Many of us have been trying to lose weight, with some success then, oops, we gain it back. Sound familiar?
Have you tried every one of the latest and greatest diet plans? Are you tired of the ”yo-yo” experience that you experience when you lose weight, just to gain it back? Have you been eating low-fat everything and still not the weight or size you want to be?
Studies show that whether you gain weight or lose it can be determined by what you choose to eat for breakfast. Many people report to me that they skip breakfast, that they are just not hungry when they arise. These folks have not finished digesting their dinners or late-night snacks and with the undigested food in their digestive system, their bodies do not want more food. This undigested food can lead to reflux and obesity.
One way to confirm your digestion is functioning well is that morning hunger. When you skip meals your body switches into survival mode, burning less calories. If you are not hungry in the morning ask your health care practitioner for help.
Do you want to lose weight and reduce body fat without counting a calorie or jumping on to that stationary bicycle?
Eating a breakfast high in healthy fats from good quality eggs, meat or fish and low carb veggies will jump start your fat burning metabolism, helping you burn the calories you eat the rest of the day.
That high carbohydrate diet you are now eating will cause your body to hold onto fat and you will have an increased appetite, craving more carbs and feel fatigued all day. According to research in the International Journal of Obesity, the timing and choices you make for your meals – especially breakfast – is a key to achieving your weight loss goals.
Our ancestors did not get their breakfast out of a cereal box; they thrived on foods like eggs, meat and fish. Remember those days staying at Grandma’s house, waking up to the smells of a breakfast of eggs and maybe some meat left over from dinner? I sure do, and I remember all of the energy I had to play stickball and football with my friends.
We are inundated these days with commercials telling us to eat low-fat granola, Cheerios, Wheaties and Frosted Flakes; they say they are grrreat!for you since they are high-fiber.
Well, so is the cereal box; at least the box has less sugar! These carbs are empty calories; they upset your metabolism resulting in obesity, diabetes, fatigue, depression and poor health.
An analogy I use is the choices we make and which direction they lead us down the ”hallway of life.” We can start our days with a breakfast like granny’s, some eggs and bacon and head down the hallway towards health and longevity.
Our other choice is to start our days with sweet empty calorie cereals and head down life’s hallway towards ”it,” whatever ”it” may be – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or just general poor health!
As author and physician Dr. Al Sears, MD says, ”put down that cereal spoon and grab a fork;” breakfast is almost ready! One of my favorite breakfast foods is farm fresh eggs. These are not ”old” grocery store eggs, but from my neighbors down the road. The chickens get to graze around the field and are not crammed into cages many levels high.
The battery-caged hens that produce the eggs you find at the supermarket are living in a crowded stressful environment. The tight, crowded cages they exist in keep them from their natural behaviors, such as nesting, grooming and laying their eggs in private. Animals are sensitive to stress as we are and the eggs produced under these conditions just aren’t as nutritious as you neighbors chicken’s eggs. Cage-free eggs have been found to have two-to-three times more Vitamin A; three-to-four times more omega-3 fatty acids; three times more Vitamin E; and four-to-six times the Vitamin D than the battery-caged eggs.
There are many studies confirming that eggs are the perfect food. We can digest the protein in eggs easier that the protein in meat and fish or dairy. Eggs contain all of the essential amino acids and they are rich in B vitamins, iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamin A. Egg yolks are rich in a compound, phosphatidylcholine (aka lecithin) which helps keep cholesterol soluble in your blood and keeps you from absorbing too much. According to many studies, eggs play an important role in keeping your cholesterol healthy.
One study at Harvard followed 118,000 men and women for 14 years and found no ”evidence of an overall significant association between egg consumption and risk of CHD or stroke in either men or women.” In another study, those people who ate four or more eggs per week had lower serum cholesterol than those folks that ate one or less eggs per week.
Try some poached eggs over some goat milk chevre, with some steamed kale on the side. You will find that you have more energy and your general health will improve…you will be walking away from ”it” down the hallway of life! If you are not hungry when you get up consult your health care practitioner.
