Breakfast Foods

The best breakfast foods are whole grain hot cereals. Oats and quinoa are two of the best breakfast grains. Look for rolled oats and whole quinoa, rather than flakes or powders. Cook these up with organic butter to add a bit of fat, which will help fill you up and keep your energy up through the morning . Sprouted grain toast (sprouted grain breads and muffins are available in most health food store freezers) can also be part of a healthy breakfast. In general, it’s best to pair sprouted grain breads with a bit or organic breakfast meat, eggs, or even some raw almond butter. On their own breads don't deliver any fat, and provide minimal protein, meaning they tend not to fill you up and keep your energized.

Most people do best starting their morning with some sort of hot whole grain cereal, but a few people really need protein and fat in the morning in the form of meat or eggs to get rolling. Your ReEvolution Fitness Action Plan includes a personalized diet that can help you figure out what kind of food you should start your day with. People who need a lot of heavy fat and protein in their diet should breakfast on a combination of healthy whole grains and meat and eggs. Some people also find that a cup of Greek Yogurt (reduced fat or full fat, never non-fat) and berries makes for a filling, satisfying breakfst. If you can eat dairy in the morning without feeling sluggish, try this breakfast a few days a week to mix things up.

Regardless of your individual metabolism, the worst thing that you can have for breakfast is processed, refined carbohydrates. This means most cold breakfast cereals (even the "whole grain" varieties are mostly low quality foods - muesli and other cereals with large, intact whole grains are best), muffins, most toast, pan cakes, waffles, and a bunch of other traditional breakfast foods. Make your own pancakes and waffles from whole oats (see our Tasty Healthy Food Menu for recipes), and leave cold breakfast cereals  on the shelves.

Snacks

Most snack foods are total junk. Check out our Top Ten Worst Foods for more on why. The best snacks are natural snacks. Raw nuts are a filling, tasty alternative to processed snack foods. Mix them with berries for more flavor (unlike most fruits, berries digest well with other foods) and to add in a few carbs.

Fruits in general make for good snacks. Again, apples, pears and berries are the best because they’re the least sugary, which means they don’t give you an energy high followed by a crash or send your appetite raging out of control.

Hummus also makes for a good snack. It’s wonderfully nutritious, providing fat, protein, and low glycemic carbs, and wonderfully tasty eaten with carrots, bell peppers, or other veggies.

Sandwiches made with sprouted grain breads are also good snacks. A bit of meat, fish, or raw milk cheese with lettuce, tomato, and other veggies always hits the spot. Add sun dried tomatoes or Portobello mushrooms for a kick. To keep the calories down (otherwise, it’s a meal, not a snack) eat the sandwich “open faced”, meaning you only use one slice of bread. Alternatively, you can make lettuce wraps. These are just like wraps made with pita bread, but you substitute some big leaves of romaine lettuce for the bread. Chicken, avocado, and sun dried tomato makes for a great wrap.  For more snack ideas, consult the Tasty Healthy Food Menu.


Desserts

Our favorite dessert is Greek yogurt with berries and stevia. Made with KAL stevia, it tastes a bit like ice cream. Choose a half fat or full fat Greek yogurt. Fruit smoothies can also make for great desserts.

You can even make your own organic sugar free ice cream. Buy some organic cream, and mix in a little sea salt, some KAL stevia, some vanilla extract, and some cinnamon. Stir it up, and pop it in the freezer. Check back every half an hour, stir it up, and eat it just as it’s beginning to freeze solid.

Fruit is the simplest dessert in the world. Our Tasty Healthy Food menu has some great fruit dessert recipes. The only caviat is to be careful about eating fruits other than berries after large meals. In general, fruit doesn't digest well on a full stomach.

If you’re in the mood for more traditional desserts, always choose desserts that have protein and/or fat in them to balance out sugars. Cheese cake, egg custard, full fat ice cream, and dark chocolate are all much better dessert options than cakes, pies, and candies that are packed with sugar, white flour, and not much else. Fat free sugary desserts tend to destabilize your blood sugar, leading to serious cravings and even more rapid deposition of fat.

When it comes to less healthy dessert options (cheesecake, etc...), most people can indulge a few times per week without harming thier health or gaining weight. That said, when you're trying to get healthier or lose weight, even a few sugary desserts per week can really impede your progress. If you eat a lot of dessert, try to wean yourself down to just a few desserts per week over the course of 2 months while filling your day with as much healthy food (especially veggies, beans, and whol grains) as you can eat. Start by eliminating all sugar candy, pastries, doughnuts, cake, and other desserts that don't contain fat and protein, and eat a bit of chocolate, heavy cheesecake like desserts, and full fat ice cream every day or every other day. Try to eliminate dessert from one day per week every week. At the end of  6 weeks, make up your mind to go off junk food dessert cold turkey for a month and see how you do (sub in our healthy dessert suggestions). If you lose weight and start feeling better, try working a junk food dessert or two per week back in (although you may lose yoru taste for junk food...) and see if your progress continues