5 tips for eating high protein at breakfast
Mornings can be the busiest part of the day. Whether it's packing lunch, getting into work, or heading to school drop-off, it's easy for life to get in the way/ Instead of sitting down to breakfast, you grab a cup of coffee, jump into the day, and wait until lunch to fuel yourself up, - or maybe you grab something quick as you head out the door.
Does this sound like you? It definitely used to sound like me.
But you remember that old saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. It's so true. I’m here to tell you why and provide 5 quick and easy tips to having a high protein breakfast everyday.
In this blog post, I’m sharing:
Why I used to skip breakfast and what happened
Why the power of habit is so important and how that connects to breakfast
5 tips for eating high protein breakfasts
Why I used to skip breakfast and what happened?
I started my career in management consulting, and let me tell you, I was BUSY. This often meant late nights, early wake-ups and little time for thinking about what I was eating. I would pick-up my Starbucks order and maybe grab a granola bar or starbucks sandwich as I headed to the office. I thought I was making a good choice!
Little did I know, those choices were creating metabolic chaos in my own body. The worst part was, I made the same choices day in and day out because I thought I was doing the right thing! An iced coffee and a granola bar don’t have a ton of calories right?
Those choices as one time events wouldn’t have been a big deal. But, as those choices became a habit, the consequences of those actions started to compound.
When I went to my annual physical and had my labs taken, the results indicated my metabolic markers were out of range. After learning about what can cause your blood sugar to spike, I realized I was starting my day on a blood sugar rollercoaster EVERYDAY!!!! No wonder I was so tired, irritable, and ravenous at lunch. I realized I needed to make a change.
Why the power of habit is so important
Because I had read, Atomic Habits by James Clear earlier that year (a must read for everyone!!), I knew the power of creating small changes in your daily life.
So that’s what I set out to do. I decided to start small by focusing only on breakfast because the trick to making anything a habit, is to start small so that you can make it stick!! In Atomic Habits, the book talks about getting 1% better at tiny things every day, and by the end of one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.
I decided to work on making my breakfasts just 1% better each day and followed these 5 tips to set myself up for success.
5 tips to eat more protein at breakfast
Have a plan
It’s easy to plan lunch and/or dinner throughout the week and neglect breakfast, but I encourage you to spend 5 minutes on Sunday night game planning your breakfast for the week.
You don’t need to spend hours combing through recipe books or pinterest. Just pick a simple recipe, aim to get 30 grams of protein or more, and GO!
If you’re wondering why you should aim for 30g of protein, checkout my latest post here.
Batch prep your breakfasts
Always double or triple the recipe
Make 5 servings so you’ll be set throughout the work week
Check the nutrition label to better understand how much protein is in each serving and increase the amount by adding more of the protein source.
Maybe that looks like adding a protein powder to a yogurt bowl, or adding some egg whites or turkey sausage to an egg scramble.
Have on the go protein snacks (aka your backup plan):
When life is life-ing, make sure you’re prepared. I love to have the following on hand as backups when life gets busy or I’m traveling.
Epic Bars (~10 grams of protein)
Chomps Meat Sticks (~10 to 12 grams of protein)
Rawr Organic Bars (~20 grams of protein)
Throw away the idea of “breakfast food”
Eat leftover dinner for breakfast.
Chicken, beef, ground turkey, whatever it is. They all make great options to start the day and the best part is, it’s likely already prepped from the night before!
Find a good protein powder
It’s easier to hit your protein goals when you’ve got a few different protein powder options on hand
I love adding the Be Well By Kelly grass-fed beef protein powders to my yogurt or smoothie bowls
Grab the grass-fed beef Chocolate or Vanilla flavor
I don’t recommend the plant-based protein powders from her line. They taste a bit chalky to me.
If you want to whip up a healthy breakfast at any time, checkout my FREE list of pantry and freezer staples, so you’ll always have ingredients on hand to make something nutritious and delicious.
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