Week 13: eat your wheaties
The Change:
Start every day with a healthy breakfast.
Roadmap for Success:
Eating a healthy breakfast sets the tone for your day. It helps you function optimally and encourages healthier habits throughout the day. To ensure that your breakfast is doing the best job it can for you and your health, follow these tips:
Make It Balanced: A healthy breakfast should contain lean protein, which helps to keep you satiated throughout the morning, and high-fiber carbohydrates, which provide you with energy, promote regularity, and keep you full. Good sources of lean protein include egg whites or eggs, low-fat or nonfat milk and yogurt, beans, and lean meat, such as Canadian bacon or ham. Good sources of fiber at breakfast include whole grain cereals and oatmeal, whole-grain bread, and fruit.
Shop for It: As you plan your grocery list for the week, make sure to plan for breakfast. Include foods that you know you’ll want to eat. And if your morning is typically rushed, look for fast options that are easy to prepare or carry with you, such as a piece of fruit and a low-fat Greek yogurt.
Schedule It: If you find it difficult to squeeze breakfast time into your mornings, start getting up fifteen to twenty minutes earlier to fit it into your day. Figure out what you plan on eating for breakfast the night before so that you don’t have to think about what to prepare in the morning.
Avoid Refined Sugar and Baked Goods: Many typical breakfast choices are overridden with sugar and refined flours and grains. Stay clear of cereals that are high in sugar, as well as bagels, pastries, donuts, muffins, and other baked goods made with refined flours. These are low in fiber and digest very quickly, causing blood sugar levels to spike, energy levels to plummet, and hunger levels to increase within only an hour or two of consumption.