Breakfast amongst other meals of the day is considered the most important. It refers to the first meal of the day taken in the morning. Just like the name, this meal breaks the night-long fast. For example, if you had your dinner at 8 pm yesterday and you normally have your breakfast by 8 am, you have fasted for about 12 hours! This analysis is to help you see how long your body has gone without any food.
Foods rich in protein are known to be rich in energy and bodybuilding and they’re recommended to be taken for breakfast. The aim is not to only eat breakfast but to eat a healthy one.
Despite the importance attached to having breakfast, some people delay, others skip breakfast completely out of haste of getting late for work, not feeling hungry, or out of habit.
If skipping breakfast is your habit, then this article is for you as you shall discover the massive importance attached to having breakfast.
As stated above, in the morning, your body has gone about 10 hours without food depending on what time you ate dinner and the time you woke up. This means you have fasted.
Metabolically, your body’s source of energy is glucose which is gotten from the breakdown of carbohydrates. The excesses of the carbohydrates are converted into glycogen which is stored in the liver.
During the night, the body continues to carry out metabolic processes that require energy. In the presence of a shortage of glucose supply, the glycogen store is broken down to ensure an adequate supply of glucose to the brain and other parts of the body for effective metabolism.
The implication of this is that by morning, you would be on low glucose and this should be replenished. This is an indication that breakfast is very important.
Hence, when you get up in the morning, breaking the night-long fast should be among your top priorities.
2. Breakfast Improves Your Body’s Metabolism
The body is constantly building up tissues (anabolism) or breaking down complex materials to provide energy (catabolism).
After waking up in the morning, your body would be on low glucose and low glycogen storage. This is as a result of their usage for repairs and detoxification actions throughout the night. For continuous metabolism during the day, the body’s glucose levels should be replenished to avoid the usage of fat stores. Having a good breakfast aid metabolism while skipping breakfast prevents the necessary supply of glucose.
Note that the only fuel your brain recognizes and utilizes is glucose hence the need to ensure maximum supply to it. Breakfast is important in boosting the brain’s activity and effectiveness. The absence of an adequate supply of fuel (glucose) to your brain dulls your brain activity.
You would agree with me that you need the right functioning brain to go about your daily routine. Give it the necessary fuel it deserves!
4. Breakfast is Important because It Improves Concentration
Having a healthy breakfast is important in boosting concentration while skipping it does the opposite. I can attest to this and that is why I hardly go a day without my breakfast.
During my 100 level days, there was this day of the week that lectures start at 7 am. That’s quite early. I recalled not having my breakfast out of haste not to miss the lectures for the first few days. The sad part was, I would be present for the lectures but I could barely assimilate as I would love to. I couldn’t concentrate because I didn’t have enough energy to focus.
Ever since I made it a habit to wake up earlier and ensure I had my breakfast. Since then, I stopped having issues with concentration during that period.
Do you want to concentrate better in the mornings on brain-involving activities? Don’t skip the most important meal of the day.
5. It Boosts Productivity
Skipping breakfast is a productivity killer. A healthy breakfast prevents you from getting unnecessarily overwhelmed and stressed. It helps you stay alert and well-coordinated to achieve great results at the end of the day.
You would agree with me that you don’t expect a car to function effectively without adequate fuel. Don’t expect great results from yourself in the early hours of the day if you don’t supply the body with needed fuel.
6. It Helps to Control Your Weight
Studies have shown that people who skip breakfast tend to overeat and have cravings for excess sugary and fatty foods throughout the rest of the day. Being hungry makes you not be selective about the foods you consume later in the day. So, you easily grab on any nearby food without thinking twice about it.
The result of consuming unhealthy foods that have high sugar and fat content is being overweight or obese. However, having a regular breakfast helps you go about your day feeling full and not needing to eat unnecessarily.
Skipping breakfast may result in obesity, which means having excess body fat as a result of the reason stated above.
Being overweight or obese as a result of skipping breakfast puts you at a high risk of having certain diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, high blood pressure, etc.
However, having a regular breakfast is important as it saves you from these life-threatening diseases.
Conclusion
Having known the importance of breakfast, you must try to make or maintain the habit of having a healthy breakfast every morning before leaving your home for work or school as the case may be.
It’s my hope that you found this article helpful. If you do, kindly leave a comment.
Have you ever wondered what could be the best foods for asthma patients? Or how your diet can help you to reduce or control asthma symptoms? If you thought of that I am sure it crossed your mind that there could be the worst foods for asthma patients too. You are not alone in this train of thoughts. Researchers believe eating a healthy balanced diet can help reduce asthma symptoms. It is believed that foods that increase inflammation worsen asthma symptoms while those that reduce inflammation reduce the symptoms. Your weight can also affect your asthma condition, if you are obese you may not respond to asthma dose treatment.
The best foods for asthma patients are fruits, beans, ginger, turmeric or foods rich in Vitamins A and Vitamin D, magnesium and beta carotene-rich vegetables. Here is why I said so;
Fruits reduce inflammation because they contain beta carotene and vitamin C and E. Eating 1 apple a day help to reduce total cholesterol, promote healthy cellular function and proper blood flow and also reduce asthma symptoms while improving lung function due to its antioxidant and potassium content.
Ginger’s main bioactive compound is Gingerol an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant that can reduce oxidative stress and inhibit the growth of bacteria. Gingerol in ginger may also help relieve asthma symptoms due to its anti-inflammatory functions.
Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory compound that fights disease and helps in repairing damage in your body. It can increase the antioxidant capacity of the body by protecting your body from free radicals.it can also boost brain-derived neurotrophic factors, lower the risk of heart disease, prevent cancer and reduce asthma symptoms as it is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
3. Foods Containing Vitamin D
Vitamin D is essential in maintaining healthy bones as it is important in regulating calcium and maintaining the phosphorus levels in your body. It also reduces the risk of flu and can make infants healthy by improving the arterial walls of children. Vitamin D enhances the anti-inflammatory effects of Glucocorticoids thereby reducing asthma symptoms.
Vitamin D also has numerous other benefits. Foods containing Vitamin D include; salmon, sardines, herring, red meat, liver. eggs etc.
4. Foods Containing Vitamin A and Beta Carotene
Vitamin A is important in preserving your eyesight, it can lower the risk of certain cancers as it aids in the growth and development of body cells. It also supports a healthy immune system by maintaining your body’s natural defences. Vitamin A reduces the risk of asthma symptoms as it improves lung function.
Beta carotene is a pro-vitamin A carotenoid that gives vegetables their vibrant colour. Beta Carotene serves as an antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals in your body. Its importance is also found in the reduction of the body’s oxidative stress. Beta carotene helps the lungs work better and reduces the risk of cancer. Hence, reducing the risk of asthma attacks in patients.
5. Beans
Beans contain Amino acids that our body uses to heal or make new tissues. Moreover, beans have many health benefits as it serves as a source of protein. Because it contains folate that is essential in red blood cells formation. It also contains antioxidants that help in the removal of free radicals from the body thereby protecting the body from diseases.
Beans have fibre that can reduce the risk of heart disease. Lastly, it has anti-inflammatory agents which help in reducing the risk of cancer and also asthma symptoms which makes it one of the best foods for asthma patients.
Magnesium helps convert food into energy, helps create new proteins from amino acids. It also helps create and repair DNA and RNA. It is important in muscle movements and in regulating neurotransmitters. Magnesium is known to fight depression, benefits against Type 2 diabetes. It can also lower blood pressure.
Conclusion
The best foods for asthma patients are foods that can increase your immunity, reduce inflammation, boost the overall health of your lungs or lung functions. As it will help you in reducing the number of Asthma attacks you will have as we have seen earlier.
It is important as an asthmatic patient you keep your body healthy, eat balanced foods and afford foods that can trigger your asthma symptoms. What are the bests or worst foods for you as an asthmatic person? Kindly leave your comments below or share with your loved ones let us know what foods that trigger your asthma symptoms.
An anaerobic exercise is any exercise that involves short, fast, high-intensity exercises that don’t require your body to use oxygen. This type of exercise is similar to aerobic exercise but with a different level of energy. An anaerobic exercise breaks down glucose for energy without using oxygen. In this article, you will find easy anaerobic exercises at home that you can try. Anaerobic exercises include high-intensity interval training (HIIT), weight lifting, circuit training, and other forms of strength training.
You do not necessarily have to register at a gym to do anaerobic exercises, you can as well do them at home. So if you have been going out for your anaerobic exercises, this article about easy anaerobic exercises at home is for you.
Let’s go!
Anaerobic Exercises to Do at Home
1. Skipping or Jumping Rope
This is one of my favourite easy anaerobic exercises at home. This is because it is a full-body exercise that involves the movements of both the arms and legs. Skipping or Jumping rope helps improve the heart, helps you lose weight, reduces the risk of diabetes, and improves body composition.
A squat jump is an exercise you can include in your easy anaerobic exercises at home workout plan. This exercise works on the lower body muscles.
It also helps to increase blood flow and improve the oxygen in the lower body muscles.
3. Push-Ups
Push ups engage your chest, shoulders, arms and core, and are ideal for at-home workouts. Push-ups are an excellent workout routine because they work multiple parts of your body.
4. Pull-Ups
Another body weight exercise that engages multiple muscle groups is pull-ups. This anaerobic exercise is similar to push-ups. They work your back, shoulders and arms, specifically targeting your traps and lats.
5. Burpees
Burpees is a combination of pushup and jumping. This exercise helps improve your strength and conditioning by engaging your legs and core.
A study showed burpees increase very good strength endurance in a 3-minute Burpee test conducted by theJournal of Human Kinetics.
This test includes 3862 women and 5971 men, aged between 18 to 25, from different countries like Poland, Great Britain, Hungary, and Serbia.
6. Squats
Another easy anaerobic exercise at home is squats. Squats are a powerful form of exercise that boosts lower body strength. You can squat with or without a weight, depending on how easy you want it to be.
Squats with weight are referred to as weighted squat, while squats without weight are referred to as a body weight squat.
7. Dumbbell Weight Training
Dumbbell Weight training is also considered an anaerobic exercise because it requires carbohydrates and fats for energy instead of oxygen.
You don’t necessarily have to go to a gym for your dumbbell weight training, if you have dumbbells, you can do strength training anaerobic workouts at home.
8. Side to Side Lateral Run
The anaerobic lateral running exercise works on your entire body, especially the lower body.
Side to side run or lateral drills can be done to increase agility, stamina, power which would help improve overall athletic performance.
9. Plank
Planks are another form of anaerobic exercise you can do virtually anywhere by holding yourself off the ground on your elbows and contracting your core muscles.
This exercise increases your core strength.
10. High-Intensity Interval Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT), transforms typical aerobic exercise into an anaerobic exercise by interchanging high bouts of movement with periods of rest. For instance, an individual would complete a normally considered aerobic exercise, such as cycling, in high bursts of energy.
Conclusion
There are tons of anaerobic exercises you can do both at home and at the gym, but this article focuses majorly on the easy anaerobic exercises at home. Feel free to comment below and share your experience on which anaerobic exercise you find easy.
