Week 7:
Breakfast Is Key
Foundation For Balanced Meals Through The Day, Drink 64 ounces Water
per day, Walk 30 to 40 Minutes 3 to 4 times per week, Do Weight
Resistance Exercises 2 times per week.
3 Meals per
day, with 2 to 3 snacks in between if you choose, are important to
fueling your metabolism and keeping your body efficiently energized
and fit. Breakfast is the foundation of this process because the
body has been at rest during your 6 to 8 hours of good rest. It
should have digested your prior day's food and is ready to get
fueled for the new day. You do not need to eat the minute you awake,
but within an hour or two of when you rise. High
quality choices are light or lowfat yogurts, fresh or frozen fruit,
whole grain cereal with skim milk, my favorite cooked oatmeal, egg
beaters or 2 egg whites with 1 whole egg omelette, and multi grain
or buckwheat waffles or pancakes with sugar free syrup. You may
combine these choices to make a great breakfast depending on your
appetite. If in a hurry, in a blender combine fresh or
frozen berries and/or banana, 1 cup skim milk or 1 cup lowfat/nofat
plain yogurt or 1 cup light fruit yogurt, a little ice and water if
using yogurt, then blend to drink. Take in a to go cup and
enjoy. The KEY is getting high quality foods into your body to get
your body and metabolism going for the day. People often ask why
they are hungrier if they eat breakfast-because their body is
functioning efficiently and you should be hungry for lunch 3.5 to 4
hours later; but you will be satisfied with a moderate lunch as
opposed to starving yourself until late afternoon then overeating
because you are too hungry. A fueled metabolism helps the body burn
fat and creates an appetite every 3.5 to 4 hours. So a snack may be
appropriate mid morning depending on breakfast time and mid
afternoon depending on lunch and dinner times. The other important
point about breakfast and meals is that not eating for long periods
of time causes the body to store fat as it knows it will need energy
to get through the day and if you do not feed it good food, it will
store fat as its reserve energy source. That is just how the body
works. Yes, it stores fat and slows down the metabolism which is
exactly what we do not want. High quality foods throughout the day
are key to a fit lean body.
Walking also
helps charge that metabolism and burns fat so keep walking, a toned
muscle requires more calories to maintain that tone so do your
weight resistance exercises;
and WATER is
key to keeping us hydrated which is also a must for a fit body.
You may refer
to our Oct 17,2006 WKBN Show Highlights on Breakfast, and review the
prior 6 Weeks to catch up on our 8 Week Series Fasing Into Fitness.
Have a
Happy Valentine's Day and to those love handles which I define as
getting a handle on developing a fit body. It is not about being a
size 2 or 4, it is about feeling strong, reducing your % of body fat
to a healthy % (women between 20% to 24%, men 16% to 20%), enjoying
a good night's rest, and having energy throughout the day.
