Diet is the most influential aspect of your health. It is responsible for your energy level, focus, performance, mood, and metabolism—an essential part of weight loss. With so much affected by what you eat, wouldn’t everyone want to be eating the optimal food? Unfortunately this isn’t so, and more often than not, people are loading themselves with four, five, six, or more thousand calories a day, or even worse, only eating 1,000 calories a day. Normal caloric intake is usually from 2,000 to 3,000. Your body needs food and energy, but to be proficient and in top working order all the time, it needs the right foods and the right amounts of foods.
Let’s focus on breakfast. I’m sure everyone has heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well, it’s no joke; breakfast really is the most important meal of the day and should be the largest. Eating a good breakfast is going to boost your metabolism, which will help maintain your energy and get your body burning fat throughout the day. Think of your body as a wood stove. Optimally, you’d like to keep a constant fire burning inside, but in the morning after a cold winter night, that fire is just flickering and not doing too good a job keeping you warm. This is how your body works, with food being the fuel. After a night’s sleep, your body is cool, and your energy is low. Nothing is going to spark up a long-lasting flame like a good hardy breakfast. Smaller meals throughout the day will help to maintain the flame.
Your breakfast should be 400 to 700 calories, depending on your activity levels and goals, and should consist of a good balance of carbohydrates and proteins. The carbs will help maintain your energy level, and the protein will help your body pack on the muscle. Eat eggs, ham, yogurt, english muffins with peanut butter, and oatmeal. Eat your oatmeal! Studies have shown oatmeal has countless positive effects on your cardiovascular system and even promotes weight loss.
With breakfast, anything is better than nothing, so just make sure you eat. Ever wonder why at 12 am you’re dragging to class and just want to crawl back into bed? Well it is probably because you are not eating right or not eating at all. If you don’t have enough time, grab a bagel to go—it sure is better than nothing.
There is another benefit to eating a good breakfast! Breakfast is going to prevent you from indulging later on in the day. By filling up early, you are less likely to get unhealthy cravings later on in the day, so why not eat a meal that is going to help you lose weight during the day, and prevent you from gaining weight later.
Just remember, your diet is the key to your weight loss and state of health. In order to accomplish those goals you should have set, you have to be conscious about what you are eating or what you are not eating and work to come up with a healthy eating routine that will help you get to where you want to be.
