To say that I am not a morning person would be an understatement. I simply dread the sound of my alarm, and getting off my bed takes me at least 30 minutes on a good day. So, to think about anything else but getting out of my house on time has always been a task for me, let alone thinking about eating breakfast at that time. To no surprise, I found myself snacking a lot before lunch and would often skip lunch as well. This year, however, I decided to make a lifestyle change and start eating breakfast. While hard at first, it has paid off and has left me feeling healthier.
One thing that has helped me stop skipping breakfast is to change my mindset about the meal. Breakfast does not have to be an elaborate spread that looks Insta-ready. Social media and health blogs, while helpful in pointing us to our tastes, can lead us to have unrealistic expectations on how we should be living our everyday lives. Once I accepted that it just is not realistic to have a beautiful spread set out every day, I could move forward with setting more realistic goals each morning.
If you are like me (not a morning person), preparing your meals the night before would be doing yourself a huge favor, and save time in the morning. Even just making a mental note of what is in the pantry and fridge has helped me organize myself better. You can cut up the fruits and put out all of the other ingredients you need the night before, so all you need to do in the morning is put everything together into your meal.
Another way I’ve found helpful to get in all of the food groups into my breakfast is to use a grain base such as oatmeal or chia seed pudding as a start. Then, you can add anything from cut fruit to granola to nuts onto the base. This meal idea has also proven itself to be extremely versatile to me because I can easily switch out the fruits, which changes up its flavor each time I make it. The best part is that all of this takes less than 10 minutes, and you can take this out the door easily.
My favorite way to get in a healthy breakfast is through smoothie cubes. For this recipe, you can make any smoothie you want and then pour it into an ice cube tray. When you are ready to eat, you just need to put in a few of these smoothie cubes with water into the blender, and you will have a fresh smoothie ready. Once again, this recipe is extremely versatile and the smoothie cubes can last for days.
While I often spend the least amount of time on breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day, and taking the time to make the most of it has greatly improved my well-being. Rather than being something I skip over, breakfast is a meal that I look forward to now. Regardless of what you choose to eat, starting your mornings on a full stomach will leave you happier and more energized to conquer the day.