Since you were a child, people have been telling you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Despite this, it’s still the most commonly skipped or underprepared meal. It’s all too easy to choose half an hour more sleep and stuff a sugary granola bar down your throat as your drive to work and lie to yourself about what you’re eating being healthy.
The following will explore an approach to that first meal of the day that takes into consideration what you actually need: mental clarity for all-day focus and decent memory retention as well as neurotransmitters to get your mood where it needs to be so you can handle the inevitable hiccups that come with living with a smile instead of a mental breakdown. That’s one of the biggest secrets healthy eaters wished everyone else knew: eating healthy doesn’t just improve your life expectancy and quality of life thirty years from now; it also makes you feel better today. This is because your brain and body use what you eat to create your experience of life on a moment-by-moment basis.
Include Eggs
There are tons of ways to include eggs in your morning. Eggs in the morning reduce your risk of heart disease, help prevent metabolic disorders, improve eye health, contribute to weight loss, support your liver’s health, and gives your skin a lovely glow. In the present, eggs contain choline which helps your brain function, reduces symptoms of depression, improves your ability to recall events and details, and boosts cognitive function. That’s a fantastic way to begin your workday, now isn’t it? Of course, eggs that come from grass-finished chickens (meaning the chicken ate grass its entire life from beginning to end) without added antibiotics and hormones are far superior to conventional eggs.
It’s not only the short and long-term health benefits that make eggs such a wonderful part of breakfast; it’s also that they are endlessly flexible, meaning there’s going to be some way to incorporate them into a meal that you enjoy. Kitchen Community Recipes has a few ideas for including eggs in a fun and delicious way. You can also hard boil them or fry them up in minutes if you’re strapped for time.
Include Healthy Fats
Using some olive oil while you fry up your eggs or topping them with avocado chunks and salsa are just two examples of how you can get more healthy fats in your morning. Healthy fats are a crucial part of healing and protecting our brains. Nuts are also a fantastic source of healthy fats (excluding peanuts because they’re actually not a nut, they’re just misnamed).
Skip The Grains And Sugars And Go For Banana
Finally, skip the grain and sugar portion of breakfast. There will be time later on in the day for this. Grains are quick carbs that turn into sugar quickly within the body leading to an energy spike (probably just enough time to get you to work) before a massive energy crash (that moment you sit down at your desk and realize you have eight hours of work ahead of you). If you want a pick-me-up element to your breakfast, go for a banana. Bananas have 12 milligrams of tryptophan and 12 milligrams of tyrosine which help reduce depression and boost mood.
The above breakfast formula should allow you to create dozens of different breakfasts that get your mind ready for a focused, happy day where work gets done, and you enjoy yourself. Of course, always be aware of your own allergies and get yourself tested if you feel congested after eating something.