If you would like to do one easy thing to get your lifestyle going in a good direction, to get your weight loss started on the right foot, and especially your health, here's step one: make your breakfast a protein/fat affair. Juice? Not. You don't need it and it puts you on shaky ground for glycemic control all day. Frankly this is all you have to know - you'll look, feel and perform better is you start your day with protein and fat. Read on if you want to know more. By the way, most folks do better when they know the "why."
Why will this choice have such an impact? Primarily because by sleeping, and therefore not eating for something like 8-10 hours, you've laid the groundwork for good metabolic processing. You are at the point of getting some of the benefits of fasting. Your body is able to take a break from the need to dispose of the food you've eaten, and can attend to what could be termed 'maintenance functions.' I've posted on this before, so will skip the details now. What is beneficial about a no carb "break fast" is that it extends the period that you body does not have access to, or have the requirement to dispose of, excess ingested sugars. By keeping ingested sugars low for longer, your body is required to continue running on fats, which lets you build the stores of enzymes you need (at the cellular level) to run on fats full time.
Once you become fully fat adapted, you will practically never run out of fuel. You may become protein deficient, you may become mal-nourished, your body may be hungry for fat soluble vitamins and muscle preserving protein, but you will be able to run on stored body fat for many weeks. This is the optimum metabolic state.
Once you make the 'jump' to fat adaptation, your hunger for sweets will diminish, and when you do eat sweets, you will notice they don't have the same pleasure impact they used to have - so your positive association to sweets will begin to taper off. You will notice you do not get glycemic crashes (reactive hypoglycemia). You may forget to eat. You may notice your impulse to eat huge meals goes away entirely (and by the way, it is difficult to gorge when you eliminate bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, corn, beans, and sweets). You will be sustaining the 'normal' blood glucose levels through natural internal systems which do not produce too much glucose. Your A1c levels will improve, perhaps drastically, as will the other markers of health on a fasting glucose panel.
If you supplement with zinc and magnesium before bed, and vitamin D and fish oil, you may find additional metabolic efficiency which helps you feel well, all day. If you follow up the good (protein/fat) start to your day with rational carb intake (no sugar/no wheat, and a max of 100g/day of carbohydrate, but less than 50g/day to lose weight), the pounds will easily melt off. As you restore normal hormonal balance to your over-carbed self, you will need fewer doses of pain medications, you may notice that you heal more quickly when banged up, and you will probably sleep with a much higher level of satisfaction and rest (stable blood sugar all night works wonders).
Unless you are already fat adapted and doing well on a carb restricted diet, though, I don't recommend that you skip breakfast entirely - save the intermittent fasting (this means fasting from your least meal for 14-16 hours) for after you are fat adapted and have a good paleo diet lifestyle dialed in.
So if you have room for only one change, start the day right. Dig into a little bacon and eggs, salami, sandwich meat and coconut oil, bacon and avocado, ham and eggs, or whatever other good fat/protein sources you like.
Why will this choice have such an impact? Primarily because by sleeping, and therefore not eating for something like 8-10 hours, you've laid the groundwork for good metabolic processing. You are at the point of getting some of the benefits of fasting. Your body is able to take a break from the need to dispose of the food you've eaten, and can attend to what could be termed 'maintenance functions.' I've posted on this before, so will skip the details now. What is beneficial about a no carb "break fast" is that it extends the period that you body does not have access to, or have the requirement to dispose of, excess ingested sugars. By keeping ingested sugars low for longer, your body is required to continue running on fats, which lets you build the stores of enzymes you need (at the cellular level) to run on fats full time.
Once you become fully fat adapted, you will practically never run out of fuel. You may become protein deficient, you may become mal-nourished, your body may be hungry for fat soluble vitamins and muscle preserving protein, but you will be able to run on stored body fat for many weeks. This is the optimum metabolic state.
Once you make the 'jump' to fat adaptation, your hunger for sweets will diminish, and when you do eat sweets, you will notice they don't have the same pleasure impact they used to have - so your positive association to sweets will begin to taper off. You will notice you do not get glycemic crashes (reactive hypoglycemia). You may forget to eat. You may notice your impulse to eat huge meals goes away entirely (and by the way, it is difficult to gorge when you eliminate bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, corn, beans, and sweets). You will be sustaining the 'normal' blood glucose levels through natural internal systems which do not produce too much glucose. Your A1c levels will improve, perhaps drastically, as will the other markers of health on a fasting glucose panel.
If you supplement with zinc and magnesium before bed, and vitamin D and fish oil, you may find additional metabolic efficiency which helps you feel well, all day. If you follow up the good (protein/fat) start to your day with rational carb intake (no sugar/no wheat, and a max of 100g/day of carbohydrate, but less than 50g/day to lose weight), the pounds will easily melt off. As you restore normal hormonal balance to your over-carbed self, you will need fewer doses of pain medications, you may notice that you heal more quickly when banged up, and you will probably sleep with a much higher level of satisfaction and rest (stable blood sugar all night works wonders).
Unless you are already fat adapted and doing well on a carb restricted diet, though, I don't recommend that you skip breakfast entirely - save the intermittent fasting (this means fasting from your least meal for 14-16 hours) for after you are fat adapted and have a good paleo diet lifestyle dialed in.
So if you have room for only one change, start the day right. Dig into a little bacon and eggs, salami, sandwich meat and coconut oil, bacon and avocado, ham and eggs, or whatever other good fat/protein sources you like.
It's important to start on the right foot in a diet for it to be successful. Discipline and motivation are also needed.
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