Good morning friends :). Welcome to Breakfast Week! This week I will be featuring a different and amazing breakfast option every day on the blog - hopefully you will be inspired!
Often when we are trying to change our diet, breakfast becomes a challenge… and if the first food ritual that we attempt in the morning falls flat, it is quite a discouragement for the rest of the day!
One of the challenges to building healthy habits is finding ones that you actually like... Even better, habits you like MORE than your old un-healthy ones. This is one of the goals of this blog series - to help you discover better and more amazing options to start your day off fueled and empowered!
One of my clients started working with me because she wants this to be the “Healthiest Year of her Life” - maybe you have a health goal like this?? To her, to be healthy means to feel CONFIDENT.
She feels confident and successful in almost every area, but lacks confidence and feels like she is failing in how she cares for her physical body. This reveals itself in fatigue, aches, a cancer scare, and extra weight that she feels holds her back. All these things keep her from playing with her kiddos, and having fun with her husband - she wanted that to change.
When we started working together, she began to record what she ate in a food journal and was shocked to find that she hardly ate anything all day……. So why did her body feel bloated and was she not able to fit into her favorite clothes?? This was clearly confusing. She also found that the things she was eating were nutrient void, and maybe we could go so far as to say toxic.
Your body is amazing - when you start have a better understanding of how it works, it becomes natural for you to want to give it what it needs to thrive.
It is amazing to learn how your organs interact, how your cells depend on the right amount of hormones to expel waste (read: fat), how your nervous system regulates and determines what fuel your body uses, and the bacteria in your digestive system are your immune system’s first line of defense. We don’t cognitively direct any of those processes….. Your body is right now defending itself from cancer, throwing out toxins, breathing in life quite well. You just need to focus on is nourishing it.
We worked together to find the biological origin of her symptoms, so she could start seeing tangible and healing results. One reason for my client’s symptoms was that her body was under a lot of strain. It was lacking the nutrients it needed to perform all the necessary functions to keep her healthy!
So, we started with breakfast. She came up with 10 breakfast options that were fast, amazing, and easy, so she had only awesome things to choose from in the morning.
With this as the jumping off point, she somehow was able to make a healthy food choices for herself kiddos AND herself the rest of the day! Maybe because her brain was no longer foggy? Maybe because she had already resolved to care for herself too? The result: CONFIDENCE.
These small daily modifications can totally change the game for us!! They seem so insignificant, and even silly to mention, but they have monumental results. Now, she is starting to shed the pounds that her body had been holding on to so long! Before, her sympathetic nervous system was always activated so her body was in fear-mode, hanging on to fat as fuel lest she starve (our evolutionary biology is crazy like that). Now, because her body is getting the nourishment that it needs from an awesome breakfast, it does not feel the need to hang onto old fat stores. And the rest of her day is benefiting from her giving herself more not less! Amazing.
So, to kick off breakfast week, here are a few of my favorite ultra-easy ways to nourish your body first thing in the morning, giving yourself what you really need to start your day. They are both vegan and paleo friendly :).
Sign up for my FAME Recipe Building Course to find YOUR favorite fast, amazing, meals that are (so) easy!!
Tropical Green Smoothie (serves 2)
¾ pineapple
2 big handfuls of spinach
1 can full fat coconut milk (healthy fat is your friend, friends!)
1 banana
4-6 ice cubes
Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender, and blend. Done :). Take with you on the go in a lidded mason jar, or enjoy drinking it while reading a good book, or laughing with your roommates or kiddos (you will have time for this now that breakfast is such a breeze :))
Summery Chia-seed pudding (4 servings)
***Make this the night before - it is like a gift to your future self ;). Make one batch and eat it for a few more days - breakfast or snack, your choice!
1/4 chia seeds
1 can full fat coconut milk
Tsp maple syrup (or omit if you prefer less sweetness. I leave it out!)
1 ripe peach
Combine in mason jar (or bowl) chia seeds, coconut milk, and maple syrup (if using). Stir and wait 20ish minutes. Stir again - the seeds should be starting to expand and form a jello-like casing around them. Store in the fridge overnight. Enjoy a heaping couple of spoon-fulls topped with sliced ripe peaches. It is so decadent…… You can also take this to go in a mason jar, if you divide the pudding and then top with peaches (or any other fruit for that matter).
Apple and Cashew butter
Chop apple into slices
Dip in a heaping 2 tbsp of cashew butter
Seriously the easiest breakfast ever… I have been known to cut up an apple, throw a jar of cashew butter in my purse and eat it on the go. Not ideal - but in a pinch, it saves my morning!! And who doesn’t find themselves in a morning pinch every now and then? We can be prepared :).
Enjoy, friends!