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I remember my old morning breakfast routine like it was yesterday. I’d get into the office around 8 am, go right to the kitchen and load up a small to-go coffee cup with two packets of Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal (the brown sugar flavor, of course).
I’d fill that cup half way with boiling water and slowly walk over to my desk and let it sit for a minute. Then I proceeded to scarf it down in a matter a minutes, most of the time before any of my coworkers came by for the morning office small talk.
I thought I was being so healthy eating oatmeal for breakfast. C’mon everyone knows oatmeal is healthy, right? Well, sort of. But not really.
The problem was that once 10am rolled around, I was starving. I used to ask myself, why am I so ravenous right now? what the heck, I had two packets of oatmeal plus a large coffee.
Little did I know I was throwing my whole metabolism out of whack first thing in the morning with that supposedly healthy oatmeal. The truth is my portion of instant oatmeal had over 50 grams of carbs and almost 24 grams of sugar. I might as well have drank a small can of soda every morning.
What you eat in the morning directly affects your hunger later on in the day. I didn’t know what was going on at the time, but now I understand why I was starving at 10 am. I was triggering a hormonal effect by eating such a high carbohydrate meal first thing in the morning that set my body up for increased hunger throughout the day.
For any office worker, one of the worst things you can do first thing in the morning is to eat a carb rich meal without protein.
It’s so vital that my #1 rule for success with many coaching clients is exactly this: Limit carbs in the morning.
If you don’t trigger this hormone response first thing in the morning and instead eat protein and fat, you will release hormones that keep you full. You shouldn’t sacrifice crucial mental energy thinking about hunger. You have more important decisions to make.
So here are four common breakfast foods I advise people to stay away from first thing in the morning. Again, there is nothing that is bad or good with the following foods. It’s simply about understanding what these foods will do to your metabolism and how these foods directly affect your hunger levels later in the day.
1. Instant Oatmeal
Take a look at the nutritional information on these packets next time you’re in the grocery store. You’ll notice the extremely high sugar content and very little protein, which is the perfect combo for making you hungry shortly after eating.
Better Option: Choose plain oatmeal or steel cut oats.
2. Most Breakfast Cereals
We’ve been duped into thinking cereal is healthy. It’s been a brilliant ad campaign from the dairy and grain lobby. Unfortunately, eating most breakfast cereals are simply high sugar, low protein meals that only make us hungrier an hour later. Take a look at the nutrition labels of your favorite breakfast cereal and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Even the supposedly heathy cereals are still loaded with sugar, void of any fiber, and have very little protein.
Better Option: If you’re going to go the cereal route, look for cereals with high fiber and protein to keep you fuller longer.
3. Bagels
Growing up a New Yorker, bagels were a staple in my household. A hot, fresh bagel with a nice spread of cream cheese was freakin’ awesome. However, now that I know what I know, I don’t eat bagels very often. It’s not because they are any less delicious, but because I’m aware of what happens to my hunger a few hours after having that bagel. Also, consider the fact that a large bagel with a good portion of cream cheese can be easily over 600 calories and almost 70 grams of carbs.
Better Option: Scoop the bagel. Most places will scoop the bagel for you by removing part of the inside of the bagel. This can cut the calories in half.
4. Yogurt / Fruit bowls
This is the most deceiving of the bunch because of the associated healthiness of these dishes. We have a local café that promotes one of these breakfast bowls. It looks beautiful – mango, kiwi, banana, yogurt, honey, topped with granola. The only problem is the whole bowl has about 75 grams of sugar. Yes, that’s two sodas worth. You are absolutely getting healthy vitamins and minerals from the fruit, but again, the extremely high sugar content will wreck havoc on your hunger levels, especially because there is very little protein.
Better Option: Choose Greek yogurt (higher protein) and opt for lower sugar fruits like berries or apples instead of higher sugar fruits like like bananas, mangos, and pineapples.
You’ll notice that all these foods have similar characteristics of high carbohydrates combined with low protein and very little fat. If you get nothing else from this post, remember to simply reduce carbs in the morning and focus on proteins and fat.
The major point with this article to simply point out what these foods are made up of and how that affects how you feel, look, and think.
Start asking yourself 2 hours after you eat breakfast these two questions: How do I feel? How hungry am I?
The point isn’t to avoid all cereal and fruit, or to swear off bagels for the rest of your life. If you’re in NYC, get a damn bagel. They are amazing, just don’t start every morning off with one.
Over time you’ll develop the skill of listening to your body and making better choices. And again, if you want a few ideas of foods to eat for breakfast, check out these 3 powerful foods that will give you energy and increase productivity.
Editor’s Note: You can sign up for the author’s Meal Prep guide that will set you up for success by showing you easy meal prep that you can do without any skills in the kitchen, here.
