Hi all. I'm new here and have never done a Tri. One of my big goals in life is to do one... anyway- what do y'all reccommend for breakfast? I need something easy and quick that is NOT a pop-tart. It needs to be substantial but not too heavy- puking in the pool is frowned upon from what I hear. Thanks. I am grateful for any and all advice offered...

Some breakfast items on my menu, not all in one sitting of course :), are:

Bananas
Smoothies (Recipes from Members (http://www.trifuel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=388&highlight=smoothie) )
Bagel with Almond Butter
Oatmeal
Scrambled Eggs
Water
Orange/Apple Juice

BTW: Welcome to the site. I see you're in Houston. My dad lives out there and we've done the Cinco Sprint Triathlon a few years back. Good, fast, fun race...

its either oatmeal or yogurt for me....
throw in some raisins, walnuts.... and then what ever else i have lying around that looks like it belongs... (wheat germ, flaxseed, fruit, cereal, sugar, spices, syrup.... etc)

Teh big question is when your first workout is? Right after breakfast or mid morning? That will determine what you eat to a certain extent.

I agree with catwood on the yogurt or oatmeal, but I like to add 1/2 cup of Fiber One. Fiber One is pretty gross by itself, but it gives the yogurt a nice crunch and gets your day off to a good start with a good helping of fiber. It really fills you up without a lot of calories.

Thanks to all for the input. To answer Eric's question- my workout time varies with my work schedule. Sometimes I work out first thing in the morning, around 5:30 am, but mostly I workout in the afternoon or evening. As the weather gets hotter in the spring and summer, I'll trend towards more early workouts. But, I do notice that on the days I don't have a great breakfast, I drag anchor all day and my afternoon or evening workouts suffer, even if I have an adequate lunch. Maybe Mom was right about the importance of breakfast...

If Im going to the pool first thing in the morning I eat a piece of toast and save breakfast for after the swim. I normally eat grapenuts with a little bit of sugar on it and a tablespoon of flax seed oil. About an hour after that I have a piece of fruit, normally an apple or an orange. I don't know about you, but I find that Im hungry a lot so I try to keep food with me, so I won't grab for the pop tart.

And the flax seed beyond being a good source of omega 3, I find that not hungry as soon as I would be on the days that I forget.

I find if I have a lot of sugar in the mornings I crave it all day. And your mom was right. Im not a doctor or a nutritionist, but I read somewhere that for people who don't eat breakfast their bodies decide that since they are going to starve them from dinner till the next days lunch it will conserve on the energy it does have. My aunt put her family on diet, and the only thing they changed was eating 3 regular meals a day and all 3 of them lost weight just by eating regularly. Not that you are trying to lose weight, but the body like sto be fed regularly and will more likely comply to your wish for action if properly fueled.

Food is fuel.

This morning I just had some berries and mango an hour before going to the pool.
The water is warm so I need all my circulation going to my muscles versus
staying in my gut. After the swim I came back and had a two pieces of whole
wheat toast with peanut butter, banana and honey, then a bowl of brown rice flakes
with soy milk. The trouble for me is the pool doesn't open until 9! I work from
4 today so lunch will come shortly before that and then a big salad and some
meat protein for a late dinner.

I guess it depends on a couple of things (in my humble opinion):

1. As someone has mentioned, when do you train? I tend to do weights prior to breakfast in the morning and aerobic in the evenings during the week, and long rides on weekends in the morning. So I like to get a 40-40-20 breakup of Protein, Carb, Fat after weights and more carbs in the evening.. it works for me.

2. Sweet or savoury? I like savoury breakfasts, so I tend to go for
- omelettes (proper French omelette ofcourse, but sometimes I cut whole eggs with egg whites like Eggology - they have them at Safeway)
- organic peanut butter on toast (its important to go "organic" as it typically is just peanuts and salt, no trans fats etc... which are bad)
- banana and melted cheese on toast (its better than it sounds)
- vegemite on toast... but I was brought up on the stuff

Unfortunately haven't found a high carb savoury component that I like so I go for instant microwave organic oatmeal from Wholefoods along with the above.

Since I live 10min from the gym and only work out for 50min on weights I don't go for the pre-workout smoothie, but if you live 20-30min from where you start training then it makes sense. (just my opinion but if I ate anything before my morning swims when I was a competitive swimmer in Oz, bad things happenned... I don't think I need to expand on that but lets just say there was a particular tree that was very well fertilized near the pool).

I have quite a few books on athletic diets but the most recent one I read that I liked was Chris Carmichael's "Eat Right to Train Right" - but there are quite a few out there... make sure that whichever diet book you choose goes into detail about proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins/minerals, supplements AND has recipes.

Hope this has helped (?)

Vegemite rocks! Great for vitamin B and awesome with sausage on toast too.

Wheat pancakes with pecans, waffles, and always oatmeal.

raisin bran cereal, with one banana, diced almonds, frozen berries, and 1% fat milk. keeps me fine until mid morning then whole wheat crackers w/ peanut butter. my first work out is until noon though.

Y'all are awesome! Thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely put these ideas into practice.