The Best Breakfast In The World
In the past, before I changed my eating habits, I was constantly feeling hungry at the wrong times. I wasn’t hungry first thing in the morning so I would skip breakfast. Once I entered the front doors of my office, I was immediately ravenous. I would gulp my packed lunch by 10 am and have another fit of hunger around 3 pm. This was when I would munch on anything available, which was never healthy. By the time I got home, I found myself having to eat a snack while making dinner.
I changed my lifestyle drastically about ten years ago, as many of you know from my blog. One of the biggest changes has been to commit myself to eating breakfast. I decided to follow my body’s signals. Since I was hungry around 8 or 9 am, I decided to pack a breakfast in addition to a lunch. I have tried many plant-based breakfasts. I have made whole wheat waffles, whole wheat bagels with hummus, upma, etc. But the king of breakfasts has to be oatmeal. I interview many people who have found success with adopting a plant-based diet. Almost all of them start their day with oatmeal. Every morning I combine 3/4 cup of uncooked oats with a teaspoon of ground flax seed, cinnamon, blueberries, almond milk, and possibly a banana. I pour enough almond milk to soak all the oats. I pack my breakfast and by the time I am at work the oats are soft and ready to eat. Since doing this, I no longer feel hungry in the mornings. I am ready for lunch around 1:30pm. I no longer feel hungry while making dinner. I snack much less.
Now some of you may say that you’ve tried the instant oatmeal packets and still feel hungry. That is because those packets have very little oats and lots of sugar. One packet of instant oatmeal has a 1/3 of a cup of uncooked oats and a total of 160 calories per packet, but almost one third of those calories are burnt up quickly because they come from sugar. One packet of instant oatmeal never got me through the morning. Now 3/4 cup of uncooked oats has 217 calories. With the almond milk and the blueberries, my breakfast is about 350 calories. While this may seem like a lot, it sustains me well into the afternoon time and even to dinner. As I said, I no longer snack throughout the day as I use to. The other benefit to oatmeal is that it is great for gut health and gut bugs.
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