Breakfast Ideas: Keeping you full, keeping you energized!

“I’ve never been a breakfast-eater; eating first thing in the morning makes me sick!”…these are just some of the excuses I hear from people when I tell them the importance of eating breakfast. My response? “I don’t care.”

Seriously though, if you want to lose weight for good, you have to eat something in the morning.

You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Eat breakfast to lose weight. Those who eat breakfast are more likely to lose weight and keep it off than those who skip breakfast”…yadda, yadda. The point is that eating breakfast does not have to be torture for those who claim eating in the a.m. is nauseating.

Here’s how you overcome the dreadful thought of eating breakfast: choke down something small within the hour of waking up. This could be a piece of toast with some organic peanut butter for all I care. The whole reasoning behind eating breakfast is in the wording: break-fast. You are breaking a fast; the fast you were on when you were sleeping. To skip the breaking of the fast means you are telling your body that you are going to continue in starvation mode, so it begins to store fat just in case you decide to continue the fast. It stores the fat so you will survive. Make sense?

Put it this way – eating breakfast jump starts your metabolism first thing in the morning. You are burning calories because you are putting your body to work. As an added bonus, you are less likely to binge eat at lunch time because you won’t be as famished since you have already given your body enough fuel to last the morning (as opposed to crashing and burning from starvation)!

If you force yourself to start eating breakfast everyday for the next week, I promise your stomach will begin to growl on its own every morning. You will train your body to desire food first thing in the morning, making it less likely for you to make up some lame excuse (“I don’t have time,” “it makes me sick”).

Here are some healthy recipes for you to get started:

Greek Yogurt on the Go!
1/2 container (the large container) PLAIN Greek yogurt, sweetened with either 1 TBS Agave or 2 packets of Stevia

3/4 cup berries of choice (blueberries and strawberries ROCK in Greek yogurt!)

2 TBS slivered or sliced almonds

Add berries and almonds in Greek yogurt and enjoy!

Power Toast
2 slices Ezekiel bread, toasted

2 TBS Almond or Peanut Butter (1 TBS for each slice)

1 banana, sliced

Spread almond or peanut butter and bananas on toast and enjoy!

Breakfast Shake
1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup COLD water

3/4 cup frozen organic berries

1 scoop protein powder

Mix all ingredients in a blender and enjoy!