Don't Forget Breakfast
a trainer's take on eating right
by Greg Bobby
greg bobby, certified personal trainer
Eating healthy. What does it mean to you? Does it mean only eating fast food three times a week instead of six? How about only eating half a container of ice cream while watching Golden Girl reruns? It probably means something different to everyone, based on your current eating habits. However, there are some general guidelines which are important to follow. Let’s discuss, shall we?
Healthy eating can help you feel better, have more energy, recover from workouts quicker, fight stress and ward off some diseases. In particular, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and some forms of cancer can be influenced by your diet.
We are all probably familiar with the food groups – meat and protein, dairy, fruits, vegetables and fats. It is important to eat a good, well-balanced diet in order to stay healthy and prevent problems in life. Let’s look at each food group:
- Meats and protein: This includes fish, poultry, eggs, beans and nuts. Try to minimize fatty cuts of red meat.
- Dairy: This includes milk, yogurt, and cheese etc. Low fat milk is a healthier choice than whole milk.
- Fruits: Include plenty of these. These can be fresh, canned or dried. Avoid canned fruit in syrups with a lot of sugar.
- Vegetables: Dark green and orange vegetables have the highest concentration of vitamins and minerals. Examples include broccoli, spinach, carrots and sweet potatoes.
- Fats: Don’t fear fat! There are healthy fatty acids that should be included in your diet. In particular, look for the heart-healthy omega fatty acids. Sources include fish, nuts and avocados.
Focus on keeping the food groups balanced and minimize the amount of fat in
your diet – fat should consist of 20 to 25 percent of your daily calories. An easy way to balance this is to try to include a little of each food group in each meal.
Remember the old saying, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day?” Well, this is true if you want to get your metabolism kick-started for the day. As you sleep, your metabolism slows down and it stays suppressed until you eat the next day. If you eat later or skip breakfast your metabolism stays slower for a longer period of time; therefore, eating breakfast helps you burn more body fat during the day. Remember to keep your breakfast balanced, for example: whole grain cereal with low fat milk, a piece of fruit and some nuts. Eating a sugary cereal will spike your insulin level and lead to a blood sugar crash later. This also isn’t conducive to burning body fat. Insulin inhibits fat breakdown, which isn’t what you want when you’re trying to lose fat.
Another rule of thumb is to avoid eating too many processed foods. It seems in this busy culture we live in, no one wants to take the time to prepare meals. Food out of cans, boxes, and frozen dinners are fast and easy. The problem is that most are high in sodium, saturated fats, and low in nutritional content. Although frozen dinners are coming along, especially with brands like Healthy Choice, it is still far more nutritious to fix your own meals.
One strategy to save on meal preparation time is to cook a large portion of meat or other food over the weekend. Put portions in microwaveable containers (preferably glass) and all you have to do is fix some veggies and fruit to go along with it. Another option is to crash the neighbor’s house for dinner (as long as it’s healthy).
There is a huge part of your diet that we haven’t even addressed yet, and that is what you drink. Most people don’t take into account the calories they consume in the form of liquids, which can be a big mistake. Most liquids, besides water, have calories and many of these calories are in the form of sugar. Soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks, and many others contain calories, and these are calories that can inhibit your goals unless you fit them in smartly. Low fat milk is healthy for you, but you have to consider those calories when calculating your calorie count for the day. Alcohol can be a big source of empty calories. Protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, whereas alcohol contains 7 calories per gram! The problem with alcohol is that it has no nutritional value, whereas fruit juice and milk does. The one liquid you can drink to your heart’s content is, of course, water. One method to finding out how much water you need is dividing your bodyweight (in pounds) by 2 to give you how many ounces you should drink per day. A good amount of water to consume daily is 64 ounces. This number varies depending upon your weight and activity level. Obviously, when you exercise and sweat the amount of water you should consume increases.
Now that you have all this information how do you apply it? Take it in small steps. You don’t have to change everything overnight, and if you did, you probably wouldn’t stick with it. If you normally don’t eat many fruits or vegetables, there are easy ways to increase the amount in your diet. For example, put lettuce and tomato on a sandwich or throw some blueberries on your cereal. Also, watch your portion sizes! If you eat out, either share a meal with someone or bring half of your food home for another meal. Don’t be afraid to special order your food to make it healthier. Enjoy all the varieties of foods and follow these guidelines and you will be feeling more energetic before you know it!