Breakfast

Note: This post almost didn't happen... The idea zipped by and almost got lost somewhere between my brain, an eight hour work day and the keyboard... Fortunately, I ended up remembering what I wanted to share... Yay for me.... Or yay for you.... Since you get something to read now... ALL THREE OF YOU! ;-)

Remember the health assessment at work that I mentioned several weeks ago? Back then, I filled out the questionnaire, but today was the lab day e.g. weight, measurements, body fat and drawing blood. My appointment was at 8.45am and I was supposed to fast 8 hours ahead of getting the blood drawn. Picture me getting up at 5am, drive to the pool, knock out 2,600 yards in an hour, get dressed, go to work and then work until the appointed time rolls around... And all of this WITHOUT BREAKFAST. By appointment time I had stomach cramps, felt woozy and almost started biting my fingers off... Okay... The last item is maybe a little (tiny) exaggeration.

But it got me thinking about how much my eating habits have changed when I finally decided to get healthy. You see, if you have ever read about healthy eating habits and how to maintain your weight, sooner or later you stumble over the claim that:

• breakfast kick-starts your metabolism in the morning (here is one example, just google it and you'll be surprised on how many articles are coming up)
  
• fueling your body properly during the day avoids binge eating in the evening when the body preps to sleep (here is an article more directed to athletes, but it really applies to everyone, once again google it and you will find)
  
• eating breakfast is one of the habits that most people have that were able to maintain a significant weight loss (in this article are also the other habits)

So, can I hear a YAY for breakfast, please? YAY! ;-)


(Picture is from here and the article also has some information about why breakfast is so IMPORTANT!)

Before I started my (somewhat*) healthy lifestyle, I was a notorious breakfast skipper myself. But since I never read articles about nutrition and weigh loss, I never made the connection between my weight and my (non-existing) breakfast habits. I also never thought that this is such a common habit for people with overweight. Have you ever noticed how many contestants in the Biggest Loser mention at one point during the show that they have been skipping breakfast a lot. Of course, this is not the only mistake made by the contestants when it comes to eating and exercise habits and it certainly wasn't my only mistake either.

* I certainly still have a lot of room to improvement when it comes to the quality of my nutrition. But compared to what I used to put into my body, I came a long way and in the meantime am able to balance out calorie intake with calorie expense.

If you are a breakfast skipper, please consider to ditch this habit and have a healthy breakfast to kick-start your day. It's just one simple step to improve your nutrition and has a real impact on how you feel throughout the day (increase energy level and such). It certainly is worth a shot.

When it comes to me this morning... As soon as I got back to my desk, I raided my healthy snack drawer (whole grain cheese crackers, granola bars etc), but it took me until having lunch to finally feel back to normal.

So long!

PS: Tomorrow my parents plus brother get back from their road trip and I'll be off work to spend some quality time with them. There is a good chance that you won't hear anything from me until next Monday. Then I plan to resume broadcast as usual... married and all! ;-)