If you're trying to lose weight, it may be tempting to skip breakfast and save those precious calories for later, but just think about it for a moment. Have you seen the clever advert for Kellogs Special K? The office girl who skips breakfast can't stop thinking about food. The pattern on her friend's t -shirt morphs into strawberries, while before her very eyes, the phone the man on the next desk is using becomes a sub sandwich.
This encapsulates beautifully why you should eat breakfast; if you don't, you could become obsessed with food. Everyone on a weight loss programme obsesses over their food on a regular basis, bu while it is beneficial to always choose low fat, slow energy release foods, it is detrimental to feel that you must have food -any food, and this is what can happen if you skip breakfast.
For two reasons, the foods that you will select eventually are likely to sabotage your good intentions. From a physical point of view, if you are hungry, your blood sugar levels will drop and your body will tell you it wants high energy food NOW, which will be something high in fat or sugar or both. On the emotional side, if you feel you are deprived of food, even though you made the decision not to eat breakfast, your brain will demand comfort food such as cakes, biscuits or chocolate. A stick of celery just will not do.
Another advert for breakfast cereal has double Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes advising that if you skip breakfast, your performance, whether at work or in training for Olympic glory, will also suffer and you will not achieve your full potential. While this effect of skipping breakfast will not have a direct effect on weight loss, there could be other repercussions which may sabotage your diet. If you mess up bigtime at work and upset your boss, your self esteem will suffer. When we feel the world's against us, we often turn to food for support.
Once again, it's not likely to be an apple that will soothe your wounded ego; it has to be something full of fat, sugar and taste bud sensations. A good feeling in your mouth to neutralise the bad feelings created by the spat with your boss. Trouble is, this high is transient, and when the logical you kicks back in, you'll hate yourself for scuppering your diet on such a flimsy pretext. And successful weight loss depends as much on what goes on in your head as what you put into your mouth.
So a nutritous breakfast should be a priority on your weight loss programme.
If you're short on time, a bowl of cereal or some whole wheat toast with low fat spread or marmalade will do. If you truly can't face breakfast first thing, take something with you to eat at the first stirrings of hunger. A large banana or a couple of hard boiled eggs will satisfy your brain's desire for taste sensation and fulfil your body's requirement for fuel without breaking the calorie bank. And it's well known that if you eat breakfast, you're less likely to eat big meals later in the day.
Make breakfast your ally in your weight loss campaign and just watch the needle on the scales go downwards. Good luck!
