Moms: Make Yourself a Better Morning

Is there any fresh energy hidden in the tired old advice to eat breakfast? Yep — and the good news is that upping your morning intake may even help you manage your weight without much effort. Starting your day right can not only help you skip a mid-morning slump but may help keep the needle your weight scale steady as she goes, because extra pounds are a sure drag on energy.

Photo courtesy CC rights, Ralph and Jenny via Flickr.

Decades ago, nutritionist Adelle Davis raised the alarm about changes in the American diet, such as the dominance of  highly processed foods and heavy use of pesticides. While some of her insights proved off base, Adelle’s advice to “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper” has always kept some traction, maybe because many people found it worked for them.

Fast forward to 2012 research on timing food intake.

In a nutshell, it may not be what you eat – or how many calories of what kind – but when you eat it that affects weight gain. Turns out our organs have natural cycles of rest and activity. We’re not designed to process food around the clock. Eating randomly or all of the time you’re awake may mean that your organs aren’t processing energy as efficiently as they would if they had some rest. The old idea of having regular meals and truly “fasting” over night may have more wisdom than we knew.

So… if you’re a grab-and-go eater in the morning or find yourself making a “kid” breakfast  just to get them to eat something, then cleaning up what they’ve left, consider front-loading your day nutritionally in the morning and then lightening up toward dusk.

Starting your day with some protein, a bit of healthful fat, and complex carbs is always a good plan. Here are nine fast breakfast ideas for busy moms on the run. This list includes ways to balance out some less-healthy items, like donuts and fast food, that might be hard to avoid especially if you’re raising kids. E6 Energy is another great way to add in vitamins or energy missing from a breakfast that is less than fit for royalty, or to boost your energy until your next meal.