Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of the Day

Growing up, I had the best morning routine. My dad would come and wake me and my sister up, we'd wonder sleepily into the living room, snuggle back up on the couch, and watch Bananas in Pajamas or Gilligan's Island reruns while dad would make us breakfast. We weren't big on cereal for breakfast, we either had the king of breakfast, Pop Tarts, or dad would make his famous cheese toast! A slice of white bread, a slice of good old American cheese, a sprinkle of white sugar on top, and toasted to perfection in the toaster oven. 

Flash forward 20 years, I have myself, a giant idiot of a dog, a three year old, and a five year old to get up, get ready, get fed, and out the door. Most mornings I'm lucky if both kids can nosh an Eggo in the car on the way to school and I have a pack of oatmeal I intend to eat when I get to work. That packet of oatmeal either ends up in my desk or the bottom of my purse for like six months, while I gorge on the pretzels and cheez-its from the break room and make breakfast out of mini Reese's cups and Butterfingers. Obviously, this contributed to my weight gain.

I've always heard that eating breakfast is good for weight loss, but I never really understood exactly why. So, I googled it. Rush University did a study, and you can read it here, to explain it. Basically, Breakfast boosts your metabolism, helps you reach your fruit and veggie intake, and helps you to consume less fat throughout the day.  If you don't eat breakfast, you end up eating Butterfingers at your desk to make it to lunch hour. Fact. 

Last winter my friend started talking to me about Juice Plus (yes, it is a direct marketing product, you cannot find it in stores). I used to take the vitamins in college so I was familiar with the company, but this time she was telling me about the smoothies she makes with their Complete shake powder. She mentioned that it can help create really filling breakfasts or in her case, keep her hardworking husband from snacking all afternoon when he gets home from work. I'm not going to lie to you, it's a little pricey, but I was willing to try anything to get me on the right track. I bought what is supposed to be a two month's supply for around $130 (broken up into four easy payments of $33.99! It also seems to last me longer than two months). Within just a week and a half of doing smoothies for breakfast and a few other things, I dropped six pounds.  They really did help hold me over and I didn't feel the urge to snack all morning at work. Then we tore our kitchen out and started eating out for every meal and I gained a crap ton of weight. 

Here we are in April and I still have the original shipment of Complete so I started my smoothie routine back up. A lot of you have been asking for my smoothie recipes and I think it bares mentioning, ALL of my flavor profiles are centered around the two flavors of Complete powder, Dutch Chocolate, and French Vanilla. So if you try a mix I suggest and aren't using the Complete powders, don't come to me and tell me how much that smoothie recipe sucked, that's your own fault for thinking store bought is fine, when it really isn't (channeling my inner Ina, she is my lady crush).

Last thing about the Complete that is great, is that it helps me meet my fiber, calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin D goals for the day. If you need help finding a distributor, let me know, I can hook you up. I won't get any proceeds, but you will be putting money in your distributor's pocket which helps them pay for ballet lessons, baseball camp, or a family vacation which they totally deserve.