The Breakfast Experiment
The report is due in two hours. Or perhaps you’re in the middle of a mid-term exam. Or you’re making sales calls. Suddenly, bam! Around 10:30 a.m. and from out of nowhere you hit a wall! All you want to do is look out the window, or better yet, take a nap. What do you do?
So, what DID you eat for breakfast?
I hate to say, “I told you so,” so I’ll turn to Mom, who has said it countless times: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s the meal that’s designed to supply one third of the macro and micro nutrients your body needs to keep you going throughout the entire day.
So what are you eating each morning to keep your energy levels up and your brain working at optimum levels?
- A few cups of coffee gulped down on the go?
- A cup or two of sugary cereal with a little milk?
- A doughnut or two that’s calling your name from the break room?
- A cup of sugary yogurt or a muffin eaten at your desk?
- Or simply nothing at all?
Your body deserves so much better than that. And so do you! Breakfast is a vital part of taking control of your health needs and yet so many people overlook this important practice because they’re either too rushed or too lazy. And in the end, their work performance suffers and their body ages even faster.
When you eat a good breakfast, your day rolls along as it should. No growling stomach, low blood sugar shakiness, mid morning fatigue or wandering attention to keep you from nailing that big report or those big goals you’ve made for yourself.
The Breakfast Experiment
One of the best—and most fun—ways to find out which foods serve YOU most powerfully is something called the Breakfast Experiment. For one week, eat a different breakfast each day and observe how your body responds.
Consider about a 1 cup portion for most things except the vegetables. You can have as much of those as you want! Save time in the morning by having some things already prepared, packaged or cooked. This may help you get into the habit of planning your morning meals the night before, then just grabbing more nutritious foods when in a hurry.
Think VEGGIES first!
Yes, you heard me right! Why not veggies in the morning? They have fiber to keep you full longer. They don’t have gluten in them (Yay!). They offer numerous vitamins and minerals to fuel your body. They don’t boost your cholesterol or cause blood sugar spikes. But best of all, they can quickly be prepared ahead of time, seasoned, put into containers and…..are you ready……eaten cold or warmed (no need to nuke ’em!).
When you build your meals around veggies, you know you’ll get the 7+ servings a day your body needs. Vegetables don’t take long to cook and well, they are just so darn good for you. They can be added to almost anything and we will even show you which veggies are sweeter than others to tame that sweet tooth! But more than all of that, they are so easy to have ready to grab and take to work! So, think less about building your meals around the typical animal proteins, which often are processed–and change how you build your meals–around the foods closest to the soil–vegetables.
Try the awareness exercise.
Grab a spiral notebook and record in it what you ate, how you felt immediately after the meal, and how you felt again two hours later.
- Day one: Scrambled eggs or tofu with cooked veggies
- Day two: Bean or vegetable soup (yes, it’s also okay to have soup for breakfast!)
- Day three: Oatmeal with chia seeds, nuts and dried fruits
- Day four: Boxed breakfast cereal with milk
- Day five: Muffin or bagel and coffee
- Day six: Fresh whole fruits
- Day seven: Fresh cooked vegetables
Feel free to repeat the experiment for another seven days with different foods each morning.
Now ask yourself some questions.
- Which breakfasts made you feel energized?
- Which ones didn’t?
- Which breakfast made you feel full at first, then crash a few hours later?
- How did it feel to eat veggies in the morning?
- What can you do the day/night before to prepare and package some fresh or cooked veggies for an easy grab-n-go breakfast?
After trying this experiment for a week or two, try adding in more of the foods that made you feel energized into the weeks ahead. In doing so, you will notice that you will automatically weed out the foods that don’t fuel you as well.
Some other great dishes to consider eating for breakfast might include vegetable quiche or frittatas, vegetable & rice bowls, soups loaded with vegetables and beans or whole grains, mixed greens salads, or mixed chopped veggie salads.
Check out some of the recipes on this site. Have you come up with some great recipes of your own? If so, please comment below. We would love to post your recipe here! Tell us how you felt each day after you tried this experiment. How did you adjust your morning routine to fit in a healthy breakfast?
Get even healthier today!
Would you like to learn how to choose the best breakfasts for you and your family? (And the best lunches, dinners, snacks and even desserts?) Are you curious about how life management coaching or how Healthy Lifestyle Planning & Maintenance coaching can help you live a healthier lifestyle? Then let’s talk! All you have to do to begin is to click here to schedule an initial complimentary consultation with me today—or share this offer with someone you care about!
Adapted from Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Cathy is a certified Wellness Educator and Coach with a strong passion to help her clients in their journey to improve their overall health and vitality by searching for the sources of their illness and imbalance. As a Healthy Lifestyle Planner, Cathy shares all of the practical ways people can reduce stress, recover their lost energy, restore their immune system function and manage and maintain their health goals over the years. She empowers people to hit the pause button in life and become more in tune with their bodies by using evidence-based lifestyle interventions to prevent lifestyle related diseases. This type of approach empowers individuals with the knowledge and life skills to make effective behavioral changes that address the underlying causes of their condition.
Cathy is also the creator and director of the Holistic Wellness Academy; an online training platform. The site offers clients and practitioners step-by-step courses that are short and actionable. Each course is loaded with scientifically-backed information, ideas and practical, time-saving tips that empower and motivate people to successfully navigate through all the distractions life throws at us. Participants can also converse with fellow students for extra encouragement. She is finalizing her newest program, “RESTORE Your Immune System.” This program explains why people are struggling to stay healthy and the steps they can take to balance and restore the body back to its natural homeostasis. Today it is so important for people to take back control of their health in order to reverse dis-ease.
