Nutritional Note on Breakfast

We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Often times those who are trying to lose weight are told never to skip breakfast. Some newer research has found that eating a big breakfast can just add calories to your day and that actually skipping breakfast can be a way to reduce calorie intake for the day. So let’s take a closer look at what we really know about breakfast habits and how they impact nutrition and weight loss.
We know that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight. We also know from data collected by the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) that over 90% of successful dieters usually eat breakfast (Successful means that they have lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off for a long period of time – not a crash diet and then yo-yo back again). Successful weight management is a lot more then just eating breakfast. The NWCR shows those that eat breakfast regularly (the successful dieters) also exercise more regularly. So eating breakfast is more likely a common trait among those that maintain a healthy weight. So saying no to extra portion sizes and desert has as much to do weight management as also saying yes to breakfast. But just eating breakfast does not instantly make you a regular exerciser and a healthy, disciplined eater.
So as long as your total intake over the course of the day is balanced, nutritious and allows you to maintain a healthy weight, you can be flexible on the first meal of the day. But if you are struggling with your weight or find it difficult to control the quantity or quality of your food choices, thing about changing your breakfast habit to see if it makes a difference. Healthy quick breakfast choices can be: hard-boiled egg, whole grain toast with peanut butter, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal or whole grain breakfast bar. In the end it doesn’t matter what the latest guru or fad that has worked for others. What counts is what works for you.

Seven steps to go from 0 to 30

Most of us know that the recommended amount of cardiovascular exercise should be 30 minutes, 5-6 times per week. We know it has benefits in helping maintain a healthy weight, reducing stress and giving us a better-looking midsection. Some of us also know it can boost the body’s immune system, by increasing the circulation of natural killer cells that fight off viruses and bacteria, so we are less likely to catch the flu or a cold. Not to mention it reduces risk for stroke by 27%, diabetes by 50%, high blood pressure by 40%, mortality from breast cancer by 50%, colon cancer by 60%, Alzheimer’s disease by 40%, and decrease depression as well if not better then the best medications on the market.


Unfortunately though, for some of us finding five extra minutes a day may seem impossible. Or walking five minutes at a moderate pace seems like more work then worth it. So how does one go from nothing to 30 minutes?

Here are 7 steps to make it happen in a healthy way:

1. Set Goals – Decide what you want to accomplish with your exercise program and find a program that will help you meet your goals.

2. Get Ready – Assess your current level of fitness and understand how to exercise safely by meeting with your physician and physical therapist if needed.

3. Do what you enjoy and do it with others. You need to find activities that you enjoy and doing it with others will help you stick with it.

4. Make it a Priority – You need to hold yourself accountable to your goals and make a commitment that the time spent exercising is non-negotiable. Self-care needs to come before you can properly care for others.

5. Start Slow – Variety & Keep it simple. Many of us want to get our fitness back quickly, but realize we probably did not get out of shape quickly. Also trying to get fit faster often will lead to injury. Gradually add appropriate increase to activities as fitness improves over time. Going from 0 to 30 minutes probably needs to start with 5 minutes.

6. Log activity – This is an important step to make sure you are reaching your goals from step #1. Also it holds you accountable to make sure you are doing step #4. Lastly it helps measure that you are doing it correctly by slowly adding challenge as your fitness increases in step #5.

7. Celebrate progress – As you achieve your goals from step #1 reward your hard work and then set new goals to work toward.

Making up your mind to be Happy

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be,” Abraham Lincoln once said.

Current research in neuroscience and psychology shows this statement to be more scientific medical fact then just a witty comment. You are more in control of our emotions and anxiety levels than you think. The negative biological effects from stress come from how you think and react to outside stimulus. People with increased anxious tendencies react in a more fearful way then a person who is able to cope in a calmer fashion.


So here are a few tips to reduce stress:

1. Research has shown that spending time with friends is good for mental health. Schedule regular time, at least one time per month, with friends to ward off chronic stress. Laughter is a key activity that has been shown to decrease cortisol, the primary stress hormone in people.

2. Positive thinking does not add to your already stressful to-do-list. It creates instant good thoughts and helps shift away from negative thinking. Negative thinking enhances anxious tendencies. It’s not as simple as “mind over matter”, but what your mind thinks of does matter. So as hard as it seems with some circumstances, make yourself look at positive things about a situation and focus more attention to them over the negatives.

Should exercise be work or play?

After a long days work coming home and thinking of doing more work with an exercise program is not very appealing to many of us. Coming home and playing may sound a little more fun and enjoyable. So should your exercise program be work or play? Actually a little of both, lets look at the definition of both and see why and how to get a little of both to make our exercise program enjoyable and effective for us.


Play can be defined as any exercise or activity for amusement or recreation through brisk, light or changing movements or actions. Play has no inherent survival needs and is pleasurable and fun. Work, on the other hand, is an exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something. Work is often done under the stress of need, has clear goals or purposes, and is usually not much fun. Play is by definition more exploratory and open ended than work. Work is more defined and goal directed.

So lets look at why our exercise probably needs to be a little of both. If you approach your exercise with an overly serious mindset that can create inappropriate stress. You then activate a brain pattern that is not conductive to long term use as your brain and subsequent behavior will work to avoid this activity. If your exercise is fun, you have a better chance of making it productive and continuing long term. Play actual stimulates many different parts of the brain and actually enhances brain activity and growth. If your exercise is only playful and does not stress the body at all it will not physiologically, from a muscular and cardiovascular system, see as much improvement for improved health. Your body will adapt to stresses placed upon it. So small gradual stresses will allow your body to slowly and appropriately adapt and improve in its muscular and cardiovascular systems. By applying a little work with your exercise program it will help you achieve your health goals and allow you a method to measure your progress.

So if your exercise has some component of play you will more likely stick with it and create an environment that your brain will more likely allow you to continue long term. And if you apply a little work with it you can slowly challenge your muscular and cardiovascular systems to improve your overall health.

Does your expectation of recovery following an injury help predict your actual outcome?

Actually they might! Myers(1) and colleagues in 2007 did an interesting study looking at this and found, that what you think your recovery will be is a good predictor of what it actually will be. Why and how does this happen? We do not actually know, yet different theories are possible:


1. You are a very good predictor of your actual injury and your outcome.

2. Your own bias. Whatever you reported initially you will want to be self-consistent later when asked on your improvement, even if you have not improved that much.

3. If you have a higher expectation, you might be more likely to follow through with the prescribed treatment and return to regular activities.

4. The expectation itself being therapeutic, akin the placebo effects.

The last possibility is often in popular culture thought to be just “crazy fake psychological stuff”. But current neuroscience research shows this phenomenon is a normal neurobiological function of the brain and not fake at all. Our brains have an amazing ability to either up or down regulate everything we experience and do. That is why we hear of stories of wartime soldiers being significantly harmed and feel no pain. His or her brain can down regulate the pain info coming in up to 40 times more powerful than any medication we can give them. While this is an extreme example, realize your brain is always doing this to some degree. Your brain has the neurobiological ability to control information coming in and it’s response to that info. This is very real and at work with many conditions and treatments even though you don’t realize it. There is also an opposite phenomenon, if your expectation is for a negative outcome it may lead to worse symptoms.

So just expecting to get better means you will get better faster, not exactly. If you have doubts, or there are significant biological deficits, you cannot fool yourself or pretend that your expectations will get you better. So if you have doubts about your predicted outcome, seek medical advice. Research at this time cannot fully clarify if changing these expectations based on sound clinical advice leads to better outcomes, but some early research suggests this might help. So isn’t this the popular belief held by some that all you need is “mind over matter”, no. But the biological matter in your brain does matter. Bottom line, if your expectation is to get better, it probably will help. If you do not have a positive expectation, you want to seek the advice of a medical professional to help give advice to clarify expectations of your injury.



1. Myers SS, et al. Patient Expectations as Predictors of Outcome In Patients with Acute Low Back Pain. J Gen Intern Med. 2007; 23(2): 148–53.