What you havin' for breakfast?

People keep asking me what I eat!  

And to be perfectly honest it's not always that great.  I love ice cream and even the occasional trip to McDonald's.  But! ...and here is the catch, I know what foods do to my body when I eat them.  

For example: Many health professionals, personal trainers & dietitians recommend oatmeal for breakfast.  Ok fine, seems simple enough. Most people then go right out and ruin this advice by buying Quaker Oats single serving apples and cinnamon packets that contain up to 35 grams of sugar!  Not ok!

Oatmeal is recommended because it is warm and easily digestible, yet still has enough fiber and roughage to be absorbed into the body slowly.  To break the fast in the morning we want to warm the engine up slowly.  Whole grains served hot accomplish this nicely.  Don't be fooled into the "whole grain" cereal myth.  Those grains in cereals are processed and you then douse them with cold milk.  A double no-no.  Try steel cut or old fashioned style oats.  They take longer to cook but you can always make a batch up on Sunday and then reheat a serving every morning before work.

• To loose weight you first need to take in less calories than you use. After that it is the quality of the foods and the rate of absorption that affect how your body utilizes the energy.
• No white bread, pasta etc.  This is a highly processed form of carbohydrate meaning it is basically predigested.  When you eat this it presents itself to the body like sugar.  It's absorbed too fast, causes your insulin to spike and is then stored as fat.
• No fruit juice or soda.  It's sugar. See above.
• I have two caffeinated beverages a day.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon.  When I'm sleeping enough and eating well I find I don't need them.

What I eat could be considered a modified Mediterranean/Atkins style diet. 

FOR ME a perfect day of eating it would look like this:

6:00am bowl of oatmeal with fruit for flavor, NO ADDED SUGAR, large green tea

9:00am egg white vegetable omelet with a little salt and pepper

12:00pm lean turkey meat and cooked green vegetables possibly a baked sweet potato. Take a multi-vitamin

3:00pm strong coffee and peanut butter and jelly on 9 grain bread. Last carbs of the day.  Only meat, vegetables and water until bed.  If you are not working out this eve then a hand full of nuts could replace the PB&J.

6:00pm green vegetable salad or steamed vegetable and baked or broiled fish or chicken.  Make friends with your local chinese restaurant, I'm sure they will make "steamed vegetables with steamed chicken" for you.

9:00pm protein shake or fruit or a scoop of peanut butter OR some other healthy snack before getting 8 hours sleep. Sleep is KEY!

I play by the 80:20 rule meaning that I stick to the above 80% of the time. 

• buy organic when possible
• dairy is NOT great.  Look to reduce to one serving a day
• keep red meat to a minimum (like once a month)
• learn about the benefits of quinoa and kale
• Buy Dr. Atkins' book on the Atkins diet. 
• Buy Bill Philip's book titled Body For Life

Send me any questions you may have!