Why Getting Into a Breakfast Rut Can Be Good for You

You hear it all the time: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But if you are anything like me, breakfast is not your thing. I do not pop out of bed excited about a meal, and as soon as mealtimes were under my control, breakfast went right out the window as a daily obligation.

I love breakfast for dinner, I love a great weekend brunch, I love "breakfast" in the wee small hours after a long night. But day in and day out morning repasts were never something I cared about and often skipped altogether.

If you love breakfast and breakfast diversity, this is not a problem for you. If you are one of those people who knows in their heart that they should eat breakfast but finds the very idea daunting, then I have the solution for you. And it is easier than you can imagine.

As someone who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in my 40s, breakfast suddenly did actually become the most important meal of the day. When you are working to keep your blood sugars stable, you want to keep your system working on something, so the long sleeping hours that fully deplete your stomach are a time that your sugars can spike. A sensible meal in the morning helps even them out and is also needed for morning meds. Suddenly, like it or not, I was a breakfast person.

When I first started making breakfast part of my daily routine, I thought the key would be variety. The spice of life! I loaded my house with all sorts of ingredients for morning feasts, but it felt like an annoying chore to put these meals together every day. It seemed to be adding a lot of unnecessary fuss to my day, delayed the start of my working hours, created a mess in the kitchen, and did not make me look forward to breakfasting any more than I ever had.

Then, I got into a rut.

I bake all our sourdough bread, because I can control the lengthy fermentation that makes it naturally low-glycemic. So, I started making a single piece of buttered toast every morning. Knowing that I needed protein to balance, I added a small bowl of cottage cheese. And my morning cuppa, tea with a splash of milk.

Balanced, simple, delicious, satisfying. After a few of weeks, I noticed something important. My breakfast had become a habit. I could pull it together in about five minutes, only dirtying the plate, bowl, mug, and utensils. That meant no more dishwashing projects before my tea kicked in. On days when my husband was up and had time, he could make my standard breakfast for me perfectly without any guidance, which made him feel good.

But perhaps the most important change was that I started to find it much easier to balance my day and manage my hunger, especially for lunch. My blood sugars were kept in normal range, and I never really get sick of it. Sometimes I might top the toast with homemade jam instead of butter or sprinkle some chopped chives on the cottage cheese if I have some around. But other than those little tweaks, my breakfast is the same every single day and I am the opposite of bored.

If you need to get your breakfast game strong, find a balanced combination of easy foods that you like and are not complicated to pull together, and commit to making it every day for three weeks. You might just find it is the best kind of rut to get into.