Making the Effort to Eat a Healthy Breakfast
A lot of people skip breakfast. This is a really bad habit to get into, since a healthy breakfast is the best way to start off the day. Even if you are trying to cut calories or don’t have a lot of time in the morning, you should still try to fit in this important meal.
When you wake up in the morning, your body has been without a meal for many hours. It needs fuel. If you don’t take the time to get a healthy breakfast, you might just end up grabbing something full of empty calories and not at all filling, like a donut or a pastry. That will just leave you hungry for more and set you up for eating more later in the day.
For those who are worried about calories, it has actually been shown that people who eat breakfast generally end up eating fewer calories in the course of the day than those who skip breakfast. Why is this? Most likely because if you skip breakfast you are starving later in the day so you end up eating a huge lunch and dinner to make up for it. Or you feel virtuous because of the calories you “saved” so you allow yourself an extra treat or two.
A healthy breakfast can help you to concentrate better so that you are more productive. It will also deliver minerals and vitamins that you need, and make it more likely that you won’t have high cholesterol.
The best breakfasts include whole grains, low fat protein, low fat dairy, and fruits or vegetables. You want to try to choose something that will fulfill at least two or three of these food groups.
Breakfast can be a very quick meal if you need it to be. You can even find a lot of healthy options that you can bring with you to eat on your way to your destination, or once you get there. Whole grain toast with peanut butter and an apple would be a good healthy breakfast, especially if you drink a glass of milk along with it.
Planning ahead and preparing breakfast or setting out everything you need the night before can really help people who are in a time crunch in the mornings. This way you can quickly either grab your breakfast to take with you or eat it before you leave.
For those who don’t like typical breakfast foods, there are lots of other healthy options available. You can eat leftovers from dinner, a sandwich made from whole wheat bread, or even leftover vegetable pizza.