Breakfast: Still the most important meal of the day.
So…..what’s for breakfast?
"High fiber foods increase satiety, or the feeling of fullness, and reduce appetite. Feeling fuller for longer can reduce a person's overall calorie intake."
— Laura Sant, The Preston Citizen, 20 June 2018
Let’s get munching!
When you have grown up eating animal-based breakfasts full of eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal and coffee with cow milk or creamer, pancakes made with butter and eggs, eating plant-based vegan can seem like a daunting or impossible task. Breakfast without the animal is totally possible! Say what Antonio? Now hold on now….don’t get all tempestuous just yet. I assure you I am living proof; having come from a litany of animal-laden morning feasts to a fully plant-based morning fair that sees my day to energy heaven.
As a plant-based endurance athlete, 4,000 calories a day starts at 6 am with warm water and lemon to awaken my cells followed by toast with almond butter. A couple of hours later, a heartier breakfast of oatmeal and fruit will help sustain me for the few hours till lunch. I am not talking about just a cup of oatmeal, I require 2-3 cups to sustain me till lunch. Heck….if you are operating on a 2000/day quota, my breakfast will take you waaay past lunch! (remember that quote up top?) There’s a good reason why many cyclists like myself, default to a good ole bowl an hour before a ride. Oatmeal provides the carbs and protein that help sustain and get me through the ride and it’s especially great during the recovery process.
Don't hold yourself to just the foods you grew up associating with breakfast. When the stomach is growling and you’re exhausted from work or a hard day’s ride, eat whatever is easiest. So to answer the question, what do you eat for breakfast? Anything and everything including what you might relate to more for lunch or dinner.
If eating oatmeal everyday sounds boring, switch out with one of the ideas down below. Weekends are the perfect time to experiment with a variety of other plant-based breakfast staples.
Oatmeal-old fashioned, overnight or steel-cut with plant-based milk. Weekday staple. Avoid instant or 1-minute oats where all the fibre has been stripped away and has no nutritional value and will spike your sugars. Might as well be eating a bowl of sugar, garnished with more sugar.
Fruit bowl-breakfast always has fruit, one or two pieces or 2-3 cups depending on my fitness plans for the day. Try a mono-meal!
Vegan yoghurt with granola, berries, bananas, chia seeds, flaxseed
Pancakes, make extra and freeze
Smoothies made with banana, oatmeal, berries, seeds, maca powder ….
Muffins: an oatmeal muffin, sweet potato muffin, banana muffin. Make extra and freeze
Avocado toast, toast with peanut butter topped with bananas or apple slices, almond butter
Tacos: beans, potato and roasted veggie
Coffee with oat milk, soy milk or almond milk. Oat milk is slightly thicker than soy and almond and provides creaminess similar to creamer and a natural hint of sweetness.
Yesterday leftover from lunch or dinner
Now this might sound strange but have you ever had of a MONO MEAL? A mono meal is a meal with one type of fruit or veggie until you get full. Go ahead and enjoy 10 apples or even an entire watermelon. Full of vitamins and minerals and healthy carbs, truly nature’s gift. No cooking and clean-up is a breeze. Great for road trips. Now since I require so many calories because of my activity level, I’ve cleaned off an entire cantaloupe and then proceeded to eating my “regular” meal. Now the good thing about that is that I never get any sluggishness or that feeling you get when your gastric system wants to overflow (and if it does, you already know all the “pleasantries” that follow, ha ha!)
So, in conclusion, a good breakfast really goes a long way! The choices you make for that first meal of the day will have a rippling effect throughout the day. Find that one thing that you can default to when you don’t want to “think” or are on a time crunch…..which leaves you no room to “think”. I can’t even tell you how many times I have stashed a sweet potato (previously baked) in my go bag so that when I get to the office, I down it with some coffee or almond milk. When I’m feeling extra hungry, I’m taking two of those bad boys with me. My suggestion to you is when you meal prep, include breakfast in that process. Make a batch of oatmeal, bake 10 sweet potatoes…etc. Trust me, you’ll stay on your goal, get a hearty breakfast that will prevent you rolling for a while.
