So, Andy wanted to know more about why it's so important to eat breakfast. And apparantly, some of other swimmers wanted to hear more too. That tells me that some of you may not be eating breakfast yet - Bad girls and boys!! I hope this post can convince you that eating breakfast is very important - especially when you're trying to lose weight.
First lets start by talking about me! HA! Before I lost my weight on WW a year ago, I HATED eating breakfast. I was never hungry when I woke up in the morning. As far as I was concerned, there was no reason to eat if I wasn't hungry - that must be helping me lose weight, the not eating in the morning thing, right?? WRONG! Turns out, if you aren't eating something for breakfast, you're actually making it harder on your body to lose weight. Let's say you had dinner at 7:00pm. You don't eat lunch until noon. That's 16-17 hours between meals. Your body is going into starvation mode. Your body and brain need glucose to function. Going 16 hours without food forces your body to look elsewhere for the glucose it needs to operate. This is a distracting process and lessens your ability to anything efficiently or as well as you could if you'd just eaten something! Bottom line is, eating breakfast improves your concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood.
Back to me. So, after not eating all night or in the morning, by the time I would eat at lunch time, I was ravenous. Legs shaky, tired, just miserable. Portion sizes were harder to control. I cared less about WHAT I was eating then the fact that I was FINALLY eating. It's much harder to control your eating habits when your body is screaming at you to give it fuel. Will power, motivation, and your ability to make good food choices go right out the window when you're so hungry.
Now, I LOVE me some breakfast food - I just never ate it at breakfast time unless it was some special occasion or I felt like cooking on the weekend. However, some people don't enjoy the typical breakfast food, but that is NOT a good excuse for not eating in the morning. Eat something - even if its not a typical breakfast food. When I had access to a toaster at work, I would make myself an english muffin (low fat/whole grain) with some low fat peanut butter. YUM! Most of the things I read suggest that you should have something with fiber (complex carb, like a whole grain) and a protein (peanut butter!) to make sure your breakfast sticks with you until lunch time.
If finding time to eat breakfast is your problem, then suck it up! There are alot of good-for-you grab-and-go foods now too if time is your problem. (OMG - have you tried the new Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookie from Quaker Oats - YUM!) At our house, I keep a big tupperware container full of on-the-go breakfast choices so that everyone can can pick up something on our way out the door.
If I haven't convinced you, here are a few links (and some of my sources) to help you find out more...and maybe get some new breakfast ideas.
Importance of Breakfast
Breakfast is for Weight Loss Champions
Breakfast Excuse Buster!
Mr. Breakfast (Recipes, Reviews, Etc)
If anyone has any good breakfast recipes they'd like to share, or want to share what their favorite breakfast is....comments are open!
Happy eating!
First lets start by talking about me! HA! Before I lost my weight on WW a year ago, I HATED eating breakfast. I was never hungry when I woke up in the morning. As far as I was concerned, there was no reason to eat if I wasn't hungry - that must be helping me lose weight, the not eating in the morning thing, right?? WRONG! Turns out, if you aren't eating something for breakfast, you're actually making it harder on your body to lose weight. Let's say you had dinner at 7:00pm. You don't eat lunch until noon. That's 16-17 hours between meals. Your body is going into starvation mode. Your body and brain need glucose to function. Going 16 hours without food forces your body to look elsewhere for the glucose it needs to operate. This is a distracting process and lessens your ability to anything efficiently or as well as you could if you'd just eaten something! Bottom line is, eating breakfast improves your concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood.
Back to me. So, after not eating all night or in the morning, by the time I would eat at lunch time, I was ravenous. Legs shaky, tired, just miserable. Portion sizes were harder to control. I cared less about WHAT I was eating then the fact that I was FINALLY eating. It's much harder to control your eating habits when your body is screaming at you to give it fuel. Will power, motivation, and your ability to make good food choices go right out the window when you're so hungry.
Now, I LOVE me some breakfast food - I just never ate it at breakfast time unless it was some special occasion or I felt like cooking on the weekend. However, some people don't enjoy the typical breakfast food, but that is NOT a good excuse for not eating in the morning. Eat something - even if its not a typical breakfast food. When I had access to a toaster at work, I would make myself an english muffin (low fat/whole grain) with some low fat peanut butter. YUM! Most of the things I read suggest that you should have something with fiber (complex carb, like a whole grain) and a protein (peanut butter!) to make sure your breakfast sticks with you until lunch time.
If finding time to eat breakfast is your problem, then suck it up! There are alot of good-for-you grab-and-go foods now too if time is your problem. (OMG - have you tried the new Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookie from Quaker Oats - YUM!) At our house, I keep a big tupperware container full of on-the-go breakfast choices so that everyone can can pick up something on our way out the door.
If I haven't convinced you, here are a few links (and some of my sources) to help you find out more...and maybe get some new breakfast ideas.
Importance of Breakfast
Breakfast is for Weight Loss Champions
Breakfast Excuse Buster!
Mr. Breakfast (Recipes, Reviews, Etc)
If anyone has any good breakfast recipes they'd like to share, or want to share what their favorite breakfast is....comments are open!
Happy eating!
4 Comments:
My favorite breakfast is oatmeal (1/4 cup) with 3/4 cup skim milk and 2Tbsp. of raisins. I microwave it for 1 min. 30 sec. I get 1 grain, 1 milk, and 1 fruit serving for only 210 cal. It is warm, comforting and somewhat sweet.
WOw, thanks a lot! This is just what I was looking for.
Well, good - we aim to please around here ;-).
Heather
I'm going to try and make myself egg white breakfast sandwiches more often.
The difference to me truly is in the staying power of protein. I love oatmeal and feel full when I eat it but I am STARVING again in 2 hours. With eggs, at least I can make it until lunch time.
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