Improving Your Health: Start Your Day with Breakfast (part 2)

In the first post of this series I talked about making healthy meal choices. Today I want to talk about how we can start our day off right. I know how busy we are in the mornings, but we need to fuel our body with what makes our body function the best. The habit of not eating breakfast might save us 5 minutes, but we will waste hours from a slow mind, muddled thinking, anxiety, and low blood sugar. Make it your new habit to be a breakfast eater.

Don’t Skip Breakfast

We can eat anything for breakfast, but we tend to fall back on classic breakfast foods. Here is a typical breakfast meal of bacon and eggs that shows the breakdown of its protein, carbohydrates and fat:

This meal has a desirable amount of protein, low carbs and a relatively high amount of fat. Of course, there are some who might steer clear of this due to the amount of fat, but recent studies have shown that saturated fat provided by a meal like this is helpful to our body in a number of ways.

Not everyone wants this type of meal so for those wanting a vegetarian start to their day, here is another typical breakfast:

This has a low amount of protein, higher carbohydrates and a relatively high amount of fat. For this type of meal I would suggest adding additional protein which could easily be increased with a scoop of protein powder. Unflavored whey or egg protein powder can easily be added to a meal like oatmeal. A single scoop of most protein powders contain from 15 to 25 grams of protein depending on the brand. You would add the powder in after the oatmeal is cooked.

A Quick and Easy Breakfast

For many, the above meals might be a weekend option, but busy mornings necessitate cutting some time corners. This protein drink will make a great breakfast meal:

A protein drink can be a great fast way to have a meal. You can make your own easily using whey or egg protein powder mixed with milk or water. If you have a little more time you can add in a few things to make it tastier. Here are some good brands of whey protein: Jarrow brand, unflavored or flavored; Bluebonnet brand, chocolate or vanilla; Jay Robb brand, chocolate or vanilla or unflavored. For egg protein the best one is Jay Robb unflavored – the flavored of this brand have artificial sweeteners that you will want to avoid.

Ready to drink Protein drinks

If you have no time to mix your own or want something easy to travel with then the Orgain brand protein drinks or Core Power protein drink will make a great travel companion.

Next post I will talk about meal plans for lunch and dinner. Stay tuned…