Breakfast of Champions
January 10th, 2009
It’s 7:00 am in the morning and the alarm clock just blared you out of bed. You drag yourself into the shower and 15 minutes later you are looking in the mirror and thinking ‘I need to shed some pounds’. The easiest thing to do at this point is to skip breakfast and the majority of people who struggle with weight do just that. Less food and less calories so that must mean I’ll lose some weight. Guess again.
The funny thing about the human body is that when it is starved for food it will take whatever you eat and immediately store it as fat. Skipping breakfast probably doesn’t sound like a good solution now does it?
The key to a healthy diet is having a nice breakfast to kickstart your day. Myself, I try to have a bigger breakfast so I can spend most of the day burning it off. This allows me to have a medium sized lunch and supper. I also like to have carbs for breakfast because it boosts my metabolism into higher gear. Now if you head out to an IHOP and load up on pancakes, waffles, sausages, bacon and hashbrowns then that’s a different story. Have just enough to get you half way through your morning (until mid morning snack time) or all the way through your morning (until lunch time).
Another key for me is that I like to eat within 20 minutes of waking up mainly because at that point it has been 8 – 10 hours since I’ve last eaten. I get the energy I need right away rather than dragging my feet around for an hour or two before I eat. It also gets me in ‘task’ mode which means I’m ready to start getting things done that day because I have already completed one task in having a healthy breakfast. If I don’t have breakfast, then I find I sit around longer doing nothing.
All in all, I can’t see any reasoning that suggests having breakfast first thing in the morning is a bad thing. Try to make a point of eating right away when you wake up and after a few weeks it just becomes a habit. Make sure you also have the appropriate foods in your refrigerator or pantry to sustain having a healthy breakfast long term. Without that, you will eventually fall out of the routine and continue to struggle with weight issues.
Categories: Health and Diet
