“I’m SO exhausted” is the most common complaint I hear from clients. I find the best way to start addressing this is to start with breakfast. I’m sure you’ve heard it said before and yet so many of us find it hard to believe: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The benefits of eating breakfast are tremendous.
Breakfast sets the tone for your blood sugar and energy levels for the entire day. If you eat a balanced breakfast, you’ll be less likely to hit the “wall” at 2 or 3pm. The need to grab the mid-afternoon cup of coffee diminishes and so does your craving for sweets.
The best time to eat is within one hour of waking but if that’s not possible then make sure you eat before 10am. You’ll notice that you will be ‘ready’ to eat again within a few hours. This is good and how it should work. We fuel up with breakfast; burn energy and then need to refuel again with lunch. Just like a car only runs a certain number of miles on a tank of gas so do we. We can only run a certain number of hours on a tank of food. Eventually, we need to refill the tank.
This confuses some people because of an underlying idea in our society that eating is bad. They notice that when they don’t eat breakfast or just have coffee, they can go longer without eating. That doesn’t mean that’s good or healthy. It simply means we are able to adapt. Instead of using the primary source of energy, food, the body can tap into its secondary source – the adrenals. The body can operate like this for a while but eventually this leads to problems like feeling exhausted all the time.
Eating just anything for breakfast is not enough. WHAT you eat is just as important as WHEN you eat. Ideally, you want to include a vegetable carb, a healthy protein and a healthy fat. You can see here where a breakfast consisting of a coffee and a scone or muffin, while tempting, falls short.
If you’d like more breakfast ideas, join my Breakfast Challenge. Click here for more information and to register.