2012 Brand New YOU Series – Part 2

by Susan Cross | Posted: January 4th, 2012 | No Comments »

Welcome back to the 2012 Brand New YOU series. In this series, I’m sharing important tips to help you meet your 2012 nutrition-wellness goals.

Brand New YOU TIP 2:

BREAKFAST. When we wake up, we are meant to ‘break fast’ since our bodies have been fasting all night. We need breakfast to restart our engines. It’s the key to keeping our blood sugar/insulin levels – the holy grail to consistent energy and an efficient metabolism – working optimally from the beginning of and throughout the day.

Your body has its own innate wisdom. When you skip breakfast, the brain sends a message to the command post: famine alert! Begin lock down mode! In this mode, your body protects itself from perceived starvation, the weight doesn’t budge. The body holds on to fat instead of burning it efficiently. Worse, long-term excessive fasting damages your overall hormonal system.

Breakfast starts our day, gives us fuel and helps us to lose weight. Yes, lose weight. Many studies have shown that people who eat breakfast not only lose more weight, but they also keep that weight off. They also have a lower BMI index and are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Whenever any woman tells me that she just can’t lose weight, we uncover that 99% of the time, she is skipping breakfast and running on empty.

Instead, when you start your day with breakfast, your body efficiently uses the nutrients you take in. Breakfast calories burn off and, when they are nutrient-rich super foods, they don’t even count. I call breakfast the free meal. When we eat at the right times and for maximum efficiency, we can eat MORE and lose more.

How to begin and what to eat? We know it is hard in the beginning, if you are a breakfast-skipper. The goal for metabolism boosting is to have protein with every meal, and to eat every 3 hours. Eat first thing in the morning and a second breakfast mid-morning. You will still be eating lunch, light dinner and two snacks. We promise your sweet cravings will soon become a thing of the past.

Please visit our recipe section, under Nutrition, for wonderful nutrient-rich superfood breakfast choices.