EAT BREAKFAST
If you want to lose weight and be sweet to the body that you’ve got, you have to eat breakfast. I speak from personal experience. For many years I thought I would get a jump on my weight loss efforts by skipping breakfast. I was so smart, and I was proud as I walked out the door on my way to work. Look at me and all those calories I saved by not eating breakfast.
Wow, was I a dope? Chances are, if you’re skipping breakfast, you’re overweight too. We as fat people think that if we starve our bodies the weight will just pour off. So, where has that got us?
I’m sure you’ve read studies that tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But I imagine that your schedule is just as hectic as mine. I’ve got two jobs, my own business, a wife, a daughter, two foster kids, two cats (one of which is obese and aptly named Fat Louie), a dog, and a turtle. Yeah, I’m busy.
So you and I get committed to start eating a healthy breakfast. We have good intentions, but “things” just happen. We’re out of this, we can’t decide what we’re going to fix, the kids are screaming — and soon we skip breakfast. Hey, that felt OK, and then we do it again tomorrow.
Stop it! Here are a few tips to make sure you are eating a good breakfast every morning.
- Be prepared! Hey, it’s the motto of the Boy Scouts. (I made it all the way to tenderfoot.) If you are not in control of your breakfast, then your breakfast is in control of you. You should know today what you’re going to eat for breakfast tomorrow morning. Mornings are no time for decisions. If you’re like me, you’re just not thinking right first thing in the morning. Get ready and be prepared at least the night before. Know what you’re going to have and have all of your supplies and ingredients laid out the night before.
- Keep it simple! A sophisticated breakfast of filled with all sorts of homemade biscuits, gravy, and pancakes can be a nice treat on a weekend, but let’s get real. We don’t have time for this in the morning. I don’t mean for you to just grab an apple as you’re going out the door. The carbs in the apple are going to burn really fast and leave you feeling droopy in no time at all. Think of your meals as ingredients made up from various food groups. On my Fed Up for Life Plan, I categorize my foods into 6 different groups: whole grains, dairy, protein, fruits, vegetables, and healthy oils. Now choose a breakfast made up of at least three of these food groups. For example, you could have whole grain cereal with skim milk and a banana. There’s your three food groups. And it’s a much better choice than the banana alone.
- Limit your breakfast choices! We live in a world of unlimited choices and we like it that way. But if you wake up each morning thinking that you have limitless choices for breakfast, you are setting yourself up for failure. I highly recommend eating the same thing for breakfast on most days. Ninety-nine percent of the time I eat the same thing every morning. I live for my chocolate peanut butter banana milkshake. Milk gives me a dairy serving filled with calcium and vitamins A and D. The natural peanut butter is a wonderful source of protein. And my frozen banana gives me a good serving of fruit. If you would like the complete recipe, just click here. Maybe you need two or three choices to rotate during the week for breakfast. Knock yourself add. Give yourself as much variety as you need without killing your plan with the paralysis of analysis.
So, commit to starting your day with a healthy breakfast. Be prepared and know what tomorrow’s menu has in store for you and make sure the fridge and pantry are stocked for the week. Keep it simple. It will give you more time in the mornings if you don’t try to be Wolfgang Puck in the morning. And finally, choose only two or three breakfast combinations to get you through most days.
And, if you keep on focusing on you and your health, the weight loss will come. As of today’s writing I am down 68.2 pounds. What are your tips for a good healthy breakfast? Are there any particular things that help you begin your day? I would love to hear from you. Just comment below. You and I . . . we got this!