lets get things started with breakfast.

   I get a lot of questions about nutrition, especially this time of year!  Eating right is a major component of losing weight and living a healthy life.  The main question I get is "where do I start?"  A good friend asked me about breakfast today.  "Josh, what do I do?  What do you do?  Help me out!"  His questions are valid and very interesting.  Since a lot of people are in the same boat as him I thought it would be beneficial to post for everyone to see.

     Breakfast is by far the most powerful meal of the day.  Just like when we were kids and mom told us breakfast is the most important meal of the day, mom was right (no surprise but it’s good to give credit where its do).  Breakfast does what the name implies you break the fast from sleeping 8 hours with no food intake.  When you sleep your body functions all slow down, heart rate, breath rate and ultimately your metabolism too.  That’s why it’s crucial to eat something within an hour of waking up so your body can turn everything back on and get going for the day.

    Now that we have established that eating breakfast is the right thing to do the question moves to WHAT do I eat to start my metabolism.  That is a very loaded question because a lot of factors go into answering that.  What do you like?  Do you have allergies?  How much time do you have in the morning to cook?  All these factors play a part in your decisions each morning.  Just like with every meal we want to avoid high sugar, high fat and high carbohydrates.  These never help with any fitness or weight lose plan ever, so avoid them.  Yeah I know that’s a no brainer Josh!  But a lot of breakfast meals are loaded with all that stuff, even stuff with HEALTHY on the front of the box.  I go for high protein, high fiber meals.  Protein is always good (especially on workout days, your muscles need it to rebuild after you tear them down) its real substance, like your actually eating something not just air.  The fiber gives you a sense of being full for longer.  It takes the body longer to digest so you feel fuller for longer.  This way you don’t get a huge hunger pain an hour after eating breakfast.

    Ok Josh, so protein and fiber.  Got it!  But now the question is what has protein and fiber in it, WHAT do I eat to get those things?  There are a few things that I love for myself, but everyone’s tastes are different.  Experiment; there are a lot of healthy recipe sites.  Check some out and try stuff that looks good.  But my favs are: 

-The complex breakfast.  When I have lots of time and I can take my time with breakfast I love to make homemade breakfast burritos.  They taste just as good as Mickey D's or any other fast food breakfast burrito (if not better) but they are loaded with stuff that helps my body rather than gum it up.  To start I use a whole grain flat bread (Fiber!), they have whole wheat tortillas but those are usually kind of brittle and sometime tuff to fold.  Plus the flat bread is smaller than the tortilla so you get less breading, thus less calories.  Then, the incredible-edible-egg!  This one you'll have to play with depending on your size and fitness goals.  I’m a pretty big guy and I lift weights a lot so I load up on the eggs (protein!)  I do 3 egg whites and one whole egg. (Side note, the yolk of the egg has most of the cholesterol and the white has most of the protein.  In the liquid form the yolk has HDL cholesterol (the good kind) when it hardens it shifts to LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) the heat changes the chemical bonds thus a morph from good to bad.  If you’re worried about cholesterol, which most people are either take out the yolk and have just whites or cook it so the yolk stays runny (Sunnyside up, over easy, etc.) and you'll reduce risk of cholesterol, also having just whites takes away a lot of the calories in the egg).  Then I take a lean meat-thinly sliced turkey meat, Canadian bacon, chicken chunks and cook with lite seasoning-whatever you like, just don’t go overboard a little pinch goes a long way.  I usually use about 4 of the thinly sliced meats and chop it up or about 3-4 ounces of chicken or turkey.  Then I take 2 tablespoons of salsa, 1 tablespoon of green sauce (I like it spicy!) And if you wanna splurge 1 tablespoon of low fat sour cream (a few extra calories but not terrible, just keep it to no more than a tablespoon, you can do less if you’re worried about the extra calories)  Put it all together and fold it up and enjoy!  Pair with some low fat milk or hot tea (me).  I don't do most juices, cuz most of them out there are just as bad as pop. If you love it check the labels and watch the calories, sugar and sodium.  Most will be very high but get the lowest in all those categories if you need the juice.

Simple breakfast- when I'm pressed for time and gotta get it to go I reach for one of two things.  Oatmeal is great this time of year, its hot so it heats you up when it’s cold outside and it has a lot of fiber to keep you feeling full til your next small meal.  I get the tube of raw oats and add my own seasonings.  Instant is fast but look at the labels most are high in sugar and sodium and some have a lot of calories.  I cook the oats the night before and then nuke them the in the morning so they are just as fast as instant with a lot less to worry about (play with it first, it took me a while to get the consistency right). Or I smear some peanut butter (yum) on some whole wheat toast.  Not all peanut butter (yum) is created equal.  You want to avoid peanut butter (yum) hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup (yuck).  Also watch your portions a little goes a long way, don't load the bread up with peanut butter(yum) a serving is usually 2 tablespoons and that has about 200 calories so be careful.  Pair with a banana and head out the door, good to go.

   Well I hope that helps with the dilemma of what's for breakfast?  Let me know what you had for breakfast in a comment, happy eating everyone.

*If you need help with creating an eating plan that works for you and your goals contact me to set up a diet appraisal or join a full weight lose program today.