Let's Talk Breakfast

I promised you when starting this experiment of writing every weekday in January that I'd share with you how to hack breakfast. Hopefully, you like eggs. (I love eggs.)

The benefits of breakfast have been widely documented. But you also have people like Tim Ferriss bringing up the fact that a surprising number of high performing, successful males over 45 don't eat breakfast. Genuine high performers sometimes say they don't need or want breakfast, but super-busy-stressed-out-people also claim that they "don't have time" for breakfast. Wherever that line stands between “the people who really don't need/like breakfast” versus “the bullshitters who are on a path to burnout,” there is a reason why conventional wisdom claims that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

What breakfast means to us

With myself as an experiment subject (N=1), I have to say that eating breakfast does the following positive things for me:

First off, I get in better workouts. Second, breakfasts of protein really does keep my skin clear, and clear skin=feeling like success. A few years ago I tried various permutations of vegan-like diet plans and my skin was an acne-ridden mess. I swear, if I skip eating a high protein breakfast for even a few days, my skin breaks out. High protein breakfasts even out your blood sugar – crazy blood sugar swings can apparently lead to breakouts and cause you to eat everything in sight by the afternoon.

But the single most important reason for why I eat breakfast is this: breakfast signals to myself that I am worth the time and energy invested - however small - in making myself breakfast. No matter how busy I am, or how much pressure there may be in the various facets of my life, the everyday habit of taking 10 minutes to make myself 2-3 eggs tells my brain that solid nutrition is a non-negotiable. It tells my brain and subconscious that I can make time for the little things for myself.

And if you can make the time for the little things for you, you can certainly make time for the big things for others at work, in relationships, or in life.

Breakfast hacking

Alright, so if you buy the argument that breakfast can be a great thing, I'll walk you through what I do and then we can talk about you developing some breakfast hacks, too.

What I do: 7-Minute Eggs
What you need: 2-3 eggs, a jar of coconut oil, a frying pan, and a fork.

Use the fork to scoop out a chunk of coconut oil
Drop the coconut oil on the pan and put the pan on a lit stove
Melt the coconut oil on high heat
Lower the heat to low/medium and then crack the eggs into the pan
Scramble the eggs in the pan with the fork
The eggs will cook in less than 2 minutes
Eat the eggs

This is all that you need

The above may sound stupidly simple, straightforward, and not even worthy of being considered a breakfast hack...

But the fact is that it's quicker than most basic egg recipes because I'm not even using a bowl to beat the eggs, a knife to cut coconut oil (or butter), nor a spatula to fry the eggs.

In this whole process, I only have two apparatuses: the frying pan and the fork. This not only makes throwing the eggs together more quick, but it also makes cleanup a joke. I use coconut oil because I really like how coconut oil tastes, and that personally gives me something extra to look forward to.

When it comes to being fast and happy with food hacks, minimizing the "equipment", simplifying the ingredients, and having something special to include are what are important.

Soo Easy

Developing What You Do

If you're dedicated to having breakfast daily, you'll do so, and you're even more likely to dedicate to breakfast if you develop your own hack for putting everything together. The easier these are, the less barriers there are to making them habits. Here's a recommendation:

Pick a food item: you may want your breakfast item of choice to be a smoothie, oatmeal, or eggs as I've shown above. Stick to one for now, and if you're really hungry, just make a higher quantity. Your breakfast doesn't have to be worthy of Pinterest - it just has to be worthy of you building the habit.
Minimize the equipment: For smoothies, you'll need a blender for sure, but maybe if you can get a blender that has the serving cup as the container, you'll have less apparatuses. For oatmeal, instant oatmeal packets may be best so that you aren't dealing with measuring cups.
Simplify the ingredients: There are smoothie recipes that exist with just two or three ingredients. Oatmeal can be pretty straightforward: add the mix to water.
Have something special to include: This makes your meal not just feel like something you're scarfing down. Tweak the hack so that it's something you're happy about. If you love pineapples, make that one of your smoothie ingredients. If you love cinnamon, add that to your instant oatmeal.

And you're done – you’re efficient, you’re set, and you’ve already eaten when most of the rest of the world hasn’t made the effort. You are a champion.

Let me know what you think and if you have any breakfast hacks to share. I'm always looking for opportunities to potentially change things up!