Friday Health and Fitness Facts and Findings - Breakfast

Do you eat breakfast?  Yes, Mom was right, it is "the most important meal of the day."

I have to admit, I am not a breakfast lover.  In fact, I skipped breakfast most of my life.  My stomach just couldn't tolerate eating that early in the morning.  In high school, breakfast was a Tab (remember those?!!!) and a warm cookie or two from the cafeteria.  Needless to say, I was probably in the worst shape of my life in high school.  I'm so glad that all of my kids love breakfast.

Later, my breakfast usually consisted of coffee and a couple of cookies.  Hmmm, I'm starting to see a pattern.  When I started teaching exercise classes (this wasn't until 1993 or so) I tried to have something--a lot of the time it was 1/2 of a pb & j or a power bar or slimfast shake--an improvement, but still not ideal.  After reading so many articles about how important this meal was not only for weight loss, but for better health in general, I decided that eating a healthy breakfast everyday would be my New Year's resolution.

Here's a link to an article that I found from WebMD.com regarding the importance of breakfast:
The Many Benefits of Breakfast  Right in the subtitle of the article it states' "the right breakfast foods can help you concentrate, give you strength--even help you maintain a healthy weight."

By the way, this is a great website--it has lots of great information and has diet tools and trackers too.

I am happy to say, that although it's not always easy, I've been doing a pretty good job of eating a healthy breakfast every day.  For me, planning is extremely important.  I came across a recipe on Pinterest for Overnight, No-Cook Refrigerator Oatmeal

I was not a big oatmeal eater, but this idea saved me!  There are great recipes and flavor suggestions on the blog.  Instead of making up individual servings, I make up a larger container of one flavor and eat that for 3 or 4 days.  I've come up with my own process.  I start with whatever fruit I have, add a few scoops of oatmeal--I use quick--it works fine, a scoop of vanilla protein powder, some plain yogurt and enough almond or coconut milk (I have to limit my dairy due to my sensitive morning stomach) to make it on the soggy side.  I mix it together with spoon, cover it up and put it in the fridge.  The oats soak up all the liquid and in the morning I scoop out a serving and heat it up in the microwave--it's awesome.  Sometimes I add chopped nuts.  Sometimes I mix in some Raisin Bran or other high fiber cereal with the oatmeal (and more milk to absorb).  It works for me.

If you like smoothies, you can put the whole thing in the blender and then transfer it to a pitcher or bigger container or pour it into individual jars/cups like those pictured and put into the fridge (the oatmeal makes it nice and thick).  There's recipes for specific flavors on this same blog, or make a big batch of your favorite flavor.

Another website that has some great oatmeal recipes is Chocolate Covered Katie.  She has healthier versions of recipes for everything from Oatmeal Raisin Cookie to Chocolate Mudslide Oatmeal--most are vegan, but you can use cow's milk equally.  These are all individual servings, which is great if you like variety.   I'm sure most of them can be done the same way without having to cook them.  If it's a baked oatmeal, you can make it up ahead and bake the morning you plan to eat it.

When I don't have a morning class I'll usually make some sort of egg dish; a veggie omelet or frittata, but most mornings--it's oatmeal, and I don't mind anymore because all I have to do is warm it up and the flavor combinations are endless!

So listen to Mom and Eat Your Breakfast!