Even if your mornings are hectic, making time for a quick breakfast can prove to be an important choice with lasting benefits. If you want to be healthy, energized, satiated, mentally alert and emotionally content, start your day off right with eating a nutrient-dense meal. You don’t have to prepare an elaborate dish fit for a king; keeping things simple can be just as effective in providing you with the valuable results that you desire. Evaluate your morning schedule and see where changes can be made in order to make breakfast a priority every day for you and your family.
1. Satisfying your hunger
One of the most basic benefits of eating breakfast is not being hungry. If you ate dinner at 6pm the night before, you might wake up starving. As you get into the habit of not eating a few hours before bedtime, breakfast becomes more and more essential when it comes to fighting hunger and getting through your morning comfortably. Whether you’re at work, school or home, you still don’t want to hear your tummy grumbling all the way through the early hours of the day, right? Eating a healthy breakfast can take care of such problems.
2. Providing energy and endurance
Particularly if you eat a protein-based breakfast, having a healthy meal in the morning can help your body produce energy to keep you going throughout the day. If you shuffle off to work or school without eating anything, you’ll likely find that you just don’t have the stamina to go about getting everything accomplished that you need to. Make time for breakfast, even if that means you grab a protein bar and eat it during your commute. You can also consider keeping hard-boiled eggs or greek yogurt in the refrigerator for other easy-to-grab options even when you’re running late.
3. Improving mental alertness and your thinking powers
Eating a nutrient-rich meal in the morning can help increase your mental performance: improving your concentration, awakening your memory and enhancing your brain power. Especially if you have a big test, an important presentation to make, a serious meeting with a new client or some other demanding event taking place later on today, don’t skip breakfast. If you can stomach the thought, consider eating a pick that can provide you with omega-3 fatty acids such as salmon, tuna, walnuts or pumpkin seeds.
4. Boosting your metabolism
Everytime you eat, you help kickstart your metabolism into full gear. Start your day off right by boosting your metabolism through a healthy breakfast. Because your body burns more calories when digesting protein and whole grains in comparison to other food types, make sure you’re filling up your breakfast plate accordingly.
Whether you want to lose weight or just maintain the size you’re at, increasing your metabolism by eating breakfast can play an important role in your plans for health. Remember, though, that you need to be keeping your overall calories in check so if you’re upping your intake at breakfast time and eating mini meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism roaring, you should be decreasing the number of calories you eat at lunch and dinner.
5. Enabling your body’s access to necessary nutrients
Because your body needs essential nutrients in order to function properly, eating a nutritionally-sound meal at the start of your morning can get the day started off on the right foot. You’re able to absorb vitamins and minerals better when they actually come from food so, although taking a multivitamin can be helpful for filling in some gaps here and there, the best way to keep your body running well is to eat vegetables, fruits and lean proteins.
6. Providing a nice treat to look forward to
When going to bed, it can be challenging to look forward to tomorrow’s hectic schedule. If you’re struggling with motivation to make it through another day, you can start designing a breakfast menu that excites you. While still tending to your nutritional needs, you can decide on treating yourself to a yummy smoothie full of raspberries, mango, spinach, kale, almond milk and some greek yogurt or a spoonful of your favorite nut butter. Or, you can make yourself some warm protein pancakes and top them with some fresh fruit. Figure out what kind of breakfast suits your tastes and time constraints and then plan accordingly.
7. Giving you an opportunity for morning together time
Although everyone in the family may be headed off in different directions for the day, you can use a sit-down breakfast meal to provide a valuable opportunity for some pleasant morning chatter.
Gathering round the dining table together for a few minutes can help increase family unity, can create a comfortable atmosphere for kids to ask for needed help and can reaffirm to your family that you’re making time for them. It certainly may not be easy to wake up early enough to budget in time to eat as a family, but the benefits can be worthwhile if you’re all willing to work towards the ideal. As desired, also include a family prayer and/or family scripture study session while sitting around the table for added value.
8. Offering more chances for trying out new recipes
Even if you don’t like to take the time to cook in the morning, you can experiment with all sorts of make-ahead breakfast recipes that are fun to try. Recently, I found an overnight steel cut oatmeal recipe that you start before you go to bed and the oatmeal is ready to go in the morning when you wake up and are ready for breakfast. You can also make dishes like quiche the night before or on the weekend and then pull out of the refrigerator a single serving at a time.
Breakfast is a perfect meal to experiment with since an unexpectedly bad recipe is easy to counteract by setting the failed dish to the side and quickly grabbing something else that’s ready to eat like a greek yogurt and some fresh fruit. Have fun and don’t hesitate to try new things!
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