I’ve waffled back and forth on breakfast (sorry for the awful pun, but not really). Sometimes I think it’s an awesome idea that revs up your metabolism in the morning and sometimes I think it’s an excuse to eat an extra meal I wouldn’t otherwise. However, as I’ve experimented with various types of food, I’m starting to come down on the side of great way to start the day, but only if you treat it right.
First, What’s The Wrong Breakfast?
There are a number of ways I see people messing up the beginning of their day:
- Too much sugar – Almost any cereal out there has too much sugar. I don’t care how many vitamins the TV commercials claim it has, you don’t need that much sugar in you at 8am. The same applies to your grande vanilla soy latte with two squirts of caramel (can you tell I don’t drink coffee?) It’s not the coffee part I object to, it’s the multiple table spoons of sugar you just ingested as a way to start your day. By 10am you’ll be crashing from the sugar / caffeine rush and start to snack. (giant fruit plates are borderline by the way, you know who you are!)
- Too much fat – I know, I know, fat is the new black. Everyone loves fat these days! I have a friend who sinks a block of butter in his coffee every morning and umm… yah, that’s a bit too much for me. Fat is indeed good, especially if it comes from a good source, but you probably don’t need three strips of bacon, two sausages and a hefty dollop of butter’s worth of fat.
- Too much in general – Ahh, the worst of all offenders, the traditional American breakfast. I’ll have two strips of bacon, a piece of sausage, two eggs over easy, three pancakes, a cup of coffee and some breakfast potatoes. Oh, and can you please call my doctor because I’m about to have a heart attack! Sorry, you don’t need that much food EVER, much less at breakfast.
So, What’s The Right Breakfast?
The right breakfast is one which mixes fat, protein and yes, a little bit of carbs without having too much of anything. Let me give you a couple of examples:
- Today – Two eggs over easy, a handful of cashews, 2 Medjool dates. The eggs have a good amount of protein and fat, supplemented by the cashews and the dates add some nice fiber and sugars. It’s a great breakfast from both a nutritional and taste perspectives.
- Yesterday – One turkey sausage, one tomato, some spinach and a handful of cashews. Again, we have a good amount of protein and fat in the sausage supplemented by the cashews. Then we have fiber and sugars from the tomato and the spinach. Once again, tasty and nutritious.
By the way, both of these meals have under 500 calories and take less than 5 minutes to make.
In general, plan out your breakfast like this:
- A solid piece of protein – Eggs, turkey sausage, chicken breast, soy (or other legumes), cottage cheese
- Supplement #1 with something that will give you the right amount of protein and fat altogether – Nuts, cheese, legumes
- A small amount of sugars and fiber – Tomato, spinach, dates, an orange, blueberries
And of course, eat in moderation. You don’t need to track every calorie but in general, I don’t think breakfast should be more than 20% of your daily calories. Since most of us eat too much at lunch and dinner, eating a big breakfast will just blow our daily diet right to hell.
