8. You leave your hot cereal eating ’til the weekend, when you can slow cook steel-cut oats.

Result: You bypass one of the easiest ways to get whole-grain, fiber-rich goodness.

Turns out an oat is an oat is an oat, whether it’s steel cut from the original groat or rolled flat and even presteamed so that it will cook in 90 seconds rather than 15 minutes. Flattening and steaming does not remove whole-grain benefits, so you get all of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and oaty fiber. Yes, the steel-cut variety is nutty, chewy, and delicious, but instant is so darned weekday convenient.

What to do: Embrace all oats. One caveat: Prepackaged flavored oats can contain a lot of added sugar and salt.