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.

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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?

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One of the lessons I learned early on in my fitness journey was the importance of weight training. I, like many others (especially women), rejected the thought of lifting weights initially. My only knowledge of weight lifting, however, was limited to the muscle bound men I had seen on television or walking around in the weight room at the gym. And what woman in her right mind would want to do that?

Thankfully I had a really great husband who encouraged me to read about fitness and everything that pertained to it. Thankfully I joined a gym with a wonderful personal trainer who took the time to explain all the benefits of weight training to me and taught me everything I needed to know about it. Thankfully I managed to open my mind to new ideas and allowed myself to learn and grow. Thankfully I happened across the following article that just put it all out there for me.

If you are on the fence about weight training, I hope this helps you take the final step towards a major part of a successful, healthy fitness routine. I promise you won’t regret it.

Top Ten Reasons to Get Hooked on Weightlifting

Why do some men and women, in the effort to improve their fitness, still resist weightlifting? Here are some motivating ideas for building weight-room confidence and helping you understand why this method of exercise is so very important to your success…
1. Lift weights to lose fat: One of the biggest mistakes people make when starting an exercise and nutrition program is not including a weightlifting program with their cardiovascular exercise and low-fat eating regimen. This is unfortunate because when we cut calories without exercise, we can lose muscle as well as fat. And when you lose muscle, your body becomes a lot less efficient at burning fat. However, when you gain muscle, you can actually condition your body to burn fat more efficiently…24 hours a day!
2. You feel strong and fit: It’s a great feeling when you look in the mirror during your workouts and see your back muscles, biceps, shoulders, and legs flexing. If you’re unsure about proper lifting technique, hire a personal trainer for a few sessions. The money you invest is well worth it, as is the time and energy you put towards an effective program. And weightlifting can definitely increases your confidence. It’s a wonderful feeling to feel strong, especially after a workout. You look forward to looking in the mirror, and actually like what you see.
3. You have more energy: Even if you’re just starting out with a few basic weightlifting exercises, very quickly you won’t believe how fantastic you’ll feel. Instead of making an excuse to skip your workout, you’ll make excuses to do just one more set. Plus, with the excess fat you’re going to lose, there will be less of you to lug around and therefore less fatigue.

4. You’ll finally see the results: Knowing what to do makes all the difference. Many people go to the gym for months – even years – and wonder why they’re not getting any results. Well, it’s because they’re doing the same darn workout every time.
This is a critical point: you can either quit out of frustration, or you can become a sponge for knowledge and get some help. Get your hands on fitness magazines, books, the trainers at the gym, ask other successful exercisers, or hire a coach. Learn what you need to do to make your program successful. Acquiring the knowledge and getting help is all you need to get hooked.

At first you may question what you’re doing: are you going to get too big, are you wasting your time, how do you know this will work? But then you see other men and women who have been weightlifting for years and they look terrific. Here’s the telltale sign that your program is working: you start to see definition and feel firmness in muscles you never thought you had.
5. You won’t get bored: I suspect many people don’t lift weights because they think it will be boring. Just remember to change your routine every 3-4 weeks to keep things fresh and your body responding to your training. Change the reps, the sets, the weight, the rest period, the exercise order, etc. Training only gets boring if you allow it to.
6. You have everyday, functional strength: Weight training does wonders to help you with activities of daily living: Housework, yard work, moving furniture, and carrying bags of groceries without gasping for air and pooping out within minutes. If you have a medical condition such as arthritis or multiple sclerosis, lifting weights can be a godsend. You can rely on weightlifting to keep you strong where once all your strength was gone.
7. You have a stronger back: Juggling a 30-pound toddler and a few bags of groceries while pulling out the stroller can put your back in a compromising position. When you lift weights, you strengthen your upper and lower body, which reduces strain on your back when you’re forced to lift heavy loads. Plus, don’t you think it would feel really good to walk around knowing that your back is as tight and toned as your legs?
8. You can train at home: Have you been putting off getting started with your weightlifting program because you felt you had to belong to a gym? You can implement a very effective weightlifting program no matter where you are. Invest in some dumbbells and an adjustable bench and you’re set. Get some exercise videos or books that focus on strength training; now you can lift weights on your own anytime you like.
9. You can get rid of pain: Do you have limited range of motion in your joints? A bad knee? A wrenched neck? Bum shoulder? Weightlifting promotes strength in your joints so you have ease of movement. That old knee problem improves enough for you to can go hiking in the mountains for days without pain. No pain, more endurance. You can do more outdoorsy things - and have fun while doing them!
10. You build stronger bones: Bone responds to weightlifting the same way that muscles do, by becoming stronger and denser. Building strong bones can be the best defense against osteoporosis. You’re more active, more mobile, and without lower back pain. And age doesn’t matter; you can start when you’re 65 and still experience tremendous benefits from a weightlifting program. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO START A WEIGHTLIFTING PROGRAM!

This article was provided by Garrett J. Braunreiter, CSCS, GHF’s Success Coach.

Five years ago I weighed somewhere around 235 pounds, give or take a few pounds. To be quite honest, I avoided the scale at all costs back then. That’s why I’m uncertain as to exactly how high those numbers really got. All I know is that after a month of trying to “eat better”, I finally climbed on the scales to weigh because I knew that I had lost some inches due to my clothes fitting looser. Only then did the reality of the situation give me a damn hard slap across the cheek: 225 pounds. Within the month I was a card carrying member of the local gym.

I won’t go into all the details of my decision to join a gym. I had my “aha!” moment and that was that. It was no longer an issue of wanting to join a gym, it was a matter of needing to join the gym. It was a matter of me taking responsibility for how far I had let myself go. It was a matter of deciding, once and for all, what was more important: living life to its fullest and seeing my children grow up or not. I opted for the former.

Joining a gym wasn’t the entire answer, though. Little did I realize the extent of the journey that was before me.

I spent the next three years of my life educating myself in all things fitness, nutrition, and health related. I read everything I could put my hands on. I was a sponge. I had a hunger and thirst for knowledge, which was a huge change from having a hunger and thirst for things that put pounds of fat upon my ever expanding ass. It was finally my brain’s turn to benefit from the constant knowledge cravings I was feeding.I not only focused on learning through reading, but I experimented with my newfound knowledge as often as possible. If I read about fat loss through carbohydrate cycling, I would perform my own experiment with it and find out if it worked for me. I had some success and I had some failures. Through trial and error, I learned what worked for me and what didn’t. This, in turn, helped me weed out some of the “fads” and “myths” that exist about nutrition and fitness. We all know about those, right?

It is my hope that with this site I can share what I have spent the last five years learning for myself - with you. In the process, I hope to help further debunk all the “fads” and “myths” that exist out there about health, fitness, nutrition, and weight loss. I know from experience that it can be very intimidating to tackle such things without knowing and fulling understanding the basics. It’s hard to learn and understand the basics with all of the false information and fad tech gadgets that the weight loss industry wants to push on us that don’t work, will never work, and never meant to work. Do I know it all? Of course not. No one knows it all. The health/fitness/nutrition industry is a booming business and ever-changing. There are new studies released each day claiming something different. And, like all other businesses, has people in it to make a buck. It’s important to know how to sift through the study results and weed out the money makers and still gain a working and understandable knowledge of how to get and keep a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

With the invention of this site, I also hope to renew my own commitment to myself and my health. In the last five years I have gained a lot of knowledge, but what good is knowledge if you don’t put it to use every day? And how can one justify not learning more and putting it to use, as well? I managed to rid my body of 70 pounds of fat in three years. After those three intensive years of tracking every single move I made and every single thing I did, I took a much needed break. Seeing as how I’m human, it was easy to get off track. Consistency became a word that meant less and less to me, especially over the last year. As a result, I’ve gained weight and I’m wearing jeans a couple of sizes bigger. How much do I weigh? I honestly couldn’t tell you. Do I care? You know I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t, at least to some extent. Do I care enough to weigh? No, I don’t. Because it’s not about a number on the scale for me anymore. It’s about my health. It’s about my fitness level. It’s about my nutrition habits. It’s about how I feel. While the physical changes I have endured over the last five years have been remarkable to some, I am still amazed at the emotional and mental changes that took place. My mindset is in a different place now. And this renewal is something I need. It’s something I want. And I hope it’s something that you can benefit from, as well.

Welcome to Bicycle Blues. I hope you enjoy the ride.