For those of you who thought 'toothbrush' - well done....good oral
hygiene is admirable. For those of you whose minds brought them down the
50 shades route......behave! I was talking about food!
Breakfast is a meal that does what it says on the tin. It is intended to break your fast. When you wake in the morning, you should feel hungry. If you are getting the correct amount of sleep, you probably won't have eaten for over 12 hours. When clients tell me that they skip breakfast as they don't feel hungry in the mornings, I know it's definitely time to turn their eating habits upside down. If you're eating a huge meal at 8pm and going to bed at 10:30pm....you won't sleep properly as your body is still working its way through dinner. Eat smaller at dinner time, and eat earlier. Now, if you're training in the evenings, it's a slightly different story, but you can always get the advice of a sports nutritionist for that.
Keeping it very simple - cereal is bad! If you are going to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, you might as well just have a bar of chocolate. Yes yes yes - I know I sound like an extremist - but look at it this way - it says on the side of the pack that a serving is 30g, that's about 4 table spoons!!! We usually pour a full bowl, so that's about 120g....4 times the advised amount.
So, for a 60g serving (let's meet in the middle) you are getting the following; 240 calories,
4 g of protein, 49.5 g of carbohydrate (19 g of these are sugar), sodium 106 mg. Now, Mars bar : Calories 240, protein 2.2 g, carbs, 40 g......ok, so fat content is much higher..... But come on....am I opening your eyes here?
Now, when you eat carbohydrate (the sugary type like above), your body either wants to use it or store it. You flush your system with readily available sugar, a big surge of insulin is released to manage the sugar rush and by the time you have arrived at work, you are ready for that fruit scone with jam and a cup of tea!
'But what is the alternative?' I hear you ask - Well I'll tell you. It's not toast, it's not even porridge, nor is it fruit and yoghurt. I'm going to say my two favourite food related words - protein & fat. Now, before you scream 'but Atkins is dead....', I'm not talking fried sausages here!
I'm talking about eggs, omelette, pancakes (recipe to follow), lean meat, nuts, avocado.... You have so many options. Who says we have to have milk and sugar....Kellogs???
It's so simple to take just one step to help your health & aid fat loss....ditch the breakfast cereal!
Most mornings, I eat scrambled eggs with peppers or I dip carrots, celery/ cucumber into hummus....it sets you on the right path for the day and results in a much more even blood sugar that a bonus of sugar.
So, I'm sure you spotted that I mentioned pancakes.....that wasn't a mistake! For those of you who are connected to WestCorkFit on Facebook, you will have seen that I posted about coconut pancakes this morning. I also promised a recipe - This is perfect for 1 person per workout (makes 2 pancakes) or for 2 people as a light breakfast (1 pancake each) (total calories 267).
High Fibre, High Protein Coconut Pancakes
2 x well beaten eggs
1 x tablespoon coconut flour
1 x tablespoon of DovesFarm GF White self raising flour blend
Add the flour to the well beaten eggs and add enough milk to ensure a good pancake batter (not too runny, not too thick.) This is a gluten free recipe, if you want it to be dairy free too, use almond milk.
These make a sweet pancake, so no need for syrup unless you really want it. Keep maple syrup to a max of a tablespoon in total.
We use coconut flour because it is high in fibre (58%.....almost double that of wheat bran), it has fewer digestible carbs than other flours, it has as much protein as wheat flour but none of the gluten.
I don't recommend not using the mixed white flour as this contains xantham gum which holds the pancake together. Using coconut flour ONLY results in a stodgy scramble of mess!
So folks, that's it - A delicious breakfast alternative to cereal!
For more ideas on alternative meal choices or to have a nutritional consultation, contact Fiona on fiona@westcorkfit.ie.
Also, any recipes that you would like to submit for 'a makeover', I would be happy to help :)
Breakfast is a meal that does what it says on the tin. It is intended to break your fast. When you wake in the morning, you should feel hungry. If you are getting the correct amount of sleep, you probably won't have eaten for over 12 hours. When clients tell me that they skip breakfast as they don't feel hungry in the mornings, I know it's definitely time to turn their eating habits upside down. If you're eating a huge meal at 8pm and going to bed at 10:30pm....you won't sleep properly as your body is still working its way through dinner. Eat smaller at dinner time, and eat earlier. Now, if you're training in the evenings, it's a slightly different story, but you can always get the advice of a sports nutritionist for that.
Keeping it very simple - cereal is bad! If you are going to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, you might as well just have a bar of chocolate. Yes yes yes - I know I sound like an extremist - but look at it this way - it says on the side of the pack that a serving is 30g, that's about 4 table spoons!!! We usually pour a full bowl, so that's about 120g....4 times the advised amount.
So, for a 60g serving (let's meet in the middle) you are getting the following; 240 calories,
4 g of protein, 49.5 g of carbohydrate (19 g of these are sugar), sodium 106 mg. Now, Mars bar : Calories 240, protein 2.2 g, carbs, 40 g......ok, so fat content is much higher..... But come on....am I opening your eyes here?
Now, when you eat carbohydrate (the sugary type like above), your body either wants to use it or store it. You flush your system with readily available sugar, a big surge of insulin is released to manage the sugar rush and by the time you have arrived at work, you are ready for that fruit scone with jam and a cup of tea!
'But what is the alternative?' I hear you ask - Well I'll tell you. It's not toast, it's not even porridge, nor is it fruit and yoghurt. I'm going to say my two favourite food related words - protein & fat. Now, before you scream 'but Atkins is dead....', I'm not talking fried sausages here!
I'm talking about eggs, omelette, pancakes (recipe to follow), lean meat, nuts, avocado.... You have so many options. Who says we have to have milk and sugar....Kellogs???
It's so simple to take just one step to help your health & aid fat loss....ditch the breakfast cereal!
Most mornings, I eat scrambled eggs with peppers or I dip carrots, celery/ cucumber into hummus....it sets you on the right path for the day and results in a much more even blood sugar that a bonus of sugar.
So, I'm sure you spotted that I mentioned pancakes.....that wasn't a mistake! For those of you who are connected to WestCorkFit on Facebook, you will have seen that I posted about coconut pancakes this morning. I also promised a recipe - This is perfect for 1 person per workout (makes 2 pancakes) or for 2 people as a light breakfast (1 pancake each) (total calories 267).
High Fibre, High Protein Coconut Pancakes
2 x well beaten eggs
1 x tablespoon coconut flour
1 x tablespoon of DovesFarm GF White self raising flour blend
Add the flour to the well beaten eggs and add enough milk to ensure a good pancake batter (not too runny, not too thick.) This is a gluten free recipe, if you want it to be dairy free too, use almond milk.
These make a sweet pancake, so no need for syrup unless you really want it. Keep maple syrup to a max of a tablespoon in total.
We use coconut flour because it is high in fibre (58%.....almost double that of wheat bran), it has fewer digestible carbs than other flours, it has as much protein as wheat flour but none of the gluten.
I don't recommend not using the mixed white flour as this contains xantham gum which holds the pancake together. Using coconut flour ONLY results in a stodgy scramble of mess!
So folks, that's it - A delicious breakfast alternative to cereal!
For more ideas on alternative meal choices or to have a nutritional consultation, contact Fiona on fiona@westcorkfit.ie.
Also, any recipes that you would like to submit for 'a makeover', I would be happy to help :)
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