Many studies have shown that eating breakfast regularly helps us to maintain a healthy weight and reduces the chances of over-consuming too many calories throughout the day. We all know it is the most important meal of the day, yet it is often the most neglected in terms of preparation.

As busy individuals, we often don’t have the luxury of spending 30-60mins preparing breakfast. Mornings are often spent in manic rush getting some exercise in and getting ready for work.
How can we make sure we eat a substantial breakfast?
I can recommend a few ideas, and I’ll give a concrete example on how we do it at home.

On working days:
Breakfast mainly consists of grain (oatmeal/buckwheat/sweet rice porridge) with coconut milk/plain yogurt, shredded coconut, almond butter, seasonal fruits, nuts/seeds and a cup of coffee.

We make a batch of grain to be consumed 2-3 days in a row and vary the toppings added.

An extra snack is packed to be consumed around 10am: eg. rice crackers with almond butter and/or tahini and honey topped with banana.

Leftover from dinner (roast chicken/steak) can also be a good breakfast by adding fresh salad to it.

During weekends or non-working days:
We have more time to prepare and enjoy a variation.
That often includes eggs cooked in any way we fancy for the day (boiled, frittata, quiche, omelette).

Sometimes, we’ll make our gf pancake served with berries, nuts and coconut cream or if we finish our training close to noon, we consume our “breakfast” just like our typical lunch: lots of veggies, meat and fruits.

If you have a long training day during the weekend, it’s a good idea to add green smoothies with protein straight after your workout. You can consume your full meal 30minutes later after shower/cleaning up.

The take aways are:

• have a couple of breakfast rotations to introduce variety
• prepare the most time-consuming part in advance
  Have coffee powder ready in the coffee machine (and we just need to turn on the stove to get it started in the morning). Soak and cook your grain the night before.
• pack your breakfast on the go
  Beat the early morning traffic jam to reach office early and have your breakfast there
• always include protein in your breakfast
  Yogurt, nuts/seeds and eggs are the easiest way to add protein in a breakfast meal. Always choose the basic Greek/plain yogurt instead of the fruity variety. Add flavours by adding your own fruits.
• cook extra meat for dinner and have it as a breakfast salad the next day

Recipe:

Steel-cut Oat Porridge

• 1 cup steel-cut oats (leftover cooked oats can be stored in the fridge)
• 3 cups of water
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cinnamon stick

Makes 3-4 cups of cooked porridge

Toppings:

• 3-4 tablespoon coconut milk
• grated coconut
• ½ cup fruits in season: berries (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry), mango, kiwifruit, dragon-fruit

Preparation:
Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan.
Add oats, salt and cinnamon to boiling water.
Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 mins until all liquid is absorbed. Stir occasionally.
Add toppings as desired