However, I too totally disagree on the one piece of fruit for breakfast. In the majority of people, 80 calories of fast carbs will not break your fast and will just train your body to hoard fat as a response to perceived starvation. And cause an energy crash an hour later due to the high (albeit good-quality) sugar. To balance, have some milk, cheese, nuts with that fruit!!

nutritiondata.com has the following for 100 grams each of banana vs. apple with skin:

100 grams of banana:

3 grams dietary fiber
12 grams sugar
1 gram protein
15% rec. Vitamin C

100 grams of apple with skin:

2 grams dietary fiber
10 grams sugar
0 grams protein
8% rec. Vitamin C

The either/or on that is not so clear to me. Certainly if you’re going to make the call based on fiber content, the banana is the winner.

That said, my breakfast is usually a fresh orange and a breakfast burrito (I use a variation on Trent’s recipe from a year ago February, and I’ve been doing it for months)

1 dozen eggs
1 container of egg beaters (15 egg equivalent)
2 jars salsa
1 lb dry black beans, cooked
1 lb ground sausage

makes about 40 burritos

So each burrito has about 2/3 of an egg, an ounce of reduced salsa, quite a bit of beans, and about 1/40th of a pound of sausage, plus a soft-taco sized tortilla. It takes about 2 minutes to thaw it out in the microwave, and I eat it on my way to work.

For snacks throughout the day, I also eat fruit. A small (4 oz) container of raisins (there’s your sugar bomb!) before lunch, and both an apple and a banana after lunch.

There is no highly-paid profession in the U.S. – and probably not in Canada either – where poor skills in these areas are tolerated, except medicine. And that is changing, rapidly.

Spelling, grammar, vocabulary, accent reduction, reading comprehension (and speed), typing accuracy (and speed), and the ability to respond in a meaningful way to communications received – these are all skills that can be improved by two simple practices: reading and writing.

Computer skills likewise are mostly a matter of will. Many people know all kinds of tricks to use their computers for entertainment – these people could devote an hour a week to playing around with the programs that come loaded on most PCs (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel) and become more valuable employees in almost any field.

Re: Health maintenance, IMO this is the single most important thing you can do. If you’re not healthy, none of the other stuff matters. And what preventive care you do on your own is ALWAYS more effective than what a doctor will do, which is mostly medicate you.

That is to say, for most people it’s more effective to eat rationally and exercise and get proper rest, than it is to medicate. You can take all the meds in the world but if you’re still fat and inactive and insomniac, your disease risks will still be high.

Remember the saying: breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper.

I think an important aspect of health maintenance is getting regular checkups. You can be sensible about your diet and exercise, but there are things that you can’t control or find out without a visit to the doctor.

A truly healthy breakfast should have some protein, a little fat, and some complex carbs. Some fiber to keep you full is a bonus. A truly healthy breakfast could be egg whites (or even a whole egg) on a piece of whole-grain toast, with a little bit of cheese. For people who avoid animal products, oatmeal made with soy milk and a few almonds could be a good substitute. Basically, fruit is healthy but it is not a health stand-alone meal!

Anyhow, great post. Keep’em coming.

I’m very interested in the skill maintenence section. That something I haven’t thought much about. But I would assume it could be applied to constructive hobbies as well, no?

As far as car’s goes, here is one that I learned recently. Don’t leave your car out and not drive it. I had to have my rotors cleaned because of that just last week. Not too expensive, but we’ll be rotating cars now.