Break Your Fast With Breakfast

September is Better Breakfast Month and for good reason: eating a better breakfast can set a positive tone for the rest of your day. After a long overnight fast, your body is ready for fuel! Research has shown that starting the day with food in your stomach improves concentration, memory, and problem solving ability. It provides important nutrients to the brain and muscles, jumpstarts your metabolism, and alleviates the distraction of hunger.
 
The best place to eat breakfast is wherever it is most convenient. In a perfect world, we would eat breakfast mindfully at the kitchen table, but we might also find ourselves with food in hand while drying our hair, gathering supplies, or packing lunch. We might also eat in the car, on the bus, at the office, walking to class, or attending a meeting. The important thing is to plan ahead so that we have food available to accommodate our busy schedule.
 
The most common reason for skipping this meal is time, given all that goes on in the morning. Consider preparing the night before by arranging the table, setting out whatever food is not perishable, getting bags or backpacks organized, and going to bed a little earlier to make waking up less dramatic. In the morning, keep televisions and computers turned off to avoid distractions, and try to get showered and dressed before eating; this will give your body a chance to wake up, especially important if eating in the morning is a new habit.
 
It is also important to have food on hand that can support eating on the go as well as sitting down. If you do not usually eat breakfast, start small. A bowl of yogurt with fruit, a protein bar with milk, or peanut butter on whole wheat toast may be just enough. A good rule of thumb is to include two or more food groups, and make one of them high in protein, such as nuts, meat, beans, eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt or milk. Pair these with a fruit, vegetable or whole grain. Skip the donuts and soda - while they may be easy to grab, their quick energy jolt will soon lead to a crash, counteracting the benefits of eating breakfast in the first place.
 
There is a lot of truth to the saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”.

​JUST ONE THING: Add breakfast to your morning routine. Push away the excuses and pull yourself up to a new healthy habit!