The Right Breakfast for the Job

I write to you from beautiful, snowy Lake Placid! Bolo and I went out for a super 2.5 mile hike through the woods, up hills and over streams—oh, it was lovely! But neither of us left the cabin before having a good, energy-sustaining breakfast.

Do you eat breakfast everyday? You should!! It’s the perfect way to set yourself up for sustained energy for the tasks ahead, whatever they may be. My breakfast choice before my hike was a bowl of cooked oatmeal–real flakes, not instant!–with some soymilk, and a banana and an orange. This gave me plenty of power and endurance to handle the 7 degree temps and the snowy landscape.

It’s important to consider carbs, fats and proteins when designing your breakfast meal. Simple carbs, found in white toast, many cereals, bagels etc. provide fast energy and then leave you with an energy deficit an hour or two later. These foods get turned very quickly into glucose (sugar!) and insulin rushes in to put this glucose to good use. Insulin’s other not-so-well-known job is to store extra carbs as fat. Yes, that’s right. So if you eat a bunch of simple carbs (or any carbs, for that mater) and then sit yourself behind a desk or in front of the tv, you probably will not be burning off that energy, and it will be very efficiently stored by your insulin, as fat for later use when you are facing starvation. Now of course, we don’t have to worry about famine, so this insulin activity is a bit archaic, but nevertheless very efficient. That’s why carbs get a really bad rap by some diet gurus. But in fact, carbs are very necessary and very good for you, when eaten in their proper form– as whole grains. By this I mean rolled oats, cracked wheat, kashi, rice. The real grain, not the ground floury white stuff. This kind of carb will give you more sustained energy–especially when combined with some protein and some good fats.

Going back to my breakfast example, the rolled oats are the wholesome whole grain, the soymilk on top is a protein source, the 2 fruits are also excellent carbohydrate sources as well as great sources of phytonutrients. Where’s the fat, you ask? You’re right- I didn’t have any this morning. Usually I have a handful of raw nuts, or some nut butter. But today I didn’t have any around. When you think of breakfast, try to think of it in terms of carbs/fats/proteins. Good examples of hearty, energy sustaining breakfast meals might look like this:

Sprouted grains toast with nutbutter and a couple pieces of fruit;

Hot leftover grains from dinner, such as rice, couscous, or kashi with a bit of coconut oil on top and some seeds or nuts stirred in;

Fruit smoothie with soy, rice or nut milk, 2-3 pieces of fruit and a scoop of hemp or rice protein powder, and a tablespoon or two of ground flaxseed or oil

What do you have for breakfast? Does it work for you? A good breakfast should carry you easily to lunchtime. I’d like to hear from you about what works for you–leave a comment below!