Break the Fast!

Sound like something you've heard before? No? Come on. Say it again. Out loud. Ready?

Break the Fast!  

Ok, a little faster. BreakTheFast! 

One more time, really fast, and take out the THE. Get it now?

BREAKFAST!

Breakfast comes after a full night of (hopefully) deep sleeping, which means you haven't fueled your body with anything in seven or eight hours. Therefore, when you get up, it's time to Break the Fast!

I hate breakfast. Correction....I hate having to decide what to have for breakfast every morning. And then taking time to actually make it and eat it. Take me out for breakfast and have someone else cook it for me and I'm golden (and usually undoing a notch or two on my belt!) I guess I just hate making the effort myself...which is odd because I love cooking and baking in general. I think it comes down to the fact that my brain isn't ready to make any decisions when I get up in the morning and so I used to always just wait for lunch. (Did you notice the keyword there? USED to?)

Are you tired? Can't focus? Feeling irritable? Craving sugar by 10am? Gorging yourself on an unhealthy lunch? You probably didn't eat breakfast this morning, did you? (Ask me how I know this about you!)

So here's the boring knowledge part:

In reality, eating a healthy breakfast gets your brain and body working after a full night of rest and repair. What you eat for breakfast sets the tone of the rest of your day. When you start your day off satisfied with a tummy full of nutrition, your body doesn't need to crave anything because you've fed it well. "The choice we make to eat breakfast or not has implications for our families and for ourselves throughout the day." - Tosca Reno

BUT, being the busy moms (and dads), wives (and husbands), employees, friends, leaders, teachers we are, breakfast is too much work! I hear you! No, really, I hear you saying this loud and clear. I'm just like you! Too lazy to make something worthwhile, I would just shrug my shoulders and skip it alogether! 

But, let me ask you this....If your life depended on taking a pill every day...if you were going to die if you didn't take this pill every single morning...would you make excuses, shrug your shoulders, and not take it? Or would you find a way to work taking that pill into your daily routine no matter what the consequences?

Well, guess what? Your life depends on breakfast in the same way. A little bit of our bodies and brains die each day we don't eat a healthy, nutritious, breakfast. Because when we don't fill it up with the protein and good carbs it needs, it goes elsewhere to find it! That growling your tummy is doing when you skip breakfast? It's your stomach filling with acids and gastric juices in anticipation of nutrients....but then the nutrients don't come....and so the stomach has nothing to use those juices on...except the stomach it's encased in...and it slowly destroys itself.

Motivated yet?

Now, here's the helpful practical piece:

The Clean Eating Principle, in a nutshell, is to always pair a lean protein with a complex carbohydrate. (I've got a whole post in the works about these principles, so bear with me for this post.) By far, the healthiest breakfast option is oatmeal. And I'm not talking the apples and cream packaged variety! Whole rolled oats is the ONLY oatmeal that counts. One cup packs a whopping 8g of fiber (a full third of the amount of fiber you should get each day!) Top it with some ground flaxseed and some fresh berries for an extra boost of some good carbs and then throw in a side of egg whites for your protein and...VOILA! Your body won't know what to do with itself it will be so amazed!

Here are just a few tips to make sure you stay consistent with breaking the fast...every day!

1. Keep a supply of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. 3-4 egg whites plus one yolk will round out any breakfast's protein requirement! Keeping a good supply of raw eggs as well for those times when you're in the mood for some scrambled egg white goodness. 
2. Once per week, make a large batch of clean-eating granola bars (recipe forthcoming) for a good combo of lean protein and complex carbs for those days when you are on the go!
3. Discover Ezekiel bread! You can find it in the freezer section and though it's a good bit more expensive than regular bread (there's a post coming about that, too!) It's worth the time and money it would take to make your own clean-eating bread so to me it's totally worth every penny. It's also gluten free, which is great news for gluten-sensitive clean-eaters!
4. Mix some muesli or granola into your favorite Greek yogurt and you've got another quick breakfast idea with your protein and complex carb in one (Yoplait and Dannon - among countless others -  are NOT acceptable yogurts for clean-eaters, by the way.)

As with all my posts, a lot of what I'm sharing comes from what I've learned by educating myself about clean eating. By far, the biggest resource for me has been The Eat Clean Diet. Recharged! by Tosca Reno (my clean-eating heroine.) She has a whole chapter dedicated to breaking the fast and the importance of breakfast. If you have questions, I'm happy to try to answer them. But if a new breakfast routine (or clean-eating in general) is of interest to you, I highly recommend getting this book!

So...off you go! Make a habit of breaking the fast wisely, every day, and be amazed at what happens!