“Calories over everything else” used to be my poorly-carved out motto. If diet soda had 0 calories; I would choose that over a banana, over an avocado on toast or over a bowl of oats with organic nut butter. I would buy an array of low-fat snacks that were advertised as 100 calories or less and made with heavily processed food products. I would drink “skinny”, non-fat lattes- unbeknownst to me that skim milk is even more processed than regular, full-fat/whole dairy. Side note: my breakouts were out of control. I was stressed and tired of calorie-counting.

Just 3 years ago, I would’ve never thought about using sweet potato slices as toast, adding fresh almond butter, topping it with raspberries, cacao nibs, coconut chips and calling it breakfast. The mere thought would’ve been laughable. Because the way my brain was programmed to think back then went somewhat like this: potatoes = carbs | almond butter = fats . No way.

And there I would go… to make myself a sad English muffin, with egg whites and fake, skim cheese. I was eating regular, enriched flour bread. I was eating processed skim cheese, thinking it was somehow better for me. I was eating egg whites because I thought that yolks were the enemy. Even worst, I was downing it with a glass of non-organic skim milk on the side. Did you know that whole fat milk contains fewer carbs than skim-milk? This is because more of it’s volume is made up of fat. And yet, I couldn’t fathom why I wasn’t losing any weight. The answer is simple: my food was full of growth hormones, dairy and hidden sugars. I was parked. I wasn’t going anywhere.

I write this in hopes that anyone, any (one) person who is going through a similar uphill battle will read this and have that eureka moment, that little eye-opening epiphany. That “AHA” moment. I quit dairy, white sugar and gluten to help myself battle autoimmune disease- not to lose weight. In the process, and as a by-product of eliminating these from my diet: I lost a whole lot of weight.

Am always coming up with little recipes that are easy and free-from the latter. You guys have been asking for more sweet potato toast recipes, for more topping ideas, etc.  The blogging blog has a super popular Sweet Potato with Guac and Egg recipe- while this is a perfect sweet-tooth counterpart with almond butter and fresh raspberries. Hey, you can pick ANY berries you like… I am just hooked on the raspberry and almond butter train. I ride it often with quinoa toast as my base. TOO good!

I hope you give these delicious toasties a try. They’ll change your breakfast game forever. And rather than obsess with calorie-counting,  I now focus on where my calories come from. And if they come from real food, I know am nourishing my body.