The most important meal of the day

To live a healthy and active life, every meal is important. But the one that gets neglected the most is breakfast. Some have e notion that skipping breakfast will save on their daily calorie count. Others, who are probably staying up to late and so can't wake up earlier, don't have time for breakfast. But breakfast is important enough that it is a meal that you should eat 7 days a week.

Skipping breakfast is not part of a good plan to control weight. It can actually have a negative effect on your weight. The body will want to make up any calories that you miss from breakfast later in the day, so you will be more likely to eat unhealthy snacks and to over eat at later meals. Eating breakfast cuts down on the urge to snack between meals. It will also kickstart your metabolism, which has been slowed through the night as you sleep, and help you metabolize food more efficiently throughout the day.

Traditional breakfast foods fall into two categories - the healthy, and the deadly. the latter category is made up of foods high in sugar and saturated fats. Bacon, ham, donuts, sausage, and fried eggs make for a fine tasting meal, but will shorten your life.

A health breakfast gives you an opportunity to get the day started positively by allowing you to get focused on eating from the 5 food groups - whole grains, lean protein, fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy. You have a great chance during breakfast to get a jump on your daily fiber intake. Focus on including whole grains like oat and cereals. Think Wheaties, not Froot Loops. These will provide a chunk of your daily fiber. Also, cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals which will give you some micro nutrients you might otherwise miss out on.

Other food to choose from include fruit, juices(pure juices, not cocktails with added sugar), skim milk, and low fat yogurt. I also enjoy whole grain toast, bagels, or English muffins with peanut butter or a fruit spread.

Eggs are a toss up. Personally, I'm not a fan of egg yolks. I understand that the yolk is full of goodness, but it is also full of cholesterol and calories. One egg yolk has about 200 grams of cholesterol, and the RDA is only 300 grams. So just 2 whole eggs will put you over the recommended daily limit. You'll have to make your own choice about eggs. I have an aversion to the yolks from my days of chunkiness when my cholesterol was high. If you want your egg with yolk but want to limit your cholesterol, try mixing 1 whole egg with a couple of egg whites. This might be a good compromise for your omelets and scrambled treats.

I usually have a bowl of oatmeal most mornings with some cinnamon and Splenda. Occasionally I add a banana or strawberries. If I'm board with that, I might instead have a whole wheat bagel with apple butter, an English muffin with peanut butter, or an egg white omelet.

My egg white omelets are hearty meals! I start with the whites from 5 eggs. If I have it left over from spaghetti, I like to add a little seasoned ground turkey. For veggies I include bell pepper, onions, mushrooms, and spinach. Finally, I'll top it with some fat free shredded cheddar, fresh pico de gallo if I've got it, and splash on some tabasco. I'll put that up to bacon and fried eggs any day.

If you must eat on the run, a dry toasted bagel, a banana or apple, or a bag of dry cereal are easy to eat in the car.

So for weight loss, weight control, health, and energy, make time for breakfast each morning.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Reach your biggest goals

Just getting back from a successful pool workout and thinking about setting goals that look like mountains when we set them.  4 months ago I set a goal to complete a 70.3 Ironman event for my 40th birthday.  A half Ironman includes a 1.2 mile swim as the first event.  When I set the goal, I could just barely swim two laps in a pool for a total of 50 yards.  That is just 2% of the swim distance I would need to be able to do.  Since then I've taken swim lessons, been to triathlon swim clinics, started open water swimming, bought some Speedos(at least I look like I know what I'm doing), learned about googles, pull buoys, kick boards, swim technique drills, bought a wet suit, and I've been swimming 3-4 days a week.

And today I just swam 48 laps non-stop, or about .68 miles.  It was slow and my technique may not have been Michael Phelps-esque at the end(or at the beginning for that matter) but non the less, I can now say I can swim over 1/2 mile.

Less than two weeks away from my first sprint triathlon that starts with a 400 meter swim, and I'm finally feeling like I just might not need to be pulled in by a kayak and have my stomach pumped.

I share this with the hope of being an encouragement to you in reaching your goals.  Hopefully, you have some mountainous goals of your own.  Need to lose 100 pounds?  Want to get off the couch and run a 5K, 10K, or maybe even a marathon?  Want to go back to school and finish your college degree, or maybe you dropped out of high school and want to get a GED?

Get started.  It doesn't matter how fast you move towards your goal at the start, its important to just get moving.  I like the marathon t-shirts that say, "The miracle is not that I finished, but that I had the courage to start."  Get a book, subscribe to a magazine, join a club, research on the internet, whatever you need to do to start learning about what you want to accomplish.  Get away from the people who have given up on their goals, and get around the people who have attained what you want.

And please don't use the excuse that you don't have time.  I'm sure there are a few of you more busy than I am, but only a few.  It's not uncommon for me to work 28 days out of a 30 day month, and most of those 12 hour shifts.  I teach two karate classes a week if I'm not working.  I swim, bike, or run 7 hours a week.  I cut my own grass, tend to a vegetable garden, do the banking, help cook meals, help with dishes, sometimes laundry, and house chores.  I'm still and involved dad and husband.  I'm not a superman, I'm just like you.  But I make time for what is important to me.  Want to accomplish big things?  The number one thing you can do is turn off the tv.  It's amazing how many books you can read, how much time you can spend jumping on a trampoline with your kids, and how many miles you can run if you will just eliminate that one thing from your life.  I've decided that the tv just doesn't add any value to my life and decided to give it up.  If I could just do the same thing with Jelly Bellys….

Let me leave you now with this.  I hope it inspires you like it does me.  Turn up the sound and watch it in full screen.