3 Reasons Eating Breakfast Helps You Accomplish Your Goals
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“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, blah blah blah.” Can you hear your mother and high school health teacher now? Well, they’re not wrong. Go ahead and add me to the list too, but for different reasons. I always thought it was just about the eating. Throughout my adult life, I have also found that it’s the foundational ritual to ground and center myself so that I can increase my chances of accomplishing my goals. Obstacles are plentiful in this life and over time I realized that I was creating additional hurdles for myself by not eating the right kind of breakfast, not drinking the right things or by not taking the right supplements for my body and lifestyle.
Rolling out of bed and immediately pouring from my cup into the souls of others when I haven’t even poured my own tea yet is quite jarring to say the least. Once I experienced the true bliss that is a breakfast routine and the benefits of eating, drinking and being merry (Dave Matthews Band, anyone?) in the morning, I simply cannot galavant back to my old ways; it literally and physically makes me feel yucky when I have done so. Now, this way of life shouldn’t be confused with a shameful strict diet of disgusting green food and a jolting commotion of alarm clocks early in the day. Rather, it should be a time that feels rejuvenating, peaceful and prepares oneself for productivity. Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking, KB, I’m not a morning person. Never gonna be a morning person. So am I just screwed here? No, you’re not! A breakfast routine needs to be something you create that works FOR YOU. If you’ve got 5 minutes, that’s enough! Even a small sliver of time is better than zero minutes. So, what are these great benefits and why should you spend at least one more minute than zero on this thing? I’m glad you asked. For me, I found that:
My anxiety level has dropped
I have an increase in laser focus
I don’t sweat the small things
Well, how do those things help me accomplish my goals? Girl. A drop in anxiety, an increase in laser focus and not sweating the small stuff are what literal dreams are made of and the perfect foundational recipe for accomplishing my goals. When I’m anxious because I’ve never been a stay-at-home mom, married with a kid and running an online business before, any inch of anxiety reduction is music to my ears. I’m a fairly organized person, but not even I, Miss Marie Kondo Jr. herself, am a master at splitting my focus across all of my previously mentioned responsibilities so I need to at least start with a clear head if I have any sort of a fighting chance at holding focus long enough to produce my best love and attention. As a recovering perfectionist, there was no such thing as “the small things” to me. Everything was a big deal, all the time which perpetuated my anxiety level, which made my focus not so laser, which made me sweat the small things… you see the vicious cycle, yeah? Let me give you a few examples of how a breakfast routine has increased my chances of accomplishing my goals.
My anxiety level has dropped.
So, I’m a momma that deals with postpartum anxiety and depression. I mean having my first child in the middle of a global health pandemic with my family living 2 states away didn’t really set me up for success no matter how hard I tried to prepare for this scenario. Having a strong faith, supportive husband, loving my daughter more than life itself and living in a beautiful home with a beautiful yard didn’t save me from being hit with what I think was the inevitable. I’m a control freak, and everything was out of my control. Being a new mom with no physical support system other than my husband meant I wasn’t getting enough sleep (what mom does, though?), enough exercise and I was literally eating whatever was sitting in my kitchen at inconsistent crazy hours of the day and night. In this season of life, all of these things are ok and if you’re a new momma reading this, please know that it does get better (I never believed moms that said that, but then the day came that my daughter slept through the night and I sobbed with relief). Once I could get a full night’s rest, I started to investigate my morning routine and get my healthy eating habits back on track. While far from perfect, I started somewhere. The first time I woke up 30 minutes before my daughter and had enough time to get ready for the day (read: wash face, brush teeth, put on yoga pants, eat something besides cold pizza), I cried tears of joy. I had gone so long without taking care of myself first, I literally forgot what it felt like to not have a greasy face, stank breath or put nutrients in my body before her next nap. That one small act made me feel like I could breathe and actually be in charge of the day instead of wondering where my chaperone was and why someone let me bring home this precious angel from the hospital.
I have an increase in laser focus.
As a small town girl in a big city, sometimes I didn’t accurately judge my commute to work. There would be some mornings that I would think I had enough time to grab something to eat on the way in, or pick up a coffee close by or swing by the gas station to pick up a water bottle. Well, much to my surprise, more often than not I didn’t have time to do anything other than white knuckle it on one of the deadliest highways in the nation. Cool. So, frazzled, sometimes with a little mascara running down my face from the fear of crashing into the cars around me, I would walk into work starving, tired and disheveled to say the least. Those adjectives don’t exactly describe “laser focus”. All I could think about was my blood sugar continuing to drop and how I could “run an errand for the office” so I could get some sustenance. Something tells me that my bosses wouldn’t be too pleased to know that my main focus upon arrival was how to not pass out and find food quickly rather than calmly get a handle on my workload. Like I’ve said before, I’m one that has to learn the hard way a lot of the time. I have to get so sick of my deal that I actually change something about my situation. When I started making these smoothies the night before and drinking them on the way to work in the morning, I was satisfied. My little problem of my stomach eating itself was no more and I could actually see straight when I opened up my computer for the day. Just a tiny little change in my breakfast routine propelled me to focus on the job at hand, which eventually led me to climbing the corporate ladder (read: promotions and more money), and now to running my own business. I was amazed at the goals I could reach when my blood sugar was stable.
I don’t sweat the small things.
Being hangry can be a huge distraction from accomplishing your goals, enjoying life or managing stress. For me, hangry means everything is a big deal, all the time, until I am fed. Let me paint a picture for you of what a day without breakfast looks like: snapping at my dog for whining to be fed (I mean, I haven’t even eaten yet!), side-eyeing my daughter when she has a poopy diaper that needs to be changed (I remember the early days when I would be ECSTATIC about a dirty diaper), and popping off at my husband for literally existing. Not to mention, the feeling I have that I am dredging through mud just to make it up the stairs and simply get dressed. Y’all, all those are simple things that aren’t worth wasting my sympathies for. The days that I take a few minutes to make that smoothie, drink that water and drink the tea are LIFE GIVING and who doesn’t need more of that in their day-to-day? Nurishment over hangryness equals not sweating the small stuff. Suddenly, my dog needing to be fed, my daughter’s diaper needing to be changed and my husband’s existence are all things that I am actually happy about. When I’m happy and don’t waste my energy on being upset about something trivial (read: hangry), I can use said energy on things like accomplishing my goals.
Before you run out and buy an expensive blender and set your alarm for 3 hours earlier than you’re used to, take yourself off the hook. What I do or what anyone else does as their breakfast routine does not have to be what you do. Allow my words and those of others to be an inspiration and a guide to investigating what is best for you. Life's too short to dread waking up at a certain time or to berate yourself for not sticking to something you didn’t even want to do in the first place. Take your personality and current season of life into consideration when trying to decide what type of breakfast routine is going to increase your chances of accomplishing your goals. You’re unique and beautiful and no one is going to have the exact same goals as you. Your life is yours, so do yourself a favor and set yourself up for success every morning by fueling your body and mind so you can focus on the good ahead of you.
So, now what? The biggest factor in achieving your goals is creating a foundation of simple routines that set you up for success each day. I’ve got something just for you to help make that happen! In my free Morning Routine Maker, I show you just how quick and easy creating a morning routine actually is. Click the button below to get instant access to the life changing magic that is the morning routine. Brace yourself, you just might become a morning (read: routine) person!
To make our dreams happen, we’ve got to feel good, right? Our mind, body and spirit are all connected and if our body is out of whack, our mind and spirit aren’t going to be in tip top shape either. Something that is an important part of my intentional lifestyle to feel at my best is having a protein packed smoothie for breakfast. My Sunrise Smoothies are what I drink for breakfast every single day to pack in the nutrients needed for crushing my life & biz goals. Skipping breakfast because mornings are too chaotic to even think about eating something? Skipping breakfast because eating in the morning makes you feel nauseous? Skipping breakfast because you’re trying to lose weight? All of those are myths that can leave you feeling hangry and how can a hangry person achieve their goals? Let me show you the magic that are the Sunrise Smoothies and I bet all of those skipping breakfast excuses will fade away and your achievement will skyrocket.
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