Energy PFF Power Breakfasts

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Do you wonder what to eat for breakfast that is simple, delicious, and will set you up for success during your busy day?

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” – Moms Everywhere

Yes, mom was right. Breakfast is an important way to start the day, for kids and adults alike. Skipping breakfast can lead to erratic eating patterns throughout the day, indulgence in more junk food and ultimately, weight gain. Here are three benefits of eating breakfast: 

  1. Breakfast Jump-Starts the Gut: Studies show that people who begin the day with a balanced breakfast of protein, carbs, and fiber tend to eat less junk food during the day because it primes the brain and gut to expect (and crave) nutritious food for the rest of the day.  
  2. Breakfast Jump-Starts the Brain: When you sleep, you’re fasting. Breaking your fast revs up your metabolism, and perks up the brain. Eating a nutritious breakfast and feeding your neurotransmitters, the neurochemical messengers that rev up your brain and steady your moods, will help you feel energized and relaxed during the day.
  3. Breakfast Keeps You Lean: Skipping breakfast will not help you lose weight! Studies show that breakfast eaters are leaner because by “front-loading,” they prepare their bodies for the rest of the day.  

Before you reach for the coffee and donut and call it “breakfast,” it’s important to understand that all breakfasts are not created equal! A coffee and donut, or even a bowl of many popular cereals, does not fit the bill for a balanced, brainy breakfast. 

I like to plan using PFF as a guidepost, that stands for

  • Protein
  • Fiber

and

  • Fat

Protein, a macronutrient that every cell of your body needs, is an essential part of a healthy diet. There are both animal and plant sources of protein, and protein intake should be measured daily, not necessarily on a per-meal basis. Growing kids need about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight and adults need about ½ a gram of protein per pound of body weight. This isn’t difficult, as protein is found in many foods and can add up quickly! Some of my favorite breakfast sources of protein are:

  • Pasture Raised Eggs 3 eggs add 18g of protein
  • Organic Soy protein adds 13g per 3.5oz serving
  • Skyr Yogurt adds 17g per cup serving

Fiber, the stringy stuff that holds fruits and vegetables together, is also found in seeds and in the outer covering of grain, called bran. Bran is the part of the grain that is ground up and used in whole wheat flour and whole grain cereal but is removed from white flour. Simply put, fiber is found in the flesh of fresh, whole, natural foods and plays an important role in the overall health of your body. 

Here are some great sources of fiber…

A – apricots, apples, avocados, artichokes

B – beans, bran, berries

C – cereals (with 3 grams of fiber per serving)

S – salads and raw veggies

According to the Institute of Medicine, women should be eating 25 grams of fiber per day and men should be eating 38 grams of fiber per day. These amounts decrease to 30 grams per day and 21 grams per day, respectively, for adults over 50 years old. 

Fat is a necessary nutrient for your body even though some people think that fat is a bad word. We need a right fat diet, not a non-fat one! By adding in the right proteins and fiber rich food you will naturally be adding in healthy fat. Some of my go to fat friendly breakfast foods are…

  • Nuts and seeds
  • Pasture Raised eggs
  • Avocado

Smoothie bowls are a creative and clean way to put together a PFF brainy breakfast like the one pictured here. One of the simplest breakfasts is pulling out leftovers from dinner last night like veggies and grilled salmon. Another idea is to make your own egg bites with sauteed veggies, parmesan cheese and pasture raised eggs in a muffin tin, just assemble and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. They come out perfect and store easily. Something just as simple as Skyr yogurt, blueberries, and almonds is a balanced option also. 

What do you have in your fridge that can become your next power breakfast?

Bam! It’s that easy to jumpstart your day with a healthy PFF breakfast, go get em!

Making Mindful Food Choices

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I want to ask you, how are you taking care of you?

Today more than ever our personal wellness is a top priority, and for most of us, it’s up to us to maintain our health. Nutrition, stress management, and mindfulness are crucial aspects of our health that we have control over. Can you identify an area that you want to put more focus on to improve your overall wellness?

Be mindful to include these categories of superfoods into your diet…

Go Green – Choose organic salad greens and herbs.

Go Blue – Eat a variety of organic berries for the richest source of antioxidants.

Go Nuts – Include raw, unsalted nuts and seeds into your diet. A serving size is a handful.

Go Fish – Eat 2 6oz servings of Wild Pacific Salmon each week for sufficient Omega 3. Or you can add a plant-based Omega supplement.

Simple Snacks

Keeping your blood sugar in the zone of willpower can keep stress at bay. Have smart snacks at your fingertips to grab. Making a nibble tray with cut up fruits and veggies along with some raw nuts is a great way to get a variety of healthy foods into your diet. Include healthy, clean dips like hummus and nut butter for more variety. Shakes make a great breakfast or snack throughout the day also, packed with lots of produce!

Super Food Brain Boosting Smoothie

1 C unsweetened plant milk
1/2 C frozen blueberries
1/2 peeled frozen banana
1 Tbsp nut butter
Handful of spinach
Dash of cinnamon

Scoop of plant-based protein powder (I use Complete by Juice Plus+)

Blend and sip throughout the morning for an immune boosting, gut healthy breakfast, or recovery meal.

Eating with mindfulness exercise inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh

Every time we eat can be an opportunity to embrace the gifts that surround us. When we allow ourselves to slow down and have gratitude for our food it naturally reduces stress and brings more joy into our lives.

  1. When you eat or drink recognize the food you are ingesting as nourishment for your body and a miracle.
  2. Consider all that went into this food, the people who prepared it, and the plants & animals that it came from.
  3. Observe gratitude for this food and moment that you are experiencing.

Now, can you feel the freedom and joy that comes from being supported and nourished by this food?

A great place to start is by taking notice of the food you are eating and recognizing how you feel when you eat.

Are you mindlessly shoveling food into your mouth between meetings or in the car before pick up? My wake up call was when my 10 month old said “french fry” as one of her first words because we were running through the drive through so often out of sheer desperation.

The first step for me was to realize that fake food and poor nutrition was zapping my energy and contributing to constant colds for my family. Once I got a handle on the importance of a diet rich in a variety of plants and clean protein and gained some skills like making smoothies regularly everything began to shift. This personal shift eventually led me to become a health coach because of the power that I found in lifestyle and nutrition. I wanted to pay it forward in hopes of impacting another busy mom’s life. Reach out if you would like to chat about your specific health concerns and feel free to check out the blog for more ideas to make health simple.

Best of health,

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About The Author

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Suzy is a Nationally Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach, researcher, and a mom who specializes in empowering busy professionals and families who lead fast paced lives to have optimal health. She has worked in the field of nutrition for the past 18 years and bases her coaching on the 4 pillars of health L.E.A.N. Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitude and Nutrition. Suzy has expertise in pinpointing the causes of work-related stress and how it impacts health markers. She incorporates nutritional healing into her plans with clients to heal from the inside out.

5 Nutrition Brain Health Tips for Parents

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Your brain is a garden, the greatest garden you could ever grow. It needs fertilizer, irrigation, pest control, and the weeds (toxic thoughts) need to be replaced with positive ones. The brain is most affected by what you eat. It is the sickest organ in the body, more than the heart.

The fat in the brain gets wear and tear and oxidizes, but the good news is that fruits and veggies protect it with antioxidants!

We need to eat 10 fistfuls per day!

Tips for healthy brains

  1. Help the brain make its own medicine – Eat more fruits, veggies, and seafood. Shakes are a great way to increase the number of plants and you can even pulverize and disguise some too. This is wonderful fertilizer for your garden.
  2. Go outside and play – Movement keeps blood vessels open so that neurotransmitters and personal medicines can be made. This helps the irrigation system of your brain garden.
  3. Smart Supplements – Look for a nutrition label, not supplement facts one. I recommend Juice Plus+ because it is supported by so much science, even SiRi says it’s the most researched nutritional supplement in the world! Kids eat free with an adult through the
    Healthy Starts for Families program.
  4. Cook together – A fun creative outlet that supports a lifetime of healthy habits. Mindfulness is fostered too because you must be patient with cooking, and you enjoy what you create together. This is a great way to grow new tastebuds and kids are more likely to eat what they have a hand in making.
  5. Attitude of gratitude – Enjoy taking turns at the dinner table, or on the way to school, to share something that you are each grateful for. This has been shown to grow the happy center of the brain and helps to clean out the weeds in our garden so that the healthy tissue can grow.

Best of Health!