In our last blog entry we talked about how important a healthy diet is and we offered 8 Great Nutritional Guidelines to help you maximize your gym workout (click HERE for last week’s article!). As promised, we are going to spend the next few weeks fleshing out these guidelines, giving some explanations, dietary examples and great recipes that will make healthy eating easy.
This week we’re going to focus on
Guideline #2: Eat breakfast within 15 minutes of waking up.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
We’ve already talked to you about the importance of eating breakfast(see our entry from Feb 3 by clicking HERE). But why exactly does the TIMING of breakfast really matter? Women’s Health Magazine interviewed Jacqui Justice, clinical nurse specialist and a nationally renown nutritional expert, who agrees: “[F]irst thing’s first: Eat breakfast! And not once you get to work—we’re talking first thing in the morning. Justice recommends eating within an hour of waking up, and if you can get in some water then, all the better. Both ramp up your metabolism by telling your body it doesn’t need to conserve energy (aka calories). If your stomach is uneasy in the morning, at least drink some water. Just remember that the longer you wait to eat breakfast, the longer you wait to burn calories.”
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
But not so fast, DUFFNATICS. Don’t think that all breakfasts are created equally! Living in the Charleston and Mount Pleasant area means that it’s all-too-easy to run into Page’s for some Crab Cake Benedict. But remember, NOT ALL CALORIES ARE THE SAME! No matter how much you lift at the gym or how many miles you run, it’s essential to make sure you are getting all three macronutrients (carbs, proteins & fats) BUT not too many of either three.
According to NutritionMD.org, “Too little or too much of any of these macronutrients may result in poor health and a variety of diseases. In the past, research on nutrition and disease frequently focused on the problems caused by diets that provided too little nutrition. However, eating too much has become a far greater threat to health…”
And while limiting fatty foods like bacon seems like common sense, it’s also important to curtail your cravings for carbs (we will get more into this next week when we discuss Guideline #3: Keep Meals meals under 20grams of Carbohydrates). So for now just trust us when we recommend you say “NO” to that extra slice of toast or a double stack of flapjacks!
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
With all this in mind, we are offering one of our favorite healthy breakfast recipes from our own recipe guru, Mary Duffy:
For more recipes and ideas stop by the front desk and check out our “Recipes” binder, packed with fresh ideas.
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