Apparently there are restaurants popping up over the country specializing in none other than breakfast cereal! They’re called “cereal bars” and are becoming quite popular. I live in a rather small city where these restaurants haven’t made their way here yet, but they can be found in larger cities like Chicago, Miami, Indiana, and more.  Instead of offering the plain ole bowl of cereal, they mix it up and form new creations that their customers have to love. Shape Magazine posted three different “recipes” from three different restaurants and I think you’ll love them!

1. Something Sweet…
   Mix ½ cup Cheerios, ½ cup Special K, 2 tbsp. walnuts, ½ cup sliced peaches, and 1 tsp. honey. Add milk. (From Cereality Cereal Bar & Cafe in Philadelphia)
   
2. Something Warm…
   Stir 1/3 cup canned pumpkin-pie filling and 1 crushed graham cracker into 1 cup cooked plain oatmeal. Sprinkle with about ¼ tsp. each ground ginger and cinnamon. (From the Cereal Bowl in Miami)
   
3. Something Crunchy…
   Mix ½ cup Wheaties, ¼ cup lowfat granola, ¼ cup trail mix, and a sliced banana; add milk. (From Cereal Barn & Peanut Butter Cafe in Bloomington, Indiana)

The #2 recipe sounds like a wonderful concoction, doesn’t it? Especially this time of year in the mid-west when it’s cold and snowy. I haven’t tried any of these mixes, but they all sound great!

When you think of fruit and salad, you automatically think that they are healthy for you, don’t you? I automatically think that those are two things that are good for me, and provide me with a lot of nutrients. While it’s true that those are both foods that are in fact good for you and offer a lot of health benefits, you need to consider how it’s prepared. There are certain foods that we automatically associate with health, yet not all of them are actually good for us! Today we’re going to take a look at some of those foods.

It’s Good for you, but…

1. Breakfast – is good for you, but… just because you eat breakfast doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. Cereals or yogurt that are loaded with sugar must be avoided!
2. Salad – is good for you, but… not if it’s loaded with cheese, croutons, bacon, and creamy dressings.
3. Non-fried snacks – could be good for you, but.. snacks like pretzels and baked chips are processed foods that go right through you and don’t provide much in terms of nutrients.
4. Fruit – is good for you, but… not dried fruit! Dried fruit is loaded with sugar. Stick with fresh fruits!

The one thing on that list that I always have a hard time with is cheese and creamy dressings on my salads.  I LOVE cheese, and I love ranch dressing so it’s hard for me to turn those things down. And of course when I have a salad with cheese and ranch dressing, I always end up feeling guilty, so I don’t end up enjoying it any ways. A good alternative for creamy dressings that I’ve been trying to have more often is simply a drizzle of good olive oil and vinegar.

Anytime there’s a food that you automatically label as a healthy food, stop to consider how you eat it and how it’s prepared! If you can say “It’s good for me” without any “but,” it’s probably a good choice.

I’m one of those that tends to get into ruts with what I’m eating, which can get boring. For example, my most recent rut involved oatmeal for breakfast, and a banana, every single day for about 16 weeks. To get out of my rut, I’ve looked for other healthy alternatives. I don’t eat eggs of any kind, so that is never an option. Instead, I turned to smoothies. Here are a couple of the recipes I have come across:

— Mixed Berry Smoothie–

1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup plain, low-fat yogurt
1/6 cup washed, stemmed raspberries
1/6 cup washed, stemmed strawberries
1/6 cup washed, stemmed blueberries
4 ice cubes
Honey to taste

All you have to do is place all of the ingredients into a blender, and blend on high until it’s all smooth and delicious! Add honey if you’d like some sweetness.

–Oprah’s Fruit and Yogurt Breakfast–

1 container key lime pie Yoplait yogurt
1 mango, chopped
Blueberries
Chopped walnuts
4 ice cubes

Mix the yogurt, mango, blueberries and walnuts all together, and enjoy!

You’ve heard that saying, right? Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. I’m focusing on the “healthy” part today. I had heard that saying a million times but never really thought about the “healthy” part.

You know, they say that eating breakfast can actually help you lose weight. It’s true. Here’s my problem with breakfast, and the problem I’ve had for years up until recently…. I could never get myself up early enough to get myself ready, and eat breakfast before rushing out the door so that I could get to wherever I needed to be on time. Sleep is a precious commodity, even if it’s just an extra 10 minutes.

According to this article, when you eat breakfast in the morning, it helps to keep you from overeating throughout the day. It makes sense! I’m sure we’ve all done it at one point or another. You skip breakfast, and lunch rolls around and there’s not enough food in sight to satisfy your hunger. You scarf it all down so quickly before you stomach has time to tell your brain that “hey, I’m full”… in fact, you were full 500 calories ago.

Another problem that I have with breakfast is what do I eat? The same article gives some suggestions for healthy breakfasts that will give you energy for the day. First up… no surprise here….

• Cereal: Hot or cold, doesn’t really matter. But, the key thing is that the first ingredient should be “whole grain.”
• Smoothies: This is one I haven’t really experimented with… but I should! Blend one cup of nonfat milk plus 1/2-1 cup of nonfat plain or sugar-free nonfat flavored yogurt, plus a cup of crushed ice and a cup of fresh or frozen fruit. Sounds tasty, doesn’t it?
• Waffles: If prepared right! A brand called Kashi has a GoLean frozen waffle. 2 Waffles have 170 calories, 6 grams of fiber (helps you to feel full among other things) and 4 grams of sugar.

Several months ago I made a serious effort to wake up with enough time to eat a healthy breakfast (oatmeal is usually my choice) and have time to pack a nutritious lunch for the day. Every once in a while, leftover dessert like brownies or cake will get the best of me for breakfast, but all in all, it’s usually a healthy breakfast that gets me started. Those two elements (packing a healthy lunch, and eating breakfast), though it requires me to get up a bit earlier, have helped me in my weight loss process.

Oh, and by the way, ‘early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise’ was a saying of Benjamin Franklin. You learn something new every day…

Source: eDiets