Yogurt, Muesli and Blueberries

I should admit right now that I’m a born again breakfast eater. In the past I always told myself that skipping breakfast meant one less meal adding calories to my day, and I was proud to have eliminated this annoyance from my life.

For the last several years, however, I have grown to love breakfast and am something of an evangelist. Breakfast may seem like an odd thing to try to covert people to, but once you see my reasons you may become a believer yourself.

8 Reasons Breakfast Makes Your Life Better

• It’s easy. Breakfast doesn’t take much time or energy to prepare; I’m half asleep when I pour my cereal, rinse my fruit and boil my coffee every day. It also requires minimal planning. Just buy everything you need every week or two and you are good to go. What’s your excuse?
• Health wins. We all must deal with the internal struggle between eating healthy and eating not-so-healthy. Throughout the day breakfast is by far the easiest battle in which health can triumph, since there is no outside social pressure and unhealthy options are harder to attain. I recommend taking winning odds whenever they are presented.
• Hunger check. If you eat a satisfying breakfast before heading into work you are less likely to be tempted by the junk food that haunts most office environments. Likewise, you will have better self-control when it comes time to decide what to eat for lunch.
• Whole grains. For my own healthstyle, intact whole grains are the most difficult to get in my diet. Unsweetened oats, plain brown rice and quinoa aren’t exactly staples on American restaurant menus. But without grains I feel constantly hungry and my workouts suffer. If I eat them at breakfast I am guaranteed at least that one serving during the day. (For tips to get more whole grains at dinner, check out my easy frozen brown rice balls).
• Higher metabolism. Eating healthy food has a positive effect on your metabolism. Not only does what you eat for breakfast affect how your body reacts to different foods for the rest of the day, it also influences your metabolic rate in the long term. Be careful though, highly processed and easily digested foods have the opposite effect.
• Healthy habits. Healthy behavior begets more healthy behavior. According to some studies, this is especially true of breakfast eaters. Waking up and eating a healthy breakfast encourages you to pack a healthy lunch and plan your day around wholesome food. It feels really good to do healthy things, but we easily forget this when presented with free donuts on an empty stomach during a mid-morning meeting. Build your healthy habits when it is easy and help them stick around for the long haul.
• Self-esteem. I think it is important to reiterate how good it feels to do healthy things for your body, and as a bonus it extends to how we feel about ourselves. Most of us feel proud and confident when we know we are doing the right thing. Why not start out each morning on the right foot?
• Deliciousness. Of all the reasons I just listed, this one probably has the biggest sway with me personally. My breakfasts are absolutely delicious and I adore waking up and eating such yummy food. It is worth going out of your way to find healthy foods you enjoy eating, that way good food has as much pull on you as the less healthy junk. This will make your food decision making a whole lot easier.

Once you have convinced yourself that eating breakfast is important and worthwhile, it helps to know what constitutes a healthy one. I have written about breakfast before, focusing on the difference between fake “whole grains” as sold to us by processed food manufacturers and real intact whole grains.

Recently I have switched to a new favorite breakfast: plain yogurt, muesli and fruit.

I love this new combo for a few reasons

1. I tried yogurt because I was having digestive issues for a few weeks and was hoping the probiotics in the yogurt might help. It totally did, and I’m sold on this method for improved digestion (despite my mild lactose intolerance).
2. Coarse and chewy muesli is perfect on yogurt and I was able to completely cut out the fake whole grain flakes that bothered me about my old breakfast. Woohoo!
3. The added protein and fat from the lowfat plain yogurt helps me feel satisfied longer in the day and adds a creamy luxury to my morning.

Be sure that when you are choosing your healthy breakfast you find foods with no added sugar. For example, fruit and vanilla yogurts are notorious for having obscene amounts of sugar (especially vanilla) putting it more on par with ice cream than health food. Likewise, most store bought granolas are loaded with sugar, molasses, honey, agave, concentrated fruit juice and other sweeteners. This is why I prefer muesli–completely unsweetened grains with bits of dried fruits, nuts and seeds.

When choosing plain yogurt I recommend lowfat instead of nonfat yogurt, because it is much more palatable and satisfying. Nonfat plain yogurt tends to be too tangy for me. Also, you need the fat to help with nutrient absorption and satiation.

My breakfast

• 1 c. Wallaby plain lowfat yogurt
• 1/4 c. Dorset muesli
• 1/4 c. fresh fruit

What is your favorite healthy breakfast?

Originally published August 17, 2009

Tags: Breakfast, fruit, intact grains, muesli, probiotics, whole grains, yogurt

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I’m really excited for you guys to read these articles, there are some gems in here. I especially love the research showing that you should think of food as “tasty” rather than “healthy” to feel more satisfied and eat less. Also, for those interested I’m featured today over at the One Thing blog.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• 7 Disruptive Foods Changing the Way We Eat <<A food article hasn’t scared me this much in quite awhile. This is why I don’t buy Dole bananas. (Wired)
• The Claim: For Better Muscle Tone, Go Lighter and Repeat <<Awesome mythbusting by the New York Times. Weight lifting makes you sexy.
• Calling a Food ‘Healthy’ May Make You Hungrier <<Call it tasty instead! This is why I emphasize taste over all else. Eating foods you believe are delicious makes them more satisfying. (HealthDay)
• KFC’s Bacon Sandwich On Fried Chicken “Bread” Starts Killing People Nationwide April 12 <<BS of the week. Please tell me no one believes this is good for Atkins dieters. Please. (The Consumerist)
• This ‘Biggest Loser’ did it all by himself <<Most of you have probably figured out by now that I think The Biggest Loser is evil, but I LOVE this story about a man who found his own healthstyle and lost more weight than anyone on the show ever. (Los Angeles Times)
• Fruits, Veggies Have Modest Effect on Cancer Risk <<New data suggest eating fruits and veggies isn’t enough to stave off cancer, but it is a start. Pro tip: Try cutting out the junk too. And don’t forget vegetables still help with stroke and heart disease, so don’t stop eating them.  (HealthDay)
• Iron Chef Your Leftovers and Stop Throwing Away Perfectly Good Food <<We’ve all let good food go bad in the fridge. Here’s some handy tips to prevent it. (Lifehacker)
• Finally! Scientific proof that greasy breakfasts are good for us! <<This almost got my BS of the week, but I was afraid people would misunderstand. I agree that breakfast can impact your metabolism all day, and fewer refined grains are better for breakfast. However, I do not see how we can conclude anything about human metabolism from mice eating mouse chow. Humans eat whole foods. (Los Angeles Times)
• Is Induction Cooking Ready to Go Mainstream? <<As a foodie and a geek, I find the idea of magnetic cooking incredibly intriguing. I doubt I’d make the plunge, but it was fun to read about. (New York Times)
• Salad Dressing of Strawberry Balsamic Reduction <<It’s strawberry season! This recipe for strawberry balsamic salad dressing sounds divine. (Jenn Cuisine)

What inspired you this week?

Tags: Breakfast, cancer, induction cooking, recipe, The Biggest Loser, weight lifting

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Diets are dying, the faulty vaccine-autism paper was retracted and yet another study shows low-fat diets are bad for heart disease. Could this week get any better?

And in case you missed it, definitely check out the video of Michael Pollan’s talk at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the Week

• Eat, Drink & Be Healthy: Dieting vs. newer approaches to losing weight <<Is healthstyle catching on? Cross your fingers for the end of diets…. (The Washington Post)
• Vaccine-Autism Study Is Retracted <<BS of the week. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy this paper has been retracted. What I’m calling out is that it ever got published in the first place. This is an example of bad science that endangered children’s lives. How was this ever okay? (New York Times)
• The Miracle of Vitamin D: Sound Science, or Hype? <<I recommend taking vitamin D supplements, but that doesn’t stop me from being a skeptic. I still try to get enough from natural sources like sunlight and oily fish. (New York Times)
• Moderate-Fat Diet May Be Better at Reducing Heart Risks <<This is not news, but it is worth repeating. I love fat. Fatty, fat, fat. Here it goes down, down into my belly. (HealthDay)
• Corned beef for breakfast? Try it, you might lose weight <<The newest diet trend seems to be eating a big breakfast. This doesn’t involve deprivation, so I’m interested to see how it works for people. (Los Angeles Times)
• Eating Too Fast? <<Dr. Weil discusses a new study linking eating speed to hunger. This is just one more reason to learn to eat slowly and mindfully. You’ll enjoy your food more as well. (Dr. Weil’s Daily Blog)
• Reliable health information on the go <<One of my favorite resources for health information, Medline, now has a mobile version of their website. (Los Angeles Times)
• Sardines and Avocados <<I’m not the only skinny foodie out there. In fact, there are a bunch of us and we all pretty much do the same things to be healthy. We eat real food, we don’t shun fats, and we hit the gym. Allison Arevalo discusses food, body weight and Alton Brown (Local Lemons)
• Bound By Love and Honor. And Mayo. <<Love this broccoli crunch salad recipe (and philosophy) over at Matt Bites.
• Michael Pollan on Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual <<Michael Pollan recently spoke at my favorite farmers market about his new book, Food Rules. Here’s the video.

What inspired you this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, Body Weight, Breakfast, diets, Dr. Weil, fat, Michael Pollan, mindful eating, recipe, vitamin D

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Take some time out this weekend and read Michael Pollan’s latest article on the decline of cooking and the rise of food T.V. I also found a few articles that add to discussions from the previous two weeks, in particular the organic food controversy and eating healthy while fine dining. Some great recipes and food-related lifehacks are listed as well.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there.

I also invite you to submit your own best food and health articles for next week’s For The Love of Food, just drop me an email using the contact form. I am also accepting guest posts at Summer Tomato for any awesome healthstyle tips you’d like to share.

This post is an open thread. Share your thoughts, writing (links welcome!) and delicious meals of the week in the comments below.

For The Love of Food

• Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch <<The must-read article of the week, and probably the month. Michael Pollan‘s latest commentary discusses the lost art of cooking, the role of television in food, what we’re losing because of it and what we can do to reclaim it. (New York Times Magazine)
• Why food is about more than nutrition <<Great companion article to Monday’s discussion about organic vs conventional produce. (New Scientist)
• Overnight Oatmeal: Steel-Cut Oats in 10 Minutes <<Love steel-cut oats but hate the 45 minute prep time? A few minutes of your time the night before can turn this healthy breakfast into a quick morning staple. (The Bitten Word)
• Reset Your Sleep Cycle with a 16-Hour Fast <<Cool food-related tip on how to avoid jet lag with fasting. Certainly worth a try for you frequent fliers. (Lifehacker)
• Mildly High Cholesterol at Midlife Linked to Alzheimer’s <<This is not the first piece of evidence linking heart health to brain health. Avoid losing your mind by upgrading your healthstyle. (New York Times)
• The 11 Most Important Rules For Healthy Eating…Yes, Most Important <<Some of the best healthy eating advice I’ve seen. (Dumb Little Man)
• Vitamin D levels in children: “shocking” <<My favorite part about this article is the quiz about vitamin D at the bottom. How much do you know? (SFGate)
• Staying Fit When Eating Is Your Job <<More on the topic of fine dining and health. How does Top Chef hostess Padma Lakshmi do it? This is also related to Pollan’s article. (New York Times)
• ‘Better’ junk food is about marketing, not health <<Another gem from Marion Nestle. Learn all about how the food industry is trying to trick you into thinking you’re eating healthy. (SFGate)
• Poached Shrimp with Olive Oil and Lemon Juice <<Delicious looking summer shrimp recipe. I especially like the addition of beet greens, a severely under-used and under-appreciated vegetable. (Spinach Tiger)

Tags: brain, Breakfast, fasting, food industry, Michael Pollan, organic, recipe, Top Chef, vitamin D

Healthy Breakfast

Probably the biggest misconception about health and weight loss is that it takes a tremendous amount of willpower to succeed. Another myth is that it requires a substantial time investment.  In fact, neither excessive willpower nor time are necessary to be healthy and thin. So isn’t it useless to trying to force them on yourself? I think so.

After reading a captivating article by Ramit Sethi on Tim Ferriss’ (The Four Hour Work Week) blog, I learned most people have the same delusions about personal finance as they do about health––they think paying off debt and saving money require willpower and time. So we should not be surprised that the solutions for personal finance offered by Ramit are the same fundamental strategies necessary for investing in your personal health. Make no mistake about it, your health is an investment. And a pretty important one at that.

Today I am going to show you how the advice and reasoning Ramit uses in his article can apply to health and weight loss, and how automating these steps can help you achieve your goals. In future articles I will describe in detail how to implement each step. Be sure you are subscribed with either RSS or email so you can follow the series.

Choice Paralysis

Ramit starts by pointing out that we have dozens of choices to make every day when it comes to money. The same is true for health. Should I eat breakfast? Should I pack a lunch? Am I going to the gym?

“Faced with an overwhelming number of choices, most people respond in the same way: They do nothing.”

Clearly “nothing” is not a winning strategy. In both finance and health you must set your default activities so that you will automatically contribute to your long-term goals. Automation is the essence of healthstyle.

Establish a Foundation

Ramit says the first step to automating your personal finance system is to make sure you are getting the best deals you can from your financial institutions, meaning that you have the lowest possible interest rates and are not paying annual fees. Not doing this is equivalent to throwing money away.

In health the first step in establishing your foundation is having the tools you need to succeed. Since how you eat is the biggest factor in determining your long-term health and body weight, you must have the ability to eat properly. In our modern lives, this ultimately means you need to know how to cook for yourself. You will never get healthy eating at restaurants every day. This is the same as throwing your health away.

Therefore it is essential that your kitchen is supplied with the tools you need to cook, eat and store your food. This may seem obvious to some of you, but for many people the kitchen is a foreign and scary place. To assist both newbies and veterans in upgrading your kitchenstyles, I have put together a section of the Summer Tomato Shop called Kitchen Gear (go to the Shop then use the navigation in the sidebar on the right).

Kitchen Gear is grouped into categories that are meant to help you find exactly what you need. The Basics has all the essential items for a functional kitchen. Additionally, below each item I give a brief description of why it is on the list.

If you regularly follow my blog, however, you will soon find that I sometimes use items that are not in The Basics. Usually you can find these in Accessories. In general, Accessories are items that are not absolutely necessary for cooking, but they can make your life a whole lot easier if you have them. For example, you can peel vegetables with a knife, but a vegetable peeler makes it quick and easy.

Storage & Transport has products that help you mobilize your healthstyle, which is especially important if you work away from home during the day. There are also reusable grocery and farmers market bags available.

The Finer Things offers the top-of-the-line products that I wish I had (okay, I have a few of them). I have spent an embarrassing amount of time reading reviews of kitchen products and appliances, and these are the products I envision in my future dream kitchen. For those of you who can afford them, this is your list.

I feel confident in the quality of the items I recommend–I own or have used most of them. I also consider price in my recommendations and try to make this clear in my explanations. If, however, you feel you want an item that is different from what is on my list, you can still navigate to and purchase it through the Amazon links on this website to support this blog. My store is run through Amazon.com and almost always represents the best prices on the internet.

Automate the Basics

The next step in Ramit’s personal finance plan is to automate your bank accounts so that regular payments and savings deposits occur as soon as you get your paycheck (also automatic). This takes care of all your goals and gives you the freedom to make personal decisions with the rest of your money without worry, guilt or willpower.

If you are like most people the structure of your day stays pretty much the same all year long (particularly Monday through Friday). We wake up, go to work (or equivalent), come home, eat, spend time on personal things then go to bed. This structure provides us an excellent opportunity to optimize for health.

Breakfast. One of the simplest things you can do to improve your health is eat breakfast, particularly whole grains and fruit. To easily begin improving your metabolism and blood sugar control, find a couple whole grain cereals you like and start eating breakfast every day. If you think you do not like to eat first thing in the morning, you are most likely dehydrated. Wake up, drink water, then eat breakfast.

Lunch. For many people lunch is the most difficult meal to make healthy because they do not prepare for it, get stuck at work with no food and end up going out and eating something unhealthy. But since you know you always eat one meal at work each day, this is something you can easily automate in your favor.

Each weekend you need to plan in advance what you will be eating for lunch all week. Make sure you cover at least 4 days, but five is better. There are several ways to approach this: you can bring ingredients and prepare your own lunch at the office, make a large batch of food on weekends especially for lunch during the week, or make enough food each night at dinner that you have leftovers for the next day. All these strategies are effective because they help you avoid buying your lunch.

Shopping. In order to accomplish the two above points, you need to set aside a little bit of time each weekend to go grocery shopping and plan (or at least consider) your meals. This time must be non-negotiable; ultimately it saves you time later in the week. For my personal healthstyle the weekend always includes a trip to the farmers market, but there are many other options if this is not realistic for you.

Effective shopping has several components. You must always have the basic stocks of items in your pantry, freezer and refrigerator. You need to shop regularly for staples (milk, for example) and fresh items must be purchased weekly. Details on how to shop for all these components will be given in future posts.

Dinner. People expect the most out of dinner. It generally needs to be quick (I’m starving!), simple (I’m busy!) and delicious (I’m picky!). Luckily, the changing seasons offer great opportunity to keep variety in our dinner menus without needing too many different cooking techniques. If you can get at least a few of the basic skills under your belt, you can make an infinite number of healthy, interesting and delicious meals. Basic cooking techniques will also be summarized in future posts.

Work exercise into your daily routine. Physical activity is essential for staying fit and trim, but it doesn’t particularly matter where you get it. The important thing is that you make it happen consistently by incorporating it into your average day. Personally I walk to work, take the stairs, and make it to the gym for cardio and weights whenever I can.

Whatever method you choose as your source of physical activity must be your default, and skipping your exercise must be the exception. If you prefer using a gym, make sure you have a membership, a gym bag and the necessary apparel to workout at all times. Don’t like the gym? Find an activity that you enjoy and recruit friends to join you. Even if you prefer not to engage in formal workouts at all, you can make an effort to increase your non-exercise daily activity. Some scientists think non-exercise energy expenditure may be especially effective for people who are trying to lose weight but dislike structured workouts.

Tweaking Your Style

Ramit’s final recommendation for automating your personal finance is to customize your plan for your personal circumstances.

We are all individuals and have different needs and preferences, especially when it comes to food and exercise. I do not recommend trying to incorporate every ounce of my advice into your life at the same time. Try the things that are easiest for you and see how they work. Once a few new habits are formed, you can try to tackle some harder ones. As you grow and evolve into your own healthstyle, you may find things that never worked for you before are suddenly feasible. Or you may come up with your own hacks to optimize your health and fitness.

This blog is meant to be a source for suggestions and guidelines, not dogma or a regimented plan. Discovering and improving your own strategies for success are essential for building a lasting healthstyle that reflects both who you are and who you want to be.

How will you upgrade your healthstyle?

Read more on How To Get Started Eating Healthy:

Tags: automation, Breakfast, Dinner, Exercise, Four Hour Work Week, kitchen, Lunch, planning, Ramit Sethi, Shop, Tim Ferriss, time, whole grains, willpower