Other Breakfast Ideas
Get playful with your breakfasts. It can be really interesting to do a breakfast experiment study where you eat a different food type every day for 2-3 weeks. Take notes - what satiates you the most vs what has you hungry an hour later. What time suits you best to break your fast? What really doesn’t work for you? Do you prefer dining alone for this first meal of the day? What is your breakfast habit like (rushed or mindful?)
Remember we are all unique and how (and when) we break our overnight fast will vary between each of us. You might have grown up with the mantra that breakfast is the most important meal of the day - but this is no longer considered “gospel”. Dedicating time and attention to this self-study will serve you well for life. How you break your fast can affect your whole day - how you eat later, if you snack, how well you sleep, etc., so it’s really important to get this right for your unique body and metabolism and lifestyle.
Most of us are best served with a minimum of a 12 hour overnight fast, (for example, if you eat dinner at 9pm, it’s really advisable to wait until at least 9am before having something to eat.) So rather than thinking you must have breakfast upon waking, work around this version of intermittent fasting instead. It is optimal for your gut health to wait at least one hour after waking, for your gut health.
Of course we have also been led to believe that for breakfast we should really only eat eggs, cereal, pancakes, fruit or a smoothie - but this too is absurd. You can break your fast with soup or fish or tofu if you like! It’s your body!
But I also want to highlight, as we learn more and more about nutrition, the microbiome and blood sugar, it is really advisable to break your fast with some protein (such as a boiled egg (or two), a tofu/egg scramble, left over protein from dinner… paired with some kind of fermented veggies. This will help you have balanced blood sugar and help reduce cravings and crashes later in the day.
The smoothie and breakfast bowls that follow MAY well require a little appetizer of protein and fermented foods first.
Here are a couple of links that might help with some breakfast creativity:
Smoothie Bowls
