Relay for Life Pancake Breakfast

This Saturday, March 28, will be a day of reckoning. The Center is hosting two events...the NCWRC District Shooting Tournament and the Relay for Life Pancake Breakfast. It will be a busy day, and I expect to be overly sluggish...especially after the Pancake Breakfast.

Tickets for the Pancake Breakfast are available at the door for $6...that gets you all the pancakes you can cram into your gullet...syrup, butter, and all. I, along with other staff members will be volunteering as our "Camp Relay" team attempts to be the overall leader in funds raised for "Relay for Life Tyrrell County. We will also be pedaling our wares at the shooting tournament - we expect to raise loads of money that will go towards cancer research.

I will also be hosting my "own" syrup breakfast that morning...there is no additional ticket to participate - but my breakfast will include me and anyone else who likes a plate of syrup with a drizzle of pancake on top. I will be at the table with other people who enjoy raising money and eating syrup...if you are trying to locate me - look for a syrup-soaked beard...

Nevertheless, we expect around 250 folks to enjoy our fine dining foray. Breakfast is always one of the most overlooked, if not skipped meals. It is the most important meal of the day. You have to grab enough GOOD calories that will sustain you for the first part of the day as well as enough to get you going. When I eat breakfast, I seek out meals that give me lots of fiber (to keep me full), lots of protein (to give me clean energy), and few sugars (so that I don't spike blood sugar levels - this will make you crave more sweets). I will make an exception in the name of cancer research this Saturday. As you probably know, overweight and obesity rates are on the climb...partly due to skipping breakfast. Here's why:

(1)When you skip breakfast, you are usually really hungry at lunch. And, as many of us reach for our local lunch counters, we double our portions of greasy-fried food and sweetened tea.

(2)Cavemen didn't have coolers...they had to hunt their food. This burned additional calories, but when they acquired their food it was either high in fiber (plants), or high in protein (woolly mammoths are rich in protein). I, too, like to hunt for my breakfast. I hide my cereal somewhere in the kitchen every night, and then look for it in the morning. I usually capture my quarry and then devour it like a true wildman.

(3) Eating actually requires the body to use energy (calories) when digesting. If you spread out small meals, you burn calories all day, while never getting to full from eating a gargantuan lunch.

Enough about diets - we could all probably find some other way to improve our lifestyle. Exerise is always great...it burns calories and helps you sleep at night. Virtually everything at camp helps you get exercise and use calories...examples:

(1) Simply existing burns about a calorie per minute.
(2) Swimming uses 15 calories per minute.
(3) Playing a field game burns about 10 calories per minute.
(4) Rock Climbing burns about 20 calories per minute.

See you at the Pancake Breakfast...and lend a hand if I am covered in syrup!