6:00 am workout and you set the alarm for 5:30 a.m? Running out the door to get to an early work meeting? No time for breakfast?
Studies regarding missing breakfast are across the board conflicting. Skipping breakfast makes you gain weight, eating breakfast makes you gain weight! Which is it? The answer is skipping breakfast does nothing to your metabolism or weight gain providing that you eat healthy the rest of the day. In fact, some argue as a part of intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast is better for reducing caloric intake thus resulting in weight loss. Others state that regular consumption of a health conscious breakfast has positive effects on lowering diabetes, heart disease and memory loss.
But the truth of the matter is, when faced with hunger, especially post workout or in a rush to work, where likely you may not have healthy options, the lack of planning for a healthy breakfast can and will lead to poor choices in eating. Whether it’s eating the pastry at the morning meeting or stopping by the closest fast food drive through, hunger tends to override our desire to eat healthy.
So eat breakfast or not? Well if you can fight through the hunger and make good choices the rest of the day, more power to you! But for the rest of us, finding a way to eat a healthy breakfast will help us fight the urge to cheat. Especially if you are actively working out. Working out can alter hormones in the body responsible for appetite suppression. Long-duration cardiovascular exercise (45 min or more) vs strength training can alter these hormones even more, igniting hunger more than if no exercise occurred at all. Therefore, when actively exercising, meal planning can be the essential tool to seeing the results you desire. It may take one hour to burn 500 calories, but it can also take 5 minutes to put them all back on!
Meal prepping can be a challenge when it comes to breakfast. Protein is key, so a banana or bagel are just not solid options to fuel your body for success. Unless you can eat hard-boiled eggs with ease (and not suffer the digestion side-effect), what other foods can you grab quickly to get your day started in a healthy nutritious way?
Try these quick and easy ideas for Meal Prepping Breakfast
- The Magic Muffin Pan
The muffin pan is a great way to mix and match ingredients while controlling portion size and calorie intake. Baking egg frittata’s, aka egg muffins, egg cakes, or mini omelets in a muffin pan are the best way to get protein from eggs with the ability to customize individual flavors muffin by muffin. This way you can have an egg and spinach one morning and an egg and mushroom the next!
Over Eggs? You can also create other “muffins” or breakfast options without using eggs. Anything that you can blend or puree can be also frozen for use in smoothies.
Store in the refrigerator or freeze them for future use.
Meal Prep Options for Breakfast
1. Try these muffin tin recipes for your breakfast meal planning options and check out MuffinTinMania.com for more recipes!
Green Egg Cakes http://www.muffintinmania.com/2016/10/green-egg-cakes.html
Sweet Potato Oatmeal Cups http://www.muffintinmania.com/2012/10/sweet-potato-coconut-oatmeal-cups.html
Cocoa Baked Oatmeal http://www.muffintinmania.com/2012/06/cocoa-baked-oatmeal.html
Chocolate Coffee Smoothie Cups http://www.muffintinmania.com/2012/07/coffee-chocolate-smoothie-cups.html
2. On-The-Go Protein Bites
Instead of grabbing a pre-packaged protein bar that may be filled with tons of calories and sugar, try making these smaller bite sized protein bites at home. Grab and go! Most you do not even need to bake! Portion control and ingredient integrity are half the battle of eating healthy. And Meal Prepping makes this consideration easier to manage!
3. No Bake Protein Bites
25 Energy Ball Recipes http://www.eatthis.com/these-energy-bites-make-a-perfect-healthy-snack
http://www.thehealthymaven.com/2015/08/no-bake-oatmeal-protein-energy-balls.html
4. Other No Bake Protein Bars and Bites
5. Pre-Made Breakfasts that can sub as Snacks and Prep Lunches
These 28 pre-made breakfast options are so decadent that they can also serve as meal-prep for lunches. Making a few of these can cut time on prepping other items as they can be interchangeable and delicious for any meal!
http://sweetpeasandsaffron.com/2016/09/28-healthy-meal-prep-breakfast-ideas.html
For more tips on Meal Prepping chek out “Meal Prepping-Plan Ahead to Avoid Unhealthy Eating” If you are a seasoned meal-prepper, please feel free to add additional information in the comments section below!
Happy Prepping!