsay: I think it's mine too, (you know).
Gabby: Nice.
Lindsay: I mean – breakfast is just good in general- as a general rule. What are some…?
Gabby: Comfort food.
Lindsay: Yeah. What are some typical breakfast – so if someone's living here in the US, what can they expect to see on a breakfast menu?
Gabby: Breakfast menu, I think, pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, sausage, maybe oatmeal…. ? Lindsay: Muffins, English muffins, which are different. Gabby: Bagels. Toast.
Definitely coffee and juice.
Lindsay: Omelets.
Gabby: Yeah. Oh, omelets. Yeah.
French Toast.
Lindsay: Oh yes French toast of course.
Gabby: Yes. Hash browns.
Lindsay: Absolutely.
But what's the problem with all – a lot of those foods?
Gabby: Yeah, a lot of these foods are really heavy.
Lindsay: Heavy and greasy.
Gabby: Yeah. And those are foods that typically you'd eat if you go out and you have time, (like) maybe on a Saturday or a Sunday, and (you know), you have time to really relax and eat, but the thing is during the week, like Monday through Friday, we tend to rush. Right. And we just need to get to work or get to school and we'll often have a really quick breakfast. Sometimes you're forced to eat out maybe at a fast food (um) place or a café. So we want to talk about some strategies for staying healthy and eating a good breakfast even when you're in a rush and you can't cook at home or you can't, (you know), go out for a leisurely breakfast.
Lindsay: Yeah. So one thing that we would say in terms of a strategy is just try to avoid the drive-thru at all costs.
Gabby: Mm. Yeah.
Lindsay: (Um) the drive-thru is where you take your car through, obviously, (you know), the window at McDonalds or Burger King.
Gabby: You don't have to get out of your car. You just order from your car and you get the food in your car and then you eat while you're driving.
Lindsay: It's actually kinda (kind of) disgusting.
Gabby: And dangerous.
Lindsay: Yeah, (uck).
Gabby: And you'll probably end up at work with coffee all over you. No good.
Lindsay: No good. So what could you do instead?
Gabby: (Um), well, (you know), get out of your car, go into a, a café, or (you
know), a fast food place. (I mean) they, they are fast or maybe a convenience store. And one of my favorite tips is about coffee. Everyone knows I love coffee, (um), (I) drink it every day, but I always drink it black, so no sugar, no cream, so that keeps it really healthy. (Um) without the added calories or, (you know), negative effects of those, (you know), the cream and sugar. So, I personally like black coffee. It's an acquired taste, but it's much healthier.
Lindsay: Yeah, that's a great idea. That makes a lot of sense. (Uh), so what else can people do?
Gabby: (Um), I, I advise, (you know), to, to really go protein heavy, (like) avoid too many carbs like a bagel or a scone or, (I mean), trust me, I love that stuff.
Lindsay: Sure. It tastes good.
Gabby: It tastes so good, right. And, and just, (you know), just disclaimer, I'm not like a, a health (uh) expert or anything, but, (you know), I do like to read about nutrition, (um), but, (you know), please take my advice with a grain of salt, (you know), (um), but I always personally like to eat protein, like if I can have egg or (um) sausage or even yogurt, (um), I think that gives me some strength to keep going through the morning until lunch.
Lindsay: (Mm-hm). Yeah and for me, I like some kind of cereal, but I stay away from the flaky sort of breakfast because it's all carbs and you're hungry by 10 a.m. and it doesn't help you, so I like to go for oatmeal in the morning. (Um) that's a major staple, I think, in the diet here. A lot of people like to eat oatmeal and I like to put it with milk and it keeps me full all day. The fiber in oatmeal is incredible.
Gabby: Yeah, yeah. It's very filling. (Um), one other thing, (you know), if you don't like any of the offerings that we typically eat in the US, try to see if you can order a lunch item for breakfast. (Like) you could probably get a salad or a sandwich and (um) that is perfectly fine to have for breakfast. (I mean) why not? Why can't you eat a salad for breakfast?
Lindsay: Why not?
Gabby: It's a good strategy.
Lindsay: So let's say you've got your breakfast and now you're rolling into work.
Gabby: Ah yes.
Lindsay: As we know…
Gabby: Or school.
Lindsay: Yeah. And of course it's typical, a lot of students that I talk to, they're surprised when they see people in the US running around with coffee in their hands.
Gabby: Oh yeah.
Lindsay: It's not less common, but we do it.
Gabby: Walk and eat. Walk and drink, yeah. And then once you get to school, say you're, you're going to class, (um), you have to ask your professor if he or she is okay with you eating in the class. Typically, they'll say something about that, but if they don't you wanna (want to) ask because sometimes it's okay to eat in class, but sometimes it's not. It's considered rude. But typically, yes, you can drink coffee, juice, water definitely during class.
Lindsay: Yeah and most of the time in a typical business meeting, you can also do that.
Gabby: Yeah, so if you're at work late (um), if you're just at your desk alone, you could certainly eat and drink, (um), coffee. Not drink alcohol, but, (um), yeah, if you're in a meeting, it's totally acceptable to drink coffee or have some beverage like juice or water. (Um) and they may even give you something depending on where you work. They may have some, some doughnuts or some coffee for you.
Lindsay: It's typical for those big corporations to have, (you know), meetings catered sometimes where they…. someone comes in with a tray of doughnuts and muffins and unfortunately, you're gonna (going to) get a lot of (sort of) not so nice food there, the carbs. Yeah.
Gabby: And this reminds me. I even had an interview where I was being
interviewed and the woman – she loved coffee so much that she was actually drinking coffee throughout our interview, so it's so common to have coffee every, everywhere and at any time in, in business (uh) in the US.
Lindsay: Wow. Yeah.
Okay. Those are some great tips.
Gabby: Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, you all, for listening and I hope that these tips were helpful to know what to expect (um) for breakfast in the US.
Lindsay: Yeah. Absolutely.
And if you wanna (want to) go deeper into this topic, I have a program that I'm working on to help you practice speaking English with native speakers (um) around a specific topic like staying healthy in the US. So if you want to try that and practice your conversation, you can go to www.speakative.com. That's s-p-e-a-k-a-t-i-v-e.com and I'll see you there.
Gabby: Yeah. I know that's awesome. I've seen the materials and they're really in depth.
Lindsay: Thank you.
Gabby: They look great. So (um), I definitely recommend that too.
Lindsay: Great. Thanks Gabby.
Gabby: Yeah. Thank you.
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Lindsay: Gabby what was that sound on your computer?
Gabby: [Gasps] I just got an email from All Ears English!
Lindsay: Really. Oh, that sounds awesome.
Gabby: Oh it's so awesome. I can't believe they wrote to me.
Lindsay: Oh my god and so what did they say?
Gabby: (Um) they said (like) they have (like) tips and they have a free e-book for
me…
Lindsay: Oh, that sounds so cool.
Gabby: …and they have a question for me too. They wanna (want to) know what I think.
Lindsay: Oh my god. That sounds awesome. How can I get that?
Gabby: You can get on the All Ears English email list at allearsenglish.com.
Lindsay: Yeah. So guys we're joking around here, but (uh) we just wanna (want to) let you know…Gabby: I wasn't joking.
Lindsay: Oh, you weren't joking. I was joking. So we just want to let you know that you should go ahead and get on our email list because we're gonna (going to) be having some great conversations with (um) people on the list over the next few weeks. We've got something exciting coming out.
Gabby: Yeah and we've already been having great conversations. I wanna thank you guys if you already are on the email list and thank you especially if you've been responding to our questions ‘cause (because) we love having that conversation with you. So if you're not in the conversation, you can still join it. Come over to allearsenglish.com and join our email list.
Lindsay: See ya' (you) there.
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Lindsay: Thanks for listening to the All Ears English Podcast. We're here to help you learn English and you can help us by leaving a five star review on iTunes. See you next time.
