image from budzywudzy

For the past couple of weeks, I have managed to eat breakfast every single day. Admittedly it is only because my husband makes me something and forces me to eat every morning. I’m getting better, though, and it’s slowly becoming a more commonplace event. I foresee me actually thinking about it on my own and taking matters into my own hands before long. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the break.

Since getting back into the habit of a daily breakfast, I’ve been thinking more and more about what I am eating as opposed to the simple act of eating something. While I was content with a daily peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast for a few days, it didn’t take long for me to realize that there are healthier and more beneficial options. The recent reminder of the superfoods via this article gave me a nice little kick that I needed.

Do you know that “an apple a day can keep the doctor away”? Well that’s what this famous saying indicates. Now maybe it won’t keep the doctor away completely but it sure has some tremendous health benefits. It’s considered by Dr. Steven Pratt, MD to be a “superfood.” A “superfood” is a whole food. And whole foods are foods that are unprocessed or are minimally processed in such a way that none of the nutritional characteristics have been intentionally modified. For example, canned foods are processed.

Not only have apples been proven to be potent weapons against cancer, heart disease, asthma, and type 2 diabetes but other fruits and vegetables have some remarkable health benefits as well. For instance, strawberries and raspberries contain a compound called ellagic acid. One of the best cancer fighters Mother Nature ever created. When eating these fruits this compound enters the bloodstream to help vanquish cancer cells on contact.

Did you know that just by eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast or eating pears you can regulate your cholesterol? They can help keep your LDL (bad) cholesterol below 130 and HDL (good) cholesterol above 65. There are a host of other fruits and vegetables and many other foods that can be attributed to assisting in developing a healthy body.

Here’s some other “Superfoods” that can improve your health and even boost your immune system to a healthy level:

* Avocados are believed to help lower cholesterol and they are rich in magnesium (an essential nutrient for healthy bones)

* Beans such as pinto beans, black beans and lentils are another series of foods to lower cholesterol, combat heart disease, stabilize blood sugar, reduce obesity, relieve constipation and lessen the risk of cancer.

* Blueberries are a small but mighty nutritional force. They combine more powerful antioxidants than any other fruit or vegetables. Although they have many health benefits, the one thing they are known for most is the ability to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.

* Broccoli is a great cancer fighter and very beneficial in many other ways as well.

* Dark chocolate is a real surprise to most as being a healthy food. I’m glad its regarded as healthy to eat because I love the taste of it. It’s a source of phytonutrients which act as an antioxidant that helps protect our DNA and inhibits the growth of unwanted blood vessels. Make sure you buy the right kind of dark chocolate, one that isn’t as processed and has a high cacao content.

* Garlic is a great food for fighting cancer.

* Honey is beneficial in maintaining optimal blood-sugar levels.

* Kiwi is an antioxidant all-star. It offers an unusual array of health-promoting substances. One very important thing it does is it promotes heart health by helping to lower triglycerides levels and reducing platelet hyperactivity.

Other superfoods that weren’t mentioned above but also display health promoting properties are - oranges, pomegranates, pumpkins, wild salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey (skinless breast), walnuts, and low-fat or nonfat yogurt. These, along with many other healthy foods, have been described as “Miracle Medicines”.

In an effort to concentrate more on the quality of food that I eat, I am going to start having some oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit for breakfast. Thankfully, we already eat most of the other foods listed when they are readily available (such as berries, avocados, etc.). I still think it’s important to make sure that we eat them on a regular basis and do away with the other stuff that doesn’t offer as many benefits to my overall health and well being.

The next big thing is going to be to convince my children of the importance of the superfoods. I’ll let you know how it goes. Stay tuned.

Do you get up in the morning and break the fast that your body has been in since your last meal?

Do you prepare and consume a healthy meal before starting your day? Or do you simply grab a cup of coffee on the run and hold off on eating until somewhere around lunchtime?

In other words, which of the following closest represents your “breakfast of champions“?

What’s for breakfast - coffee? Most mornings, we barely glance at the kitchen. Fixing breakfast takes up precious time that’s in short supply. But there’s ample evidence that the simple act of eating breakfast — every day — is a big part of losing weight, lots of weight.

source

It’s confession time.

*takes deep breath*

Despite knowing the benefits of eating breakfast every morning, I have spent my days living strictly on cups of coffee until lunchtime for the past few months.

[ That’s only part one of the confession. ]

Despite knowing the harm that no breakfast does to the body and metabolic rate, I have continued doing this and - thus - managed to gain some very unwanted pounds.

[ Ok. Almost there. Hang with me. ]

Despite knowing that no one is perfect and accepting the extra pounds as part of me and learning to love my body for what it can do instead of what it looks like, I want to get rid of these very unwanted pounds. Now!

[ Now I’m done. ]

Believe it or not, I have proven to myself (instead of just relying on the numerous articles and studies confirming it) that eating breakfast aids in fat loss and maintaining a healthy weight. When I started my journey to health, I learned all I could about proper nutrition and the very first thing I discovered was the importance of eating breakfast. I incorporated into my daily routine gradually and guess what? I started feeling better physically, I had more energy throughout the day, I was more focused and productive, and I found that a light dinner in the evening was enough to satisfy me. The best part was when I noticed that the more regular I was with eating breakfast, the more fat (weight) that would drop off each week.

Eating breakfast was a habit that I had to form and it didn’t happen overnight. To be perfectly honest, I fought it tooth and nail for months before really giving it a fair shake. I also didn’t start out eating a bowl of multi-grain cereal with chopped walnuts and raisins with a drizzle of flaxseed oil and honey with a side order of fruit. I had to work up to a breakfast of that magnitude and it took almost a year. In the meantime, I felt accomplished just to inhale a banana as I was running out the door, always five minutes late for work.

Just as easily (or not) as habits are formed, they seem to be twice as easy to drop like a hot potato. As much as I hate to admit it, that is where I am at right now with breakfast. I dropped it. I dropped it hard. I dropped it so hard that it shattered into a million pieces. I am back to the point of nursing a pot of coffee every morning and eating my first bite of food somewhere around lunchtime. Now my midsection is showing the ill effects of an important habit come undone.

It’s time to renew the breakfast commitment. The benefits are too great to ignore. The results are too desirable to resist. It’s my hope that renewing an old habit is much easier than developing one from scratch. Scratch is where I will start, though.

Are you ready to develop the healthy habit of eating breakfast?

Here are some simple rules that I will be following in order to renew my breakfast habit. Please feel free to join me if you are looking to do the same.

* Start Small. Don’t stress over how much you eat for breakfast in the beginning. If it’s just a handful of nuts, a small bite of toast, a quarter of a banana - it doesn’t matter. Just get into the habit of eating something for breakfast every single day.

* Keep taste buds happy. Don’t try eating foods that aren’t familiar to you or that you don’t like. If breakfast food doesn’t appeal to you at all, then - by all means - eat whatever is appealing to you. It will be difficult to form the habit if you are forcing down food every day that makes you want to gag. Never do that.

* Get Bigger. Once you are to the point of easily consuming something in the mornings to break the fast, build up to a bigger portion gradually until you are having a regular sized meal in the morning. This will actually be easier than you think. Once you are putting something into your body every day, you will naturally become hungrier and hungrier first thing in the day. This is a good thing.

* Make Healthy Substitutions. When you become very comfortable with your morning routine, then (and only then) you can start looking at your breakfast choices and make healthy substitutions. If you are having a slice of cold pizza every morning, maybe now you can start choosing something a little healthier like a turkey on wheat sandwich. Your mileage will vary with this step, obviously, because we are all different and we all have different preferences when it comes to food. The key is to focus on moving forward constantly, always improving upon your options.

* Become one of those people who preaches on why everyone needs to be eating breakfast. Believe it or not, you will become one of those people. Don’t resist it. Your efforts will be futile.

* Don’t backslide. The most important part of the equation is right here. If you do end up backsliding and find yourself nursing a pot of coffee for breakfast every morning, then you’ll soon find yourself with some layers of fat around your midsection that bug the crap out of you and eventually writing a blog entry like this one in an attempt to regain a little bit of dignity and self respect.

Any undertaking is much easier when broken down into smaller pieces. The same goes for developing the habit of eating breakfast. Truth is, I’ve already started. Every morning this week I have had a peanut butter (100% Organic and All-Natural) and jelly (actually, it’s 100% spreadable fruit) sandwich (on 100% multi-grain bread). While I look forward to the days of my multi-grain cereal with nuts and raisins, I will take my baby steps and work my way up. After all, it doesn’t matter what I eat as long as I eat. Right?

How important is weight training to the cyclist

Since penning my previous post explaining why you (and I) need to be lifting weights, I’ve been having this constant back-and-forth argument with myself: Do I ramp up my weight training or focus on cycling?

Let me explain.

I love riding my bike. For the past few years I’ve spent quite a bit of time cycling. It started very casually when I was 30 years old. My husband and I bought some cheap (unnamed) superstore brand mountain bikes and rode them a handful of times. The next year we graduated to a hybrid type of bike and rode a little more than a handful of times. The following year my husband found both of us road bike frames at yard sales for next to nothing, fixed them up to be ridable, and we rode all summer long - we even participated in our first organized group rides. Our fourth year found us upgrading the bikes a bit more and doing even more organized rides, getting together with small groups of friends for weekend rides, and the hubby and I doing short rides throughout the week when we could fit them in. In short, we have become quite the recreational cyclists.

Due to a hip/pelvic issue, I was grounded from cycling in 2007. I was able to do a little riding, but it came to a grinding halt around the end of May when my hips started hurting so bad that I couldn’t sleep at night. It was enough to send me to a chiropractor, where I learned that I was in pretty bad shape. In essence, my pelvis was tilted up/back on one side and down/forward on the other. His words were, “It’s like someone has taken your pelvis and tried to wring it out like a washcloth.” His recommendation was multiple treatments until it was fixed (of course) and only do physical exercise that didn’t irritate it. Guess what? Cycling irritated it.

A goal of mine for 2008 is to be back in full swing and ready to do a metric century bike ride in April. I have three months, approximately, to make up for a year lost in the saddle. I’m confident that I can do it and be ready by then.

The struggle, and question posed at the beginning of this post, comes in when I think about how important it is for me to get back to weight training. When I was grounded from cycling, it was enough to depress me to the extent in which I pretty much let everything else go, too. I haven’t been completely lazy, granted. I’ve managed a good bit of exercise. But it’s not the same as having a set routine. A daily routine. A good mix of cardio, strength training, and flexibility.

I have this one part of me that keeps screaming the importance of weight training.

• It builds lean muscle mass, which burns more calories and looks much prettier than fat.
• It builds strength, which eliminates the need for The Hubby to move heavier objects for me.
• It strengthens bones, tendons, and ligaments - after all, I’m not really getting any younger and need all the help that I can get.
• It builds and strengthens the “powerhouse” (Core), making every day activities and cycling that much more enjoyable.

I have this other part of me screaming the importance of focusing on cycling and forget about weight training. This part of me is fueled by all the articles out there claiming that weight training really isn’t that important to cyclists. Sure, it is beneficial for core strength (which I mentioned above) and it’s useful to build upper body strength (something cyclists usually don’t have much of because they don’t really need it). It seems, however, that the jury is still out as to whether weight training hurts or hinders the endurance based cyclist.

From my own personal experience, I have found that having a regular weight training routine is very hard to maintain when putting in a lot of miles in the saddle. In 2006, I was averaging 50 miles during the week and 60-80 on the weekends. (remember, I said that I am a “recreational” cyclist) During that time, my weight training took a back seat because I physically could not maintain it and I just didn’t have the time to do both. I also found that the more muscle mass I had, the more difficult it was to be efficient on the bike.

I sit here now still not really sure which direction I should take at this point in time. The truth is, I have some unwanted fat that I would like to get rid of and I know that weight training would help take care of that. I also have the strong desire to get back on my bike and be ready to ride this spring. The only way to do that is to spend the next three months focusing on riding.

The answer isn’t coming easy, despite the fact that I’ve been doing this for years and I know the benefits of both. I’m honestly considering a routine of both: weight training and cycling. I will have to modify the specifics and intensity of each in order to reap the greatest rewards of both. I’m thinking a weight routine of low weight/high reps and increasing my weekly indoor cycling classes for the next month will be a good start.

What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, or research articles with me. In the meantime, I’ll be working it out in the weight room and on the bike.