We know that eating breakfast is important and plays a valuable role in increasing your metabolism and energy throughout the day.
So what if you’re eating breakfast regularly, but you still don’t feel great?
Just because you’re eating breakfast doesn’t mean your metabolism is working as it should.
Here are 5 ways to tell that your metabolism needs some more support:
- You’re not hungry in the morning.
- You need to eat every 2-3 hours or you get “hangry.”
- You’re working out in the gym hours every week and not seeing results.
- You’re gaining weight, struggling to lose weight, or struggling to maintain your weight.
- You have hormone imbalances (PMS, PCOS, thyroid issues, etc)
So now you’ve decided you want to work on improving and optimizing your metabolism, what’s next?
Here are 5 things that you can do to help your metabolism:
1. Eat within an hour of waking up.
Even if you’re not hungry, eat a little something, such as a protein paired with a fat or a fiber source. As your body slowly responds and starts to feel hungry, you can start eating a little more until you’re eating a full breakfast. And “eat within an hour of waking up” doesn’t mean “eat as soon as you get up.” You can wait an hour. But your metabolism will benefit from consistent morning fuel within a reasonable time frame of being up for the day.
2. Make time to eat.
I know this can be hard for a lot of busy, driven women. But if it’s important to you, you’ll make time for it. Prep ahead. Plan quick grab and go meals. Go to bed earlier, so you can wake up earlier to fit it in. This may sound a little harsh, but not having time is not a solid reason to not eat meals IF you really want to make a change. And if you find that time is really where you struggle, consider the next step.
3. Shift your mindset.
WHY do you want to help your metabolism? WHY do you want to eat breakfast in the morning? WHY do you want to make time to eat meals consistently throughout the day? Even, WHY don’t you have the time currently? What could shift to carve out time? Digging into your WHY behind the WHAT is key to habit change. I talk more about this and how to find your why HERE.
4. Walk more and workout less.
If you’re the person that says “I workout for hours in the gym and nothing seems to change!” you need to take a step back. Lots of exercise, especially high intensity exercise is a stressor on the body. And while some activity stress is good, more is not better. The best activity we can do for our metabolism is to walk and lift heavy weights. HEAVY weights. What qualifies as heavy? Something that you struggle to do after 8-10 reps. And if you’re building progressive overload into your workouts you should be gradually increasing the amount of weight, time under tension, or number of reps week to week. We don’t want to be doing the same workout over and over OR random workouts without a structure set up to increase strength over time.
5. Eat PHFF.
PHFF = Protein + Healthy Fat + Fiber. Eating PHFF balanced meals helps to give us satiety, slow down our insulin response to the carbs we eat, and fuels good bacteria in our GI system. By steadying blood sugar levels, PHFF meals provide us with steady energy throughout the day, reduces sugar cravings, increases thyroid, hormone, and metabolic health, improves mood and digestion, and eliminates that 3 pm energy crash. Want more info on PHFF meals? This post speaks to this further.
Do any of these items surprise you? What do you struggle with more regarding your metabolism? I would love to chat further with you!
