Start the Day With a Bowl of Fruit Loops?

Start the Day With a Bowl of Fruit Loops

You see, the words "Fruit Loops" enticed you in here to see what the rest of the article was about. Maybe even that Fruit Loops had become the next great diet program and was the answer to weight loss.

Sorry to burst that bubble but we won't quite be traveling down that road.

Without exception, breakfast represents the first and, without question, the most critical meal in a normal day. It sets the tone for the rest of the day and will directly influence what your mood will be for the day and how productive you will be.

It sends the first message to your metabolism as to what you expect it to do and how hard it's going to have to work. Can your body call in sick or does it have to work efficiently for the next sixteen hours giving you good health and an optimum weight?

That's a big burden to put on just meal, especially one we approach still-half awake as we stumble to the kitchen. It is critical but your body is always up to the task.

Think of breakfast as the first position on an assembly line. If you don't put the frame of the car on the line at step one, the guy putting on doors at step two is not that important.

Did you know that over 50% of Americans are either overweight or obese? Of that group, an amazing 80% admit to skipping breakfast.

Without exception, it is the first approach most choose in trying to lose weight. Skipping a meal equals fewer calories equals weight loss is the formula that pops into the mind of someone desperate to lose weight.

Statistics clearly show that it doesn't or can't work otherwise those that did it would lose weight, which is the desired goal of the formula.

Why would anyone choose a method to try that you know will fail? The psychology behind that question sadly shows just how desperate and frustrated Americans have become to break this over-weight pattern.

I read a ton of literature on nutrition but far from consider myself an expert in it. Since I take full responsibility for my body and how I want it to look and act, I have spent the better part of my fifty plus years trying to understand nutrition and how it affects my overall health and appearance.

I have never read even one study or research report that even remotely suggests that skipping breakfast, or any meal helps lose weight. To the contrary, it directly contributes to gaining weight or maintaining an overweight condition.

Yes, it helps you to gain weight by skipping the meal.

Within 60 minutes of awakening in the morning, you must put calories into your body. You need to act and act rather quickly in turning on the key to your metabolism. It should be about 10-15 percent of the total calories your body needs to maintain normal activities.

For most adults, this will fall into the 250-400 calorie range.

It is critical to fall within this range, a King's feast of bacon, eggs, toast and juice is just as bad as skipping.

A cup of a whole-grain, natural cereal with skim (or reduced fat milk) is the perfect choice.

I use 100% natural and safe Stevia to sweeten it just a bit. I use the Kashi Go Lean cereal as it does not have the additives of the commercial brands, cost no more and is high-glycemic as far as carbs go.

These break down over hours, thus fueling you longer. Low-glycemic carbs, such as white bread or sugary cereal spikes your insulin almost immediately but results in a quick crash to your system when the level drops in about an hour.

Very poor approach to the end goal of keeping your metabolism running at the same level all day, where the most efficient burning of calories is accomplished.

Another approach is to make breakfast all protein, which breaks down slowly as well and gives you a much fuller feeling until the next meal. Egg whites or a whey protein shake or even cottage cheese are great choices.

If you have time constraints and kids to get off to school, plan ahead and have natural breakfast bars available.

However you tackle it, don't make the number one mistake that keeps your body from giving you the optimum weight you desire. You must eat, and eat often.

Although it represents the topic of another article that can go into depth on it, the body is meant to "graze". By that I mean, that you should eat six or seven times during the day, each light in calories.

By doing this correctly, there is never the sensation of hunger, and the internal engine called your metabolism works at top level and is able to fully digest all food and burn and use each nutrient available.

Keep in mind, the total calories of the day still must be considered and stuck to.

The main point I wanted to address here is how critical it is to rev up the engine at breakfast, not hours later. It's like driving a high-performance, finely-tuned car for a sixteen hour trip versus chugging through the same sixteen hours in a misfiring, broken down Pinto, with smoke pouring out of the exhaust. So buckle up and get started.

Stay healthy and fit with good nutrition and plenty of exercise!

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Ho Hum, Getting Tired, Should I Take A Nap?

Nap Today, Perform Better Tomorrow

A couple of new reports came out this week addressing sleep in our culture. Everyone knows that they feel a little cranky when they don't get enough sleep. It's therefore no surprise that sleep affects your mood. What may be surprising, though, is that scientists know very little about why that's true.

We understand quite a bit about why sleep disrupts your immune function, your metabolism and your ability to learn and remember things. I have discussed each of these in past articles. But we don't know much about how sleep regulates mood. An interesting new study published in Current Biology by Michael Walker, sheds some light on this subject.

A loss of reason

A complex brain circuit that involves both higher thinking centers and reactive centers controls your emotions. It's the higher thinking centers that separate us from other animals. We have the ability (although we don't always use it) to evaluate our responses thoughtfully, before just reacting impulsively.

In the new study, volunteers were either deprived of a good night's sleep or allowed to sleep normally. Researchers then looked at both their higher thinking and their reactive brain centers after presenting them with some emotionally negative images to stir their reactions.

They found that specific reactive centers of the brain acted the same whether or not the volunteers had slept well the night before. But certain higher thinking centers responsible for keeping those reaction centers under control, were much less active in the sleep deprived group.

The interpretation of this is that our 'gut reactions' are not really that affected by lack of sleep (at least in this situation) but our ability to reason and monitor those reactions is weakened, which can have all kinds of downstream consequences.

Is a longer workday productive?

Why is this important? Other studies show that we are getting far less sleep today than we did a century ago and throughout history. The advent of artificial light has extended the length of our daily 'productivity', but many argue that this is actually counter-productive.

By not getting optimal sleep, we are decreasing our ability to function efficiently the next day, and actually getting less done.

In fact, another study just released shows exactly that. In this one, researchers, Patricia Murphy and Scott Campbell, showed that napping is actually productive.

First of all, midday napping did not cause people to sleep less well at night, as many believe.

Second, midday napping improved performance on math, decision-making and reaction-time tests. This increased performance was true after the nap and lasted all the way into the next day, following the nap.

Many of us are so busy that we steal hours from our sleep to attempt to get more done. But science argues that we are not getting more done this way. We are actually reducing our ability to be creative, make decisions, work efficiently and cooperate with other people.

Perhaps a little more time invested in our rest could dramatically improve our career and personal relationships.

Copyright (c) 2007 BrainFit For Life

Master Brain Fitness techniques for you and your family. Your Brain Fitness holds is the key to unlock your maximum potential. Dr. Simon Evans and Dr. Paul Burghardt at BrainFit For Life put together the right ingredients in right amount to create the recipe for success.

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Old Habits Die Hard - Hard Enough To Feel The Pain

Old Habits Die Hard - Hard Enough To Feel The Pain

Why is it so tough to quit something that is bad, usually it is something that is soooo good too?

You know what I mean; chocolate, alcohol, laziness, even what you eat for breakfast.

We all have habitual actions that we often feel a little embarrassed by, such as buying a chocolate bar and a can of coke every time you go to the petrol station to fill the car up...

That one used to be one of my worse habits, I just knew it was not good for me, but I just couldn't quit it. It was like I was on auto pilot.

Do you get home from work, immediately turn on the TV instead of doing your workout?

Do you go out on a Friday and Saturday night, just because it is the weekend, and then spend the rest of the weekend in bed regretting your excesses?

One of the biggest challenges as a fitness professional is to get my clients to change their eating habits so that it compliments their training efforts. One common hang up relates to breakfast, getting them to stop eating cereal based breakfasts is like putting a heroine addict through cold turkey!

The problem is our bad habits can cause us a myriad of health problems, such as weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, a weak immune system, and poor structural health. All of which cause a great deal of misery.

Brain researchers at MIT in the US have discovered that once a poor habit is established, certain neural patterns are created in the brain which ingrain the habit to becoming almost completely automatic.

We just don't even think about the action, we just do it. These patterns can be erased just as readily as they are created in the first place, BUT the patterns can be rekindled much quicker the next time round.

Obvious stuff really, when you think about how many people relapse back into a smoking habit, or poor nutritional habits.

Breaking habits can be tough though.

The fear of social alienation if you stop smoking (where will you get the office gossip from, if you are not smoking with your co-workers!). Not going out on a Friday night can cause a similar fear.

Not having that glass of wine with your evening meal each night, it has become so ingrained that you would feel uncomfortable if only water was available.

Thankfully there are solutions to these problems, and it is not just down to will power. Pattern breaking is simply a matter of becoming more conscious of each action that you take. A simple example:

Do you drive the same route to work each and every day? I bet on many days the journey to work does not even register, it is just like you are on auto pilot. You have no idea of how many cars cut you up, or even if you indicated at the right moments, or even indicated at all!

Breaking this habit is a simple act of deciding to take a different route to work. I have about 5 different routes to the gym and have actually gone further out of my way, just to get in a new route, it keeps me focused.

For the more serious issue of eating and drinking habits, simply get into the habit of stopping just before you consume something and make a judgment on the quality of the item you are about to eat or drink. I use a 3 point grade A, B or C type foods.

A's are your good clean foods like fresh fruit and veg, meat, fish and water plus some diary items like eggs too.

B's are not so good, slightly processed products including breads, pasta, cereal based products

C's are the junk food, including sodas, highly processed items like cakes, chips, burgers, pizzas etc.

This simple process makes me more conscious of my food choices, allowing me to make better choices and ones that compliment my exercise habits.

One other common poor habit is laziness or procrastination from exercise, this is because you may associate exercise with hard work, pain, or you have low self efficacy. To break this habit you may find it useful to find a purpose for actually doing your workouts...

Getting involved in a sport may just give the reason you need to start doing your workouts.

Rather than simply working out to lose weight, why not make your workouts more focused towards a sport, so that you improve your speed, agility, flexibility, balance and strength. You may just find that the side benefit is that you'll lose that weight after all.

One of my current clients came to me a few months ago with really poor motivation, the habit to workout just wasn't working. It was becoming a real struggle to get to the gym to do the workouts.

I simply asked her one question - has there ever been a sport that you thought would be just so cool to do? Immediately I saw a spark of excitement in her face, she told me she always wanted to do rock climbing, but never had the belief that she could do it. Fantastic we had just found her motivation.

Two weeks later after the change of focus and some adjustment to her routines, she joined a local club and got right back into the workout habit. 30 days later she had dropped a dress size and was really enjoying her time in the gym, plus doing great with the climbing too!

So you see habits can be broken down, simply by recognizing the patterns, then making a conscious decision to do or try something else. Yes it is NOT easy, but don't you think your life would be fuller, richer, more interesting if you didn't spend so much time on autopilot?

So start right now, decide what different route you are going to take to work tomorrow, stop yourself before consuming anything and really SEE what you are eating, and start making better exercise habits by changing the focus to an outcome that really excites you!

The best of luck

by Tim Goodwin

Tim is a fitness professional specialising in help the busiest people achieve more with their amateur sporting interests, and at the same time ridding them of excess body fat.

Based in Luxembourg, Tim writes about general fitness for keeping in shape, sports training for non professional sports people, goal achievement strategies and many other topics.

Visit http://www.getfit.lu/success.html to get a free 18 page report "How to lose weight even when you are really busy" containing a full 4 week program which you can start today!

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