Breakfast is for Champions!

Have you ever woken up, rushed out the door to work, and wondered why you felt uneasy until lunch? Well that's because you didn't eat breakfast silly! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It gives you energy and starts up your metabolism. Today I had a bowl of oatmeal with chia seeds, whey protein powder, almond butter, and almond milk in it. I also had 2 eggs with the yokes. Why the yokes? Because I just simply love my eggs that way but it's not an everyday thing. So now that I've had my breakfast and coffee I'm ready to kick this days ass!

Snack on This!

So I'm sure everyone has heard of meal replacement bars or protein bars. These can be a good snack in between meals or post workout. The question is though, are you eating the right ones? We all have probably seen Special K and Fiber one bars advertised. You may ask what is wrong with these:

1. They are not natural or organic.

2. They contain corn syrup, fructose, and many preservatives.

3. There are high in amounts of sodium.

4. Less than one gram of protein with the normal cereal bars.

These are just a few reasons as to why fiber

one and special k might not be the best choice. Going back to reason 2 where I list corn syrup, just think about it. Corn syrup is manmade and can be found in soda, chips, and other high processed foods. SODA?!?! Does that sound like a diet/healthy food to you? Now I'm not saying you can never have high fructose corn syrup. It's all about moderation. If you happen to have a soda or special k bar once in a blue moon it won't kill you. Just don't make a regular habit out of it. Going back to step 3 where I state there are high amounts of sodium in these bars I mean it! So in a blueberry Special K bar there 85 mg of s

odium. Don't think that's bad let's use my soda example again. In a can of regular Coca Cola there is 45mg . That's actually less than the friggen special k bar! So if you're going to eat the bar you might as well have 2 cans of soda so you can get in all that sodium, ew! Now I leave you wondering, "Heather than what for nutrition bars can I have?".

1. Larabars!

What are these? They are my personal favorite nutrition bar plus the neatest! There are around 20 yummy flavors and guess what, all of the ingredients are natural! For example my personal favorite is the Cashew Cookie. It has 2 ingredients; dates and cashews. How much simpler can it get?!? So all of the nutrition info is going based on just those 2 ingredients combined. Now when I say this is 230 calories some of you might gasp. Don't! I'm not saying eat 10 of these a day, moderation my people! Personally I feel better getting more calories from something natural than something artificial. Going back to sodium, I have good news! There's only 5mg! Also larabars aren't considered protein bars but they do contain more protein than the special k bars which is a plus. In the cashew cookie there's 6g.

2. Pure Organic/Natural

These are another great option! They come in either natural of organic with a variety of flavors. They also have high amounts of potassium! One thing though that could be controversial is the ingredient agave nectar. There has been some recent speculation about this so I saw read information out there ad decide for yourself.

3. Cliff

This is another great brand with many different bars ranging from kids bars to protein bars. They are natural and organic but watch your intake on these too. Some of the can tend to have high amounts of sodium but just know that it came in a natural form.

Explore! You might find another great brand. If so please share it in the comments section. There are also plenty more I could list but you get the basic idea. I challenge you that when you go to buy nutrition bars look at the ingredients and nutrition information and keep in mind what you read.

That's all for my first blog post! There's more to come soon! Have a lovely day by little fellow health obsessors!

Heather xoxo