January 18, 2009

Whether you call it a resolution or a goal or whatever, I know that many of us – most of us – are trying to eat better this New Year. I certainly am trying to. I wonder how you're all doing so far now that we're a little over 2 weeks into January?

For me, the first step toward a healthful day of eating is a great breakfast followed by a second great breakfast! First breakfast on weekdays is always a 6 am smoothie made with vitamin powder, ground flax seed, unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, a splash of juice (orange or cranberry usually), and frozen blueberries and strawberries. That's it. I whip it up in my new pink KitchenAid blender and I'm set for 3 hours.

Second breakfast is around 9 or 9:30 and is a serving of McCann's Quick Cooking Irish Oatmeal nuked in the office microwave. I do splurge and put a pat of real butter (gasp) on it. I heard from our Aunt C that her daughter-in-law puts a drizzle of olive oil on her oatmeal, so I tried it today, and it wasn't bad!  It needed a dash of salt, but I think I could get used to it.   Weekend breakfasts may have a little more variety since the time crunch isn't in turbo mode. I might skip the smoothie and have a banana, and then later have a couple of scrambled eggs on wheat toast. No matter what though, I never skip breakfast.

We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I totally believe that to be true. Without a breakfast of some kind to get your body going and rev up your metabolism, you start the day out sluggish and droopy. It's been shown that kids who eat breakfast do better in school and tend to be healthier overall. And did you know that eating breakfast will actually help you lose weight? We might think that skipping a meal saves those calories and that we're ahead of the game, but that isn't only untrue, it has just the opposite effect. Want more info? Check out this WebMD article on losing weight by eating breakfast.

I hear all of you out there saying “I'm not hungry in the morning so I've never been able to eat breakfast.”  I found some interesting info on WikiHow that will tell you how to change that, and show you how to feel like eating breakfast.  Just because you haven't been a breakfast eater in the past doesn't mean that you can't become one!  Maybe the solution is something as simple as changing what you perceive breakfast food to be.  You don't have to eat cereal or eggs; anything that you enjoy for dinner or lunch can become breakfast.  I went to RecipeZaar and searched for breakfast, and found 1970 recipes!  There has to be *something* there that you would enjoy eating in the morning!

Vegetarian Big Breakfast (Flickr photo by Ellesil)

LilSis, I know that love of breakfast is something that you and I share, along with Big T!  I still remember that great breakfast he made for me and SisMama and all of you when we were visiting last June…biscuits, roasted potatoes, fruit salad, and eggs with mushrooms and asparagus!  There's something really awesome about someone making you breakfast, don't you think?  What's your favorite breakfast, LilSis?

~BigSis