Becoming A Breakfast Champion

I am the self-proclaimed "world's biggest breakfast champion". I love breakfast. I love breakfast foods. I love the morning and my morning ritual of a great workout followed by a hearty breakfast and my personal study time to feed and nourish my mind, as well as my body.

I am a person who loves variety, especially when it comes to my food. I often speak and consult with folks who eat the same things day in day out with little to no variety. How absolutely BORING! Not to mention how unwise. Even if those few foods they eat are super healthy, they are not getting enough variety in their meals to ensure that they are meeting all of their body's nutrient requirements. Now if the choice came down to eating the same thing for breakfast every day versus skipping breakfast, of course eat the same thing. However, living in the free-est, most abundant country in the world, no one should be in a situation where those are their only two choices. The possibilites and options are truly endless. If you happen to be one of those people that claim to dislike breakfast because they don't like breakfast foods in general or you get bored with the same old foods, hopefully I can shine a new light on breakfast food options. In the last article, I wrote about there being no strict rules for breakfast foods because any food can be eaten for breakfast.

Oatmeal: Many of us know that oatmeal is a very nutritious breakfast. Many of the clients I work with tell me that the only way they can eat oatmeal is with a bunch of brown sugar dumped in it or they only like the little instant oatmeal packets that come in a variety of flavors (the reason we like these so much is because they are loaded with sugar). A healthier way to have oatmeal is to buy "old fashioned oats" or even "quick cooking oats". Then cook them on the stove, in the microwave (I personally try to use this less often b/c oatmeal tends to overflow in the microwave), or in a rice cooker. Here are some ideas to jazz up your oats:

* cook oats in half water/half fruit juice (100% fruit juice - no sugar sweetened juices) for added sweetness. Use apple juice & add chopped fresh apples or other fresh or dried fruit. Use orange juice and add a few tablespoons of dried cranberries (craisins).

* cook oats in non-dairy milk such as vanilla or chocolate soy, rice, almond, oat milk. Add fresh fruit if desired

* add cinnamon & vanilla extract to oatmeal as it cooks. Add some raisins or dates if desired.

* add any fresh, frozen or dried fruit to cooked oatmeal. (if using frozen fruit add it to oatmeal as it cooks. Banana, apples, peaches, pears, apricots, nectarines, raisins, craisins, dates, berries of all kinds.

* add 1 - 2 tablespoons of vanilla or chocolate protein powder to cooked oatmeal.

* add a drizzle of honey or agave nectar to cooked honey.

* add a few tablespoons of non-fat/lowfat yogurt to cooked oatmeal

* add couple of teaspoons of nut-butter to cooked oatmeal (i.e. all - natural peanut butter, soy butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc.)

* soak oats in fruit juice or milk (or non-dairy milk) overnight in the fridge. Oats will soak up the liquid. Add a dollup of yogurt, some chopped fresh fruit &/or nuts. You'll have a refreshing cool & hearty breakfast. (Quick version of Bircher Muesli)

*Another thing I love to do is mix my hot cereals so I often make combo cereals like: oats & oatbran, oats & farina (cream of wheat), oats & grapenuts, oats & oatbran & farina, oats & 6-grain, etc. Be creative!

Other hot cereals I love are: farina (cream of wheat), cracked wheat, 6-grain, 9-grain, Irish oatmeal, oatbran, brown rice cereal, etc.


Stay tuned for more on creative breakfasts & becoming a breakfast champion

Melissa Guthrie -- Your Healthy Lifestyle Mentor

Breakfast Is For Champions

Most of us know that the “breakfast of champions” is Wheaties cereal, right? Well, Wheaties may have created a great slogan for themselves; however I find it highly unlikely that a person will become a champion as a result of eating the cereal. What I do know without a shadow of a doubt is that “Breakfast Is For Champions” or in other words, if a person wants to be a champion at anything then eating a healthy breakfast is the key.

Benefits of Breakfast
Increased metabolism throughout the day
Greater mental clarity and ability to focus
Greater sense of energy
Increase ability to stabilize blood glucose levels
More likely to maintain a healthy body weight
More likely to meet all of the body’s daily nutritional requirements
Decreased tendency to overeat later in the day and/or to make unhealthy food choices later in the day


I feel that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And one of the greatest of all nutritional mistakes is skipping breakfast.

Common Effects of Skipping Breakfast
Slow down the body’s metabolism and teach the body to become an efficient fat storing machine
Feel ravenously hungry by late morning
Tendency to feel as if you are chasing your hunger the rest of the day
More likely to overeat at lunch and most likely dinner
Greater tendency to make unhealthy food choices when you finally eat
Increased cravings for sweets and high fat foods
More likely to be deficient in meeting the body’s daily nutritional needs
Decreased ability to concentrate & focus
Low energy, fatigue & feelings of lethargy
Irritable & short-tempered

Common Excuses of Breakfast Skippers
I hear these excuses on a daily basis and bottom line is that for every excuse there is an equal or greater reason to eat breakfast.

”I don’t have the time…”
“I’m not hungry in the morning”
“If I eat breakfast, I feel hungrier throughout the day”
“I’m trying to lose weight & don’t want to eat too many calories, so I eat 1 or 2 meals per day.”
“I don’t like breakfast foods.”
“I don’t know what to eat.”
“All I need is coffee to get me going and I’m fine until lunchtime.”

Breaking It Down
I’m going to break down a few of these excuses and provide some insights and solutions so you can take these excuses and flush ‘em. They just don’t fly.


I don't have time... – I wake up before the crack of dawn to get ready. Then I’ve got to get the kids up & ready, get them fed and out the door to school, before I head off to work and with all the rushing around (and ever-too-common morning catastrophes) there just isn’t time for me to sit down and have breakfast.

This scenario or one’s similar are all too common and probably rank #1 in most frequently used by breakfast skippers. A little planning can go a long way here. I understand and agree that a person can only squeeze so much activity into a given period of time and something has to give unfortunately it really shouldn’t be breakfast because of the major negative effects it will have on one’s health & productivity in the rest of the day’s activities. Here are some solutions to consider…take a few minutes the night before to plan ahead. For example, set your wardrobe/clothing out ahead of time, pack a grab & go breakfast to take in the car, delegate some of the morning activities to some other capable person so that you have a little more time for YOU, re-evaluate all of your earlier morning activities and eliminate any that really are not necessary, look for ways to combine activities to free up some time.

I’m not hungry in the morning – most often the reason someone isn’t hungry in the morning is because they have consume too many calories too close to bed time. Since the metabolism slows down at night, those calories aren’t burned off as fast as during the day and thus, you may not feel hungry for a few hours after waking. If you are spacing your meals properly throughout the day then you will most likely wake up feeling hunger pangs or will feel them shortly after getting out of bed. In addition to no morning appetite, eating a heavy meal or over-indulging in unhealthy foods late at night will almost inevitably lead to weight gain and even nutrient deficiencies if too many unhealthy foods (fast foods & junk foods) take the place of more healthy, nutrient rich foods.

If this happens to be your challenge, then I encourage you to first lighten up on your evening meal and snacking. Set a time such as 7pm as your calorie consuming cutoff, such that as a rule of thumb you do not eat or drink anything (besides water) after 7pm. Then when you wake up if you do not feel hungry right away – within 1 hour of waking have something that is light and liquid based (this is typically easier to get down that something solid and you’ll be giving your body some calories to rev up that metabolism). For example, a 6oz – 8 oz low fat or nonfat yogurt, a small fruit smoothie, a glass of milk or orange juice with a scoop of protein powder mixed in, a meal replacement drink.

I’m trying to lose weight… -- Skipping breakfast (and eating a skimpy breakfast i.e. less than 300 kcal) in order to cut calories for weight loss is a plan destined for failure. Breakfast skippers commonly have greater struggles with body fatness than their breakfast eating counterparts. Skipping breakfast to cut calories is reversed thinking because it is impossible that this one meal could cause a person to get fat; let me explain. The body’s metabolism, if running properly, will be highest during the first ½ to 2/3 or the day, as the day goes on the metabolism slows to prepare for sleep (when it will recover, repair, & rejuvenate for the next day.). The calories consumed earlier in the day will be used up for energy as a result of the day’s activities. From another perspective, by taking in more calories during the day a person will have energy and thus be able to be more active and will be able to burn off those calories & then some. You are more likely to gain unwanted weight by skipping breakfast, getting too hungry and then over consuming later in the day when your body has less time and opportunity to burn off those calories. There was a study done back in the 1980s in which the subjects all required 2000 kcals/day to maintain their weight (Halberg 1983). In the first part of the study they had subjects consume all 2000 kcals at one meal in the morning. All subjects lost weight. In the second part of the study the subjects consumed all 2000 kcals in one evening meal. Four of the 6 subjects gained weight this time and the other two lost less weight than they had when they consumed the calories in the morning. Now I am in no way advocating just eating all of your calories at breakfast and calling it a day. The point I am making is that breakfast is actually an essential part of a fat reduction strategy (I am not a fan of the term diet.). If fat reduction is the goal then I recommend consuming the majority of your calories during your day time meals & mid-meals and having the lightest meal in the evening.

Often time when someone has been a breakfast skipper and/or breakfast skimper and they begin eating a more substantial breakfast they find that their craving for sweets and other less healthy foods either greatly diminishes or goes away completely and they are less likely to overeat at lunch and dinner. As well as they no longer felt the need to binge on unhealthy foods late in the evening, close to bed-time. I recommend consuming 4-6 small meals throughout the day, so if you’ve been a meal skipper and have only been eating 2 times a day, the first goal is to bump that up to 3 times and then to 4 and so on. That being the case, you’re breakfast meal should be at least ¼ of your total daily calorie needs. For example, if you require 1600 kcals/day to either lose weigh or maintain weight, then breakfast should be around 400 kcals. Consuming these calories at breakfast may be the missing link in your weight loss efforts as you teach your body to become a fat-burning furnace as opposed to a fat-storing vault.



I don’t like breakfast foods/I don't know what to eat – First of all who was it that put the rule out that only certain foods could be eaten at certain times of the day? Just look at how different cultures/countries eat at breakfast. In Asian countries it is not uncommon to have Miso soup, rice & tofu at the morning meal. In the British Isles, broiled tomatoes, boiled &/or fried potatoes, & a variety of meats & eggs are standard breakfast fare. In some places in South America, pasta dishes or rice & beans are eaten for breakfast. If you are not a fan of some of the American standards like cold cereal & milk, toast & eggs, pancakes, waffles, hot cereals like oatmeal, omelets, fruit & yogurt, then I encourage you to start thinking outside the box. You can eat any type of food at any time of the day and your body will still function. Some out of the box breakfasts might be: leftovers from dinner such as a casserole, pizza (especially good if it is made on a whole wheat pita bread crust), a PBJ or PB and banana sandwich on whole grain bread, a turkey sandwich, a tortilla wrap, a quesadilla, a baked potato topped with lowfat cottage cheese & broccoli & a little pasta sauce. Anything goes.

If you ever find yourself in the situation where you are limited in your breakfast option and it comes down to the choice between skipping breakfast and eating something that is not so healthy like coffee cake, a pastry, doughnut, or fast food breakfast – I say eat something. Give your body the energy to rev of your metabolism and it will burn off the calories, just focus on making better food choices the rest of the day. I, myself, make it a point to always have a healthy “grab ‘n go” meal with me in my bag or purse so that if I meet with the unexpected at any time during the day I know I have something healthy to fuel my body. It takes a little planning but for me it is worth it because it keeps me right in line with my health and fitness goals.

In the upcoming edition of Your Healthy Lifestyle Mentor we will be continuing on the topic of ‘Breakfast Is For Champions” by discussing more creative breakfast ideas, the hot topic of breakfast cereals and of course, some of my favorite recipes.

Till next time. Healthy Eating…Healthy Living!

Your Healthy Lifestyle Mentor – Melissa Guthrie

Celebrate National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition Month.

March 5th - 9th is National School Breakfast Week. Hooray to that. A healthy breakfast is so vitally important for proper health no matter a person's age. Breakfast gets your metabolism reved up so you burn more fat & calories through out the day. Skipping breakfast slows down your metabolism and can lead to your body becoming an effecient fat storage facility -- YIKES! Breakfast helps your brain function optimally as well -- Very important for those young learning minds as well as those adult minds on the job.


How Much Is It Worth? The Car, The Dog, My Body

I am often amazed at how little people know about how to properly care for their bodies. For heaven's sake, most people know more about how their automobile functions, all of its parts and how to keep it running for ideally for well over 100K miles, yet they can't tell you what their resting heart rate is or what their percent body fat is and most of them don't even know what their percent body fat should be, and they have no clue how fast they can walk or run a mile. You better believe they know how fast their car goes from 0 to 60 mph. Most people don't even know all of the parts that make up their body, they don't know the names of their muscles, how they function, they may know the names of their inner body organs, but most don't know exactly what the organs do or how they work in synergy or how proper nutrition keeps them working optimally.

Then their are those folks who are animal lovers and they go to amazine lengths to make sure that their pets are supremely healthy. They spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars a month ensuring that their pets have the best veteranarian care, the top of the line pet food, and they dedicate time everyday to their pets health and nutrition and take time weekly or monthly to research & study better ways to care for their pet, all the while neglecting their own incredible, priceless body. The cars can be replaced, even though our pets hold a special place in our hearts and in our families they too can be replace. You, my friend, cannot be replaced you are the one and only. How much is your body and your LIFE worth? I'll say it again...PRICELESS!! Furthermore, the cars and the pets are not of much value to us if our own health is so poor that we cannot care for or enjoy them. So I encourage you to re-assess how you are caring for you own body and make it a priority to start educating yourself on this priceless body temple you are living in. Here are some educational resources for you to dive into during this magnificent month of March -- National Nutrition Month.


GET Smart! Educate Yourself

If you'd like a list of nutrition books -- everything from nutrition for kids to nutrition for treating illness to healthy eating on the go -- there is an extensive book list on the American Dietetics Association website www.eatright.com. Look for the tab that says "Good Nutrition Reading List." There is another tab "Nutrition Fact Sheets" that has a lot of great articles on everything from artificial sweetners, fats & oils, nutrition for kids, grains & pastas, etc.

www.nutrition.gov has some great information articles as well. I liked what I found under the link "Smart Nutrition 101."

Another great resource website is that of my friend & colleague, Deanna Latson. She's got articles on everything from sports nutrition to childhood nutrition to organic nutrition. She also host education teleseminars. www.gotohealth.com


This should give you a great start on gaining greater knowledge and wisdom about your amazing body and how to take the very best care of it nutritionally and otherwise. Check back to this article throughout the month of March for additional websites & books & resources that will be posted on a weekly basis.

To Your Best Health!!

Your Healthy Lifestyle Mentor -- Melissa Guthrie