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Beyond The Breakfast Blues
By Abigail Natenshon
Author
of When Your Child Has An Eating
Disorder
empoweredkidZ
www.AbigailNatenshon.com
“No time!” “Not hungry this
early in the morning!” “But
nobody eats breakfast!”
Sound
familiar?
Breakfast is
the most important meal of the
day. Let’s look at why.
-
The young person’s
“job” in life is to go to
school and to learn. The
brain needs nourishment
after the long night’s fast
in order to become alert and
alive, to be smart and to
function at its best. It is
important that we break our
overnight fast with the
“break fast” meal.
-
People who eat more
food early in the day
consume 40% fewer calories
throughout the day.
-
A person needs at
least three meals per day in
order to keep his or her
metabolism functioning
optimally, burning fat and
creating energy.
-
Children who restrict
food and who diet in their
early years are at a greater
risk for becoming obese
adults.
Do you consistently avoid or otherwise miss breakfast?
If so, it’s important
to figure out why…
-
Is it because there
are no breakfast foods in
your house? If so…
-Talk
to your parents about making
sure there is cereal and
milk, oatmeal, eggs,
cheeses, bread, fruit, and
juices in the house.
-
Are you late for
school?
If so…
-Wake up 10 minutes
earlier. That’s all it
takes.
-
Is breakfast simply
not “done” in your house?
If so…
- Be the
initiator. Invite your
family to sit down with you.
You’ll see how nice it is to
share a few moments together
before starting your day.
Ask them to buy your
favorite jam, your favorite
kind of peanut butter, or to
help you scramble an egg.
They need to know that
healthy eating is important
to you.
-
Are you not hungry?
If so….
-You’d be
surprised how ready your
body will be to accept
nourishment if you take the
initiative to put food into
it. Once your body becomes
used to eating three meals a
day and starting the
digestive process first
thing in the morning, it
will begin to fall into line
and start becoming hungry at
appropriate times. If you
ate too much, too late, the
night before, could that be
because you hadn’t eaten a
good dinner?
If you are running out the door
in the morning without
breakfast, the odds are that you
are also leaving for school
without a sack lunch in your
book-bag. If that’s the case…..
- Is that okay with you? What
will you do for lunch? Do you
find that when you have no food
in your belly till lunchtime,
you tend to want to gorge
yourself at lunch? Are you
afraid that by that time, your
hunger will be so great that if
you let yourself eat one bite,
you will eat so much that you
will become obese? Do you eat
junk food or convenience foods
for lunch out of sheer laziness?
-
Are you trying to
lose weight?
-Did you
know that the worst way to
lose weight is to diet? That
95% of dieters regain their
weight back and more within
5 years? That weight is lost
in muscle and water ,and
that weight is regained in
fat?
If there are changes you wish to
make in your breakfast regime,
don’t be afraid to start small.
Eat breakfast once a
week, and then twice, etc., or
introduce a small portion of
what you might ordinarily eat
for breakfast, then gradually
work your way up to a healthy
meal.
Ultimately you will learn
to willingly and consistently do
for your body what it needs in
order for your body and brain to
perform best for you.
empoweredkidZ
provides the voice and guidance
you need to cultivate what’s
best for your body, based on
what you body needs, not on what
society dictates.
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