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It improves your mood and attitude. According to research, breakfast-skippers tend to feel tired, irritable, and restless in the morning compared to breakfast-eaters, who show better attitudes toward work and school and have better productivity throughout the day.

It strengthens your mental skills. Research has also found that breakfast-eaters have improved memory as well as better concentration and problem-solving abilities. Don't believe it? Think of the studies of children who eat breakfast and have better concentration and do better on tests. Isn't it amazing how one simple meal can help you perform better on mental challenges and tasks?

It supplies you with ample nutrients. Eating the recommended five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables each day can be tough when you try to fit all of those servings into just two meals. Breakfast-eaters tend to get in more of their daily recommended vitamins and minerals than non-breakfast-eaters.

It helps control your weight. Yes, that's right. Eating breakfast can actually help you lose weight. Even though what you eat at breakfast still counts toward your total calories for the day, research shows that individuals who eat breakfast tend to feel more satisfied and eat fewer calories and fat throughout the day, making eating your breakfast each day an important weight-loss strategy. Eating a healthy breakfast also helps keep your metabolism running strong (flip to Chapter 8 for the full scoop on metabolism).

Feeling fuller for longer with the right balance at breakfast

Do you ever feel ravenous 30 minutes after eating breakfast? If so, you're not alone. I often hear this complaint from my clients. The hunger you're experiencing has more to do with what you're eating than with normal hunger cues. Many people eat the wrong combination of foods in the morning, which can stimulate their appetite in a strong way. This is where your low-glycemic choices come in handy. When you eat a high-glycemic food for breakfast with little else, that food creates a spike in your blood sugar. Eventually your blood sugar comes crashing down, leaving you feeling famished. Eating low-glycemic foods for breakfast helps prevent this fast spike and keeps you feeling satisfied for longer.

The best way to avoid stimulating your appetite and guarantee you'll feel fuller for longer is to combine low-glycemic foods with protein and/or fat, both of which (like low-glycemic foods) release energy more slowly. So, for example, instead of eating puffed rice cereal with a little milk, opt for oatmeal with walnuts and milk. Puffed rice is a higher-glycemic grain, and although milk has fat and protein, usually little of it is used on cereal. These factors lead you to feel hungry very quickly, whereas the lower-glycemic oatmeal plus the protein and fat in the nuts keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time.

If you're a breakfast-skipper, you may find that you don't feel hungry in the morning at all, but when you start to incorporate breakfast, suddenly your hunger kicks into gear. Don't worry. That's a good sign! Your body should feel hungry in the morning (and frequently throughout the day) to signal that it's time to eat. Hunger signals that feel like a gradual hunger rather than an extreme famished feeling are a sign of a good metabolism. Many individuals have fallen out of touch with what hunger and fullness feel like, which can make losing weight and maintaining any weight loss more of a challenge because they aren't used to eating at the appropriate times.

Going on the Run with Grab-and-Go Starters

Some mornings you may not have time to prepare anything for breakfast. Other mornings you may find it hard to eat very much. Regardless of the circumstances, eating something small for breakfast is better than eating nothing at all so your body can replenish its blood sugar stores.

A good strategy is to have a quick grab-and-go starter and then enjoy a midmorning snack a little later. (This strategy works especially well if you find that eating one