Best Practices Before Meal: Breakfast

Before we dive into the confusion that seems to be more like a rule (but I would call it a life pattern that could help in building your health status and sustaining it), I would love you to ask yourself these questions that can direct you on your focus for a healthy life.

How bad do you want it?

How often do you need it?

Sometimes we are so focused on what we want, we miss what we need. As much as life has been handed to us on a platter of gold, our efforts to know what to bring to the table to sustain that life is paramount.

For a period of time, we would be discussing on “BEST PRACTICES” as a series and today we are focusing on best practices before breakfast. So based on research, here is a focus on TWO NECESSITIES to know and do before you attempt breakfast.

According to the New York Times:

“… Working out before breakfast directly combated the two most harmful effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.”

The holiday season brings many joys, unfortunately, many offsetting dietary pitfalls. Asides that, even the fittest and most disciplined can succumb, indulging in more fat and calories than at any time of the year. The health consequences if the routine is unchecked can lead to swift and worrisome health problems.

It’s an ongoing debate within the world of fitness:

  • Should you eat breakfast before exercising in the morning?
  • Are there any benefits to working out on an empty stomach?

Based on John Rowley, Wellness Director for the International Sports Science Association (ISSA), he said that “It all depends on what type of training you are going to do and for what purpose”.

exercise

The main advantage to exercising on an empty stomach is the potential to burn more fat. Your muscles don’t have much sugar to draw from so you are more likely to tap into your stored energy, which means releasing and burning what I refer to as surplus fat. But you have to make certain that you consumed a high quality diet of every three to four hours the previous day, even if one of the in-between meals was a snack.

Now this exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous, and also as an individual, you can find out how much you can take by knowing your capacity. The ability to know how far to push for something and exercising within your body constructive abilities. Examples of exercises you can indulge in is running or jogging, cycling, and skipping.

Exercising before breakfast can help prevent weight gain and insulin resistance, even when consuming an excess amount of calories and carbs during the day.

Water is universal, so says my mother. It is what you would end up drinking even after taking 3 bottles of coke after your meal. Now here is the trick, water is the answer to a lot of health issues, but yet we fail to recognize its existence unless we are choking, or we have something dangling in between our throat. It comes in a clear solution with clear intentions, I must say.

As we all know drinking water before breakfast aids digestion but another added advantage is that it helps in the consumption of less calories during meal time, which can ultimately lead to weight loss. This is probably because the water provides a sense of fullness, so not as much food is needed to reach the point of satiety (satisfaction). Plus, it doesn’t hurt that choosing water as your drink of choice instead of an empty-calorie beverage can save more than 100 calories per glass.

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Drinking water before each meal improves your skin. It certainly helps to improve rough, dry skin that is all too common this time of year, which can be worsened by dehydration. Who doesn’t love a glowing skin? Good skin is good health.

Research has shown that even slight dehydration can cause a drop in energy levels. It makes sense as water is crucial for nearly every system of your body to function properly. And guess what? If you are thirsty, you are probably already slightly dehydrated. Prevent this from happening by drinking water regularly throughout the day–a glass before each meal is the perfect way to stay on an energy-boosting track.

Finally it purifies your intestines (colons). When you drink water after you have woken up before eating anything, you are purifying your colon thereby making nutrients absorption easy. Easy absorption promotes the usage of every nutrient given by the food you consume, leading to progressive health results.

As we go further on this series, I indulge the practicality of these suggestions and see how impressive your health goes from a 30 to a 70 percentile. People, that’s progress!

By Blessing Nwachukwu | [email protected]
Diet234 Team

2 Responses

  1. I’d have to admit, I sometimes fail to have an early morning snack. Well, I know better now. I hope to put this to practice the rest of the week.

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