Starting your morning with a good breakfast can set you up for a successful day.
Summer is a time of crazy schedules and lost routines. As the school year starts and fall approaches, it is a perfect time to get back on track with your nutrition. The gym is just one part of our fitness journey. To see long-lasting results, we also need to master habits outside of the gym—mainly our nutrition.
Meal-prep can make your life much easier on those busy weekdays, and starting off strong with a good breakfast can make all the difference.
You may have to work out early, then run off to work or drop kids off at school. It can be far too easy to get into a habit of skipping breakfast, leading you to be overly hungry later in the day (and perhaps lead to some overeating in the evening). Starting your day with a healthy and filling breakfast can be a great way to start the day off on a positive note and give you the energy to get through the first part of the day without a crash.
So, what are some good breakfast meal prep ideas? They don’t have to be overly complicated or take an enormous amount of time. Everyone is different with regards to their nutrition, so you will have to do some experimentation on what will work best for you. However, you can use these ideas as a starting point and build from there.
Overnight Oats
Overnight oats are a very easy way to meal-prep a good breakfast that is also easy to take on the go.
For a simple overnight oats recipe, mix the following together in a container to create a base:
½ Cup Oats
½ Cup Milk of Choice
¼ Cup Greek Yogurt
1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds
1 Tablespoon honey or maple syrup
1 Scoop Protein (optional)
After letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight, you can add toppings before serving, such as fruit, nuts, peanut butter, etc.
Pre-cooked Oats
I am someone who prefers fresh, warm oatmeal to overnight oats. There are a few ways to prepare warm oatmeal:
On a stovetop, you can cook a batch of oats to use over a few days (I use steel-cut oats for this method and make 4 servings). Every morning, take a serving of these pre-cooked oats, add ¼ – ½ cups of water or milk, and microwave them. While they are hot, add them to a thermos with some berries.
After your workout, the oats will still be warm and ready to eat. Add additional toppings if desired.
If you prefer quick-cooking oats or have a microwave at work, bring a bag of oats and a bag of toppings (protein, nuts, etc.) and make fresh, healthy oatmeal right at work.
Baked oatmeal is another great option. You can check out a simple recipe here.
Egg Bakes
Egg bakes are a simple way to meal-prep a protein-packed breakfast. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Choose lean sausage meat (such as turkey sausage), potatoes (optional), leafy greens, and cheese (optional). Pre-cook the sausage and the potatoes, then lay them over a bed of greens with a small amount of cheese over the top.
After that, use 1-2 cartons of egg whites and pour over the other ingredients. You can use full eggs as well, but the recipe’s fat content will be slightly higher. Higher fat is not necessarily bad; it depends on your fitness goals. If you need guidance finding a good macronutrient ratio, it would be a great idea to look into nutrition coaching.
Bake your egg bake until it is golden brown, and the eggs are cooked through. After that, portion it out for the week.
Breakfast Burritos
Breakfast burritos are another easy meal prep. Similar to an egg bake, choose a few toppings then cook them up with eggs. Dish out portions and wrap them in tortillas. You can freeze these easily as well.
Simple, unprocessed foods
There are times when I don’t desire to meal-prep entire recipes for the week. Sometimes, we get it into our heads that we have to have these planned meals, but simple foods can work great as breakfast as well.
Keep in mind that this does take some getting used to. If you do not mind eating single-ingredient meals, this is perfect, but if you prefer to make an actual recipe, you can use the ideas above.
An example of what I mean by simple foods could be taking chicken breast, apple, and maybe some avocado for breakfast. This is incredibly easy to prep, just have some chopped chicken breast ready to go.
I’ve also done this with premade burgers (turkey or beef work just fine), berries, and maybe a little cheese. Depending on your goals, you can modify portion sizes to meet your goals of protein, fat, and carbohydrate numbers.
I believe this is the easiest way to meal prep, as it only involves bulk cooking some sort of protein and perhaps cutting up some fruit. However, as mentioned above, this can get dull, so maybe you could mix it up.
For example, you could prep breakfast burritos for three days, then for another few, you make some chicken and eat it with apples and cheese. These simple recipes and foods will allow you to get the energy you need to operate efficiently through the morning, while also giving your body the nutrients it needs to stop cravings later in the day.
Whatever method works best for you, preparation is a huge key of success. Take an hour once or twice a week to get ahead of your meals (or just have ready-to-go simple foods), then on the busy days, you will be far more likely to stay on track with your goals.
