#7. Reverse your pyramid

Think back to yesterday........ Did you have breakfast?................. Did you have dinner?............... Which was your largest meal? I'd bet out of those of people who ate breakfast and dinner the majority ate the largest meal for dinner, and those who skipped breakfast still ate dinner.

You get up in the morning after having fasted through the night, your body needs food to start the day and kick start your metabolism. You have a whole day ahead of you so you also need the energy to get into your day.

Reversing your food pyramid means eating your biggest meals first thing in the morning and your smallest of an evening. Taper your calories "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper". This way you have much less of a chance of storing the early meal as fat because you have been fasting over night and you have the day ahead to burn it off. Whereas a heavy evening meal is much more likely to be stored as fat because you burn fewer calories at night and your metabolism is naturally much slower.

Start this habit with your children now, enforce the importance of breakfast. Where possible sit down and share breakfast or at least get them to eat it at the table rather than on the run. Try to make breakfast a family time as most of us do dinner. Give them desert at lunch time rather than getting into the habit of eating it every night before bed. Once they are old enough you can explain why it is good to eat in this way, explain that they need energy to run around and play in the day time but at night they are sleeping so the body won't spend the extra energy and it will turn to fat. Children need to understand these things and the sooner the better. Most of all make sure you lead by example.