We’ve all heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I agree, not because of the nutritional impact is has, but because I’ve found that when the first think I eat is healthy, the rest of the day meals are healthy as well.

Here’s 5 of my favorite healthy choices for breakfast to get your day started on the right foot.

1. Fruit and Nuts. This is my favorite breakfast and one I turn to over and over when I am trying to lean out. I don’t so much eat breakfast, but rather graze here and there when I feel a bit hungry throughout the entire morning. Apples are my staple and I’ll eat as many as three before noon. Bananas, pears, and melon also find their way into my morning meal time.

For nuts, I almost always stick to almonds and walnuts because they are easy to find raw and transport well. Try eating only fruit and nuts before noon for a week and see how you feel.

2. Smoothie. If I work out at my house before I leave for the workday, I’ll often have a smoothie after training. No crazy magic powders or potions here, just 4 ounces of milk/water/juice plus berries and a banana. That’s it.

Here’s a few that work really well…

- Strawberry/banana – 8 frozen strawberries, 1 banana – splash of either oj/water/milk

- Blueberry/banana/pineapple – Add frozen pineapple and blueberries and 1 banana – then put in a splash of oj/water/milk

As a side note, stay away from smoothies at most “smoothie shops”.  They’re usually loaded with sugar and premade mixes.  Making them at home is easy, cheaper and healthier.  If you buy frozen fruit, you’ll have the ingredients to make a smoothie anytime you want.

3. Eggs and Veggies. If you have the time for cooking and clean up in the morning, scrambled eggs with assorted vegetables are a great way to start the day. Heat some olive oil (or butter) in a pan and then add onion, peppers, spinach, and other vegetables that you like. Saute them for a bit and then add beaten eggs – yolks and all – to the mixture and scramble until done. Eggs-cellent! (I know cheesy, but I couldn’t resist.)

4. Left-Over Omelette. As eggs are a breakfast staple, let’s give another option for your morning meal. Left over stir fry that you had for dinner the night before makes a great omelette filler. Chicken and broccoli wrapped up in a 3 egg omelette is a protein packed way to start the day.  You can even add a little salsa or avocado to the mix as well…

5. Dinner – It’s what’s for breakfast. If you free your mind from convention and don’t feel locked into the standard breakfast stuff – you know eggs, oatmeal, pancakes, etc. – anything you can eat for dinner, you can also eat for breakfast. Spinach salad with grilled chicken? Sirloin with asparagus and sliced almonds? Why not? When you look at food as fuel and nothing more, the options for breakfast shoot wide open.

Those are some of my favorites…..What are some of your favorite breakfast meals? Let me know in the comments below.

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Muffet

Sure we can do workouts at home with absolutely no equipment using purely our bodies to provide resistance. To excel though having a few simple pieces of kit around the house can help you add variety to your workout whilst making it far more effective. What better time to ditch that gym membership?

1- Kettlebell - A kettlebell at home is a great investment, they are so flexible and can be used for pretty much anything. One Kettlebell can leave the need for a set of dumbbells at the door. Basically they are cheap effective and offer a total solution for the weight based part of your home training kit.

I myself have a 16 Pood kettlebell at home and have used it for:

• Swings
• Presses
• Cleans
• Floor Presses
• Squats

As well as a variety of other more basic exercises. To me its an invaluable piece of kit. For more info and the full low down on how to use and get started with a KB then checkout my post over here…….

2- Resistance Bands - Ever seen those rubbery bands that are used for stretching and light resistance, they are a surprisingly handy piece of kit. You can perform pretty much anything you would with free weights the trick lies in using the positioning of the bands to manipulate resistance. I like to use them to burn out muscles especially the shoulders and arms. The other benefit of having a set of these at home is that they travel well and can be stored away easily.

Plus they are great for stretching out and relieving tightness in the muscles. While these are not great as a single way to train a muscle they compliment a circuit of BodyWeight and Kettlebell exercises. I sometimes take mine to the park to use between sets of sprints too.

3- Ab Wheel - Forget doing endless crunches for abs when you can train your entire core including your lower back and supporting muscles with one simple exercise. I sued to think ab wheels were a gym fad but after using them a few times they blew me away and I now love using them, nothing gets my whole core quite as well worked.

You can also use a stability ball to do the ab rollouts using simular technique shown in the video above. Its really time to stop crunches which will do more damage than good, get some real core work in with rollouts and static stability exercises like the plank…..

4- Chinup Bar - So many possibilities with a Chinup Bar, they will allow you to build your upper body with simple compound exercises which is key. While chinups are what you would normally expect to be done you can also use the chinup bar for:

• Negative Chins (Great Ab Builder)
• Hanging Leg Raises
• Stretching out your Back and Chest

So its really worth having one chin-up bar stationed somewhere in your home gym. Don’t forget a simple circuit of Bodyweight Squats, Chinups and Pushups is a workout in itself and can build an impressive physique.

One last thing I would also throw in is a good pair of minimal running shoes think Nike Free’s or Vibram 5 Fingers plus some good basic kit for working out (shorts, t-shirt and socks) and you are good to go. While none of the above are essential for home workouts as you could use purely bodyweight and running, the kit does serves as motivation and will get you better results. If I had to choose one? I’d go for a Kettlebell…….

Also please checkout this post from Zen Habits Featuirng ZTF and some other great Fitness Blogs http://zenhabits.net/2010/01/fitness-blogs/

Pink Sherbet Photography

Many of us try to juggle things and endlessly search for some kind of balance in life. The question we should ask is whether we need balance or just to be able to stand on solid ground?

Balance

The thought of balance is a very appealing one, juggling all arenas of life and getting things just right in order to feel great. A good Social life, A Healthy Diet, The right amount of Exercise, Working hard yet getting enough down time, throw in family time and achieving balance becomes pretty hard. Leaving us exhausted and stressed out, making the fine balance we are trying to achieve to improve our health and well-being the thing the hardest part.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

The truth is we cannot walk a tight rope in life and achieve perfect balance, it is simply unattainable, too much. We need to accept who we are and the way things are then move from there….

Find Life

Once we stop fretting over making everyone happy, eating an exact way or fitting in exercise all the time life seems to slip into place. first though you must accept the person you are right now. If you like to chill out at home and watch DVD’s sometimes then so be it, If your a Vegetarian and don’t eat meat then so be it, If your training schedule means you can’t get wasted every friday night then so be it. We might disappoint people or offend them by being ourselves but it has to be that way. Meaning that you can still do what you like and live the lifestyle you want to live while letting go of the perfection or balancing act.

You will probably find that you will start living a more fulfilled life and actually achieve more of your goals. Things will become effortless and the lowered levels of stress will make you think better and perform better in whatever you do. Plus you will probably become more outgoing and easygoing by nature.

Accept who you are right now and the way you do things now and get on with life. We cannot achieve a perfect balance and live on a tightrope for any sustained length of time so its better to spend time on solid ground where everything doesn’t matters as much but you still do your best to lead the life you try to lead.

Live in The Real World

We all have to make a living, have a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and stay healthy in order to achieve a life in the real world. Ultimately anything that makes it harder to live in the real world for you should be given a second thought. It doesn’t matter which aspect of your lifestyle is holding you back. Take a good look at it and make the necessary compromises that will allow you to live with stability in the real world. The funny thing is that most of the habits and lifestyles we have imposed that hold us back are often the ones which we initially imposed to make our lives more simple, and ended up having the opposite effect. So that is a good place to start looking.

So let’s re-iterate. So long as you have stability in all areas of your life then you are doing well for me it comes down to:

• Quality relationships with friends and family
• Having a purpose or profession you love
• Eating well and Exercising regularly
• Relaxation time and knowing how to unwind

These things give us stability and they allow us to keep a firm grip on the best life has to offer. Walking the tight rope and finding balance to me means perfecting all of these areas nearly 100% of the time and this is exhausting and unatainable. Stability is real balance and comes from doing things well 80% of the time and leaving yourself and and your mind that 20% leeway to breathe!

I thought I would send out some workout motivation for you today. At one point or another we could all use it. Here’s a few videos Ive posted in the past that everyone seemed to like. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below!

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