Ahh, Christmas holidays. Today I slept until noon, spent the afternoon shopping, then ate almost an entire pizza and downed three bottles of Budweiser in front of mindless reality television. It was fabulous.

You did what at 7 a.m.?

It was fabulous . . . until my friend called and told me about how she had started her day with a 7 a.m. workout before heading to the library and then accomplishing a myriad of other constructive activities.

Her day of shiny, healthy productivity really put me to shame. But in a good way — I found it inspiring. If she can do it, so can I.

Tomorrow, I will aim for an early-morning workout.

I'll let you know how it goes. After all, if I can do it, so can you.

Today, I ate a chocolate for breakfast.

There was a whole box of them sitting on the kitchen counter, beckoning me with their sexy, mysterious fillings. I was powerless to resist their charms.

Although I was able to eat just one, I felt like I was being personally scolded when researchers reported (even more) evidence today that breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, support past studies that found that breakfast eaters are less likely to be overweight — and that eating a high-quality breakfast, rather than mindlessly mashing a chocolate into your greasy gob, is the key.

Using data from a national health survey of U.S. adults, researchers found that people who ate lower-calorie foods for breakfast tended to have a higher-quality diet over all.

Unfortunately, the study reported no findings about slackers with no willpower who start their day off by eating crap. I can only presume that they tend to be fat and sad over all.

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Are the latest weight-loss secrets snoring, breast feeding and drugs? Read all about it, plus a patriotic Christmas dinner to die for, in today's round-up of diet and weight-loss news.

Snore away the calories
A new study published in the Archives of Otolaryngology has found that the more you snore, the more calories you burn.

The study focused on 212 adults who all suffered from sleeping problems such as sleep apnea. While the average person was found to burn about 1,763 calories a night, snorers can burn up to 1,999 calories.

Snoring has been shown to burn calories. Just don't do it at work.

Nursing for weight loss
Kelly Rutherford, the 40-year-old "Gossip Girl" star and pregnant mother, told Us Weekly magazine "I was thinner after my pregnancy than before, and I think a lot of it was the nursing."

This may be why she continues to breast feed her 2-year-old son.

UK doctor thinks weight loss drugs should be prescribed more often
Dr. Nick Finer of the Wellcome Clinical Research Facility in Cambridge, England, says that weight loss medications can help about a third of all patients to lose ten per cent of their overall body weight and 50 per cent of patients to lose five per cent of their body weight.

He says that many doctors were “missing opportunities” to help their obese patients because they did not prescribe them weight loss medication.

Fat? You're not alone
A report from Statistics Canada released yesterday reveled that 53 per cent of women and 65 per cent of men in Canada were overweight.

The findings are based on an analysis of the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey, a national study that looked at demographics, nutrition, physical activity and other factors to help measure the population's health.

Looking back: the first Christmas dinner in Canada
Not crazy about dieting over the holidays? At least you'll be able to indulge more than Jacques Cartier and the colony of 110 who celebrated the first recorded Christmas in Canada in 1535 on the banks of the Ste. Croix River, not far from what is now Quebec City.

The Kingston Whig-Standard reports that their Christmas feast was made of their usual unappetizing diet — stale, deteriorating vegetables and salt meat from their rapidly diminishing food stores. (All but 10 of those who survived the winter were near death from scurvy come spring.)

Makes the much maligned fruit cake sound mouth-watering, doesn't it?