Tuesday 17 May 2011

Breakfast-Why it's the most important meal of the day.

In my business I hear a lot of excuses why people avoid breakfast, "I can't eat that early," "I'm trying to lose weight," "I don't have time." And I always tell them that missing out on such an important meal is doing them a disservice.

Breakfast literally means to break fast. Your body has slept an average of 6-8 hours with no nutrition and once it wakes up it needs food to top up its depleated energy stores. Eating first thing in the morning boosts your metabolism, the faster this is the more efficient the body is at burning fat. Also eating at this time will reduce the risk of grabbing something when you're really hungry which is often an unhealthy choice.

Here's a few tips to help you.

1. If you'e not used to breakfast then start light by having a slice of wholemeal toast, a protein shake or fruit smoothie.

2. Try to eat a breakfast full of fibre and complex carbs such as wholemeal toast, porridge, Bran Flakes, All-Bran or muesli. These all take longer to digest so will keep you fuller for longer and will therefore avoid snacking on those unhealthy snacks later on in the day.

3. Avoid high sugary cereals such as 'Crunchy Nut Cornflakes,' which contains 35g of sugar per 100g. Read the back of the packet, all of its ingredients are listed with greatest first. If sugar comes in the top three-avoid.

4. A glass of juice contributes to 1 of your 5 a day and will help boost your body first thing in the morning. However if you're trying to lose weight don't go too heavy with it. After all it still contains sugar, even though it's natural your body will still store it as fat if you don't burn it as energy.

5. Mix it up a bit, you'll get bored if you have the same thing each day, variety is the spice of life after all.

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