Today I want to talk about the best breakfast options for those who want to balance their hormones naturally. Breakfast is such an important meal of the day. It kickstarts your metabolism, it’s the first opportunity to make a healthy choice and it can set you up for healthy eating for the rest of the day.

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It’s a great way to learn how to listen to your body as well. If you wake up in the morning and you’re not hungry, always try and wait until you do get that first hunger signal before you start eating. It might take a little while and it depends on how much you’ve eaten the night before and how much exercise you’ve done the previous day. But, ideally we want to get you to the point where when you wake up in the morning you’re actually feeling physically hungry and you’re ready for breakfast. That might take a little bit of time in terms of just working out how much food you’re consuming each day and getting that balance right, but it’s a good chance to know that your digestion and food intake is on track when you wake up in the morning and you’re actually hungry, physically hungry and you’re ready to eat breakfast.

So, My Three Top Breakfast Choices:

1. Poached Eggs with Vegetables.

It’s a great way to start your day with some additional protein but also a whole bunch of phyto-nutrients and anti-oxidants and fibre in vegetables. Most of us don’t eat enough vegetables during the course of the day but, if you start the day with vegetables you know you’re off on the right track.

I love sauteeing mushrooms and greens, either baby spinach leaves or kale with a little bit of butter or olive oil and some garlic. A whole wad of that, I make quite a large serve.

I poach two eggs and when the eggs are finished poaching just serve it on a plate with the sautéed vegetables underneath and the two poached eggs on top with some cracked black pepper and Himalayan Pink Sea salt on top. A delicious way to start the day.

You could also make a pesto with some fresh Basil leaves and olive oil and sprinkle that on top. Just a small amount of the pesto on top makes it even more delicious. That’s a wonderful way to start your day and you’ll find that it will actually keep you full well and truly until lunch time.

2. The “Good for your Gut Flora Breakfast”

My second choice would be the “Good For Your Gut Flora Breakfast”.  This is for women who are really working on replenishing their gut flora. Gut flora is so important.

Having enough healthy bugs in our bodies helps us to digest foods, absorb nutrients and eliminate waste products and excessive hormones from the system. So, making a conscious effort to restore a healthy gut micro-biome everyday can only lead to long term health benefits.

For women who are experiencing constipation, I’d add some stewed prunes to this breakfast.  Try and get certified organic prunes if you can, so that you’re not consuming a whole lot of sulphite preservatives. Buy a bag of prunes, empty the prunes into saucepan, cover with water, simmer it for about 10 minutes or so and store the prunes and prune juice in a glass storage container in the fridge.

For this breakfast I’d have anywhere between 3 and 8 prunes, depending on what’s happening with your gut at this point in time. So, if you’re constipated have more of the prunes, if you’re not have less of the prunes. But a few prunes, grate up an apple or in winter time have it with stewed apple. So, either grate a whole apple or have about a cup full of stewed apple in a bowl, top it with about two tablespoons of certified organic natural yoghurt, one to two tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal and about a teaspoon of cinnamon.

The cinnamon’s fantastic for supporting healthy blood glucose regulation. The flaxseed meal’s a great source of soluble fibre and also phyto-oestrogens, which will help to support your hormonal regulation in addition to protein and fat-soluble nutrients.

The natural yoghurt will give your body a boost of probiotics and the apple contains a source of soluble fibre called pectin which is a pre-biotic. The good bugs that are already living in your gut love pectin and it will help them to reproduce and multiply.

So, having that breakfast is a great way to start your day, great for your gut and great for your hormones.

3. Porridge

My third option for breakfast in Winter is actually beautiful porridge.

If you don’t have Coeliac disease you should be able to tolerate oats. Oats are a great source of soluble fibre which helps to move oestrogen metabolites through the bowel.  Oats are also excellent for managing cholesterol and a great source of whole grains. Wholegrains  give our bodies a great source of B Vitamins along with the fibre.

The way I like to make my porridge is I pour my oats into a saucepan and then I cover them with boiling water and I just let that sit on the stovetop while I head off and start getting dressed and getting my kids ready for the day. Once the oats have absorbed the water, then I add some milk.  You can use whatever type of milk you like.  Almond milk is great.  If you’re using any dairy, always try to make sure that it’s certified organic and A2 if you can, which means that it’s easier for the body to digest.  Rice milk is okay if you’re allergic to nuts and dairy intolerant.

Bring that to a simmer and let it simmer until you’ve got a really lovely thick porridge. Serve it in a bowl, I love berries with my porridge, but again, add flaxseed meal to the breakfast if you can so that you’re getting those phyto-oestrogens and also that teaspoon of cinnamon for healthy blood glucose regulation.

If you want to add a little bit of honey for extra sweetness you can but just remember that’s going to disrupt your blood glucose levels, so you want to minimise the sweetness as much as you can. But, using cinnamon will give you that sweet taste and also the longer term health benefit of stabilising blood glucose regulation.

So, that’s my three favourite breakfasts. I think the key here as well is variety.  Variety is the spice of life. Try and incorporate as many different foods into your diet as you can on a regular basis. So, you might to alternate these breakfasts.  Have the eggs with the vegetables a couple of days of the week, have porridge once a week, have the “Good for your Gut Flora Breakfast” a couple of times a week.

Just mix it up as much as you’re able to.  Then you’re having a broader intake of a variety of different nutrients in your diet and less chance of developing food intolerances from eating the same foods over and over and over again.

Hope you enjoy your breakfast!

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