By Corey M Jackson, Guest Writer

I love the Sausage Egg and Cheese McMuffin at a certain restaurant that shall remain nameless (though they use the prefix ‘Mc’ before a lot of their entrees). Each ingredient is something I enjoy separately from the others, and I enjoy them all together as well. The trouble is: Its 560 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 56% of my recommended daily sodium intake. Well, those are actually just a few of the problems.

I fully realize that eating like that every morning would definitely land me any of a few heart conditions, such as hypertension, and that I need to find another way to get my morning fix of deliciousness. So here’s a few tips for any of you that are in the same boat as myself.

Instead of sausage, use low-sodium turkey sausage. It contains less fat than regular sausage, as well as having significantly less sodium. To be honest, I can’t taste the difference.

Using egg whites, instead of the yolk, will get you all of the protein, with almost none of the cholesterol. That’s good news for anyone in my family. An easy and healthy alternative there.

Now when it comes to the bun, instead of using a pancake infused with an abundance of syrup (which is mouth-watering, I know, but hear me out), use a whole grain English muffin. These have a lot of vitamins and minerals that you wouldn’t get with the pancake and syrup, and the calorie count goes way down as well.

Lastly, if you really want to help yourself out, skip the cheese. It’s cheaper, and you save yourself a lot of heartache in the long run. Literally.

If you buy up all of these items at the beginning of the week and make yourself a few sandwiches all at once, you can have some in stock that you can just heat up when you’re too busy to make one in the morning. Drink it down with some 100% orange juice or low-fat milk, and you’ve got yourself a pretty healthy breakfast, at a lower cost as well. Didn’t I mention that?

Total calories: low-sodium turkey sausage (110) + egg white (16) + English muffin (162) = 288 calories

Total fat: low-sodium turkey sausage (5.8g) + egg white (0.1g) + English muffin (4.5g) = 10.4 grams of fat

Total sodium: low-sodium turkey sausage (186mg) + egg white (55mg) + English muffin (276mg) = 517mg of sodium