If we skip breakfast, we’ll make unhealthy choices at lunch. People who skip breakfast eat more during the day.  Your breakfast can set off a cycle of cravings and blood sugar spikes that dooms for weight control. Better to start the day with stable blood sugar and ultimately fewer calories with breakfast.

I, personally, never leave the house without first having my coffee and eggs, or omelette or hard-boiled egg with either some bacon or turkey sausage. Otherwise, it makes me cranky and want to scarf my next meal and ruin my diet.

Breakfast Calories: What to Eat

You may have to find your perfect breakfast food through a trial and error process.  It’s fine if you prefer a small turkey sandwich or a hard-boiled egg to traditional breakfast foods.

Consider whole grains. Whole grains are a good choice because they keep you feeling full, according to a dietary study that compared feelings of satisfaction between people who ate a hot whole-grain cereal for breakfast and those who ate refined wheat bread. Those who ate the whole-grain breakfast reported feeling less hungry over the following eight hours than the comparison group. I have discovered a delicious bread and I only have a slice once or twice a week.  It is organic and healthy, with high fiber and protein.  It is Dave’s Killer Bread.  I buy the 60-calorie per slice version.  It is low net carb.  A slice is not bad, but when you start having sandwiches with more than one slice, you don’t realize how many carbs are in a sandwich and you are sabotaging your diet.  Plus, we can get most of our fiber and nutrients from proteins, vegetables, nuts and seeds and fruits.  We don’t need whole grains to be healthy.  Plus, gluten does nothing as a nutrient and it causes inflammation in people’s guts and or brains.  So, I prefer to stay away from it and gluten-free breads are not that good.  However, I have had gluten-free pizza (half of a small with some salad) and it is delicious.

The issue with whole grains and oatmeal is that it has a lot of carbs. You have to read the label and determine how much to serve yourself to keep yourself in the realm of 50 to 100 grams of carbs per day, to lose weight. Less than a cup of oatmeal or having a slice of whole grain bread, only three times a week is an option.

Opt for eggs. A study of people between the ages of 25 and 60 who were trying to lose weight found that those who ate two eggs for breakfast lost 65 percent more weight than those who ate bagels, and they also reported having higher energy levels throughout the day.  Ask your doctor about egg-white alternatives.

Avoid high-sugar choices. Eating doughnuts, breakfast pastries, and sugary cereals may begin that cycle of cravings and blood sugar lows that can undermine your efforts. And there are too many carbs in them to be considered a good choice for weight control.

First thing in the AM

When you first wake up in the morning, if you are not a breakfast person, but you can eat two hours later, that’s fine. Have a little yogurt, a little bit of peanut butter on some gluten-free bread (look at carbs), or a low-carb protein bar.  Your choices don’t have to be traditional fattening breakfast foods, like cereal or pancakes.  Please don’t eat Toaster Strudels, Pop Tarts or Frozen Waffles.  Too many carbs, nothing nutritional about them and full of sodium and other chemicals.  Stay away from these type of processed foods.

But, remember to eat or you are going to be too hungry and ruin your diet at lunch or dinner, not to mention slowing your metabolism down because your body goes into starvation mode.  And you can’t operate well without food in the morning.  Try running a car on gas fumes!  It doesn’t work for long.  Even your kids will have attention or memory issues at school without a decent nutritious (that doesn’t mean sugar) breakfast.

Planning

Once you find the breakfast options that suit your diet and your taste buds, plan ahead so that these foods are on hand when you want them — and you can get and keep a healthy habit that will last a lifetime.  Stop running out of the house without food.  If you are a last-minute person in the morning, then plan the night before with nuts, seeds, cheese, peanut butter on that one slice of Dave’s Killer Bread or Ezekiel bread– and protein bars as options to take with you in the car.

EAT LOW-CARB NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR BREAKFAST!