I’ve always been kind of a hippie. Combine that with my San Francisco elitist background, and you would never catch me using or promoting a microwave. Then I went to dietitian school, which is an evidence based degree, and all of my ideas about microwaves got disproven. I learned that:
(1) Microwaves do not minimize nutritive quality
(2) You can toast nuts in a microwave
To have a good day, I need breakfast that will sustain me through to lunch.
Ingredients: nut of your choice (I like almonds or pecans)
quality plain yogurt
fruit of your choice
good maple syrup
cinnamon
I toasted these babies for 45 seconds, but times will vary. Microwaves work fast!
Directions:
In the bowl, toast large handful of nuts in microwave for 45 seconds. Add more time if you're a risk taker. Open Tupperware containing fruit you had already cut up at start of the week. You cut it up ahead because you know that planning is magic. Add yogurt and a bit of maple syrup. Eat it.
Make sure you eat a large enough portion to make you feel satiated or full. Then, notice how balanced you feel (and not cranky) throughout the day. In general, try to pay attention to how you feel after you eat a certain meal. If you feel like garbage, maybe don't eat that meal again.
This meal should: keep you full until lunch, because it has vitamins, minerals, fiber + good balance of carbohydrate, protein and fat. It also tastes quite nice.
Who Cares About Breakfast? ➞read below if interested, otherwise, just toast some nuts.
When you eat breakfast at 8 am, and dinner the night before was 8 pm, your body has been without food for 12 hours. Our bodies are amazing, and have mechanisms to provide us with energy while we sleep to make up for this small 12 hour no food problem (the liver will secrete glucagon). But if you skip breakfast, by the time you eat lunch, your body hasn't had food or glucose for say 16 hours, and really, the body prefers not to operate this way. Please eat breakfast, give your body the fuel it needs.
I break up the pomegranate at the start of the week. Then it's ready, and breakfast is easy.
I didn't manage to get a photo of the yogurt + nuts + fruit combo, but I think you get it.
This is a whole food meal, and you are a whole person. Aiming to eat whole foods will keep you at your best.