We all know that eating three healthy meals a day is important for a healthy body. But do you know that healthy breakfast is the most important meal of all the three? Specially, if you are a working woman.
Not only does it set the tone for the rest of the day, but it also refuels your body with much-needed energy and nutrition. Also, eating a healthy breakfast improves concentration power, gives more energy to tackle a hectic day and keeps us away from having unhealthy snacking.
So if your excuse for skipping your breakfast is that ‘I don’t have time to cook’, we bring you six wonderful tips keeping in mind the needs of a working woman.
What comprises a healthy breakfast?
A good breakfast will always include a good source of proteins, low-fat dairy products and some fresh fruits or vegetables to add more nutrition. This breakfast will ensure that you don’t suffer from a drop in blood sugar mid-morning, which can make you both lethargic and restless. Choosing among healthy foods like whole grain breads, lean meats, and even nuts for breakfast will be a good ideas.
Some good options for a healthy breakfast are:
- Whole grain cereal topped with fresh chopped fruits taken with skimmed milk.
- Two hard boiled eggs eaten with two slices of multigrain bread.
- Two chapatis eaten with egg or any leftover vegetable dish from the previous night.
- A large bowl of cinnamon and raisin oatmeal.
Tips for making sure that you never skip breakfast
Now that you have realized the need of a healthy breakfast, let’s discuss a few quick tips to ensure that you don’t spend hours slaving over a hot stove every morning. Plan your breakfast in advance and make some preparations one night before to ensure you save time and get a healthy express breakfast the next morning. This is a wonderful tip for working women and also for those who are both working and have kids.
Tip No 1
Make a grocery list every Saturday and make to include everything that makes a healthy breakfast. Prefer fresh foods over frozen or ready-to-eat stuff. But you can have a few frozen items like lean cut meat as a part of healthy breakfasts. Buy tons of fresh fruits and veggies, frozen meats like sausages and salamis, and also invest in multigrain breads and bagels.
Tip No 2
For those who prefer traditional Indian breakfast, the choices are not limited. How about idlis and uttappam for breakfast? Shop for dry powder that can be mixed with water to prepare batter for your favorite traditional Indian breakfast. Make sure you have three to four packs per week. Don’t forget to check the expiry date.
Tip No 3
Aim to get a good source of protein, a good complex carb, some dairy and fresh fruits for every morning. This defines an ideal breakfast. Here are some express ideas to get going:
- Muesli mixed with skimmed milk and a bowl of a chopped papaya and apple.
- Two egg omelettes with lots of chopped veggies, taken with multigrain toast smeared with peanut butter. Follow with a small bowl of low-fat fruit yogurt.
- Dosa prepared in little oil, with peanuts and coconut chutney. Follow with a glass of banana milkshake.
- Aloo parathas made with cooking spray instead of oil, to be taken with fresh yogurt and an apple.
- One fried egg, two multigrain bagel and two sausages just roasted in a hot pan.
To make your job easier, chop fruits and veggies at night and preserve in air tight containers in the refrigerator. Boil potatoes for parathas or dosas at night so your job is half done.
Tip No 4
As a working woman who is trying hard to come up with a healthy express breakfast recipe every day, eggs can be her best friends. Eggs are healthy, easy to prepare and taste good. Plus they are the most superb source for both proteins and fats.
Daily chart:
- Scrambled eggs with toast on Monday
- Fried eggs with paratha for Tuesday
- A boiled egg sandwiched between slices of multigrain bread with a smear of mustard for Wednesday
- Egg white omelette with lots of veggies and even salami shreds on Thursday
- Poached egg with a bagel on Friday
Tip No 5
Before buying any food stuff, go through the labels. Don’t just blindly buy things labelled ‘low-fat’ or ‘fat-free’. Fat is not the only thing adding calories to a meal. Sugars and simple carbohydrates are also the culprits. A product low in fat will be high in sugar or sodium, and both are equally bad for you.
Another alternative – if you are so hell bent on counting calories, don’t get fooled by the calories mentioned ‘per serving’. Most of us buy a pack of say crisps or biscuits, and think the number of calories printed behind is the calories per pack. Read the fine print – usually it is the number of calories per serving and you probably have no clue what a typical serving size per person really is!
And a good breakfast on-the-go is something like a big glass of banana or chikoo smoothie with a protein bar, and definitely not a whole pack of biscuits, to begin with.
Tip No 6
Make smart food choices. Now that you know what a healthy breakfast cooked in express-style looks like, your job should be done. But there are still a few pitfalls you can still encounter, like choosing the wrong spreads for your toast or even choosing the wrong bread to begin with.
Make the smart choices by:
- Choosing skimmed milk over full-fat milk.
- Choosing multigrain bread over white bread.
- Choose mustard or low-fat spreads over regular mayonnaise and sandwich spreads.
- Choose white meats like chicken sausages and chicken salamis over pork and mutton
- Have a fruit smoothie or milkshake