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| Melissa d’Arabian’s Instagram post |
It all started when I was scrolling through Instagram and saw Melissa d’Arabian (Squirrel note: she was my #1 pick on the 5th season of Next Food Network Star from the first episode, and I literally jumped for joy when she won. I adore her!) post a picture of chia seed pudding she makes for her daughter. I took a screenshot of the recipe, and made a mental note to try this when we got back home from winter break.
In the next few days, I had some seemingly random conversations about breakfast, breakfast foods, and how we remember to eat our breakfast in the morning. Obviously this was a sign that I needed to change up my breakfast habits.
My personal breakfast journey
Growing up, my dad was the breakfast pro. He always made me breakfast, either cereal, frozen waffles, toast, fruit or other relatively healthy breakfast foods. When I’d visit my Nonno and Nonnie (grandparents), they always made breakfast and sat at the table together. My Nonnie’s toast was the best, mostly because she made it. But since they were grandparents, I could often find Lucky Charms and Pop Tarts at their house.
Once I left for college, the only breakfast I usually had was coffee in the morning. Now, 5 years into my teaching career, that’s generally what still happens. Coffee, sometimes a banana, yogurt, or protein bar. Real talk, I feel like I’m not adulting properly if I don’t eat breakfast.
I always pack myself breakfast to eat once I arrive at work. However, (squirrel) I get too busy and I forget to eat it until about 10 or 11am…and by then I’m hangry.
So, I realized that I need to make a change for myself. In a seemingly unrelated quest to be more mindful and take better care of myself, I realized I can double up by getting up a few minutes earlier, eating breakfast, and spending a few minutes relaxing before starting the day.
I can’t be alone in this breakfast struggle, right?!
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| Do you breakfast? |
So, I created a Google Form (bit.ly/doyoubreakfast) and sent it out to my teacher friends on Twitter. My goal was to get at least 250 responses. Within a week, I had 258 and counting! I received responses from 11 countries, and 38 US states. Thanks friends from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, China, Spain, England, Ireland, Netherlands, and Iceland!
So, the survey results**
I was really surprised that 198/259 (76.4%) of you all eat breakfast every day! I’m impressed!
As for when you all eat your breakfast, nearly half (124/264 = 47%) of people surveyed eat breakfast at home before leaving for or starting work, while 24.2% (64/264) eat breakfast on the way to work, and 20.5% (54/264) eat breakfast once they arrive at work.
So, what is everyone eating for breakfast?
I wasn’t surprised by the number of people who have coffee for/with breakfast. Seeing my colleagues walking around campus before school, many of us are holding a coffee cup. I was pretty surprised that so many people eat eggs for breakfast, seeing as that takes a while to make and clean up. Quite a few recommended hard boiling eggs at the beginning of the week; great idea, too bad I’m not a fan of hard boiled eggs.
Tips from the breakfast regulars
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“Have kids that you have to feed you will feed yourself as well.” — This was said by a few people, and made me laugh! I’m not at the kid stage of life, but noted for the future.
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“Build a habit! I get up early enough to work out, shower and get ready, then eat breakfast and pack my lunch before leaving for work. Also find that things like “Overnight oats” or egg casseroles, that you can make ahead, make it easier.”
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“Leave out what you need to make breakfast the night before (or make it the night before while packing a lunch).”
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“I try not to limit myself to an idea of what breakfast “should” be and eat whatever is easily available – a salad, rice and beans, apple with almond butter, whatever. But I make sure I eat or I get cranky quickly!”
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“I’m am more hungry at lunch and make poor eating decisions if I skip breakfast.”
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“Put it on your calendar if you struggle to remember – make it habit”
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Get up a few minutes earlier
Ideas for breakfast:
There were so many great ideas for easy breakfasts, things to make ahead, and methods for remembering breakfast.
Here are a few that looked especially yummy:
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Use muffin tray and fill with eggs and/egg whites plus cheese, onions and assorted veggies. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes
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Bake 2 loaves of bread (banana, blueberry, etc.) on the weekend. Slice and freeze – ready to grab and go. Add fruit/yogurt/juice if you’d like.
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Put the bowl, spoon and cereal out on counter the night before.
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“Make entire pack of eng muffins, eggs, cheese sandwiches and freeze them. Microwave frozen sandwiches for 1:30 and enjoy!”
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Include protein, good carbs, and good fats. Think of your small plate as thirds and fill each section with each of those. http://greatist.com/eat/whole30-breakfast-recipes/amp
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Smoothie; frozen strawberries, blueberries & banana w/spinach, kale and vanilla Greek yogurt and add fresh POM juice or orange juice, crushed ice and blend in my NutriBullet. Provides a nice burst of energy to get the morning going.
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This site is where the idea came from to make the cups. http://showmetheyummy.com/healthy-egg-muffin-cups/
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Plan the day before for breakfast
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Easy Green Smoothie – 1/2 cup of unsweetened ice tea, handful of fresh spinach, parsley, juice of lemon, frozen fruit of your choice (blueberries, banana, strawberry etc), Stevia if you like it sweetened. Have all ingredients ready to go the night before in frig. Avocado can be added to this smoothie.
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Make breakfast fun! Nothing wrong with waffles with chocolate chips, especially if layered with fresh berries!
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I tried making overnight oats. Added coconut and dried
cranberries to one, and blueberries to the other. Success!Smoothies are great for people who don’t have time to stop and sit down to eat breakfast, you can keep it in your hand while you are running around doing that 12 million things that always have to be done in the mornings. I always eat my breakfast at my desk while I am catching up on emails or planning for the day. -
My favorite breakfast is toast with almond butter, a TSP of chia seeds on it and topped with dried blueberries. Quick, easy, delicious, and keeps me going for hours.
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Easy is better when trying to get going in the mornings – even something as simple as a banana can really help my energy level throughout the day!
Something to consider…
Really interesting, someone shared a link to a NY Times article called Sorry, There’s Nothing Magical About Breakfast. It was a thought-provoking read with great ideas to consider about breakfast and marketing. For me, I often don’t get hungry until about 11am, but when I skip breakfast, I find myself (1) eating a ton more for dinner, and (2) more likely to get hangry.
**This is by no means a proper scientific or statistical analysis. It’s all for fun, and for qualitative life improvements. And, as I was writing this blog post, a few more people responded! Love more data!
Mari Venturino 
A topic near and dear. I'm a big breakfast fan but have a hard time getting up early enough on a work day to eat one (sometimes toast in car… not ideal). Love people's ideas for a quick/easy breakfast! Think I'll try these one of these night before ideas!!
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I bought eggs at the grocery store today to bake up some eggs in muffin tins!
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You had me at chia pudding. I tried that once after seeing this recipe: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/recipe-chia-pudding-with-fruit-and-golden-honey-elixir-1.3103317 And I'd try it again 🙂 (Thumbs up for the exlixir, too.) Thanks for exploring this fun topic, Mari.
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Mari, this is such a great post!!! We've all had fun watching you go through the process. Number one reason to have breakfast . . . to not get #hangry!!!
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What a fun, interesting post Mari! I'm also surprised that so many people eat eggs…traditional breakfasts are weekend treats for me. During the week I'm a grab and go person. I think I'll try some of these “prep the night before” ideas – would make my mornings easier!
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I love that this has inherently nothing to do with teaching but still has everything to do with it because it's about learning, inquiring, and DATA! I wonder how the results would be different if it was asked as a weekday only question. I eat eggs on the weekends but not during the week. It just takes too long.
I have no shame about drinking my breakfast shake in front of coworkers or my students if I haven't finished before the day begins. It's just something I make myself do. If it makes me unprofessional, I don't know, but surely it's not as bad as being hangry!
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