eat one's Wheaties

present singular third person eats one's Wheaties · participle present eating one's Wheaties · past ate one's Wheaties · participle past eaten one's Wheaties

1. CanadaUSidiomaticTo prepare or fortify oneself for an activity requiring exertion.

   But he just couldn't get the ball through the goal posts (poor Harry . . . he didn't eat his Wheaties, or else his shoe was on backwards).

   1971 October 19, Haney Reilly, “Another game, another loss but Hawkeyes looked better”, in Telegraph-Herald, Iowa, USA, retrieved 01 Jul 2011, page 17

   2 more examples

   Jo-Ann Wonsik answered a Herald want ad for a career requiring day after day of heavy lifting. . . . "And you've got to eat your Wheaties on this job," she said.

   1994 September 11, “Garbage Collector Lifts Away Worries”, in Miami Herald, page 1B

   Of all the movie promotions in all the towns in all the world, Keanu Reeves had to walk into this one: a California Institute of Technology forum at which he was asked, “How could an alien being grow so fast without violating standard mass- and energy-conservation laws?” . . . He paused. “I ate my Wheaties.”

   2008 December 10, Felicity Barringer, “Science Students Get a Real-Life Lesson, in Science Fiction”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Jul 2011