» Easy Breakfast Options

Breakfast is arguably one of the most important meals for any endurance athlete. After sleeping, your glycogen levels may be a bit low (depending on how much, what, and when you ate the night previous), and if you do your workouts later in the day, it’s better to start fueling the muscles with calories earlier in the day so your body has time to digest and process all the food eaten.

Before we get started on types of foods, it’s probably worth touching on whole grains vs refined grains. Because consuming carbs releases insulin into your blood, (too much insulin gives you that sleep feeling after a heavy carb meal) it’s best to eat the RIGHT kind of carbs, if at all, with you meal. There is a good article on wikipedia about this, but the thing to take away is that whole grains breakdown slower than refined grains, thus reducing blood sugar spikes, therefor whole grains are the way to go!

So, based on some questions from last week (mainly, “what do you eat?”), here are some suggested meal options for you to consider.

Smoothies/Shakes: Throw your favorite fruits, some whey and/or soy protein powder, maybe some flax oil in a blender, and blend until it’s smooth. Some Favorites include:

• Banana Float: 1-2 bananas, ¾ scoop of vanilla protein powder, ¾ chocolate protein powder, 1 tbsp honey, water, (cow/soy/almond) milk (optional), 1-2 tbsp peanut butter, 1-2 tbsp almond butter

• Throw any mix of berries (rasp, blue, straw, etc), 1 banana, cherries, 1-1.5 scoop of vanilla protein powder

2 other good things about smoothies/shakes:

• They can be used post workout at ANY point in the day

• Because the calories are almost in liquid form, they will be absorbed by your body quicker (good)!

Potatoes, Ham, Onions and Peppers: Cut and boil some potatoes, while sauteing some onions and peppers in some olive oil. Once the potatoes are cooked, add them with chopped ham, olive oil, salt and pepper (and any other favorite spices) to the pan and cook together for about 15 minutes.

Berries, Trail Mix and Oatmeal: I prefer steel cut oatmeal for this since I think it has more flavor, but basically, cook up some steel cut oats, and throw in a handful of trail mix and a handful of berries, maybe a touch of honey and some flax seed oil for some more fat.

Bagel/Muffin & Nut Butter: Although I mentioned before to exclude flour based products, whole grain or sprouted grain (wheat) bagels/muffins aren’t so bad, and consuming them with a nut butter will break the carbs down slower (thus, slowing the insulin response to your blood). Personally, I like to eat some fruit with a meal like this to “wash it down”.

Note all of the above foods have minimally processed items, and contain at least one (if not more) serving of fruits or vegetables.

Written by Ryan Denner