So if you hang around long enough, you’ll quickly learn that I’m opinionated, almost rigidly so, and when I know truths to be everlasting and unwavering, I want to shout it from the rooftops with wild abandon. One of these truths involves Breakfast being the most important meal of the day…and it will make or break you. Without it, you might as well stay home. See how I capitalized Breakfast? I did that without even thinking!
About 3 months ago, my husband and I participated in the Whole 30 Challenge. If you want to know more, you can find that information here.
When we started it, we weren’t terrible eaters. In fact, I had successfully lost about 30 pounds doing Weight Watchers and subsequently, he lost weight too because men are aliens and can lose weight without much effort. Anyway, I had started crossfit about 3 months earlier and really felt like if I was going to commit to this like I wanted, I had to get the fueling right, so Whole 30 seemed like the most interesting and balls to the wall way to jump in to that. Also, I wanted to prove to myself I could give up all of those things for 30 days, because to go without cheese and wine for that long makes you a bad ass in my book.
So we completed the challenge, learned a lot, made some permanent changes, then transitioned to a more feasible lifestyle long term, incorporating many Whole Life characteristics, but still allowing cheats. We also both lost about 10 pounds each, and I gained a huge understanding of what my body needed in order to fire breathe during my WODs. It was an eye opening experience that I would recommend to anyone wanting to self explore.
One of the biggest changes we made was our breakfast routine. Rob was a cereal eater extraordinaire. And I ignorantly thought that my Lite, Whole Wheat English muffin with peanut butter and honey, and glass of skim milk was making a great choice, paired with my International Delight sweetened coffee. When, in realty, I was consuming about 40 carbs before 7am. No wonder I hit plateaus-ville.
So, we shook things up, re-worked the morning routine, and started creating clean, protein packed breakfasts EVERY MORNING. No excuse. And we got damn good at it.
This was our breakfast this morning:
One of the biggest complaints I have with folks that abstain from breakfast is the excuse: “But I don’t have time!” Bull shit- yes you do. We all get 24 hours in a day, just make a LITTLE time to be good to your body. It will reward you the rest of the day!! The above breakfast took me 10 minutes to throw together and about 7 minutes to eat, clean the plate and put it in the dishwasher.
The biggest helpful tip in being able to pull off hot, healthy, and filling breakfasts to is do a little bit if prep ahead of time, and then it’s not such a circus. For instance, every weekend I do the following:
Chop of a mixture of onions and sweet peppers, and store them in a container. Wah-Lah, now I magically have this whenever I want to throw it into something (like every morning in our eggs).
Shred Sweet Potatoes in the food processor. This is probably my least favorite activity (second only to ricing cauliflower in said food processor) but it’s an absolutely necessary evil to clean eating. And really so worth it. This weekend I shredded about 4 sweet potatoes. One went into the fridge to be used this morning. The other three went into a big freezer bag and into the freezer- it can be thawed later and used however and whenever you want. You can even pull out only what you need and put the rest back in the freezer! The sweet potatoes are a very congenial veggie, quite laid back.
Cut up/ prepare your protein. If it’s ham, cut it up and just like with the peppers and onions, bag it for the week. Same with already cooked sausages (like my Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage). Or Grill some steak, slice it up and use it. The possibilities are endless!
Keep frozen broccoli on hand. That’s super easy- my freezer is like a safe haven for bags of frozen broccoli.
Buy a truck full of eggs and keep them close to your heart. Mmmmmm….The incredible Edible Egg.
And there you have it. If you do all of the above, when you get up in the morning, all you are required to do is pour oil into a skillet, and then add your desired ingredients, poke them around with your utensil, and then EAT! C’mon folks, get on the breakfast revolution bandwagon and become unstoppable.
Also, don’t for a second buy into the crap that “Eating Cholesterol will give me High Cholesterol”. Rob dropped his Cholesterol 40 points in about 2 months by eating eggs every day, bacon to his heart’s content, and starting Crossfit. Do not fear the egg- it really is one of the most nutrient and protein dense foods.
Now go, plan and execute your breakfasts and report back on how much your life improves because of it!
The Wayfaring Friend 