Fitness Friday: Beware the double-bogey breakfast

*Every week my colleague Ron Kaspriske, Golf Digest Fitness Editor, presents Fitness Friday on the Instruction Blog. Here's his advice for eating the optimal breakfast before your next round, plus the foods and drinks to avoid. Look for Weekend Tip tomorrow, and remember to follow me on Twitter: @RogerSchiffman**.

Roger Schiffman

Managing Editor

Golf Digest*

__Here's Ron:__By now, you've probably had it drummed into your head that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. To reiterate, it is. Most nutritionists will tell you it's a mistake to eat nothing when you get up. Even if it's not the ideal breakfast, it's better to start the day with some food in your belly than not.

If you're eating before a morning round, however, what you consume might be the difference between winning rather than losing a match or shooting your personal-best score rather than your high for the season.

Amy Goodson, dietitian for the Ben Hogan Sports Medicine clinic in Fort Worth, says many traditional breakfast choices can do more harm than good for someone about to play golf. "People take in far too much sugar in the morning," she says. "From juice to many cereals to syrup on pancakes. If you eat stuff like that, you can count on having an energy crash sometime during the round, and it will impact you physically as well as make it harder to focus."

Goodson suggests a meal with complex carbohydrates, some protein, a little fat, and plenty of fresh water. Two examples would be a vegetable omelet with fruit and 16 ounces of water; or a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal with nuts (substitute an apple for the brown sugar) and 16 ounces of water.

Here is a list of foods and beverages Goodson says you should avoid before you play a morning round.

*Ron Kaspriske

Fitness Editor

Golf Digest*

Foods you should NOT eat

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Drinks you should AVOID__