Eat a Low Carb Breakfast

My mother battled her weight her entire life.  She was never heavy, but it was a constant struggle for her, and she passed on to me and my sister a “deprivation mindset” about food.  But, that is a story for another day.  I have truly battled my weight, for a variety of reasons (read my story later) and changing how I ate breakfast helped enormously. A carb free/low carb breakfast is one way you can start your day off to not sabotage yourself!  My mother complained that “If I eat breakfast, I’m hungry the rest of the day“.  She probably was.  With the American custom of high carb, low fat, low protein breakfasts, you sabotage yourself.   Here’s what happens:

First, you eat a carb heavy breakfast. (BAGEL, OATMEAL, TOAST, CEREAL, JUICE, PASTRY…)→ your body gets a sugar load (that’s what carbs convert into once you digest them) so your body produces INSULIN in response to the spike in your blood sugar (Insulin stimulates the cells throughout your body to take in glucose from your bloodstream. Your cells then use glucose as energy, and excess is stored –AS FAT), your blood sugar drops, and then your body feels hungry, stressed and your cravings kick in, probably only 1-2 short hours after you ate!  So…  often you are so hungry you EAT MORE and the cycle starts again!  If you decrease the carbs, increase the FAT, and add a protein, it won’t do that! 

This cycle is killing us.  Literally.  Increased insulin increases inflammation, raises triglyceride levels and messes with our hormones. As if weight gain wasn’t bad enough!

How to break the “carb-insulin-store fat” cycle?

Eat a low carb breakfast, here are a dozen ideas:  Keep it simple.  You need fat-protein-veggie mix (or low carb fruit)

1. Bacon and eggs — yes, we were brainwashed, eating bacon and eggs gives you protein for fuel and fat for satiety, and doesn’t raise your insulin levels!
2. Hard boiled eggs with berries – I keep hard boiled eggs in our frig.  They are a quick snack too.
3. Scrambled eggs with veggies — pick any veggies  you like:  onions, spinach, tomato, peppers
4. Baked tomato with fried eggs. Or roasted zucchini circles with scrambled eggs.
5. Smoothies made with coconut, almond, cashew milk and frozen fruit and chia seeds.  Here’s a recipe.
6. A couple of my almond flour pancakes (no syrup!) with ham or bacon.
7. “Ditch the Wheat” Meat Bagels (add avocado and tomato slices)
8. A cocoa smoothie:  here’s a recipe
9. Make Ahead Mexican Breakfast Casserole —  Here’s a recipe.
10. Raspberry Chia Pudding (make night before)  Here’s a recipe from Kris Carr
11. Dr. Hyman’s Green Breakfast Smoothie:  super healthy!  recipe
12. On the run? grab some low carb granola, (just a tiny amount) with grass fed yogurt, like Icelandic (15 grams protien!!).  Here’s my granola recipe.

I also have Bulletproof Coffee on certain days.  Some people do better without a big breakfast.  Bulletproof Coffee is 2 cups coffee/1 T Grass Fed Ghee/1 T MCT oil blended — it has readily available fat (MCT), gives you energy, doesn’t spike insulin, and holds me until lunch.  I use this in conjunction with intermittent fasting. (see my post here about that)

Give low carb breakfasts a try!  I’ll try and post more, and please share what works for you, I’d really like to know.

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