Those of you who have read my previous posts either here or on FaceBook know that I have committed to getting healthier in 2011 and that I am convinced the way for me to do that is through small, progressive steps toward more healthy habits. It worked for me before and I know it will work for me again. So, on the food side of things, I am getting the ball rolling by looking at breakfast and what changes I can make there to make it a healthy one.
Why start with breakfast? Several reasons:
1) If I start the day eating a healthy breakfast, it encourages me to eat healthier the rest of the day. If I eat that bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit at breakfast, the next time it comes around to eating, I’m tempted to say “I’ve blown it today anyway, so why not eat that donut”.
2) If I start the day with a little protein and lay off the sugar and fat, I find I have more energy through the morning, which is my busiest time of the day.
3) Breakfast is the low-pressure meal of the day for me. What I mean by that is that I usually eat breakfast with no family or co-workers watching. There’s no one around to roll their eyes when they see my change from that bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit to something healthy and think to themselves “Oh boy. Here they go again. Trying another DIET”. (IMPORTANT NOTE: My family would never do that. Neither would any of my co-workers. But you and I both know there are people out there who would.)
Now in the past, I’ve been known to eat just about anything for breakfast. Cold pizza. Left-over chile. And, yes, bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits (YUMM!!!) But, let’s face it. You and I know that those are not great choices on the nutrition scale. So, a few years ago, I decided to switch over to cereal and skim milk on a regular basis. Good transition to be sure. And I’ve even tweaked that through the years, moving from really any kind of cereal to Special K.
Lately, I’ve taken a liking to low-fat, vanilla yogurt for breakfast, mixed with some All-Bran and mixed nuts. Yogurt for the calcium and Vitamin D, All-Bran for the fiber, and mixed nuts cause…well…I like nuts. So this sounds crazy healthy, right? Until the other day when I realized I was using no portion control. I was just slopping things in the bowl, and what I had in there probably added up to 500 calories or more. Calories of healthy stuff, you might argue. But since one of the things I would like to do is lose weight, I need to lose some of the calories as well. So my first tweaking for breakfast is to get a better grip on my portions to hold breakfast at about 350 calories.
Of course, yogurt and cereal aren’t the only options for a good breakfast. Here are a couple of sites where you can find easy, healthy options:
Check them out then decide what baby steps YOU can take to start working your way towards a healthy breakfast. Some of you may be used to donuts or that bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit every morning. I encourage you to start eating only half of those less-healthy choices each morning for the next few days or week and supplement the rest with a piece of fruit or some other healthier choice. Slowly work your way towards eating less of the less-healthy choices and more of the healthy ones. Take your time and slowly progress and soon you will find yourself weaned away from the high calorie, high fat breakfast all together and choosing a more healthy one.
Some of you, on the other hand, may not be eating breakfast at all. Again, I encourage you to start slowly with baby steps. Maybe start with a low fat granola bar (I like Kashi), or nuke a whole grain frozen waffle. Then work your way up.
A good breakfast doesn’t have to be difficult to make, expensive, or complicated. But I’m convinced it is the best way to begin a transformation of the way we eat. If you have suggestions on how you work breakfast, I’d love to hear them. And I hope you will consider joining our FB group, Steps Toward Better Health.
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