Power Breakfasts for Energy 13 meals to lose weight, balance blood sugar, and feel full

Don't skip breakfast!! I know you've heard it a hundred times, so why are you still doing it, LOL!!
Breakfast sets your body up for the whole day, for a whole SUCCESSFUL day of energizing and calorie burning. Breakfast is like an instruction sheet for you body as to how its go to function the rest of the day, so DON'T skip it!

From: Prevention

One the biggest mistakes women make at breakfast time? Not eating enough.

In the morning, your energy stores are depleted by as much as 80% from the night before. Without food, your body begins to conserve energy and burn fewer calories—making your metabolism take a nosedive. That may be why, in one study, breakfast skippers were nearly 5 times more likely to be obese than breakfast eaters.

The following meals are packed with special fat-fighting nutrients—fiber, omega-3s, calcium, and vitamin D—a power combination that burns fat and keeps blood sugar (and energy) levels steady. (They’re also the basis of Prevention’s Diabetes DTOUR Diet plan). So whether you have diabetes, prediabetes, or just want to eat better and have fewer cravings and binges, start your morning with one of these delicious, nutritious choices.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Whole wheat flour and omega-3 enriched eggs turn pancakes from a forbidden decadence to a healthy diet staple. Cinnamon and flaxseed provide a sweet, comforting flavor and texture. Get the recipe

Breakfast Smoothie

This is one simple smoothie—if you have mixed berries, fat-free yogurt, and some other staple ingredients, it’s a snap to make on a hectic morning. . Milk, walnuts, and flaxseed meal add essential fat-fighting nutrients. Get the recipe

Ginger Mango Smoothie

Whip up and refrigerate overnight for a simple grab-and-go breakfast. Vanilla yogurt and tofu give a thick, creamy texture; cardamom, ginger, and mango add a subtle, sweet flavor. Get the recipe

Cream of Wheat with Maple Walnuts and Cranberries

Classic Cream of Wheat becomes healthier and more filling when you prepare it with calcium-rich fat-free milk and top it with omega-3 packed walnuts and flaxseed. Maple syrup and vanilla add some satisfying sweetness. Get the recipe

Open-Faced Broiled Egg, Spinach, Tomato Sandwich

Skip a drive-thru egg sandwich and make this easy-to-prepare one at home. (It uses hard-boiled eggs, so you don’t even have to soil a pan.) Spinach and tomatoes provide valuable vitamins and antioxidants; a fiber-filled whole wheat English muffin combined with protein in the egg helps you stay satiated through lunchtime. Get the recipe

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pancake

Love PB&J for lunch? It also makes for a fun, simple breakfast when you use pancakes instead of crustless bread. For a healthy twist, make your own jelly with fresh or frozen blueberries (they’re packed with ridiculously healthy antioxidants) and honey. Get the recipe

Coconut Rice Pudding with Raspberries

Brown rice for breakfast? You bet—when it’s sweetened and softened with coconut extract and honey. Fat-free milk adds important calcium and vitamin D; fold in raspberries for waist-whittling fiber. Get the recipe

Lemon Blueberry Scones

From the "I-can't-believe-this-is-diet" school of thought comes this delicious weekend treat. The scones are chockfull of healthy ingredients, including whole grain pastry flour and dry oats for fiber, flaxseed for omega-3s, yogurt and milk for calcium and vitamin D, and blueberries for flavor and disease-fighting antioxidants. Get the recipe

Breakfast Skillet Taco

Love savory breakfasts? This Mexican-inspired meal is for you. Mix up a batch of healthy veggies, including red bell peppers, scallions, jalapeno pepper, spinach, tomato, spices, including blood sugar-lowering cumin and cilantro, and add beans for fiber and protein. Top a freshly warmed tortilla with the mixture; top with reduced-fat cheese and sour cream. Get the recipe

Fancy French Toast

To make this breakfast classic healthy, it’s all about the right ingredients: whole grain bread, fat-free milk, and trans-fat-free margarine. Sprinkle with cinnamon—the spice has been shown to reduce insulin resistance and may help lower cholesterol and triglycerides, blood fats that may contribute to diabetes risk. Serve with a slice of Canadian-style bacon. Get the recipe

Bagel with Lox and Cream Cheese

Top a small whole grain bagel (great source of fiber) with canned salmon (omega-3s) and low-fat cream cheese for a healthy breakfast that feels more indulgent than it is. The key is portion control—avoid huge calorie-bomb bagels. Get the recipe

Chinese Egg Pancakes

This light and easy twist on an omelet is a great way to sneak in healthy veggies like Brussels sprouts and carrots at breakfast. Omega-3 enriched eggs and flaxseed provide a healthy dose of heart-healthy fats. Get the recipe

Good Morning Blend

Make a simple yogurt breakfast less boring with these parfait-style toppings: dried fruit, flaxseed meal, and chopped nuts. Sprinkle on cinnamon for sweet flavoring that’s good for your blood sugar. Get the recipe

Benefits of eating those immune building Leafy Greens,

From: Positively Positive

The fastest way to turn your diet around?

To go from not-so-great to almost perfect?

The answer is organic leafy greens.

Those life-supporting, health-inducing, nutrient-packed edibles that should take up most of the space on your plate at every meal—not just at dinnertime. Eat them or drink them, but just get them into your body every day—that’s my leafy green mantra, and I hope you will make it yours. Need a little more encouragement? Here’s the top-line low-down on my favorite health-promoters, the “leafys”:

WHY LEAFYS?

It’s incredibly simple: they improve health—benefitting virtually every cell in your body! What’s so amazing about the leafys is that calorie for calorie, they deliver more nutrients than just about any other food on the planet. Loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, leafy greens give your body the artillery it needs to fight off potential killers like heart disease and cancer.

MEET THE LEAFYS

My favorite leafy greens, from both a nutritional and taste standpoint, are kale, spinach, Swiss chard, and mustard and dandelion greens. You can toss them into virtually anything, as long as you give them a good washing first! Eaten raw or cooked, my favorite leafys (as well as many others in the leafy green family) add just-right doses of vitamin A, C, K, folate, potassium, and calcium to every meal.

CODDLE YOUR LEAFYS

As most leafy greens come straight out of the soil, the majority, if not all your leafys, should be organic. If price is a concern, combine organic with conventionally grown leafys, to reduce costs as well as the toxic load. Once you’ve gotten your leafys home from the market, don’t let them sit around in the crisper too long or they’ll start to lose some of their nutrients. To minimize nutrient loss, when cooking your leafys, be gentle and don’t overcook—do your steaming and sautéing as quickly as possible.

LEAFYS—MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT

One way to boost your leafy green intake is to add a lot of them to your breakfast. Recently, during a stay on the West Coast, I was very pleasantly surprised by a room service veggie omelet that was stuffed with lightly steamed greens, and accompanied by a spinach side salad. It was a good reminder, even to a greens fanatic like me, that salad shouldn’t be limited to just lunch and dinner.

SNEAK THEM IN, OR DRINK THEM IN

OK, so you’re not a huge salad eater? Not nuts for greens? Then, try upping your intake by basically tricking yourself into eating leafys. Start by dropping a few fistfuls into soups and tomato sauce or tucking a pile of greens under fish, chicken, or grass-fed meat. You can also cut to the chase and just drink your greens by blending a few fistfuls into your morning fruit smoothie. Find some recipes here.

Short on time? Traveling without a blender? There are lots of options in liquid forms from many companies. 

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Go green!