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Healthy, fit breakfast

No need to limit breakfast to the same old grits.

Find ideas for a quick and healthy breakfast, if you do not want to compromise on health and fitness and want full flavor.

Sometimes we need a quick breakfast as we run out of the door. Other times we need to spend a little while longer in the kitchen to make something extremely healthy. Something that is delicious and satisfying. No need to limit breakfast to porridge or fat-free yogurt for the fit and healthy. There is a world of possibilities.

Quick and healthy breakfast ideas

With today's culture, very rarely do the two time frames merge into a quick AND healthy first meal. Let's take a look at some ideas to consider while pondering this flitting idea of a quick and easy breakfast.

Get your servings

Ok, so your fried hash brown only took you a couple seconds to order and it contains potatoes; good job, you have effectively over-starched yourself while wasting money. Just because it came in a convenient package in under two minutes and has, what still somewhat resembles a vegetable doesn't make it quick and healthy. One of the hardest things to keep in mind while working in the health-on-the-go routine is making sure we get all of our daily servings.

The morning is usually the best time to get your fruits, grains and dairy in, mostly because they are portable. It is easy to drink a glass of milk and grab a banana and an orange to take with us. Perhaps we carry a Tupperware of cereal or granola, along with some yogurt to work with us, it doubles as a nice "first break" from the monotony that is bound to pile up.

Think ahead

While this is probably the most difficult thing to do, because we are usually in the moment, thinking ahead can afford you both quick and health breakfasts. For instance, if you were to remember the night before that you wanted fruit and nut pancakes the next morning, you could actually mix all of the ingredients and store them in your fridge overnight. In the morning, turn on your pan and let it heat up while you are putting in a little more liquid to loosen up the batter. Believe it or not, you will actually have the pancakes you desire in less than 10 minutes.

Thinking ahead can also help when it comes to getting ready. If you were to set the timer on your coffee pot, and used the delay start function on your oven, you could actually have coffee and a hash brown and ham casserole ready for you by the time you got out of the shower and were dressed.

Use what you have

The reason why many breakfast ideas take so long to produce is because of the amount of work that needs to be done beforehand. In the last section, we talked about thinking ahead, well, this section will discuss what to do if you, like most people, forget to remember.

Say you had the best homemade stir fry last night. You threw together a ton of your favorite ingredients, such as bell peppers, onions, carrots and bamboo, and amazingly you have some uncooked ingredients left over. Now is the time to make use of the prep work you did the night before. Whip up a couple of eggs and make an omelet or a delicious egg and veggie scramble.

Breakfast that fits

For those of us who are into fitness and health, breakfast does not need to be about eating the same thing day in and day out. You know the bland oatmeal that has no taste, or the fiber-rich cereal that feels like cardboard when it is going down; there is no need to continue down that path. Let's take a look at a few ideas to keep breakfast healthy while still keeping an eye on the waistline.

Smoothie satisfaction

Smoothies are great ways to get the servings that you need each day while keeping a watchful eye on your waistline. To top it all of, smoothies taste great too. Where else can you have a full day's servings of fruits in one convenient glass? Believe it or not, smoothies are also a great way to get a bulk of your servings of vegetables. By adding greens to your smoothies, which do not have a lot of flavor, you can make a ridiculously looking green concoction, which tastes like a fruit smoothie and is loaded in vitamins and rich antioxidants.

On a warm summer morning, there is no better way to start out your day than with a deliciously chilled smoothie. Another great benefit about smoothies is that if you use any supplements, many of them can be combined into your smoothie so there is no extra flavor detected. This makes taking your vitamins and supplements a touch more enjoyable since you are overtaken with the strong fruit flavors.

Pasta power

If you would rather have something warm to start your day, pasta is a great way to get the job done. Pasta is a complex carbohydrate, which means that it will break down over a longer period of time to form energy than sugar or simple carbohydrates will. Many cultures actually have pastas and grains for breakfast in order to provide the essential energy needed to get through the day.

Pasta is also very filling, much like oatmeal, so your cravings to much throughout the morning are substantially suppressed. The reason it is difficult to want to eat breakfast and still remain fit, is because most breakfast meals will leave you feeling hungry again by 10:00, not to mention, your body already out of energy. Pasta will help keep both of these issues in check and your waistline will stay there too.

Death before decaf

Coffee is a well-received morning drink. Coffee, in its original state, is not bad for you. The issues arise when we add half a pound of sugar, some milk, a few squirts of caramel sauce and top it all off with whipped cream. While many people cannot take coffee in its unaltered form, a simple reduction in additives will make a huge difference in your fitness goals.

There is no reason to completely give up your creamers, sugars and other add-ons, but try cutting them in half for a week. If you are able to make it through, the full strength cup of joe will seem like you will go into a diabetic coma from the sugar overload. Don't quit cold turkey, but do try to scale down your sugar consumption over time.