Start your day right

Benefits of breakfast

• Jump starting your day- sooner you get up and eat, the sooner you start burning calories
• Eating breakfast everyday will reduce weight gain, cravings, and hunger throughout the day
• Improves concentration

My favorite breakfast meals

oatmeal with fruit (lots of fiber and antioxidants!)

egg white veggie omelet

yogurt parfait-fat free plain yogurt (Fage is the best), fresh fruit, and homemade granola

Acai Bowl- Acai berry smoothie with fresh fruit, coconut, topped with granola

Bored of the same breakfast routine? Check out 5 New Healthy ideas

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/breakfast-recipes?page=0

Oats vs. Barley

Depending on what your diet is, choosing your whole grains is something to consider. Oatmeal has always been america's go to quick fiber breakfast meal. But, comparing nutritional numbers, many may want to rethink outside the routine.

Whole grains like barley and oatmeal are excellent choice for snack and breakfast to help lower cholesterol, prevent type 2 diabetes, protect against heart disease and cancer, and help you stay regular. Depending on what your looking for in your diet, the options are comparable. But as it seems, barley is nutritionally the wisest choice.

Nutritional facts: Oatmeal vs. Hulled barley

serving 1 cup

Fiber

oatmeal: 8 grams of fiber

hulled barley: 32 grams of fiber

Calories

oatmeal:307

hulled barley:651

Protein

oatmeal: 11 grams

hulled barley: 23 grams

Total Fat

oatmeal:5 grams

hulled barley: 4 grams

Hulled barley or Pearled Barley?

Hulled barley is the most nutrient and fiber rich as opposed to pearl barely (where the fibrous hull has been stripped away and the barely has been further polished.) Pearl barley has less fiber, and is the most frequent type of barley you see in groceries stores. You can find hulled barley in specialty stores such as whole foods, Jimbos, Trader Joes, ect.

Barley for breakfast

Take a portion of the hulled barley ( for every 2 cups of barley, 8 cups of water)

Add barley to rolling boiling water. Boil until water is absorbed, frequently stirring barley.

Next, take any fruit, nuts, or dried fruit and mix in with barley.

In mine I typically chose to put flax seeds, walnuts, crushed pecans, sliced almonds, banana sliced, black mountain figs, raisins, and plums, and blueberries. I also like to heat the bowl of fruit and barley for a minute so puree the fruit a little.

Personalize it, and enjoy!