What’s For Breakfast?

Do you find it a challenge to decide what to eat for breakfast? I certainly do! I struggle with finding the time and making the right choices for breakfast. When I do make the extra effort to eat a good breakfast, I feel so much better throughout the day! Some people wake up and aren’t hungry for hours, and others don’t want to take the time to make breakfast. Many people just grab a cup of coffee and run out the door; others just grab a breakfast or protein bar that are often full of sugar. Don’t do that! Your body needs the fuel to feed your brain and keep your energy levels high.

There are many benefits of starting your day with a good breakfast. Below are some tips and reasons why you should always eat a good, healthy breakfast:

• Eating breakfast helps speed up your metabolism and jump start your day. You’ve probably heard the phrase: “Eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner.”
• If you skip breakfast, your body will go into starvation/survival mode and start storing calories as fat.
• People who eat breakfast have better focus and are more productive at work and at school.
• If you skip meals, you may overeat at the next meal. Skipping meals can cause you to make poor choices later and possibly binge eat.
• We are supposed to eat 6 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. It’s hard to get this many servings in without eating breakfast. Try adding vegetables like kale, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower and all types of berries to your morning meal. Also, add avocado, spinach, and kale to your fruit smoothies.
• People who skip breakfast have a tendency to be overweight. If you start your day by eating too much, you have the rest of the day to fix it! A study of women under the age of 65 who skipped breakfast—even a few times a week—were 28% more likely to develop diabetes than women who ate breakfast on a regular basis.
• Think outside the box when choosing your breakfast choices. You don’t have to eat bacon and eggs every morning (although eggs are actually good for you and there has been no evidence linking eggs to an increased risk of heart disease. Eggs actually contain 13 essential nutrients). Here is a link to Dr. Josh Axe’s 50 healthy breakfast ideas. Some ideas include grain free applesauce pancakes, sweet potato hash, baby kale and mozzarella egg bake and baked pears with walnuts and honey.
• If you need to take breakfast to work, make a plan in advance and meal prep ahead of time.
• Do you find it hard to cook in the morning? Prep your food the night before or pre-chop vegetables on Sundays. Some egg dishes you can bake, freeze, and heat in the microwave the next morning. I find smoothies are the fastest breakfast meal to make and you can drink them on your way to work. I like JJ Virgins Vanilla Paleo-Inspired Shake. You can add almond butter and flax seed to your shakes and they will keep you feeling full throughout the morning.
• Share any ideas and recipes with your family, friends, and co-workers to make it easier for everyone to start their day out right!