Live The Active Life

Everyone has heard this one before, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. Most of us have ignored that, especially if we are busy or trying to lose weight.

Well, maybe we should rethink the idea of skipping breakfast. Over at The World’s Healthiest Foods there is a great explanation of why we should eat breakfast every day. There is a lot of evidence that eating breakfast can actually help us lose weight by stoking our metabolism throughout the day. Plus, if you are truly living the active life, you need energy in the morning in order to function properly.

I have gone back and forth over the years when it comes to eating breakfast. Sometimes, I would eat dinner at 7PM and not eat anything until Noon the next day. That’s 17 hours without food, way to long. When I did finally eat something I was famished and ate way more than I should have. I also tended to have strong cravings for all of the “bad” foods like french fries, etc.

I have gotten in the habit, after a bit of work, of eating a fairly big, but healthy breakfast. When I eat a good breakfast my energy level remains high all day long as long as I eat fairly healthy the rest of the day. I also eat less overall when I start the day with breakfast.

As for what I eat, I try to get some good protein along with carbs and fiber from whole grains in all of my breakfasts. My typical breakfast consists of either cereal w/skim milk, or waffles w/real maple syrup along with orange juice and a bananna or low fat yogurt. Here is a list of some of the foods I have for breakfast along with any nutrition related links I could find about them:

Cereals

• Optimum Power
• Trader Joe’s “High Fiber O’s”
• Basic Shredded Wheat-add some honey or brown sugar if you like it sweet

Waffles

• Kashi Go Lean Blueberry Waffles
• Eggo Nutrigrain Waffles (Blueberry, Cinnamon, or Whole Wheat)

Low Fat Yogurt

• Stoneyfield Farms Low Fat/Fat Free Yogurt

Overall, I think I eat a fairly healthy breakfast. I probably could eat less waffles and more cereal, but I really like waffles. I try to eat the whole grain waffles which helps.

If you haven’t been eating breakfast give it a try. You might just find that you have more energy and feel better all day long.

photo credit: Texas to Mexico