Breakfast may very well be the most important meal of the day. A balanced breakfast will provide a good amount of calories and nutrients that are required to help keep you fueled for the day. Skipping breakfast could be one of the biggest mistakes you make for the day in regards to being the complete athlete.

Some common excuses are: "I’m not hungry in the morning", "I don’t have time", "I am on a diet". These excuses can cause low blood sugar reactions with morning exercisers and it tells your body that you are fasting which will force the body to conserve calories as fat so that it can provide fuel at times that you don’t eat. You are already fasting from dinner the night before until breakfast, which means your body is on empty when you wake up. If you skip breakfast then your body has to rely on breaking down your muscle to get some energy as well as use extra fat stores so that you can make it to lunch. Using fat stores is great but that also means your body is storing extra fat because the body doesn’t like to give up fat cells to easily. These practices will eventually lead to weakness and poor performance.

A balanced breakfast will also provide fullness and help prevent mid-morning hunger. Breakfast should provide about 1/3 of your daily calories. A good breakfast will allow the body to burn more calories throughout the day, allow you to concentrate better, and give you plenty of energy for your workouts. A breakfast skipper will usually eat too much at night because the body still needs those daily calories. This tends to promote fat storage because of your decreased activity when sleeping.

Some suggestions for a balanced breakfast are to eat some type of bread or cereal, a piece of fruit or juice, and some type of protein like eggs or maybe cottage cheese. Listed below are some sample breakfasts for you to try.

Sample 1

1 cup orange juice

1 cup oatmeal

2 slices toast

1 egg

1 banana

Jam or Jelly