Diet for Dummies: Part I – Introduction and Breakfast
This article is meant to break down the ‘battle’ of dieting and make it easy to chew. I bet when you think of dieting you think of hard work, no interesting foods and maybe Oprah. The truth is that most of our diets are so bad (especially in my generation) that just adding some normality and healthy foods to the diet can make a huge difference in how you look and feel. Anyway, let me break it down for you meal by meal how you can create a normal diet.
Breakfast
Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. No, this isn’t some lie made up so certain brands can cell cereal. Your breakfast is literally that, breaking the 8-12 hour fast from dinner. Your body needs to replenish what it lost during the night and fuel you for the day ahead. Lots of grains and fruit for energy and dairy and nuts for muscle repair and recovery will get you metabolism running.
I recommend eating breakfast as soon as close to waking as possible. I’ve found I feel more energetic and it stops my metabolism from slowing even further (I will write more on this in the future).
If you skip this meal all together, let me just say this: YOU ARE STABBING YOURSELF IN THE BACK! You are selling yourself majorly short of your goals, whether it be gaining, losing, maintaining your weight, putting on muscle, getting shredded or stripping fat.
I will try to counter some of your objections that you might have at this point.
- ‘I don’t have time for breakfast’
I am surprised how many people get up for work with only 30 minutes to prepare. This does not make much sense to me, I have always allowed myself at least an hour to prepare for the day, how can you expect to perform at your best that day if you don’t allow your thoughts to settle and plan your day? I would suggest to start with try eating just one quick and simple item. A muesli bar, whole grain muffin, protein shake, meal replacement or a piece of fruit. Each week add one more item; you may even want to do this more often as you will find yourself getting hungrier in the morning. Next start rising a little earlier to put together this little feast you will now be eating for breakfast.
- ‘I want to lose weight. So I am trying to eat less’
Hmmmm… where to start… Skipping meals causes your metabolism to slow, now your metabolism has already slowed from being a sleep and not eating, therefore waiting longer will cause your metabolism to plummet even further until your body reaches starvation. Once you body is in starvation it isn’t expecting any food, so when you do feed it, it quickly stores excess calories as fat. So much for weight loss hey?
A calorie deficient state is important for weight loss, however it is much healthier to achieve this by cutting out that slice of cake you had with your coffee or that coke you had with lunch or by doing more exercise.
- ‘I train in the morning, so I eat after’
Fasted cardio or training while in the short term has been shown to have some effect on a higher percentage of weight loss, is actually quite useless in the long term. Studies have shown that being fuelled by carbohydrates during training creates more effective training and hence more calories expended. Try to have something, even if it is liquid like a meal replacement or Gatorade.
- ‘I’m just not hungry in the morning’/’I can’t stomach food first thing when I wake’
I hope by now I’ve convinced you how important eating breakfast is, and I hope you will at least try to force a small amount of food down in the morning. Try something liquid or just a piece of dry toast. If you are throwing up after eating (involuntarily) there could be something wrong and I would seriously recommend talking to your doctor about it.
Ok guys, this has ended up being longer than I thought, so I’ll leave it there for now. Stay tuned for Part II: Morning Tea and Lunch. Be safe.
Part II – Morning Tea and Lunch
Part III – Afternoon Tea and Dinner
Related posts:
A dietary supplement containing high doses of the antioxidant vitamins C, E, beta-carotene, and zinc provides the first effective treatment for slowing the disease’s progression.