You've heard many times how breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but when you consider diet and nutrition as part of a fitness regimen, breakfast is especially important. Many competitive athletes and recreational fitness fiends do their main workouts first thing in the morning.
If you are an early a.m. exerciser, you may not work out on a completely empty stomach. Try a banana, piece of toast, or an energy bar or gel, anything small and easy to digest. When you first wake up, your body won't have had any food for many hours, so a little fuel can make a big difference in how your workout goes.
But whether you eat before your morning workout or not, a post-workout breakfast replenishes your body and gets you ready for your next workout. If you do two workouts a day and you don't have much of an appetite early in the morning, try eating a substantial snack at 10 or 11 a.m. You'll have plenty of time to digest the larger meal before your late-day workout.
Also, research has shown that skipping breakfast makes you more likely to choose unhealthy snacks later in the day, and you may have difficulty concentrating because you are hungry. So, what's the breakfast of champions? Cereal is a healthy and tasty breakfast choice, but it's not the only option. If you don't like cereal, or if you need to grab your breakfast to go, never fear. Any healthy food that you eat in the morning counts as breakfast, whether it is a whole wheat bagel, a yogurt smoothie, or a piece of pizza.