DON'T SKIP MEALS

Well friends, recently while I sit in the school cafeteria from 12:22 to 12:51, I've encountered a problem. I'm constantly hearing people (mostly girls, because they all want to be skinny) talk about how they skipped breakfast, or how they don't eat lunch or whatever. If you had read my previous post, you would know that BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY, so you really should eat it, even if it makes you sick. Also, every meal is the most important meal of the day. I cannot stress enough how horribly horrible it is for you to skip meals. This isn't just my inner old person saying "oh, dear, you're much to skinny. Here, have a snickerdoodle," it's my actual self with actual scientific evidence saying that you're wrong.

Don't skip meals. Courtesy of My Food Diary

Now, logical reasoning would lead you to believe that skipping meals makes you loose weight. Yes, at some point it does, but then it's called anorexia, which is a serious disease and not how you should live your life. Right now, if you're thinking that just skipping one meal once and a while isn't bad, and hey, it can't hurt your weight loss goals, then you're dead wrong. I can't even tell you how wrong you are. Because, when you skip a meal, you're body immediately goes into starvation mode, and stores all the fat it can. Fat storage is exactly what you don't want when you're losing weight. Part two is that when you skip breakfast, specifically, you're metabolism doesn't get started, and that throws off you're whole life. You're body realizes that it's awake when you eat breakfast, then it starts all the stuff it needs to do in the daytime. Skipping meals is just really, really bad. And, it becomes even worse if you do any kind of exercise, because then you're muscles don't have enough energy to rebuild. And, it's also really bad if you're young and you're cells are still dividing, because then your cells don't have the energy to divide. So, don't skip meals. Period.

I know that some days it's really, really hard, and you're running late, and you just stabbed your eye with the mascara wand, and you just don't have time to eat anything. I definitely know this feeling. Just this morning I forgot to eat breakfast (oops, guess I should practice what I preach) and I didn't have any food until 12:22. But, I now regret my decisions, and will not go down that dark path again. Literally, all you need to do is grab a banana, or a protein bar, or even a raspberry, and that will be enough to tell you're body to wake up. And at lunch, even if the option is unhealthy, you should still eat something.

The moral of the story is to never skip meals.

~Mia

Breakfast- The Hardest Meal of the Day

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Can you count on your fingers how many times you've heard that phrase? Personally, I despise hearing it. It's ridiculously overused, and is it even true? No one ever tells you why breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But, despite the annoying phrase, it actually is. In the morning, when you feed yourself, you are letting your body know that you're awake, and it's time for another day. Then, your body jump-starts your metabolism. Keeping your metabolism stable is the key to staying healthy, and not gaining weight. And, as you get older, your metabolism naturally slows down. So, to keep your metabolism stable, you do need to eat breakfast. 

Ooh, Yum! If only I could actually Make this. Credits to Johnsonville

The hard part in all of this is what to eat for breakfast. I personally have so many issues with finding something I like to eat in the morning that's easy and quick. I don't have time to make a three course meal with some fresh squeezed orange juice. And, at six in the morning I'm not really up for making myself food either. I've experimented with many breakfast dishes, and have finally picked my favorite. But, before I reveal the winner, I will show you a timeline of breakfast foods past- some good, some bad. Who knows, maybe I'll give you some ideas for your early mornings. 

I used to eat cereal for breakfast, like lots of people do. But sadly, that is one of the bad breakfasts. It has no protein to keep you full until your next meal, and it is almost pure sugar. Those are reason enough not to eat it. 

Then, I went to instant oatmeal. You know, the ones in the brown packets? I would always have the brown sugar flavor, because if you add your own sugar, you'll probably put way to much in, and thats not good. Honestly, I just got sick of eating this every morning. But, it is a relatively okay choice to eat, if you don't mind the sugar and extra chemicals. Its quick and easy.  

After that I think it was a cut up banana and peanut butter. This is a very good option, because you get a beautifully vitamin rich banana, and some protein in the peanut butter. If you can choke down the sugar free peanut butter or almond butter, that would make it even better. I stopped eating this for breakfast because, again, I got sick of it (I get sick of foods easily).

And finally, the winner! Right now when I get up at, like, practically four in the morning, I drink a protein drink. Not an Odwalla bottle of chemicals or anything, though. I have two different powders that I put into water every morning, shake up, and chug. It takes maybe two minutes, and doesn't taste that bad. The two powders that I use are Nano-pro and Nano-green. These both come from the company Nano-greens.com, but I buy them off of Amazon. The Nano-pro is a protein powder (don't worry, you wont look like a muscle-builder), and the Nano-green is like eating a plate of kale, but without having to eat kale. You all know how much I hate kale. I put two scoops of Nano-pro, then one scoop on Nano-green in some water, then chug it. This is a really good option if you have a weird stomach, and eating solid foods in the morning makes you feel sick. I don't know if that's an actual thing, but I've hear people say that. And, I've been drinking it for a whole four months and I still haven't gotten sick of it, which is actually kind of rare. The only bad thing about this drink is that the powder in pretty expensive, and it runs out fast if you use it everyday. My family decided to buy an entire case of it at a time, and that way it's also cheaper. But, if you can't afford the powder there are always other alternatives that you can have for breakfast. Like, say, a fruit smoothie. 

~Mia