O.K., so we have all heard the cliche “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”? Right? Well, if it’s a phrase so often used, there must be some truth in it, don’t you think? Well, actually, no–there is A LOT of truth in that statement. In fact, skimping out on a healthy breakfast can really ruin an otherwise well-developed fitness or weight loss program.

You see, your body is like a car-and just like a car, or any machine for that matter, it needs energy to run. Your body’s energy or “fuel”

A healthy breakfast is essential in helping you reach your fitness goals.

comes from the foods you eat. A healthy breakfast is the perfect way to start your day-it will help you “wake up” in the morning and give you the energy needed to get through the day. Another reason you should never, ever skip breakfast, or any meal for that matter, is to avoid having your body go into “starvation mode”. We have an innate “sixth sense” and when our bodies feel like they are being deprived of food, metabolism slows and the body holds on to any stored fat that is available. This process is actually just the opposite of what we need when we are trying to shed a few pounds.

So how can we avoid going into “starvation mode” and slowing our metabolism? Well, for one, don’t “starve” yourself or cut huge amounts of calories from your diet. We need a constant intake of small, but healthy meals and snacks throughout the day to keep the body satisfied to allow the weight loss process to happen. And this is most important in the mornings. Think about it for a second. Most of us get at least 6 hours a night (hopefully a little more) of sleep. That’s 6 hours without any food. That means our metabolic process naturally slows while at rest. So when you wake up in the morning, if you overlook the opportunity to “fuel up” with a healthy breakfast, your body will start to think that you are starving and hold on to fat for dear life.

So what can we imply? Well, for one, starvation is not a good idea-never was, never will be. Secondly, if we can’t cut huge amounts of calories from diet, how do we lose weight? Well, it needs to be a combination of things. Cut EXCESS calories from diet and burn a few extra with exercise and strength training. Remember that lean muscle burns fat, so by exercising we increase muscle mass and therefore burn more fat. And lastly we can imply that weight loss, to be successful, has to be a gradual process. Exteme dieting may give you temporary results, but eventually the “demands” of the extreme diet will be too much for your body to handle and something has got to give-usually your waistline.

So, set realistic goals, start the day with a healthy breakfast and continue “fueling” your body with small, high-quality (not quantity) meals and snacks. Make sure to exercise on a regular basis and you should start to see some positive results!

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

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They celebrated my son’s birthday today at his school, Cushman, here in Miami. He’s going to be 5 this Sunday.

Do you have kids? I’d love to know how many readers have kids – send me photos too if you like, I’ll post the cutest ones (I know, I’ll have to post them all because they’ll all be cute…).

As I’m writing this it’s 11:20 am and we’re going back to his school a little later today to have a birthday party with all his schoolmates in his classroom.

The big dilemma is always what kinds of foods to bring for the kids. You see, my son has been brought up on only natural foods since he was born. He doesn’t eat anything that comes from a package (unless it’s a fresh frozen veggie or fruit). This means he’s never had chips from a bag, chocolate, ice cream (in the traditional sense – we make our own healthy version… it’s so easy — I’ll give you a recipe for it in a second), no soda, no fruit juices, no cookies, no pizza, no chocolate cake. Yet kids his age eat these “unnatural” things almost every day.

Before you think I’m a little extreme by “depriving” my son of these “goodies”, let me give you a bit of a wake up call my dear parent (first, understand that parents saying they don’t want to “deprive” their children of these treats is a huge cop-out – more later).

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A perfect hike prior to throwing the perfect pass… the perfect toss before the tennis rackets slams into it for an ace… the perfectly balanced golf stance prior to winding up for the perfectly timed hit on the golf ball that sends it soaring 300 yards down the fairway, straight as an arrow.

All of these “perfect” outcomes were as a result of having done something before that allowed that perfect “event” to happen flawlessly, and seemingly without effort.

If you want to lose weight quick, so it goes with setting up your day of eating. Starting out on the wrong foot, with unbalanced food groups shooting your blood sugar levels wildly up… then cascading down again, will set yourself up for a failed day – you won’t lose weight quick (or at all) if you start your day eating the wrong foods.

But what is the right… and the wrong way to start your day with a healthy breakfast?

Here’s an easy quiz… see if you can pick out which breakfast (A or B) is the more healthy breakfast way to start your day:

Breakfast A:

Healthy breakfast?

bowl of sugar frosted flakes

1 cup of skim milk

1 cup of orange juice

1 slice of toast

1 pat of butter

1 tablespoon of jam

Breakfast B:

Healthy Breakfast!

3 ounces of sirloin

2 whole eggs

1/2 grapefruit

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup of black coffee (no sugar or milk)

If you chose Breakfast A, do NOT pass go, do not collect $200, and go straight to jail (you monopoly fans will get it).

Let’s take a closer look at these two to see why one is a healthy breakfast, and the other will send you straight to disease haven.

Breakfast A:

Calories = 605

Carbohydrates = 106 grams (70% of calories)

Sugar = 56 grams = 4.7 Tablespoons of sugar (actually 9 tablespoons when you consider that all the carbohydrates in this meal act like sugar in your body)

Fat = 12 grams (18% of calories)

Protein = 14 grams (12% of calories)

Fiber = 4 grams

Sodium = 630 mg (25% of daily recommended amount)

Breakfast B:

Calories = 378

Carbohydrates = 19 grams (20% of calories)

Sugar = 5 grams = 1 1/4 teaspoon sugar

Fat = 15 grams = (36% of calories)

Protein = 39 grams = (41% of calories)

Fiber = 5 grams

Sodium = 130 mg (5.4% of daily recommended amount)

Breakfast A is loaded with carbohydrates that “act” like sugar in your body, AND, actual sugar too. This “double whammy” will overload your pancreas (your organ that produces insulin in response to meals) like you won’t believe. Is it any wonder that type II diabetes is soaring in this country? And with parents feeding our kids these kinds of meals all day long (heavy on the carbohydrates, low on the protein and fiber and nutrients), is it no wonder that the US Surgeon General has issued a warning about the skyrocketing rates of diabetes in kids today?

The US Surgeon General also estimates that 1 in 3 kids born today will develop diabetes in their lifetimes – pretty sobering statistics.

Breakfast A will shoot your blood sugar levels sky-high, then, as your pancreas releases insulin to “clear” this excess sugar from your bloodstream, will cause your blood sugar levels to drop precipitously. This “yo-yo” effect causes you to quickly feel hungry again for, you guessed it, more sugar, and the vicious cycle continues all day long.

And guess which breakfast will cause you to feel full longer? If you guessed healthy breakfast B you get a gold star on your forehead. Even though breakfast B calories are almost half the calories of breakfast A, the stable blood sugar levels that result from eating breakfast B will let you go longer without feeling hungry again.

Here’s another tip – fat burning cannot happen in the presence of high blood sugar levels.

Insulin is an extremely potent “storage” hormone, which means that your body is looking for a place to store all those excess sugars and calories. You cannot “store” and “burn” at the same time. If you guessed that your fat cells are usually the only place for them to be stored (because chronic high blood sugar levels over time have already filled up your other “depot” areas like your liver and muscles cells), then you’re right. This means chronically eating foods like breakfast A are keeping you in a “storage” mode almost all the time.

On the other hand, healthy breakfast B contains about the perfect combination of proteins, low-glycemic carbohydrates, and fats to keep your blood sugar steady — increasing the time when you’ll feel hungry again.

Healthy breakfast B is great for adults, with similar meals consisting of lean meat, fibrous vegetables, and healthy fats (olive oil) the rest of the day.

Quick Tip: You should not eat a high-protein, low-carbohydrate AND low-fat diet. Low-carbs and low-fat will NOT work for the long term. And in fact, you’ll have a harder time losing fat. You must eat a moderate amount of good fats (eggs have been villified for so many years that even in the light of recent data showing the fats in eggs are mainly benign, people still have issues with eating the yolks of eggs…don’t be one of the misinformed!).

For kids, one great way to start their day would be uncooked steel-cut oats (NOT QUICK OATS PLEASE – it digests too quickly sending blood sugar levels soaring) topped with all kinds of fresh fruit (sliced bananas, blueberries, blackberries, etc), and a cup of whole milk mixed with a great-tasting and good for them protein powder (see previous posts for my recommendations here – NO SOY PROTEIN PLEASE), and a 1/2 tablespoon of UDO’s choice (found in your health food store) mixed in. Your kids will love this concoction, trust me.

The reason you don’t want to cook the oats is because cooking it makes it easier to digest. And you now know that the easier a food is to digest, the more potential it has to raise your blood sugar levels. Raw is best.

Now that you have the knowledge, make the right choices, take action… and…

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.