I know. You hear it everywhere.
- "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
- "Breakfast is for champions."
- "Don't skip breakfast."
But if you're like me, breakfast can be one of the most challenging meals of the day mainly because of things like you're not hungry yet, you're running late to work or school, or you just forget because your brain is already inundated with stuff you gotta do that day.
"Because you should" never works in motivating me to eat breakfast. However, specific benefits are motivating especially if the payoff is something that I really want, and I mean really want.
Here's 5 benefits to eating breakfast that I find influencing:
- I get to eat. I've turned my passion of eating into this blog. When I remember that I just enjoy the action of eating (in general), I suddenly want to nosh on something. Most mornings, I just don't feel like eating so it becomes way easy to skip breakfast. But when I think, "Oooo we get to eat." Oatmeal here I come...
- I no longer care about skinny foods. I care about power foods. Over time, the dieting or "get skinny" mentality starts to brainwash you into eating less and less which eventually means you start cutting out entire meals all together like ahem...breakfast. Eating quality foods packed with nutrients in the morning like fresh organic fruits and even fish (typical in Asian breakfasts) makes me feel strong. I'd rather feel strong and fueled up in the morning than empty and faint.
- Breakfast prevents me from overeating at lunch which I can easily do at the sandwich bar or salad buffet places like Fresh Choice. I typically eat a later lunch like after 1pm so if the last meal I had the previous day was at 8pm, then that's 17 hours between meals, so yeah, the body can get screaming like Little Shop of Horrors, "FEED ME Seymour!" Ravenous is not pretty which leads to...
- When you go too far long time-wise between meals, you start training your body to hoard calories and slow down your metabolism. And OMG, no one wants to slow down their metabolism or make it sluggish. Mostly, we try to find ways to speed up the metabolism or keep it active, and eating breakfast will help accomplish that result.
When you don't eat for long periods of time, the body starts to think it's going into starvation mode so it will cling onto and hold onto every calorie and ounce of food (energy) it can get it's hands on affecting your metabolism by slowing it down to preserve energy. Our bodies are very smart that way, as the body is engineered to help us stay alive. Eating breakfast helps break up that long time between dinner the night before and lunch the next day which keeps your metabolism active.
- Breakfast is delicious and pleasurable when you eat good foods, and if I can get more pleasure in the day, I'm all over it! Which brings us back to benefit #1, I get to eat, and we <3 eating!
Now that breakfast sounds really good, here's some ideas (all links have pictures):
- Scrumptious cantaloupe with ginger snap granola and greek yogurt (use rice or coconut milk based yogurts for vegan breakfast)
- The picture at the top of the post is my typical simple oatmeal dish: Plain oatmeal with rice milk. Sweeten with agave and mix in walnuts and sliced bananas. Here's 4 other ways I eat oatmeal: Toasty Sweet Pumpkin, Crunchy Banana Walnut, Snickerlicious, and Papaya Pecan.
- Sweet Potato Hashbrowns with Turkey Bacon
- Scrambled egg whites with Mango Chicken Sausage (I buy these at Trader Joe's)
- For brunch with friends: Zesty Fruit Kabobs
What are some of your favorite breakfast foods?
