SuperFoods Breakfast!

I’ve been reading a few pages of my favorite book SuperFoods HealthStyle by Dr. Steven Pratt each night. I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone interested in health or weight loss. He puts the emphasis, as we all should, on eating for health, which means weight drops off naturally. I LOVE this book!!!

Here’s a list of some of the superfoods:

1. Beans: A great low-fat, low-calorie source of protein and an easy way to help control your weight and your blood sugar.
2. Blueberries: The best food on the planet to preserve a young brain as we mature.
3. Broccoli: The best food on the planet to prevent cancer.
4. Oats: A sure-fire way to lower your cholesterol.
5. Oranges: The most readily available source of vitamin C, which in turn lowers the rate of most causes of death in this country, for example, heart disease and cancer.
6. Pumpkin: Loaded with phytonutrients, which keep our skin young and help prevent damage from sunlight.
7. Wild salmon: A guaranteed way to lower your risk for cardiac-related death.
8. Soy: The only complete vegetarian source of protein.
9. Spinach: The best food on the planet to prevent cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, thus ensuring a lifetime of good vision.
10. Tea — green or black: The easiest and cheapest no-calorie way to avoid heart disease and cancer.
11. Tomatoes: One of the easiest ways for men to avoid prostate cancer is the consumption of tomatoes and tomato-based products.
12. Skinless turkey breast: The leanest meat source of protein on the planet.
13. Walnuts: Consuming walnuts is an easy, tasty way to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.
14. Yogurt: A tasty, easy way to boost your immune system.

Many of these have sidekicks so if you’re not in the mood for blueberries, you can have raspberries, blackberries, etc. and they’re just a tad behind blueberries in super-nutrition.

I read the pumpkin section last night and decided to pull out the dusty can of pumpkin from our pantry and make something this morning, since it is almost Fall! The end result? Pumpkin Oatmeal!

So I hit up the oats, pumpkin, cinnamon and walnuts this morning! (Cinnamon is a superfood but it’s not listed above)

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup oats, prepared with water
• 1/8 cup dried fruit or raisins
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 oz walnuts
• 1 tbsp splenda
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• Cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg or apple pie spice to taste
• Optional: 1 small banana

I basically just made oatmeal with the dried fruit in it, stirred in the pumpkin, nuked it for another 30 seconds. Added the spices and sugars, stirred. Then added the walnuts. Then the banana.

This was a rather large breakfast, about 425 calories for the oatmeal concoction, but I needed a big breakfast to hold me until a 1pm lunch today.

I also had a latte made with 1/2 a cup of skim milk, which brings calories to 475.

Today I’m going white-water rafting at the new center here in Charlotte with one of our clients. I had debated skipping my workout this morning and decided to do a short 30-minute run since I’ll be “working out” on the water. I normally get up at 4:50 am to get ready for the gym at 5:30. Today the alarm went off at 5:30 and my legs just felt tired. I decided it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I skipped running today since I am getting my movement in elsewhere. I’ll try to squeeze in at least a 30 minute walk too, which may be hard with my nutrition course starting tonight at 6pm and going until 8:45pm.

But I did make a mental note: it’s just as hard to get out of bed at 6:30 as it is as 4:50, so you might as well get up early and exercise!!

Since I’ll be in a wet environment, I’m not taking my camera to the center to photograph lunch (also wouldn’t want strange looks from the client!). But I’ll be back this afternoon with a report on how I did. Normally I’d panic not knowing the menu, but I’m going to pack some nuts and granola bars in case the food is inedible. But I’m pretty sure it’ll be deli sandwiches, so I’ll just take off some of the meat and eat it open faced 🙂

Later!!