Eat Breakfast!

We've all heard the importance of starting our day off with breakfast, for not only weight loss but also general health.  But I hear so many people say "I'm just not hungry when I wake up!'.  While I normally don't advocate eating if you aren't at least a little hungry, breakfast is one time I break that rule. 

Two reasons:

First of all, with breakfast you really are breaking the fast from the night before.  To make a long metabolic description really short, when you are fasting your body will begin to turn to muscle for fuel.  I don't know about you, but I've worked very hard for this muscle and I'd rather see it sitting on my body than being burned up as energy.  So to keep as much muscle on our bodies as we can it's very important to eat breakfast and keep the fasting state from hot having eaten since the night before as brief as possible.

Secondly, I usually work out in the AM.  I've done this both without eating breakfast and with.  I note a big difference between my energy level in the gym when I eat first as opposed as to when I don't.  I sure as heck don't want to spend any amount of time trying  to better my body without the ability to put max effort into it- I don't have enough hours in my day to be wasting time like that, and I'm sure you don't either.

As for the "I'm not hungry" excuse, it won't last long!  After a couple of weeks of eating breakfast as soon after rising as possible, you will start waking up hungry.  These days I usually wake up pretty much starving and breakfast has turned into what is often my biggest meal of the day.  This is a big departure from the gal who used to hoard up all of her calories all day to be able to eat a big dinner.

You don't have to start off with anything huge.  If your appetite is virtually nonexistent first thing in the morning, just have a few bites of a good-quality protein bar and a drink of water.  If you can handle a little more than that, have a scoop of protein powder in water and a small piece of fruit, or 1/4 cup of dry oats cooked and 1/2 C of cooked egg whites or egg beaters.  As time goes on, you'll be able to eat more.

Breakfast is too valuable meal with too many health and weight loss benefits to be skipping.  It is really, truly, no-kidding important that you eat breakfast.  So no more excuses!   Time to start making your morning re-fuel a habit!