MyPlate

What is MyPlate: This is a graphic that aims to help anyone, especially younger children to build a meal that contains the proper amounts of certain foods.  The plate is meant to be a 9” in diameter plate.  This is important because if people are using plates that are too large, the ratio of foods can get skewed.

Components of MyPlate: MyPlate contains 5 different groups (ask the kids to give examples of something you could eat in each group)

Vegetables—The largest group. Make sure you are eating from the rainbow including a lot of colors (don’t forget white!)  The more colors that you eat, the more nutrients you will get.

Fruit- It may not seem like the easiest thing to eat at a meal like dinner, but fruit is naturally sweet and it can be delicious mixed into vegetables.

Whole Grains- Make sure starchy sides you have with dinner like pasta and rice are whole grain varieties.  Try grains you never have like quinoa, bulgur and couscous.

Lean Protein- This one is important because it is usually the one that people make too big.  We think that meat has to be the biggest part of our meal, but that actually is not the case.  Keep your meat serving the size of a deck of cards.

Low-fat dairy- Whether it is a glass of low-fat milk on the side of any meal, some low-fat yogurt with fruit as your after dinner dessert, or a piece of low-fat cheese in your sandwich, dairy gives you calcium which you need for strong bones.

Be Your Best with Breakfast

The verdict is in and without a doubt breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  One of the main reasons for its importance can be found by picking apart its name: “Breakfast.”  You are essentially “breaking the fast” when you have your first meal of the day.  Think about it.  Sometimes you have dinner at 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening, and if you don’t have an after dinner snack, it could be almost 15 hours until you eat again.

Many people think that by skipping breakfast they are eating less food and therefore giving themselves a better chance at weight loss.  However by skipping breakfast, you are actually hurting your chances at weight loss because you are stunting your metabolism.

Metabolism is like a fire; if you don’t keep adding to the flames, the fire and its ability to burn will weaken.  The longer you wait before breakfast, the harder your metabolism has to work to burn calories once you eat again.  If you start your day with breakfast when you wake up, you are starting that fire and giving your metabolism the best start to efficient calorie burning all day.  The same principle goes for why you shouldn’t wait too long between meals, because you don’t want that “fire” to go out again.

Many people feel the challenge of eating breakfast is too little time in the morning.  When people are given the choice to sleep an extra 15 minutes, or use that time to get up and make a quick breakfast, they will usually choose the sleep.  However that ends up hurting you double because not only will you have skipped breakfast and weakened your metabolism, that extra sleep won’t mean anything because you will be more tired from growing hunger.

There are many quick and healthy breakfast options out there like whole grain cereals with low fat or soy milk, instant plain oatmeal, Greek yogurt with fruit and nuts, and if you have a little extra time, cook up an omelet full of veggies!  Breakfast doesn’t have to be difficult and it offers you such a healthy start to the day!

What is your favorite breakfast to eat?