When quitting sugar, protein for breakfast is your friend!

When quitting sugar, protein for breakfast is your friend!

I’ve done a lot of trial and error through my years as a health coach. And this fall, when my family moved to India we lived at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai for the first two months and ate at the breakfast buffet every morning. So I got to experiment a LOT with the best way to fuel up in the mornings.

I’ve always loved breakfast. As a kid it was cereal and milk. In college, it was bagels or muffins. Then as a health coach/ health nut it was smoothies. However something always seemed off, and I would get hungry by mid-morning, even if I was making really nutrient-dense filling smoothies with protein powder, avocado, berries.

Then a health coach friend who had a very similar story to mine (eating pretty darn healthy and exercising but 15 pounds overweight), gave me a hot tip. She told me to eat eggs for breakfast. She specifically said to have the eggs FIRST before eating anything else. That was her ticket to unlocking weight loss. I started having the masala scrambled eggs at the breakfast buffett and – voila! I was no longer hungry by mid-morning, and I started to lose weight.

Ideally, I would make scrambled eggs with spinach (or other veggies) and you could even have some Applegate Farms sausage for an extra protein boost. At the Hyatt breakfast buffet, I would also have some fruit and sometimes I would have some oats or nuts as well. But I would always have the eggs first.

I have since recommended this to my challengers who are finding their weight loss to be slow and stubborn, with great results!  And to take the idea a bit further, I actually try to start EVERY meal with protein first. Protein helps to stabilize our blood sugar levels and is great for satiety. The feeling of just going about my day without constantly thinking about food is really wonderful.

One challenger said this:

“I have to tell you, I feel great! I feel like I hit that ‘switch’ that stops the cravings. I am sure you know what I mean. I seriously believe it’s due to eggs in the morning with a shake in the afternoon. I’ve been consistent for a two weeks + and now feel like I might see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as fat loss goes. I might be able to see slight changes… All of that is secondary to how great I feel. So I want to thank you! I can’t believe this slight change made such a big difference.”

Since I’m a big believer in my Shakeology, so much so that my parents just brought 6 bags of it to India for me, I now just have it later in the day, often in the late afternoon before the “dinner/ bath/ bedtime/ read 4000 stories” rush with my kids.

What are you having for breakfast these days?