Why you (and your inner diva) NEED to eat breakfast

My mum used to find it highly amusing that, as a toddler or grumpy teen, I always had the same morning ritual. Haul my ass out of bed (usually under great duress) and head straight for the breakfast table in a zombie-like coma. Must. Eat. Food. And slowly, but surely, with each mouthful of whatever it was, the human(ish) Bella would emerge and I’d leave the table a brighter and sunnier person (or so I’d like to believe!).

Turns out, I was setting myself up for an awesome habit that does me a power of good now that I’m a proper grown up (again, so I’d like to believe!). While I know that there are several of you out there who will argue that you can operate fine without breakfast, science backs up the fact that to get your body working properly throughout the day (not just at the beginning of it) then you need to start it right. And that means you need to break the fast and EAT! Preferably something healthy and filled with the good stuff. Don’t believe me? Here are 4 reasons why you need to find a way of starting the day right:

1. Manage your blood sugar levels. While you’re sleeping, your body is working away digesting all the food that you’ve eaten the night before. So when you wake up, there’s very little trace left of the nutrients in your blood stream and just the *ahem* remains waiting to be pooped out. And your blood sugar levels will be low enough to make you comparable with a grouchy grizzly. By gently raising your blood sugar levels first thing, you’re helping to manage your hunger levels throughout the day – leave it too late and chances are you’ll be reaching for a high calorie, high sugar ass-kicker snack mid morning because I’M-STARVING-AND-IF-I-DON’T-EAT-I-WILL-DIE (yep, low blood sugar may result in you turning into a melodramatic diva.) So give your metabolism a wake up call, get some stability in your blood sugar levels, and start the day as you mean to go on. And leave the diva at the door.

2. Wake up your brain. After a night’s sleep your brain cells will be running on empty – they need energy from the food you eat (that’s the glucose from complex carbohydrates) to refuel. Without that refueling, your brain will struggle to operate on all cylinders, which means that processing information or managing complex challenges (so things like forming and retrieving memories) are all a little bit too tricky. But by giving your brain the boost that it needs through food, it’s all set to be bright and alert and all those other things that you’d probably find life easier with!

3. Get your vitamin fix. Grabbing some fruit, yoghurt, and wholegrains for breakfast is a sure fire way to make sure that you’re getting a swift vitamin shot. It’ll pump you full of vitamin B for maximum energy and keep your immune system healthy with vitamins A, C and zinc. And that diva that you left at the door? She’ll be replaced by the happier version thanks to a lift in your seratonin levels. Happy shiny people!

4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I’ve waffled on about the importance of drinking enough water before and breakfast is a great place to start. I like to down a glass of the good stuff first thing to help make sure that my body has the fluid it needs. And don’t forget that pile of digested poop waiting for you to wake up… water will help with that too! But you can eat your water too – fruit is packed full of it! Don’t get too attached to strong caffienated drinks though – that diva might make a re-appearance.

UGH FINE… But I don’t have TIME.
Just because you need to kick start your system doesn’t mean you need to labour over a mammoth feast, or get up a gazzilion hours earlier to create some exquisitely complex sensation for your taste buds. When it comes to my top 3 breakfasts, taste and simplicity are key. I tend to eat mine either at my desk or before I leave the house. Either way, I don’t have a lot of time to hang about faffing over the preparation. Sometimes, that means getting things prepped the night before. Trust me, that little bit of effort can make morning life a whole load more peaceful!

Fruity yoghurt-to-go: This is a night-before-er. Half-fill a Tuppaware with frozen berries (I prefer the mixed ones). Chuck 20-40g of oats on top, spoon in some Greek yoghurt and sprinkle with a tablespoon of milled seeds/nuts. Takes you 3 mins to make. Then all you need to do in the morning is remember to take it with you! And there you have a vitamin-packed breakfast, super tasty, with all the nutrients.

Smashed eggs on toast: Sounds like a palava, really isn’t. Stick your toast (wholegrain, or sprouted if you can!) on while you’re heating a pan with a tsp of coconut oil. When the pan is hot, crack in 2 eggs and smash them up (it’s a less-hassle scrambled egg!) and season. Plop them (as elegantly as you can for first thing in the morning!) onto your toast. To get the full nutritional brownie points from this, whack in a handful of spinach at the same time as the egg and smash it all up together. Or just serve with some avocado or tomatoes. That’ll do too.

Chia and cinnamon oat pot: Might be flashing a few ‘health freak’ warning bells to some of you, but you can get chia seeds from pretty much anywhere these days! They’re packed full of omega 3 and are hailed as a superfood of the moment. I like to chuck a tablespoon into my trusty Tuppaware pot along with a tbsp of desicated coconut, milled flax seed, 40g oats and a tsp of cinnamon. Cover the mix with milk of your choice (I like this one with almond milk) and mix it up, ready to soak in the fridge overnight. Chia seeds start to soak up the liquid and make it go gooey… which is perfect for you to take out in the morning, top with greek yoghurt, blueberries and a drizzle of honey if it’s not sweet enough for you.

I have loads more breakfast ideas – from smoothies and pancakes to sweet bakes and savoury delights! Why not share some of yours below? Are you a breakfast lover?

Juicy, juicier, juiciest…

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, seems to be jumping on the juice-tastic bandwagon in their January-month-of-detoxing-and-healthiness-festival. When I say ‘juice’, I’m talking about any type of squishing, bashing, squeezing, lumping and pummeling of otherwise solid foods into a liquid state. Call it juicing, call it smoothie-making… call it creating the happy tears of fruit and veggies… people are doing it with a vengeance!

And naturally, I am a part of that bandwagon. Well, it would be rude not to, wouldn’t it? But I’m a simple soul with not much cash to splash on fancy kitchen equipment (never mind the space to actually keep it!) so in November I bought me a little Kenwood blender for the princely sum of £25. Seemed to be a good investment given that I had recently rediscovered my passion for fresh smoothies, thanks to the lovely folk at Crussh. Man, oh man, those cheerful little taste-makers know how to smooth up a smoothie. And a juice. And porridge. And healthy pots of salady goodness. And soup. And… ARGH. Enough! They’re just awesome, okay?! But sadly, they have to make a living and charge the usual prices for London lunches. So I thought I’d save myself the money in the long run by making the odd smoothie at home. And, let me tell you, it’s been a DELIGHT.

My two current favourites, although I’m always open to experimentation, are:

LURGY-FIXER-AND-PREVENTORER (aka The Green Smoothie)

Ram-packed with goodness, it really does taste like you’re drinking HEALTH. Yes, despite it looking a little like snot. People use a variety of different ingredients and no doubt have their own preferences. Here’s mine:

• 1 large handful spinach
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 green apple
• 1 kiwi fruit
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• slug in coconut milk (I use KoKo) until it’s the consistency you like

And because I’m aiming to make things as simple as possible, I’ve taken to chopping up the fruit and veg (squirt of lemon juice to keep the apples going brown) and storing it ready in the fridge the night before. Then it’s just a case of chucking it in the blender, zjhuuzzjing (you know, that thing that the blender does), and pouring it into a bottle to take on my commute. BEAUT.

PRETTY-IN-PINK: Antioxidant boosting berry smoothie

Now most of the shop-bought varieties of berry smoothies are sugar-playgrounds. Not just the fructose type of sugar, but they normally add a heap too. I prefer mine a little more wholesome (do I get my sugar-free halo yet?!):

• frozen mixed berries: usually blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, and other berry beauties that they chuck in!
• around 200g of natural Greek yoghurt. full-fat or low fat, it gives a nice dose of hefty protein.
• around 40g of rolled oats for a carb-boost
• a tbsp of milled nuts/seeds for some of the good fats
• slug of coconut milk as before.

Now this might not be sweet enough for some. If you want to, add in a tsp or so of honey or agave nectar. Or, rely on the berries own sweetness and get in the queue with me for the sugar-free halo!

Something that I’ve learnt with these luscious delights is that they are actually full MEALS. Just because they’re in liquid form does NOT mean that you can attempt to down them in one. Tummies don’t like it much when we do that. Sip and slurp is the order of the day. Give yourself time to enjoy it. And you’ll feel all the more better for it.

So, those are two of my faves – and I KNOW that you folk are going to have a few gorgeous treats up your sleeves… Share the love?