By Real Age
Seems like a pretty tall order. A breakfast choice that can make you love yourself more? But a new study suggests it may be so.

The breakfast item in question? Cereal. In a study, the women who had it for breakfast every morning experienced greater self-esteem than the women who started their days with a muffin — even though both breakfasts had the same number of calories.

Mind over Food
In fact, the cereal eaters felt fuller, happier, and more relaxed, according to food diaries the women kept to record how many calories they thought they’d had and what they felt after eating it. Even though both breakfasts had 400 calories, women who ate the cereal thought it had fewer calories — and they felt better about themselves because of it. And a mood boost like that is good for self-esteem, researchers note, because how people feel is closely linked to their perceptions of their weight and body image.

Feel-Good Flakes
Ultimately, researchers think that the kind of self-love the cereal eaters experienced may even boost the chances of weight loss success because feel-good vibes can help people stick with a weight loss plan. Choosing foods that you think are high in calories, on the other hand? It just makes you feel bad about yourself. And that may make you more likely to fall off the weight loss bandwagon. Here are two more tools you can use to boost your self-love and tip the scales in favor of weight loss:

• Eat foods you know are good for you. These 12 recipes help take the guesswork out of finding delicious dishes that are low in calories.
• Love yourself a little more. The YOU Docs have two quick tips for feeling more confident about your body.

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