Wake up and Eat.

My son Kyle and his girlfriend, Nicole, bought me  desktop calendar filled with wonderful sayings from Moms.  This morning it says, ” MOM IS ALWAYS RIGHT.  “Eat breakfast before you leave the house!”  I love this one, as people often neglect the importance of a good breakfast.  Just as we wouldn’t leave the house on an empty tank of gas (and expect the car to run), we should not expect our bodies to run on empty.  Breakfast is the perfect time to take in many of the important nutrients we need on a daily basis.  With a good mix of carefully chosen foods, fiber, calcium, fruit and protein can all be part of a healthy, low fat, low calorie breakfast. 

Intellectually, it makes a lot of sense to follow the suggestion of eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.  Just as our car does not  burn fuel at rest, we don’t burn much once we hit the sack.  It seems far better to fill up for the activities that await us and wind down as the day progresses. 

Being a breakfast eater my whole life, this is easy for me.  Realizing some people have never been breakfast eaters, this can pose a challenge and requires finding foods that you can tolerate in the morning.  If this is the case for you, start small and slowly increase the amount of food you consume in the morning.  Perhaps a slice of high fiber toast with a smear of freshly ground peanut butter, or a slice of low fat cheese, or a sliced hard boiled egg.  If you do better with cereal and milk, make sure the cereal is NOT one of the many brands loaded with sugar and void of nutrition!  Soy milk is a great substitute for someone like myself who doesn’t drink cow’s milk.  Even a high protein, high fiber, low sugar “energy” bar is a better choice than NOTHING.  I promise that once you push yourself to start eating in the morning, it will soon become second nature and you will wake start waking up hungry in no time! 

Studies clearly show that people who don’t eat breakfast are more likely to become obese and develop heart disease.  Studies also show that people who don’t eat breakfast are more likely to die younger than those who do eat breakfast! 

Talking with my student/friend Carole yesterday prompted me to think about the breakfast topic.  She makes a great, portable breakfast that’s just about 200 or so calories and chock full of nutrition.   Carole, if you can send me the specifics of that breakfast in an email or a comment I would like to put it up on the site.  If any of you would be kind enough to send me your recipe for a healthy breakfast meal, I would love to share them…

And on that note, I am off to make myself a hearty breakfast which will start with a glass of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (thank you, Peter).  I will follow that up with a hearty veggie omelet that will give me the energy I need to power through my morning workouts.  I hope that you will do the same.  Our bodies have to last us a lot longer than our automobiles.  The very least we can do is treat them with as much respect!