Fuel for Breakfast

You’ve heard it before, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”  All meals are important and we should try not to skip any, but breakfast does hold a special place.  It gets your day started, provides your body and brain with its first dose of fuel to perform their best, and gives you the opportunity to get off on the right foot nutritionally.  Why is it that so many people skip this wonderful meal?

Using the car analogy, consider that you have been fasting overnight (hopefully 6-8 hours), and have not fueled your car for your next road trip (the work/school day).  You’re leaving the house on empty but think you can make it through anyways?  I have pushed my car to the limits before.  Needle on empty, thinking I can make it one more trip, one more exit (really for no good reason at all except I didn’t feel like stopping when I passed a station earlier, maybe looking for cheaper gas)…but lo and behold, I hit traffic!  Uh-oh.  I end up off an exit without a gas station (really?!), nervous, a little stressed, and wishing I had fueled earlier when an easy opportunity presented itself.  My car and my mind would have had a much easier afternoon had I planned, had I properly fueled before leaving the house.

Mid-morning comes at school/work and maybe you feel tired or especially short-tempered, maybe you’re having trouble concentrating or completing simple tasks.  Do you sum this up to a typical day or lack of sleep?  There are many contributing factors, but lack of fuel could be one of them.  If you want to get quality performance out, you’ve got to put quality fuel in.  If breakfast is missing, adding a little nutritious fuel to your morning could be just the thing you need.

Getting off on the right foot nutritionally…what does that mean?  Have you ever had that feeling when you eat something you shouldn’t have?  That “well, I’ve ruined the day now, might as well eat whatever today and do better tomorrow?”  It might not even be a whole day, but just an occasion when you eat a couple of treats and then figure the opportunity to salvage a good controlled food intake is gone and you go crazy with more treats.  You give up on yourself, feel like you’ve thrown the whole day/opportunity away because of your one, less than ideal choice.  You can always turn a day/opportunity around, but making that one less than ideal choice does change your attitude toward what you are able to do and your motivation level to make better decisions.  It becomes easier and easier to justify waiting until tomorrow.  You have the opportunity to build and eat a breakfast that makes you feel good and motivates you to make nutritious decisions the rest of the day. 

I hear the whole gamut for skipping breakfast: too little time, just enough time to get up and go, want more sleep, busy making the kids breakfast, not hungry, never have eaten breakfast, takes too long, don’t like breakfast, don’t know what to eat, nothing sounds good in the morning.  Good news!  Breakfast does not have to be complicated or huge to start your day off right.  Plus, everyone is different.  My breakfast may look vastly different than yours, but it’s serving the same purpose.  Anybody that knows me, knows that I love my morning time for breakfast, coffee, reading and some news.  Thus, I tend to have a larger breakfast and I plan time in to allow for it.  I know not everyone is a morning person, but there are many nutritious breakfasts you can put together in less than 5 minutes.

A few “bigger” ideas:  build using whole grains, protein, and a fruit/veggie.

1.      1 serving whole grain cereal with reduced fat milk and a small fruit

2.      1 serving oatmeal with 1 Tbsp. raisins, 3 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce and cinnamon (made this yesterday…wonderful fall morning dish) plus a ½ cup of yogurt on the side or on top

3.      1 cup light, low sugar yogurt with berries and 2 Tbsp. low sugar granola mixed in

4.      2 whole grain waffles, each topped with 1 Tbsp. of yogurt (or reduced fat cream cheese) and sliced fruit

5.      1 toasted English muffin with 1 Tbsp. of peanut butter and ½ sliced banana on top (put the PB and banana in a whole wheat tortilla and it becomes portable)

6.      1 egg and 2 egg whites scrambled with 1 Tbsp. cheese and leftover veggies plus a slice of whole grain toast with 1 tsp of jam (put your scramble in the tortilla with a small fruit instead of toast and it’s portable again)

A few “smaller” ideas:

1.      ¼ cup trail mix (no sugar added) with nuts and dried fruit

2.      1 hardboiled egg and a small fruit

3.      1 banana/apple and 1 Tbsp. peanut butter

4.      1 slice whole grain toast topped with 1 slice reduced fat cheese of choice

5.      1 single serve Greek yogurt (light, low sugar) and ½ - 1 oz. nuts

6.      Leftovers (yes, think outside the box); grilled chicken strip and veggies

If you plan for breakfast, you’ll have the items in your pantry and fridge, then it really does take just a couple minutes to put any of these items together or pack them along.  Even if it is more of a healthy snack than a meal, your body will say “thank you!” for the much needed fuel to be its best!

Make It Positive

The word “diet” has quite the negative connotation these days.  I asked someone about their “diet” recently and they were quick to tell me that they have not had a diet in years.  Really?  No intake of food in years?  Ha.  Well obviously I knew what this person meant, but still I think it is interesting that I have to dance around the word in worry that it will turn someone off of my recommendations and/or shut them down to our conversation completely.

Some may cringe at the word “diet” because it holds bad memories of deprivation fad diets and maybe the constant yo-yo of weight loss and gain. True, the word is attached to many popular ways of eating that promise speedy weight loss success but ultimately secure you back in the seat of the roller coaster of weight loss, however isn’t “diet” just the way that we eat, whether good, bad or ugly?

What about “wholesome diet” and “nutritious diet?”  Still negative?  Think about building a “diet” or “way of eating” or “food intake” that supports you, supports your health, your brain, your activity, your energy, and that makes you feel GRRRREEEEAAAAT!

I challenge you to take on your most current, or maybe long running, food and weight challenges, without believing you need to go through a program or way of eating that causes you great discomfort or doesn’t support the energy you need each day.  Now I am sure that some would define giving up soda or a daily fried chicken as “great discomfort,” but I am talking about the frustration, hunger and lack of energy that comes from an over-restricted eating pattern, not the challenges you may face in changing your habits and making healthier decisions overall.

Creating healthier and more nutritious eating habits is not a walk in the park if it means BIG changes for you, but it is also absolutely doable and worth it!  Often people take an all or nothing approach and jump into a totally different way of eating (i.e. carbohydrate free, all liquid, cabbage soup, etc.) searching for quick weight loss.  I’ve mentioned before how in the initial phases of following an unnecessarily restrictive or fad diet you may experience the “honeymoon phase” of working hard and succeeding at something so challenging and different from your norm (like 3 days of only liquids).  What happens on day 5?  Are you then tired, hungry, craving all your greatest food temptations, ultimately to come “off” the restrictive diet, not having changed a thing about your normal day-to-day eating habits? This approach may contribute to the up and down of weight loss.  With nothing changed in the everyday, wouldn’t we expect the weight to return?

Why not put all that great drive, motivation and effort into changing one small thing at a time in your daily diet/intake/eating habits (whichever you prefer).  Then your hard work and motivation would yield not only weight loss (yes, likely slower than that “miracle” diet), but also a new healthy habit that you can maintain long term, that makes you feel better, and that helps you maintain your weight loss.  Pick something to work on (soda intake, lack of fruits and veggies, over-sized portions, etc.) and work on it, every day, one decision at a time.  I think it’s the thought of the time that this strategy will take that keeps people from taking this more conservative approach, but what of the now 2 years, 5 years, 20 years of up and down weight battle trying every “quick way” out there?

What type of “diet” will you create?  Wholesome, healthy, strengthening, supportive, nutritious, delicious, balanced?  Make it a positive.  What one small thing can you start working on today?

These calories don't count...or do they?

I have licked clean my share of cookie batter mixing bowls.  Honestly, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  Having fun learning how to bake with Dad and enjoying the taste testing along the way is a wonderful memory of growing up.  Chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, sugar, and one of my favorites, snickerdoodle cookies.  Each batch of dough, whether cookies or pancakes or breads, always comes with those leftover streaks of batter that you just can’t quite get scraped out (unintentionally or intentionally J).  Thinking back, I was never making “a decision” to eat or not to eat the batter.  I just did, and I think that is okay.

Now when you get to a point in your life that you’re trying to buckle down and lose some weight, those moments absolutely become “decision” moments.  When you’re keeping close watch on your calorie intake, grazing style snacking and those little bites “that don’t count,” absolutely do. 

I had another week with extra ripe bananas hanging out on the counter thus another week to enjoy a new coffee treat! I also had a batter decision to make.  I ran with a bread recipe I found on Pinterest, with a few adjustments based on what I had in the pantry.  I was working with bananas, applesauce, and coconut.  I’ll include the recipe, but first, how did I handle the batter?

A simple strategy that I got very good at (because I love to bake) during a phase when I was working to lose weight and was able to successfully master today (a day I am not trying to lose weight, but am opting to make a better nutrition decision – note you don’t have to be trying to lose weight to want to make better nutrition decisions).  First I used a flat rubber spatula to really clean off the side of the bowl, getting as much as I could into the pan, leaving very little batter to lick clean.  Then, I took the bowl right to the sink and rinsed it out.  I didn’t get a chance to consume the extra sweet stuff or give myself time to miss it.  With this strategy, I waste very little and save a good many extra calories that are so easy not to count.  You can do it!  It just takes practice and you end up feeling better while tasting the final product, not already dough-logged from the mixing and baking process.

This week I made a recipe from a site called Skinny Mom by Brooke Griffin.  You may follow this link to see original recipe: http://www.skinnymom.com/2014/02/26/skinny-coconut-chocolate-chip-banana-bread/.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, as she already uses some whole wheat flour, egg whites, and applesauce.  These are several ingredients I typically swap into regular recipes anyways to either bump up the good nutrition and/or cut down on the less good nutrition.

Swap Examples:

Unsweetened applesauce instead of oil or butter (may swap 1:1, replace one-half up to all the oil).
Egg whites instead of whole eggs (2 egg whites for every one whole egg).
Whole Wheat flour (I usually swap out ½ of the total amount of all-purpose flour with whole wheat).

Recipe of Coconut Chocolate Banana Bread as I made it:


My Ingredients (minus brown sugar - he was late for the photo shoot)

Ingredients:
4 bananas (instead of 5)
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups flour (1 cup white and 1 cup wheat)
1½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3½ Tbsp light butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
4 egg whites
½ cup bittersweet chocolate (I had larger chips that I roughly chopped before adding to batter)
½ cup coconut flakes (unsweetened)
1 tsp rum extract (I didn’t’ have coconut extract, and rum sounded like it would work too)

Instructions
1.      Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.      Spray 2 loaf pans (8x4.5 inch or 8x5 inch) with nonstick cooking spray.
3.      In a medium size bowl, mash bananas with a fork.
4.      In a separate medium size bowl, add flour, salt and baking soda. Use a wire whisk to mix dry ingredients together.
5.      Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream (beat ingredients together at a high speed) butter and brown sugar together.
6.      Add mashed bananas, egg whites, applesauce and extract (if using). Mix on low for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
7.      Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on low speed until well combined.
8.      Fold in chocolate chips and coconut flakes.
9.      Pour banana bread batter evenly into the loaf pans.
10.   Bake banana bread loaves in oven for 40-45 minutes until the edges are golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean

This bread came out incredibly moist and wonderfully flavorful.  I wish I could somehow insert a picture of how great it smelled.  Using the nutrition posted, when you enjoy a 16^th of a loaf (about a ½ inch thick slice) you are having about 93 calories, 2.5 grams fat, 1.5 grams fiber, and 9.5 grams sugar.  A good treat.

Happy baking and try to save those batter calories for enjoying a serving of your delicious creation when it comes out warm from the oven…well worth the wait.