Best Morning Foods to Boost Your Workday Energy

As a busy career woman, you need to start your day out feeling energized, focused, and alert. When you are expected to do important tasks first thing in the morning, there’s no time to still have “brain fog” or morning sluggishness.

To optimize your morning so that you can have the most fulfilling and productive day, you want to start your day with the most energizing foods. Ones that will increase your energy right away, while maintaining that energy throughout the morning.

Foods that you can rely on to carry you through meetings, projects, etc.

When most of us think of morning energy, our minds tend to go straight to coffee. At first, it eases you into the start of your day when you hear the calming sound of the coffee as it fills your favorite mug. Then you feel the energizing effects of the caffeine start to work its magic.

Or do you?

Perhaps you never really feel increased energy, and only experience jitters or anxiety. Maybe you don’t even drink caffeine in the morning at all.

Luckily, there are many energizing alternatives to start your day out right. All of which, have other health benefits as well.

• LISTEN TO OR READ: Healthier Breakfast Habits
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

There are two categories of foods that are most beneficial for morning energy that I’d like you to work into your breakfast or mid-morning snack if you aren’t a “breakfast person.”.

They are complex carbohydrates and “healthy” fats (monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats).

Side Note: You may have noticed that I didn’t mention protein as a category. This is because your body prefers not to have to turn protein into energy. It will mainly only do so if there aren’t carbohydrates or fats available. Protein is mostly reserved for cellular repair and many other functions of the body.

Energizing Morning Food: Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates are long-chains of molecules that are converted into glucose and in turn, energy.

This energy is longer lasting than the energy acquired from simple carbohydrates, such as cane sugar, syrups, etc. These sugars enter the bloodstream too quickly.

This unfortunately means your energy levels will also fall very quickly with simple carbohydrates. This leaves you wondering how you will get through the rest of your day.

The Downside of Rapidly Falling Energy

Rapidly falling energy levels will typically lead to bad choices in an attempt to increase your energy level back to where it was.

For example, have you ever noticed when you are feeling low on energy while at work, that you may be more likely to eat one of the donuts or muffins your colleague brought in?

Or you may grab another cup of coffee, with an extra teaspoon of sugar, adding to that already jittery feeling?

This is a natural human tendency and is your primitive brain at work. Your brain naturally wants to seek out a calorie-dense food, such as sugar or fat, when it is feeling low on energy.

Our ancestors relied on this for survival, as this led them to hunt and gather. They would specifically seek out calorie-dense food that they didn’t have to expend a lot of energy on to find.

Unfortunately, our brains are still wired like this today. This is one of the many struggles that we have with food. It is also something I help women with when it comes to breaking eating habits that have developed due to our primitive brain at work.

• Related Reading: How to Change Your Eating Habits
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habit and Weight Loss Tips

The Complex Carbs You Want to Eat

So what are some examples of complex carbohydrates that decrease the likelihood of poor food choices due to rapidly falling energy?

Whole grains and fruit are two primary categories of complex carbs that you’re going to want to make a habit of eating in the morning.

Examples of whole grains include oats, barley, quinoa, and farro.

Examples of fruits that are favored most are bananas, berries, and apples since they are high in fiber.

Of the complex carbohydrates, oats are my favorite as a morning food. They are versatile, quick, and have a slight natural sweetness. You can top your oats with fruit as well as some of the other ingredients I’ll be mentioning shortly.

Another benefit of complex carbohydrates is that they are a high satiety food, meaning that they keep you feeling full, longer. This means getting through your morning without needing to snack as much.

Energizing Morning Food: “Healthy” Fats

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are “healthy fats”.

These types of fats aid in blood glucose control, meaning that they don’t cause a drastic spike in blood glucose (and in turn, energy). This allows for a longer-lasting and a very steady energy level.

There was a large meta-analysis supporting this, published in 2016. It was led by Dariush Mozaffarian M.D., Dr.P.H., dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. It was also led by Fumiaki Imamura, Ph.D., at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge.

They found that a diet rich in mono- or polyunsaturated fat, rather than one consisting of saturated fat or carbohydrates only, benefited blood glucose control. This of course can benefit diabetics, but also non-diabetics.

The “Healthy” Fats You Want to Eat

Examples of foods containing these mono- and polyunsaturated fat include avocado and numerous nuts and seeds, such as almonds, cashews, pecans, peanuts, flax seed and chia seed.

You can easily top your oats with nuts, flax or chia seeds, or a nut butter. Just be aware that some nut butters can have added sugar or oils, and are also calorie-dense.

Flax and chia seeds are especially helpful in the morning as they are also high satiety foods.

Below are a few breakfast or mid-morning snack suggestions. They help maximize your morning energy so you can perform at your highest level at work.

Energy Boosting Morning Food Combinations:

— Oatmeal topped with berries, almonds, and chia seeds

— Oatmeal topped lightly with peanut butter and flax seeds (my favorite)

— Whole grain toast with avocado, chia seeds, and a pinch of garlic powder

— Whole grain toast with almond butter and sliced apple or banana

— Smoothie (hydrating too!) made up of banana, peanut butter, chia and flax seeds

— Smoothie made up of berries, almond butter, chia and flax seeds

• Related: Avoid These 3 “Health Foods” That Are Actually Unhealthy

Final Note

Although coffee is delightful and can make you feel more energetic, our bodies require water to create energy. This means that water is a key component to boosting your energy throughout the day. This is especially true in the morning since we wake up dehydrated.

If you are a caffeine consumer, supplementing with plenty of water is especially recommended as caffeine is dehydrating.

I encourage you to start making a habit of drinking 1-2 cups of water in the morning. You’ll want to try to do this in addition to a breakfast consisting of the foods above. (You’ll be amazed at how much more energized and focused you feel.)

You’ll also start out your day with intention and having your own health in mind, which is so incredibly important.