Weight management can be tricky, but this strategy here is a bonafide winner when it comes to keeping your weight under control. Knowledge always gives you power!

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Trying to lose weight? Here are some tips for avoiding common diet pitfalls.

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We all know the benefits of breakfast -- it can help you control weight by managing your hunger, it improves focus, and it can give you the energy boost you need to get moving. But what if you're just not a morning person? The idea of pulling together a balanced breakfast when you can barely keep your eyes open isn't exactly realistic, is it?

Cranky Fitness has a great post about how those of us who are much more like slugs than chipper birds in the morning can still get our healthy morning meal. Some of the tips:

• Make a batch of steel cut oats ahead of time, then just warm it in the microwave. Add some low-fat milk and some sliced bananas to sweeten it up.
• Hard boil a few eggs and keep them in your fridge for quick access.
• Fresh fruit is about the simplest and quickest breakfast you can have -- just grab and go.

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Fancy a big, heaping serving of salt on your breakfast plate? Yuck. I don't know about you, but the thought turns my stomach. However, recent studies show that many of us are getting our half and sometimes even a full day's worth of salt in our first meal of the day. What's even more alarming about this statistic is that this is true even for those of us who make our own breakfast at home.

I think everyone accepts that a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and hash browns is a salty way to start the day but apparently, many seemingly inauspicious items are also high in salt -- things like Starbucks skinny muffins, as well as many pastries and croissants. Even some toast toppings have more sodium than bacon! Consider this -- a Skinny Blueberry Muffin from Starbucks has 2400 mg of sodium, while a slice of bacon has a mere 303mg.

Do your heart a favor: Check the labels and do what you can to make sure you're not getting too much sodium in the AM -- or any time of day. The daily RDI of sodium here in North America is 2300 mg.

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The Japanese love their fad diets, and a new one has taken the country by storm. The Morning Banana Diet has become so popular due to recent publicity that grocery stores across Japan are sold out of bananas, according to recent reports from banana importers. What's all the hype about? Here's a run-down of the diet:

• You eat a raw, unfrozen banana for breakfast.
• You can eat whatever you want for lunch and dinner, even fried foods. However, dessert is prohibited. You must eat dinner before 8 pm.
• At 3 pm, you can have a sweet snack, like chocolates or cookies. You can have something healthier, but if you want chocolate, don't deny yourself.

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We all have days when we feel like there's just no way in hell we can fit a workout into the schedule. You know, you have an early meeting at work, you're having dinner with a friend right afterward, and then you have your pottery class -- how could you possibly get to the gym?

Well, Lindsay Price of Lipstick Jungle has no pity for you. A typical day requires her to be on the set at 6 a.m., but before she heads to work, she works out. She says, "I have to just get up early and make sure I run. I'll do 40 minutes, four miles. It's not easy, but it clears my head."

In theory, this sounds great, but personally I have a hard time working out really early in the morning -- my legs feel so uncoordinated. What's your favorite time to work in a workout?

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I used to be vigilant about exercising every morning... and it felt great. I started my day out with energy and a sense of accomplishment. After adopting my son, however, my schedule has changed and my morning exercise has become sporadic at best. I've vowed to get back on the bandwagon when he returns to school next week, though. Our schedule will be changing naturally -- so it's a good time for me to get my morning self in gear again.

Divine Caroline offers some great inspiration with five reasons to start the day with a workout:

• Better performance at work.
  
• A metabolism boost throughout the day.
• A better night's sleep.
• Increased likelihood to stick with it.
• A happier outlook.

Check out the original article for details. Then, set that alarm clock a little bit earlier and get your move on in the am.

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Women's Health magazine just sent me a release with some fun tips entailed, and I thought I'd share this one with you. Four fabulous moves useful for those of you guilty of missing morning workouts to sleep in late, and then missing the gym after work due to fatigue. As your online trainer I want to make this clear to you: skipping your workouts on a regular basis is detrimental to your health!

Of course, early morning workouts can be tough. They're also what keeps you full of the energy you need to get through each day with vigor! Check out this gallery, and next time you go to hit the snooze button ... get your fanny up and do the Cat Cow pose instead. (No moo-ing necessary!) These four easy moves will give you the energy to get to the gym and start your day off right!

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Many studies show that people who eat breakfast have a better chance of losing weight. When you consume a balanced breakfast including foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein, you're fueling your body with slow-burning foods that will keep you energized throughout the day. In addition, healthful breakfast choices will help you feel full longer.

A new study narrows down the healthful breakfast recommendations. The study found that dieters who ate two eggs for breakfast had better weight control than those who ate bagels. (The overall calorie intake of all study subjects was controlled.) In detail, those who ate eggs lost 65% more weight, had 61% greater reduction in BMI, and had higher energy levels.

It's important to note that the study was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center. I have to wonder what the results would be if the non-egg eaters in the study had eaten something more nutritious than a bagel (the report doesn't specify if the bagels were whole grain and if they were topped with anything).

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My son has ADHD and I know how important a good breakfast is for him. When he gets a nutritious breakfast -- preferably with some whole grains -- and gets good exercise in the morning, he's always more focused and better able to control his behavior. Previous research has confirmed what I (and probably every other parent) knew: Breakfast does a kid's body -- and mind -- good.

A new study supports this previous finding and takes it one step further. It turns out that, while beneficial for all, the benefits of breakfast vary in boys and girls. Researchers had half of students in the study eat a standardized breakfast while the other half didn't eat breakfast. All students later took a test to measure cognitive ability and mood. A week later, the test was repeated except the previous non-breakfast eaters ate a morning meal and vice versa.

While there was measurable improvement in focus, all of the students who ate breakfast reported feeling more alert. In addition, boys reported having an elevated mood and the boys performed better on visuospatial memory tests.

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Following a regular exercise regimen requires a great deal of discipline. However, if you look at how disciplined we actually are as a nation (for example, we now work more than any other industrialized country), and then look at how overweight we are, it becomes readily apparent that sticking to a workout requires more than just willpower.

Because we're always on the go, there's little time left for us to do anything we would like to do -- working out being no exception. In the time-crunched society in which we live, squeezing in a workout can sometimes be a very difficult thing to pull off. That being said, there are a many ways to help make this happen. Here are a few suggestions.

The Morning Workout. For those of you who already bang out your exercise in the A.M., you can skip to the next tip. For those of you who are still trying to find time in the evening (between work commutes and the 8,000 errands you need to run), rolling out of bed an hour earlier should give you enough time to put in a solid workout. Will it be tough at first? Yup. But you'll get used to it in about a week or two.

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? Most people will agree, but there are two side to every story. Diet Blog recently discussed the other side to the breakfast debate, based on the fact that most research on the importance of breakfast is funded by companies with a vested interest in your early AM food consumption -- namely companies who sell things like cereal, orange juice, frozen waffles and so on. They give a number of reasons why breakfast might not be as essential as we think -- you can check them out there.

I'm a staunch breakfast eater, if for no other reason then I am really freaking hungry when I wake up. I don't eat a lot -- a protein smoothie or a bowl of cereal will do -- but I have to have something or I won't be able to concentrate on anything for the first few hours of the day because I won't be able to hear anything above the growling of my stomach.

What about you? Is breakfast essential to your morning? Do you think we're being misled on the breakfast front?

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How many times have you overslept and started the day out in a rush (an even bigger one than usual) and the day just never seemed to recover? Or gotten out of the shower and your hair just wouldn't cooperate, leaving you starting out with a bad hair day and all the curses that go along with it for hours to come? It seems to be a fundamental truth that the way the day starts out sets the tone for how the rest of the day is going to go -- nobody is immune. Not even morning people!

So start your day out right and the rest of your day should go much better -- it's like a law of physics. To that end, try these tips from Active.com for a better morning and a better day.

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Occasionally grabbing breakfast on the run is one of those inevitabilities. After all, who hasn't overslept or woken up only to find that the last bit of cereal milk has been usurped by the last breakfaster? And grabbing breakfast on the go is better than not having any at all.

Yahoo health recently rated the top breakfast choices. Here are some picks:

• McDonald's: Fruit n' Yogurt Parfait -- 160 cal, 2 g fat
• Starbucks: Spinach, roasted tomato, feta and egg wrap -- 240 cal, 10 g of fat (but lots of protein and fiber)
• Jamba Juice: Jamba Light smoothie -- 150-160 cal, 0 g of fat
• Dunkin' Donuts: Four powdered donut holes -- 260 cal, 15 g of fat
• Burger King: Nothing. Their food still has trans fats.
  

Want to find out what other breakfast dishes made the cut? Click here for the full list.

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The rookies on the New York Yankees team have to set their alarm clocks a little earlier than the rest of the team. Why? They have an extra morning workout to get to. Their morning routine includes a mile run, ab work, mountain climbers (calisthenics), and working on fitness machines.

While the morning hour may be a bit unwelcome, players are seeing the perks of their extra efforts. Their endurance and strength is improved. So much so that other players, including some veterans, are voluntarily joining in the morning workouts.

You can take a tip from the Yankee's and add some early morning exercise to your "spring training." Set your alarm clock an hour or so earlier and go for a walk, follow a fitness DVD, hop on the treadmill, or visit your gym. It will help you feel more energetic throughout the day!