Wellness Warriors: Week 1 Assignments

Homework already.  Go figure. ;-)  We had three assignments for week 1.

1. Eat a good (healthy) breakfast in the 250-300 calorie range.  (For the guys in our group, they got a few extra calories - lucky ducks! :-) )
2. Work in 30 minutes cardio 5 times.
3. Do a food log for 3 days.

I've got #1 mastered.  Turns out my breakfast I was already eating is in that range.  Ok - I cut out the morning hot cocoa to get it there...but still.  I wasn't very far off.  (My hot cocoa is made with no-sugar added Nesquick!) So that was a relief I had very little work there.

According to a study (quoted by Chantel) done by Havard, something like 70% of non-breakfast eaters struggle with weight.  Out of the 6 group participants, only 2 of us ate breakfast.  So I think that is pretty telling.

With THAT said, I thought I'd share some of the suggestions for breakfast.

• Oatmeal.  It is jam packed with nutrients and is a wonderful complex carb.  Pair it with a protein (turkey sausage anyone?) and you have a perfect breakfast.  Just make sure to watch the sugar content.  Many pre-packaged oatmeals are super high in sugar.
• Hard boiled eggs.  They are a great grab-n-go!  Boil a bunch at the beginning of the week, and you are ready to go!
• Scrambled egg beaters in a tortilla.  (Throw a little salsa on there and this is actually pretty good...the eggs in tortilla's was something Chantel mentioned.  The rest is something I'm throwing out there because I've done it before. :-))
• If you don't like egg beaters, toss a regular egg in with the egg beaters.
• Protein shakes.  Make them yourself to control sugar content.  Generally, the prepackaged stuff has way too much.  (BTW - Chantel mentioned that drinks like Ensure are given to sick folks in the hospital to help them gain weight.  SO...if you are trying to loose weight - you probably don't want to drink the same stuff!)
• Whole grain English muffin w/peanut butter.
• Pick a healthy non-breakfast food.  This wasn't mentioned in the meeting...but one of my favorite breakfast meals while pregnant was a turkey sandwich complete with lettuce and tomato.  Sometimes you just have to cross those lines!

I'm of course trying to figure out #2.  This is my largest hurdle.  I've been parking in the back of the parking lot (for starters).  I have a friend at work who would like to get more walking in...I just need to pick several times a day to grab her and go walking for 10-15 minutes at a time.  So I'll just have to keep you posted on that one.  I'm going to have to really think about this one - and I will probably have to make some difficult choices along the way.  You know...like get up at 4 AM.

#3 - I'll post my food log for Wed, Thur and Fri after I email it to Ms. Chantel.  :-)  I might as well hang it all out there.  Riiiiiight?  Plus - it will be interesting to see my food log at the beginning and take another one at the end.