If I had to choose one problem that I come across the most with people struggling to lose weight it would be called Breakfast.

It is usually the first thing I address when meeting a new client or talking to someone who is looking for advice... "Do you eat breakfast?" The answers vary from "No" to "Umm.. well... sometimes.. but... " (the people that know they're supposed to eat it but don't and are just a little scared to tell me) to "I'm just not hungry" to "I tried to but it made me sick" to "it's just too hard".

Now you know what I think about the last one... don't give me "too hard"... all you're saying is you cant be bothered trying.

It makes you sick? This one makes more sense... it would be the same putting a meal in any time frame that you don't normally eat, your body would be unused to it and respond by feeling 'off '. Fortunately this feeling doesn't last long... I don't speak from experience on this as I've always been a breakfast person but Dave hasn't and I've witnessed his transition to religious breakfast eater and it wasn't pretty in the beginning. He tells me it took him about a fortnight to no longer feel crook after eating breakfast. Now, I know there are people reading this taking what I'm saying as me encouraging you to make yourself sick for the sake of breakfast... well, yes, yes I am. Breakfast is crucial and if you've taken it out of the plan at some point or just never prioritized it then it needs to come back in. Same as when people tell me that drinking water makes them sick, I'm hardly going to tell them to just not worry about drinking water. Sometimes change and bettering yourself comes at a price. This one is minimal and passes quickly, and the benefits are massive!

If you're not hungry in the morning it's because your dinner was so big your body is still digesting it. It is crucial to view food as fuel not reward or punishment. You eat a meal in preparation for what is to come, in the same way you put petrol in your car with the journey ahead in mind. You wouldn't go on holiday with no gas and you wouldn't park the car up for months after filling the tank. It's just waste. So if you are finding that you are not hungry in the morning then look at the size of your dinner the night before. Are you stocking up your body with piles of energy to sleep on?

Breakfast should be eaten every day, and always within half an hour of waking up. It's breaking your fast.. so should be the first thing you do. A lot of people think they're doing the healthy and right thing by getting up, going for a run, coming back and having a shower and getting dressed for the day then having their breakfast. Though it is one of the more disputed issues in weightloss and fitness, I believe you need to fuel your body first. If nothing else it will give you more energy to do better in whatever your morning exercise is. I recommend exercising 1-2 hours after your breakfast if you are eating a decent sized meal. If you have to workout sooner due to your schedule then make your breakfast a bit smaller but do eat something! Your body is running on empty already and to get the most of your workout without getting sluggish and light headed (especially those with hypoglycemia or diabetes) you need to get your blood sugars up.

Ideally, and I say this loosely as I know it is far from possible for many people, breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day. There is an old saying Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dine like a pauper. (The irony of this is that up til the 15th century people only ate two meals a day, the first one at noon... kinda like today for many! Now think about what the life expectancy was like back then...). I find particularly in the summer it is easier to eat this way, dinner is less of a comfort and so it's easier to just have a slice of cold meat and salad. It is however something worth thinking about and adapting to your own routine.

The other fear with eating breakfast is the unhealthy feeling of success that many people get from skipping a meal. People tend to think that the less food in the quicker the weightloss so if they skip a meal they've done something great for themselves. People often think wrong. These people will get hungry later on and eat ridiculous things, or their metabolism will go all bear-in-winter and hibernate or die. Trust me, you don't want your metabolism working against you. Eat breakfast.

In the spirit of the New Year, new start, new goals and all that I have started a challenge to myself (and such a trial too... hehehe) to see if I can post a different breakfast idea for each day of January... follow along with us and if you had misconceptions of breakfast you may be nicely surprised! The posts for this challenge can be found here.