Some food for thought, if people actually believed that breakfast were really the most important meal of the day, would cereal still be popular? Here are three rules for eating breakfast that can work for anyone.
Three Rules for Eating Breakfast
- Anticipate That You’ll Wake Up Tomorrow
- Eat Breakfast
- Don’t Eat or Drink Sugar
Anticipate That You’ll Wake Up Tomorrow
Breakfast should be the easiest meal of the day. For many people, the morning can be challenging, but those obstacles are mostly predictable. Maybe the household is hectic while getting the kids off to school. Maybe you have to get a workout in the morning that won’t happen otherwise. Or maybe you aren’t hungry around the time you wake up. Whatever your situation, I’d wager that you can anticipate something about the start of tomorrow before you go to bed tonight. If you can do that, then you can eat breakfast.
Need to grab and go? Try overnight oats, pre-make and freeze muffin-tin fritattas, fruit, fruit and yogurt cups, breakfast burritos, hard boiled eggs, and more.
Have a few minutes to sit down? Eat eggs. Avocado toast. Leftovers from dinner can be a great choice. It may surprise you to find you like fish as a breakfast food. There are loads of great ideas out there.
Sometimes a plan to overcome a certain set of challenges doesn’t pan out as we expect. Don’t give up! Try something new — a change in another habit (no more snooze button?), an efficiency improvement (brushing teeth in the shower!), a change of venue (leave a backup breakfast at the office), gather support (partner reminds you get to bed on time), or a different food idea.
The bottom line for rule one is this, recognizing the challenges you’ll face ahead of time will give you more control over the situation.
Control leads to better choices.
Once you have a plan in place it’s time to move on to Rule two.
Eat breakfast
Eat breakfast. See how easy that was? It was made easy by your past self recognizing the challenges you were going to face in getting to this point, and putting you in a situation to succeed. Thanks past self!
Did your past self let you down? Don’t be too hard on them; after all, to your future self, your present self is your past self. Start thinking about what you want your future self to think, and try Rule one again.
Don’t Eat or Drink Sugar
Rule three is for those that want to make a better choice for breakfast. I only have one guideline to follow. Zero added sugar or sugar equivalents (honey, corn syrup, agave extract, or even artificial sweeteners). I include juice in this group since eight ounces of orange juice has 21 grams of sugar, which has about 80% of the sugar content of eight ounces of Coke (26 grams). Eat three or four oranges if you really need eight ounces of juice.
Why single out sugar as the bad guy? Because it is perhaps the single worst thing you can eat for breakfast. Sugar digests quickly, providing you with a quick fuel source, and little else. Furthermore, sweeteners are appetite enhancers. If you want to eat frequently, be hungry between meals, and be susceptible to crashes in concentration and energy, then sugar might be an OK choice. Imagine trying to keep a campfire going all day with handfuls of shredded newspaper. How much attention will that fire need? That’s your body on sugar. Wouldn’t it be better to have a few hardwood logs for those flames? So it is with choosing protein and fiber rich foods for breakfast. Eat food that will fill your stomach and digest slowly, while providing a steady energy source for all the activities of your day.
It is wise to match our intake with our output. If you’re working at a computer, you aren’t likely to need many carbohydrates to fuel your activity. If your job is more physical, or you’re playing hooky to go hiking, then eating a carbohydrate-rich breakfast may be the wiser choice. No matter your daily activities, including a vegetable and high quality protein is likely to start your day off right.
A Final Thought
I want to leave you with one final thought. You can follow this basic formula for just about any health behavior. Select a meaningful goal. Plan for obstacles. Execute your plan. Refine and adjust the plan to make it more resilient. Start simple, and add complexity. If you need support, please contact Baskin Clinic to schedule an appointment with Shane, your health coach.