Let’s talk for a moment about how we start our days. If you’re anything like I’ve been, you probably wake up to your alarm clock with *just* the right amount of time you need to make yourself presentable for work and get a cup of coffee or tea in you before you run out the door. If you happen to actually eat anything, it’s something like a bagel or muffin that you can grab and be on your way. Or maybe it’s a yogurt you eat while you’re on your commute, or a bowl of whole grain/high fiber cereal before you run out the door. While these things sounds delicious and may appear to be heatlhy, truth be told this is not the healthiest way to start your days.
Trust me, I used to start my days as I’ve described above. I would always find though, that I felt like I was “crashing” just a few hours into the workday. The other, possibly more menacing thing I found was the fact I had gained weight, and no matter what I did I had trouble losing it. I was also finding that I felt as if my brain was constantly in a fog and my thoughts could never come out clear. Recently, I’ve made a huge shift to become healthier, and part of the change is how I begin my days. Once piece to the puzzle is I’m now eating breakfast every day (previously it was mostly making sure I was properly caffeinated) and making sure I’m choosing higher protein options. I’m also okay with consuming more calories in the morning, while lunch is less calories and dinner even less. There’s actually been studies on that where 2 control groups both ate 1400 calories in a day, but it was portioned out differently. Group A consumed 700 at breakfast, 500 at lunch and 200 at dinner while Group B did the opposite; 200 at breakfast, 500 at lunch and 700 at dinner. The results came back that Group A lost nearly 18 pounds versus only 7.3 in Group B. Other studies have found similar results and this has led researchers to think we become more insulin resistant in the afternoon and evenings thus our bodies burn fewer calories those times of day then it does in the morning.
You may be wondering, well what should I eat? One of my newest faves to have on hand is egg cups. There’s quite a few recipes out there for these, but basically these are made from eggs, chopped up veggies and you can also add cooked bacon or turkey bacon in them, you portion the mixture into a muffin tin and cook in the oven. You can store them in an airtight container or ziplock bag in your fridge for easy ‘grab and go’ breakfasts all week long! Another favorite of mine is a sweet potato crust quiche that you can make ahead of time and eat from all week long too. There truly are a lot of options out there! If you’re a smoothie lover, the key is to make your own at home so you know the portions of ingredients going into your smoothie. Otherwise you more than likely will end up with a store bought smoothie that has 83 grams of sugar and over 500 calories in it! If you’re hooked on your high fiber/whole grain cereal, make sure there is at least 1 gram of fiber for every 10 grams of carbs, otherwise you’re probably just getting a lot of sugars, sodium and higher empty calories from your cereal.
I challenge you all to really take a moment to think about how you fuel yourself in the beginning of the day. Remember, it really is as simple as what we put in our bodies we get out in terms of performance, function and how we feel. If you want to feel and function better, than you have to put better fuel into your body!