Before I dive into just how important it is to roll out of bed in the morning and head straight to the kitchen, let’s take a look at the meaning of the word. Breakfast simply means to break your fast. Think about it – let’s say you destroy the CFWH WOD at 5:30, immediately get your PWO protein and carbs, drive home, hop in the shower, and now it’s finally time for dinner. Depending on how far you are from the gym and how legit your skills are in the kitchen, I’m going to say you’re eating dinner somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30. Let’s say 8:00.
You coat the pan with coconut oil, throw some grass fed beef on the stove, maybe throw some veggies on the grill (or toss em in the microwave like me), slice up an avocado and you’re good to go. You drink plenty of water and down your fish oil just like a good CrossFitter should. You then proceed to get your SportsCenter fix, see what Snooki's up to and head for the bed. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you’re going to sleep at 10:00 and waking up at 7:00, getting a solid nine hours of sleep so all of those muscles you abused earlier in the day can rest and grow stronger.
So now what? You’ve gone eleven hours without food and you have a seriously important choice to make. Do you hit the snooze button or do you fight that urge and drag yourself to the kitchen? Here are my top three reasons (based purely on personal experience) why you should opt for the latter:
Not eating until lunch sucks. Using the example above, if we skipped our breakfast and ate an early lunch at 11:00, we will have gone 15 hours without food. Of course nine of those hours were spent sleeping so it was fairly easy to do but imagine being awake for 15 hours without eating? Not gonna happen.
You’ll be able to stay away from the SAD (Standard American Diet) crap. We constantly have people bringing in breakfast here at my work. What’s the problem with that? Well, it’s a lot easier to bring in a box of doughnuts and kolaches than it is to bring in the hundreds of scrambled eggs and insane amount of fruit, veggies, and healthy fat that it would take to properly fuel everyone in the office. I honestly think that people who bring in the crappy breakfast food know it’s crappy but just don’t know of another way to bring breakfast to the masses. So stay away from the bagel and take breakfast into your own hands long before you get in to work.
A healthy breakfast leads to a healthy lunch. And so on and so on. There’s no better incentive for eating a healthy lunch than knowing you already started your day off right with a healthy Paleo / Primal / (favorable) Zone breakfast. If you are striving for a perfect day of eating, the likelihood of your NEXT meal being perfect increases with each perfect meal you’re able to string together. This is what helped me get through the Whole 30 back in July. Okay, so Mel may have also helped just a little bit.
So these are just my top 3 reasons. What about you? Do you feel the difference on days where you skip vs. days you don’t? Does your performance suffer at work? At the gym? Have any awesome breakfast recipes you want to share? Feel free to chime in with anything and everything breakfast related.
-Ryan
just a little bit, eh?
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Mr. Hopkins.
ReplyDeleteYour reasons for eating breakfast are perfect. I do everything I can to prep for breakfast so the cooking in the morning is minimal, but if worse comes to worse I can always lean on a packet of tuna, a boiled egg or two, and some leftover veggies.
My favorite breakfast is a 3-egg omelette with canadian bacon (or hamburger meat, or turkey, or chicken) spinach, mushrooms, and topped with avacado. Cooked in a tiny bit of coconut oil and I Have a small cup of berries on the side.
I am the king of the scramble kind of guy. I look through the fridge to see what is available. Today spinach, onions, red peppers, zuchhini, tomato and threw in an avodado. I will usually use about 5 eggs. Sandra and I share the scramble.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points Ryno. Plain and simple, breakfast is easy! So get it in!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Rob on this one. The scramble is the easiest and most delicious way to go. Cut up some lean meat (easy), throw in some cut up veggies (easier) and then toss some eggs in there (easiest). Let that guy cook for a bit, then shovel it down. Throw a couple pieces of fruit in the mix and you've got yourself a pretty hefty sized breakfast that will tie you over until lunch time.
This is what my usual breakfast looks like:
1 cut up buffalo sausage/chicken sausage
1 diced onion
1/2 diced apple
3 eggs
Throw the sausae, onion and apple with some coconut oil/olive oil and let it cook for a bit. Then crack the eggs in and let those little guys scramble.
I always have at least 3 pieces of fruit with my scramble.
A couple people have asked me about breakfast recently, so I thought I'd share...
ReplyDeletePre-crossfit, I was not a breakfast eater. If I was hungry, I'd grab a a banana as I headed out the door. If I was really hungry, or had a long day ahead of me, I'd grab a piece of whole grain, high fiber toast.
From the advice of nutritionally smart people, I changed my breakfast ways. I started eating breakfast with a little more regularity, and it typically took the form of egg whites with spinach and salsa. However, I dearly loved the 9 extra minutes in a warm, comfy bed that the snooze button provides me in the morning; and those 9 minutes were typically made up by not cooking breakfast.
I've slowly been learning the importance of protein and glucagon release. While this is something you should read up on, the bottom line for me and my dietary goals is that protein should be consumed at every meal AND breakfast should be eaten. I didn't really start losing weight until I heeded this advice.
So, if you're like me, and would rather sleep a bit more in the morning than cook, check out my breakfast casserole (or crustless quiche, whatever you choose to call it) below. I make this every Sunday, and have convenient, potable breakfasts to take to work.
Ingredients:
2 med zucchini (grated)
1 bag frozen chopped broccoli
1 bag frozen chopped spinach (thawed and well drained)
1 bag frozen fajita veggies (thawed and well drained)
12 eggs, whisked
1 lb. cooked meat of your choosing
Combine all in a large casserole dish, bake at 400 degrees F for an hour. Let cool, divide into tupperware. You're good for the week, no morning prep required.