How to Feel Like Eating Breakfast First Thing in the Morning

Everyone tells us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that it should be a substantial meal. Yet, some people awaken not feeling hungry and have no desire to wolf down bowls of stodgy cereal and plates of dry toast. For such people, breakfast is more easily skipped until they feel their stomach has "woken up" later in the day. Whatever your reason, the breakfast supporters do have a point - breakfast fuels us for the day. Read on for some tips for the less-than-keen breakfast folk.

Steps
Get enough sleep. A lack of sleep or a bad night's sleep can make us feel nauseated and bloated. This will stave off feelings of hunger until later in the morning when tiredness begins to be mistaken for hunger. You are more likely to eat candy bars and fatty baked goods later in the day to quell the queasy stomach if this is why you skipped breakfast.
Map out a variety of choices for breakfast. Some of us dislike the same breakfast food on our plate every morning. If the thought of cornflakes, pop tarts or toast has you reaching for the car keys with an empty stomach, it's time to vary your choices. Check wikiHow on breakfast for lots of suggestions. Consider the following possibilities:
Fruits - sliced into your cereal, tropical platter, smoothies, etc
Cereals - oatmeal, homemade granola or berry granola
Breads - scones, crumpets, bagels, French toast waffles, homemade muffins
Spreads - exotic jams and "spreads" such as marmite
Eggs - the manner of preparing them is endless; add sauces such as salsa, soy sauce, and Tabasco for variety
Beans - baked beans, beans and rice, refried beans in a breakfast burrito, etc.
Meats - bacon and eggs, ham and eggs, sausage, chorizo, smoked fish, etc.
Drinks - smoothies (fruit/milk/soy), freshly squeezed juice, blended drinks, vegetable juices
Ethnic specialities such as breakfast tacos or Arroz Con Leche

Fruit & granolaVary the advice on substantial breakfasts. There is a saying: "Eat like a king for breakfast, a queen for lunch and a pauper for dinner." This makes sense if you are hauling hay or tilling crops with a hoe all day. It makes less sense if you are stumbling off to a desk and making minimal moves in front of your computer. If you have a more sedentary job, you are more likely to benefit from "grazing" - eating smaller amounts more frequently during the day. This might just make breakfast a palatable option for you as you will only need to consider eating half an apple or a cupful of strawberries or one piece of toast etc. to start out your day. As the day progresses, nibble on healthy portions here and there and have your larger meal later in the day.
Take care with the main meal. For many workers, dinner often ends up being the main meal. This could be impacting on your breakfast desire. If this meal is very important in your household (e.g., it is the only time the family sits together) or you simply enjoy making this the largest meal, make sure that you finish it before 7 or 8 pm at the latest. That way the food will digest before you go to bed and your body can then begin to work its way towards morning hunger. If you need late night snacks, try small portions such as cheese cubes, apple slices, a banana or hot drinks.
Check your lunch and dinner calories. If you are having both large lunches (especially in a business environment) and a large evening meal, you are probably removing your morning's hunger as the food is still being digested. Try eating a larger breakfast combined with making healthy choices both eating out and at home; while this will probably be hard at first, it might help to lessen the amounts you consume later in the day, thereby making it easier to eat more at breakfast. It will also make weight maintenance easier.
Exercise before breakfast. This might help you to work up an appetite. At the very least, drink a smoothie or a multi-fruit juice to give your body some vitamins and a small amount of fiber.
Allow enough time for breakfast. If you are feeling stressed or in a rush in the morning you may be less inclined to spend the time on a good breakfast. Try to prioritize sitting down for a relaxed meal (this can be true for all meals of the day.)
Drink juice at the very least. If you really feel too nauseated or averse to chewing, down a glass of juice (such as orange juice) to give your body some energy. Try it before you take a shower, get dressed etc.; it may increase your desire for eating something afterwards by waking up your stomach after a long fast. Avoid drinks with fat in them (such as milk) which takes longer to digest, and may give you a feeling of fullness/satisfaction, leading to skipping breakfast altogether. If your stomach is sensitive to the acid in, say orange juice or apple juice, try grape juice.
Don't snack at night. Some people, especially those who tend toward bedtime heartburn, stop eating a few hours before they retire. This makes them hungry enough to eat breakfast, and may also help them cut back on "empty" calories.

Tips
If you are skipping breakfast by choice because you think it is helping you to keep slim, you may be denying your body the energy it needs. A sensible, regular intake of food helps you to maintain an ideal weight because the body burns it for energy and doesn't feel the need to "hoard" food; denying yourself this boost first thing in the morning could actually lead to a reversal in your body's metabolism and make it sluggish and unable to burn the remaining food that you consume as effectively. Eat small portions of nutrient-rich food to improve your mood, outlook and metabolism.
If motivation or being a "night owl" rather than a "morning lark" are causing you to avoid eating breakfast, ask a member of the family or a friend to make you breakfast for a week, on the understanding that you need this help to get into a new routine and that it is a temporary arrangement to turn things around. Do something in return for them, such as making dinner that week or running errands for them. Maybe you'll even discover you like this arrangement and keep it up!
Stay at a Bed & Breakfast renowned for its great breakfast spreads. Not only will this whet your appetite but it'll inspire you. Throw in a spa treatment and hopefully the new, relaxed you will go home brimful of desire to make a decent breakfast!
If you have intolerances to cow milk, a milk alternative like soymilk might be a better option for you. Soy Milk, Rice Milk, Almond Milk, Hazelnut Milk and Oat Milk are all viable alternatives that are usually fortified with vitamins.

Warnings
If you are always very weak in the mornings or always wake up with a headache or nausea, then you should see your doctor to discount other health problems.
If your posture is bad, you may be having morning neck pain and headaches, which may put you off your food. See a doctor for recommendation to a physiotherapist.
Avoid using sugary and fat-filled snacks as energy boosters. They appear to work as they give an immediate buzz but this will fade quickly, leaving you irritable and seeking more. Replace with complex carbohydrates or protein foods that will take time to break down and continue to feed your body the energy it requires. This will keep your weight even also.
Children should never go without breakfast. It causes poor performance at school, creates a lasting bad habit and affects their learning chances in all areas of life. If you suspect a child at school or on your street is going without breakfast, offer to provide one or speak with the child's parents to see if they need some assistance. Be careful as to how you approach them because they may feel that their dignity is being insulted, but at the end of the day, a child's health is more important than an adult's misplaced sense of pride. Often the best way you can help is to donate money, food or help to your local school to provide breakfasts for children.

From : http://www.wikihow.com/Feel-Like-Eating-Breakfast-First-Thing-in-the-Morning

How Sugar Sensitivity Affects Your Blood Sugar Level

Sugar-sensitive people have a more volatile blood sugar reaction to eating sweet foods than other people.

Your blood sugar rises more quickly and goes higher. To your body, this feels like a panic situation and it responds by signaling your adrenal glands to release a jolt of adrenaline in order to give you extra energy to cope with whatever dangers you are facing.

The adrenaline, in turn, signals the pancreas to release a lot of insulin -- more than is actually needed for the amount of food you have eaten. The task of the insulin is to get the sugar out of your blood and into your cells where (or so your body supposes) it is needed to sustain your response -- be it flight or fight -- to the emergency.

The payload of insulin does its job well and the sugar is taken into your cells. The result of this evolutionarily sensible chain reaction, as you might guess, is that you experience a very quick and very steep drop in your blood sugar level. This makes you extremely vulnerable to the symptoms of low blood sugar: exhaustion, restlessness, irritability, and foggy thinking. What's more, your body experiences these dramatic peaks and valleys -- and the resulting symptoms -- several times a day.

Here is a graph to illustrate what happens to your blood sugar when you have coffee and a muffin for breakfast.

What are the consequences of these wild fluctuations in your blood sugar level?

The first is simple.

Your moods, like your blood sugar, fluctuate all day.

Sometimes you feel high and sometimes you feel low. You may feel focused and alert for thirty minutes after eating, but then you go blank when you answer the phone. Your calm and competent approach to life deserts you. You get frustrated and angry easily. (Sometimes I wonder if the vial that Dr. Jekyll drank was filled with sugar.) If you chart these ups and downs during the day, they might look like this.

Here is a graph which shows the peaks and valleys which result from your eating sweet foods throughout the day. Your blood sugar rises rapidly after you eat the food. Try to imagine what the graph would look like if you plotted a day of your own eating.

Once you understand how your sugar sensitivity aggravates low blood sugar, you can see that the problem you are living with is not all in your mind.

It is not a matter of attitude, willpower, or self-discipline.

Unless you stabilize your blood sugar, no amount of counseling or insight will help you feel better. That's the bad news.

The good news is that you can solve this problem by understanding three things:

1. Which foods will keep your blood sugar level stable and not send your adrenal glands into action unnecessarily.
2. Which foods will keep your insulin response slow and steady.
3. When to eat to keep your blood sugar level even, your energy up and your spirits high.

Let's Look at How Foods Affect your Brain >>

Source : http://www.radiantrecovery.com/bloodsugar.html

8 diet tips to get in shape

Source : http://www.traineo.com/article-tips-to-get-in-shape

It takes a lot of hard work and discipline to achieve an enviable toned body. But with a some basic nutritional knowledge you could achieve your goals faster than you thought. Getting the right balance of food, exercise and dedication may seem a hard task but putting your mind to it is the first hurdle. For starters, try following these eight essential nutrional tips

1. Eat more often!
That's right. By spacing out your meals to every 2.5 - 3 hours you will actually help yourself lose weight. Instead of eating 3 large meals a day, divide this into 6 smaller meals. Not only will the more regular flow of nutrients into your body help raise your metabolism (and burn more fat in the long-run), you will also feel less hungry.

2. Don't forget breakfast!
Research has shown that people who miss breakfast find it harder to lose weight. Breakfast, in short, is the most important meal of the day and is essential for getting your metabolism firing. Let this be your biggest meal of the day - after all, you've starved yourself for at least 8 hours whilst sleeping.

3. Take your time
It can take up to 20 minutes for your brain to register that your stomach is full after you have finished eating. Don't rush your food and savour every mouthful. The more slowly you eat, the fuller you're going to feel

4. Eat protein at every meal
Put simply, foods high in protein make you feel fuller quicker and for longer. Choose meats such as chicken, turkey, or low fat mince, or any type of fish. Protein is also essential for muscle growth and repair

5. Cutting the calories
To lose a pound of bodyfat, you must burn the equivalent of 3500 calories- now how many packets of crisps is that? If you cut your daily calorie intake by 500 calories a day (about a chocolate bar and a bag of crisps), you'll be losing 1 pound a week. Do this for 3 months and you've lost almost a stone! You don't need to become a calorie counting junkie- just remove foods from your diet you don't really need (however tempting). Increasing the amount of cardiovascular exercise will also help burn the fat. Start off slow and build up - try running for 30 minutes 3 times a week and if you've got more energy, try longer/more regular intervals.

6. Carbs are good
As much as you may have heard about the infamous Atkins diet, carbohydrates are NOT the enemy. We need carbohydrates for energy whether for short burts or long-sustained energy sources. Without carbohydrates our bodies may find it hard to adjust to this inherent energy deficit. You may have heard of the glycemic index. Without going into too much detail, the GI is a ranking of foods based on their immediate effect on blood sugar levels. Higher GI foods (i.e. more sugary) are required after exercise to replenish drained sources and lower GI foods for the rest of the time. As a rule of thumb, stick to complex carbohydrates which take a long time to digest and have a more prolonged release of energy. Foods rich in complex carbohydrates include vegetables, whole grains, and beans.

7. Drink Enough Water
Water is a fundamental part of our lives. It is easy to forget how completely we depend on it. Aside from aiding in digestion and absorption of food, water regulates body temperature and blood circulation, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, and removes toxins and other wastes. Among its other benefits, water plays a major part in weight loss. Since water contains no calories, it can serve as an appetite suppressant, and helps the body metabolize stored fat - it may possibly be one of the most significant factors in losing weight. If you find yourself getting hungry quickly, trying drinking a pint of water to curb your appetite.

8. Try not to eat before bed
If you're trying to lose weight, this is an excellent method to shift the pounds. Clearly our energy levels plummet whilst we sleep hence it is harder for our bodies to burn the excess calories eaten during the late evening. This is often a simple mistake 'dieters' make early on. Save your food for when you're awake!

An active lifestyle is above all the most important factor in losing weight

Blood Suger Level Testing Equipment

I had a chance yesterday to go pickup the one touch blood suger testing equipment. There were three packages. One was the actual testing device (no thanks to my insurance company had to fork up $60 to buy it myself since they only cover testing strips) , the other was the needles and the third was the testing strip. I tried it with their test droplets and it seemed pretty easy. Funny enough when I started poking my fingers I kept dropping the blood on the wrong side of the strip and the device kept complaining "not enough blood : retest" so after poking myself on the same finger 5 times I figured out how to use the thing. Doctor's orders I need to test several times during the day. On tuesday before lunch I tested it was 95. After eating subway turkey sandwich (with no cheese or sauces) it jumped to 145 which according to them is still the healthy range. They mentioned 270 and above or 60 below are dangerous. phew :-) Lets see how excercising over time changes the values on this.

Using the Threadmill morning and evenings

I'm on my first week and a half and so far I've met my goal of at least once a day excercising 40 minutes on the threadmill. The threadmill I'm using is the ProForm 580 from Sears. So far I'm happy with its performance and find it comfortable to jogg on. One thing that has greatly helped is placing a long wood piece on the edges of cabinets infront of me so I can use my laptop to watch movies. This helps pass time quickly and I focus on finishing laps while not noticing time going by. The indicator of a good excercise is that you sweat alot and I've been fortunate enough to have a system to do just that :-)

What I need to do plan

Excercising :

I'm starting out well. I'm pushing myself to excercise at least twice a day. Once in the morning before work and one right after work. For an average of 30-40 minutes each set while entertaining myself via movies on the laptop or reading so the time passes by more quickly. I hope to keep this up and see results over time. One area I like to also focus on are the thighs. Right now I notice when I walk I dislike the thigh muscles rubbing agains another. I imagine myself in a couple of months when I'm more lean where that would improve hopefully.

Back :

Also I do have backpain perhaps partially since this is a new thing and my body is trying to adjust so we'll see in a month or so. After one or two weeks of threadmill excercises I plan to increase the situps in order to support the back muscles better. the stronger the abs the less back muscles need to support everything and thus less pain or stress on them.

The Test Kit :

Today I'm picking up my body suger level kit. Doctor said I need to test myself three times a day (getting blood from finger ouch :( ) so in a week I need to log the suger levels from the test and see what they say.

Improvements in the process :

I like to keep a close track of how much I excercise and what my weigh is each day from today. This will help in seeing if there is progress and what works and doesn't. Also I'm going to keep track of what I eat with calories, suger, fat and cholestoral levels. Definetly increasing my fruits and vegtables.

Ok lets go !

Alrighty folks I'm starting a blog specific to health. The doctor has asked me to loose 20 pounds in 5 months and I'm taking this challenge seriously. So Here we go. On the top of the page I keep track of my progress on a daily basis including what I eat, if I do excercise etc. each day I try to make the number of good things consistant with the previous day.