If it’s the most important meal of the day, why do 31 million Americans skip breakfast, and why do those who manage to find enough time to eat breakfast eat at horribly unhealthy fast food restaurants, gas stations and convenient stores? After years of falling into this same trap, I started to realize that getting a healthy breakfast wasn’t the biggest problem. The bigger problem was time. Who has time to cook, eat, and clean up a healthy breakfast each morning? We’re too busy snoozing, showering, trying on two or three outfits for work, feeding the dog, getting the kids up, and getting them off to school. There’s just no time to eat the most important meal of the day. That’s why I decided I needed a breakfast that wasn’t just healthy but was also super efficient.
What’s Inefficient About Breakfast?
A recent study asked 10,000 people why they rarely eat breakfast. Many of the reasons they gave were directly related to time and efficiency. 34% said they didn’t have time, 23% said they were running late, and 18% of said they didn’t feel like cooking. Those all sound like efficiency problems to me.
The 4 Inefficient Steps of Breakfast
Breakfast doesn’t just involve eating. Before you can eat, you have to think about what you want to eat. Then you have to prepare and cook the breakfast; and when you’re all done eating, you have to clean up. Those are four fairly time-consuming and thus inefficient steps. There has to be a better way.
- Deciding what to cook for breakfast.
- Cooking your breakfast.
- Eating your breakfast
- Cleaning up after your breakfast.
How do we minimize the above steps it takes to have a healthy and efficient breakfast? The first thing you need to do is to get rid of the “deciding” each morning. Thinking and deciding what to eat is an efficiency nightmare. Opening and closing the cabinets, and staring endlessly into the fridge leads to frustration and wasted time. Decide what you’re going to eat all week for breakfast on Sunday.
You can also easily remove prepping and cooking from your morning routine. Prepping and cooking takes precious time that you simply do not have. Only prep and cook on Sundays, before the work week begins.
Once prepping and cooking are removed from the equation, the cleaning just disappears on its own. Pots, pans, blenders, plates, bowls and silverware are no longer a burden on your morning routine.
This leaves you with one important and efficient step, eating.
The 2-Minute Healthy and Efficient Breakfast
Finally, here’s my recommendation for the perfect 2-minute healthy and efficient breakfast. Let me begin by stating the obvious. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. I’m just an average “Marvin” with ADHD and million things his plate. However, I’ve done my research and I’ve tested my theory before I came to this conclusion. 2 hard-boiled eggs and 1 banana is the most efficient and healthiest breakfast. Your entire breakfast can easily be prepped for the week, leaving you with about 2-minutes of eating each morning. I’m sure some of you are thinking about of alternatives to 2 hard-boiled eggs and a banana. What about things like breakfast bars and instant oatmeal? Breakfast bars are either doused in chocolate, or simply don’t have enough protein and nutrients to do the job. In addition, I’m sick of the high costs and the mystery of what’s actually in those breakfast bars. And oatmeal involves cooking, eating and cleaning. No thank you. 2 prepared hard-boiled eggs and a banana are the perfect choice for me.
Why is This Healthy and Efficient?
1. No Deciding
Thinking and deciding what to eat each morning is a time killer. Remove those steps from the equation by knowing you’re going to have two hard-boiled eggs and a banana each morning.
2. Zero Cooking Time
If you hard boiled ten eggs on Sunday night, you’ll have two eggs to eat each morning before work. Now your morning prep time will be peeling two eggs and a banana. Unless of course, you peel your eggs Sunday night after you boil them. I don’t do this because in my opinion, the eggs stay fresher if they have not been peeled.
Note: Hard-boiled eggs stay fresh for about a week in the refrigerator after they’ve been boiled.
3. It’s Super Healthy
According to the USDA, one large hard-boiled egg contains 72 calories. Of course, calories aren’t always the most important nutritional value to know, but it’s a number we all know and can easily understand. So, two hard-boiled eggs would be about 144 total calories, and about 12 grams of protein.
BTW: If you’re thinking that eggs are bad for you, I’ve got great news; that theory has been debunked. It’s totally Ok and healthy to eat entire eggs, and not just egg whites.
Checkout this article from Dr Hyman: Eggs Don’t Cause Heart Attacks — Sugar Does
The banana has about 105 calories and 27 grams of carbs. The glycemic index, which is a system that ranks foods from 1-100 based on the rate at which they enter the blood stream. According to the International GI Database, a ripe banana has glycemic index of 51, which releases energy into the blood stream at a slow rate. This is great to keep you very energized all morning.
4. No Cleaning
This is that last key to an efficient and healthy breakfast. If you prep your hard-boiled eggs on Sunday, then you won’t have anything to clean each morning, except for throwing your banana peel and eggs shells away.
Bonus: The Secret to Making the
Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
I was boiling eggs ALL wrong!. Then I found the secret to making perfect hard-boiled eggs that keeps your yolk a beautiful yellow, instead of a horrible green. Click one of the share buttons below – the recipe will appear.
My Final Thoughts
Unfortunately it’s really hard to eat a healthy breakfast, mainly because it takes too much time. It may seem a bit strange, but most of us need to learn how to master the art of breakfast. Don’t wake up each morning and think what you’re going to have for breakfast. Have your breakfast planned out each week. In all, stop making a healthy breakfast the only goal. Instead, prioritize an efficient breakfast, in addition to a healthy breakfast.
Best of luck and thanks for your time.
What’s Your 2-Minute Healthy and Efficient Breakfast?
Tell Me Below!