Breakfast Help!

Well just oatmeal is fine. I generally keep fruit or have a yogurt about 2hrs later. If you keep healthy snacks like trail mix or granola bars...I don't se the problem with having a simple breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day, but it doesnt have to be the biggest meal:) Its just important that you eat something to get your body started for the day....

I eat an english muffin with a bit of peanut butter, keeps me full, and is about 200 cal.

I eat a whole grapefruit every morning when I wake up. With my hands too, no fancy serrated spoons and sprinkles of sugar for me. Then later on I have a hand full of nuts and a cup of green tea.

I have read that fruit is best absorbed by the body on an empty stomach. My doctor has told me the same. Plus grapefruit is just so darn good first thing in the morning. Its sweet and sour and soo, soo juicey! The nuts later on add much needd protien to the start of my day.

I find that this works best for me because it is light and refreshing, low calories, and I prefer to get the bulk of my carbs in the AM. That way I get a better kick start than drinking coffee to get me going. It has really helped make a difference to my day.

My husband and I usually have 1 cup of either raisin bran or cheerios, 1/2 cup fat free milk, and half banana at like 7:00 am. This usually keeps me full until around 10:30 or 11:00 and that's when I eat an apple. Apple keeps good through my lunch time work out when I go and then around 1:30 or so I eat like a 90 calorie snack bar. I'm not big on lunch so this usually satisfies me until dinner around 6:00. Anyway.... cereal works for me.

I only eat oatmeal too. But i buy Trader Joe's Complete Oatmeal that has a good amount of fiber in it. It helps to keep me full until lunchtime. If I'm hungry before that, I'll grab a snack from my desk drawer. Usually pita puffs, a chewy granola bar, or green apple slices. Just enough to hold me til noon.

Speaking of breakfast--this came after I took a "How Healthy Is Your Breakfast Routine?" quiz from an email I got from Diet and Nutrition From Everyday Health.

"You recognize the vital part breakfast plays in a healthy lifestyle. You wake up early enough to prepare and enjoy a healthy, balanced breakfast on most days.
Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day. After a good night’s sleep, a healthy breakfast is your chance to refuel your body and replenish the glycogen stores that supply blood sugar (glucose). Eating a healthy breakfast helps with weight control, improves your concentration and mood throughout the day, and may even help lower cholesterol.

Breakfast and Weight

Numerous studies have shown that those who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight than those who frequently forgo a morning meal. In one study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, breakfast-skippers ate more calories throughout the course of the day and were 4.5 times more likely to be overweight than those who regularly ate breakfast.

One theory on the breakfast-weight connection is that skipping a morning meal can raise the body's insulin response, which in turn increases fat storage and weight gain. Other studies suggest that breakfast eaters have better health habits in general — they’re more likely to eat nutritious foods and exercise regularly.

Healthy Breakfast Options

What you eat for breakfast is also important. Jeffrey Morrison, MD, of the Morrison Center in New York City, recommends a balanced meal consisting of protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates to maintain energy throughout the day. Healthy breakfast ideas include vegetable omelets cooked with olive or coconut oil; high-fiber, low-sugar cereals or oatmeal topped with nuts, berries, and ground flax seed; low-fat Greek yogurt with fruit; or salmon on whole grain toast. Try to avoid juices, which are high in sugar and calories. Whole fruit is a better choice, as it delivers fiber as well as vitamins, and is lower in calories and sugar per serving than juice. In regard to caffeine, limit yourself to one or two cups of coffee or tea per day.

If you’re pressed for time in the morning, stock your kitchen with quick and easy breakfast foods, such as cold cereal, yogurt, trail mix, and breakfast bars. While taking the time to sit down and eat your meal will promote better digestion and help keep you from overeating, eating breakfast on the go is better than not eating it at all.

Breakfast and Getting a Good Start

Eating breakfast may improve mood and concentration. A British study found that people who ate breakfast had more energy and performed better on memory tests than those who skipped breakfast.

If you’re hitting the treadmill or taking a yoga class before work, experts recommend you eat a small, easy-to-digest breakfast before working out. Otherwise, you may feel weak, tired, or sluggish while exercising, especially when engaging in any type of endurance exercise."

If you eat late at night, you won't feel as hungry in the morning. If thats the case, try to not eat close to bedtime and maybe you will be more hungry in the morning and it will be easier to have breakfast.

i need to eat protein in the morning or i get carb cravings in the arvo. its not exactly a craving but fatigue and because i am too tired to make a proper snack i nibble on simple carbs like crackers.fruit doesn't help either unless i have some nuts or cottage with it. i usually have an omelette with a little cheese and some tomato and baby spinach leaves or rocket . i sometimes cook some tofu with sesame oil and mushies. cereal is so easy but i am starving in an hour. porridge with a bit of protein powder is the only cereal that doesn't make me hungry.

byHISstrength is right. Making that first meal bigger does take away from the other meals if you are counting calories. That will always be a struggle for me since the social meal of the day has been supper since I was born. Lots of food and conversation. Lots of popcorn and dessert after as well. I put on all my weight grabbing something quick in the morning, which was 2 dunkin donuts and a large coffee with half and half.
I get up 45 minutes early and eat oatmeal. I buy John McCann's Irish Oats and put a banana, pecans, cinnamon and maple syrup in it. If I am going to eat oatmeal, it is at least going to be interesting. My Fitness Pal helped me realize what I was doing when I started tracking. I have lost 25 pounds eating that oatmeal for breakfast with a few twists every now and then.
So, sell out and make the change. Knock off the late night stuff. Watch out for the quick to grab stuff that was mentioned. You can buy a lot of crap in the breakfast bar isle.
If you aren't hungry enough to eat an apple...you aren't hungry.

I agree with widmane - dinner was always and continues to be my biggest meal of the day, for the same reasons. After 40 years, I just don't see that changing, so I look for ways to create lower calorie meals throughout the day that are filling. I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast almost every day, and also try to keep it interesting, and am now to the point where I really look forward to it! I also have learned to like yogurt, which I used to hate. I buy the full fat plain though, because I just can't stand the sour taste of the lowfat or fatfree types. I will have 1/2 cup and mix in 1/2 cup of healthy berries, or else cinnnamon and 1/2 tbs honey and it is so good and keeps me satisfied! I This is all about a lifestyle change, and rethinking the way you are used to eating. Good luck!