Clean eating breakfast choices: 5 simple steps to optimize your morning habits

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Clean eating breakfast recipes will be the focus in this post. For an 80/20 approach, you will find here only ideas for easy recipes with little preparation time including a short video. In addition, expect five simple steps that will help you optimize your eating habits in the morning.

clean eating breakfast: 5 simple steps to optimize your breakfast habits

Healthy breakfast is a keystone habit

Among nutrition experts, breakfast is regarded as the most important meal of the day. Like drinking water, healthy eating in the morning is a typical keystone habit – a catalyst for other good routines. It is your springboard into a good start that encourages healthful behavior throughout your day.

Nutrient dense foods stimulate your metabolism and influence your blood sugar level in a positive way. Therefore it is so important to select carefully, what you eat in the morning.

clean eating breakfast

Prevents obesity

If you are skipping your morning meal because you are trying to lose weight, you can actually sabotage your weight loss efforts.

Studies have shown that going hungry in the morning can cause obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the long run. If you don’t replenish energy reserves you’ve used up over the night, you might suffer hunger pangs before lunch. Nothing edible will be safe from you, and you will have a hard time resisting sweet calorie bombs. To function smoothly, your body needs a big chunk of healthy energy.

What is a clean breakfast?

If you start your day with toast with jam or Nutella, your body immediately switches into carbohydrate burning mode in the morning. That means that your body doesn’t burn any fat.

On top of that, if you begin your day with simple quick carbohydrates (white flour, sugar), which are the main components of honey pops or chocolate cereals, you risk feeling hungry all day.

And here comes the dilemma…

On the one hand you know how important a healthy breakfast is for you, but on the other hand, a lot of clean breakfast recipes seem to be complicated and time-consuming…

How to be balanced

A perfect breakfast routine should incorporate carbohydrates rich in fiber (e.g. grains and high fiber fruits), lean protein and healthy fats (e.g. nuts). This combination is satiating for a long period of time and provides the necessary energy for you to make it until noon.

There are a few rules that must be adhered to for this meal to be a success. It has to taste delicious, be simple to prepare, and be sustaining.

raspberry oatmeal

Ideal sweet start: fruits + whole grains + proteins

A yummy alternative to toast with jam is self-made muesli without added sugar. Remember the homemade muesli I presented to you in the context of increasing whole grain consumption?

I also included some yummy inspirations from my valued readers.

Healthy homemade muesli is usually made of whole grains, nuts, dry or fresh fruits with milk or yogurt. Nutrition experts have long praised this kind of clean breakfast as the healthiest option available. Depending on the season, you can combine whatever your heart desires. We are also huge fans of the crunchy type of muesli, called granola. Overnight oats you prepare the night before are another perfect option.

The DIY mix chart below provides you with ideas for three food categories: fruits, whole grains, and proteins. Please choose only ONE item from each category! The “extra” category is optional and should be used scarcely if weight loss is your goal. Instead of almonds, you could also use 2 teaspoon almond butter. The teaspoon honey you could replace with maple syrup.

cleaneatingbreakfast

And in the following a quick and easy recipe based on the DIY mix chart for a yummy, gluten-free blueberry muesli and don’t miss my short video below.

blueberry muesli

Print

Clean Eating Blueberry Muesli

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Enjoy a well-balanced, satiating high-fiber breakfast!

  • Prep Time: 5
  • Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup blueberries
  •  1/2 cup uncooked, plain rolled oats
  •  1/2 cup fat-free greek yoghurt
  •  1 tablespoon almond flakes

Instructions

  1. The quickest results you get when you mix together all 4 ingredients, e.g. in a muesli bowl. For the eye-catching layer effect on the photo above, I use a Latte Macchiato glass. A dessert glass bowl would do the job too.
  2. start with some yogurt
  3. the next layer is 1/4 cup of oats, some almond flakes, and some blueberries
  4. then again a yogurt layer
  5. repeat 1/4 cup of oats, some almond flakes, and some blueberries
  6. the last layer is the remaining yogurt
  7. top it with some blueberries

Notes

  • Tip for a nutty taste: Toast the oats with almond flakes for some minutes in a skillet at medium heat and add them to your muesli. To save time I toast a huge amount of oats & almond mix in advance and store it in a mason jar glass.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1

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Other breakfast meals you might enjoy:

Ideal hearty start: Veggies + Proteins + Grains

How does a healthy, hearty start of the day look like?

A delicious egg meal, like spiced scrambled eggs combined with veggies (tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms), offers high-quality protein at a low price. Add a slice of whole grain bread, and you have a healthy breakfast choice. Another hearty idea is to combine Mozzarella cheese, tomato, and 1/2 whole wheat bread. Or how about enjoying heart-healthy smoked salmon with cucumber and a slice of whole grain toast?

Tim Ferris, the best selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek,  swears by the incredible fat-loss properties of whole eggs, lentils, and spinach … and as a big lentil fan, I can confirm that it tastes delicious.

5 baby action steps for switching to a clean eating breakfast routine

Here is a way to create simple habit changes that will help you to improve your eating habits in the morning:

  1. Think about your single most unhealthy breakfast that you tend to desire most often. Do you find yourself often craving fatty donuts, white bread or sweet supermarket cereals?
  2. Try to replace this with one of the options above. (e.g. replace sweet supermarket cereals with homemade sugar-free muesli using the mix chart above, or print out my clean eating blueberry muesli if you like it).
  3. Make sure to plan not only for dinner but also for your breakfast in your weekly meal planner. -> Click here to print out the meal planner template!
  4. Put the necessary items for your desired meal on your running shopping list and make sure that you always have the ingredients on hand. Also include on your list sufficient and fast “breakfast to go” options, like fruits or low-fat Greek yogurt that you can carry with you.
    -> Click here to print out the running shopping list!
  5. Finally, if you can replace your single most unhealthy breakfast with a healthy option for a month, reward yourself with a cute new muesli bowl.

4 additional tips for healthful choices

  1. Hydrate
    A smart habit right after you wake up is to drink at least three cups of water or tea. It hydrates you, provides your brain with fuel, boosts your metabolism, supports your body by flushing out toxins, and may even let you feel satiated sooner. If you need some variation, make sure to check out my detox water ideas.
  2. Even if you don’t have much time, try to eat mindfully
    The purpose of a healthy breakfast is not only regulating food intake but also to promote regularity and provide balm for the soul to prepare for a great start. A good idea is to try to start getting up fifteen minutes earlier to fit this important habit into your day.
  3. If you can’t eat in the morning, don’t force yourself
    If you are not a morning person, then try to drink a breakfast smoothie, vegetable juice or milk. Click here for my ultimate breakfast smoothie recipe with 7 whole food ingredients. Even 1-2 cups of coffee is ok according to experts.
  4. Stay clear of bakeries
    Don’t eat when you find yourself hungry while standing in front of a bakery. The better option is to take with you a yogurt to go or a sandwich made with whole grain bread. This way you can enjoy food even while on the go. Click here for my homemade whole wheat bread recipe!

clean eating breakfast

PLEASE SHARE: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE  MORNING MEAL?

What’s your all-time favorite clean breakfast choice? Just one! Shout it out in the comment section below.

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17 thoughts on “Clean eating breakfast choices: 5 simple steps to optimize your morning habits”

  1. I am loving reading everything on your website. I do have a question. Do you have a chart similar to the breakfast one for lunches? I work in the office everyday and i’m looking for ways to pack a clean lunch. Even if it was just a list of how many servings of different categories.

    Reply
    • Dear Lauren,
      sorry for my later reply, I just returned from a 2 week vacation yesterday…
      I regret, but I don’t have a lunch chart yet – but I love the idea and will let you know once I’ve created a clean eating lunch chart.
      Thank you for the inspiration:)

      Reply
  2. I stick with egg whites, oatmeal use honey to sweeten, or yogurt, whole grain bread with all natural peanut butter, or dry oats, strawberries, blueberries and vanilla yogurt layered in a tall mug. Or nature valley breakfast bisquits with cream cheese, or cottage cheese with fruit, or a protein cereal, if I’m in a hurry I’ll just grab a protein bar. My trainer told me I need to eat breakfast within 2 hours of waking up,

    Reply
    • Great breakfast options, Ashley, congratulations! Most of your choices are healthy and excellent! Please be aware that the nature valley breakfast biscuits have a high sugar content. For your protein cereal I can’t tell.

      Reply
    • Hi Gabi,
      I like the inspiration and guidance that you are providing for me. For Breakfast i like the whole grain cereals like oats with fat free milk and an apple with green tea sweetened with honey and some lemon juice.

      Reply
      • Dear Christine,
        thank you Christine:) Your breakfast is a winner and delicious too. If you like cinnamon you could even sprinkle a bit over your cereals – with your apple and low fat milk it is a yummy little variation.

        Reply
  3. Don’t you think in first recipe the quantity is very much of every thing e.g 3/1/2cups of milk n yoghurt n rest of the things becomes too much to start with

    Reply
    • Hello Raj,
      thank you for shouting out! Obviously my DIY Clean Breakfast Mix above might be misleading…sorry for the confusion. For a healthy breakfast please choose only ONE item from each category. E.g. 1 apple + 1/2 cup uncooked plain oats + 1 cup almond milk + 1 tbs chia seeds (optional). I’ll adjust my challenge accordingly.

      Reply

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