Every night before I go to sleep, I close my eyes and plan my breakfast for the next morning. I picture myself cooking the oats, flipping the pancakes, sautéing the mushrooms, boiling the eggs … you get the point. I’m a huge breakfast enthusiast.
In fact, throughout quarantine, I’d say my enthusiasm for breakfast took a step further. It was no longer a standard, everyday practice for me. Breakfast became a fascination and a passion. It’s what got me out of bed in the mornings and I got really creative with meal ideas. I made smoothie bowls of all colors, eggs of all kinds, oatmeals of all flavors and I even started experimenting with some rather unusual breakfasts from around the world.
If you often skip breakfast because you “don’t have time” or because it’s “too much of a hassle,” think again. Let me try to shift your mindset. For me, making breakfast is a form of self-care. It’s a time in the morning completely devoted to myself and taking care of my body. It’s also a time where I’m having fun by experimenting with different recipes and ideas. Here are five tips to help you become more of a breakfast person.
Turn it into a routine
I wasn’t always a breakfast person. Yet, I’ve discovered throughout the years that breakfast is a habit that I can get out of. There are times where I’ve lost control of my morning routine, and as a result, lost my desire for breakfast. All of a sudden, I’m telling myself that I can get through the morning without a meal. However, the reality is that by the time I’m starving, it’s still too early for lunch and it’s too late for breakfast. And trust me, you don’t want to be around a hangry Salma. Incorporate breakfast into your standard morning routine and you’ll get in the cycle of eating in the mornings.
Start small
Sometimes, I don’t want to have a huge bowl of oatmeal in the morning, or a whole platter of scrambled eggs with bacon. And that’s okay. You can make yourself small portions of easy-to-digest meals that will still give you some energy to jumpstart your morning. Some of my personal favorites for taking the first step to incorporating a meal in the mornings can be a smoothie or some cream cheese toast.
Give yourself time in the mornings
In other words, don’t wake up 15 minutes before you need to leave the house and expect to have enough time to make yourself a nutritious breakfast. Set your alarm a little earlier to actually give your system a chance to wake up and start craving some food. And spare yourself at least 15 minutes to slow down, enjoy some solitude and appreciate the meal that you’ve prepared for yourself.
Avoid eating anything before you go to sleep
If you really want to commit to becoming a breakfast person, try to have earlier dinners. Ordering takeout at 11 p.m. and passing out after the last bite won’t exactly help your morning appetite. If you avoid eating two or three hours before you go to sleep, you’ll probably be giving yourself more time to digest your dinner, and you’re more likely to be hungry when you wake up in the morning.
Mix up your breakfast options
My dad once told my brother that the key to becoming a breakfast person was to choose one food and to eat it every single day for the rest of his life. To be quite frank, I thought the idea was ridiculous. By changing up your breakfast regularly, you’ll avoid getting bored. And, just like me, you’ll start feeling inspired by the endless possibilities that come with walking into your kitchen first thing in the morning.
At the end of the day, I’m a firm believer of listening to your body and eating when you feel hungry. These are just some tricks that I have found helpful in order to develop a more regular breakfast routine and get into the habit of eating the most important meal of the day.
