In this series of blog posts, I will be going over the 5 Simple Steps that you can implement for better health. I have been personally implementing these into my lifestyle as well!
This is a bit of a long post, but I wanted to give you good information so you can make informed decisions along with breakfast ideas!
The first step I am implementing is to eat a high protein breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up. The time you take in food during the day (or night-so avoid eating late at night) creates a circadium signal to the body to wake up.
It is important to focus on a SAVORY breakfast vs. a SWEET breakfast. Avoid refined carbs and sugar in the morning to give your body a consistent energy that will not spike your blood sugar levels. I recommend to all my clients to eat real food, not protein bars or smoothies.
When we start our days with fruit juice, cereal, oatmeal, coffee cakes or coffees loaded with sugary syrups, it pumps a bunch of sugar right into our bloodstream in a short amount of time. This is a huge dump of sugar straight into the blood stream after a night of fasting. This causes our insulin levels to spike as our pancreas tries to pump out insulin to handle all the sugar. It often overshoots the mark, causing a drop in blood sugar, which makes us feel tired, sleepy, and hungry again. Then the body fights to get blood sugar levels back up AGAIN, which triggers cortisol and adrenaline to help out.
Starting your day with a sugary breakfast starts the vicious cycle of blood sugar highs and lows, which trigger us to continue to eat and drink high carbohydrate foods, drinks high in caffeine and sugar to give us the energy boost we think we need.
When we eat a breakfast that has a good balance of protein and healthy fat with a wee bit of carbs, it is a fuel that will give us consistent energy without the blood sugar spikes and lows.
BREAKFAST IDEAS:
Fage Yogurt Plain 5% or Greek Yogurt (get full fat) - 1/2 teaspoon raw honey, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries thawed. (this is more of a “sweet” breakfast but with WAY LESS sugar than eating a Yoplait yogurt that has 27+ grams of sugar in it vs. 3 grams of sugar with 1/2 tsp honey and 4 grams of carbs with blueberries) Plus, blueberries have tons of antioxidants!
Eggs - 1-2 eggs cooked in real butter, nitrate-free breakfast sausage.
Eat leftover dinner for breakfast! Steak and eggs, taco meat etc.
I’ve even had a nitrate-free, grass fed/finished beef stick (from Costco) and a cheese stick for breakfast!
Skipping breakfast is not an option, either, because your body will still spike blood sugar and cortisol as it struggles to keep your energy up.
If you struggle with not feeling hungry in the mornings (which is a lot of my clients), that is a sign of not enough hydrochloric acid (HCL) in the stomach. HCL is SUPER important for your digestive health!!! You can stimulate HCL and support a healthy appetite by drinking 1/2 a lemon in water or 1 tablespoon of ACV in a little water before each meal.