Introduction

• In a previous post I have explained in detail why a few months ago I decided to switch to a have a ketogenic breakfast, you can find it here. In that blog I covered what a ketogenic meal is, the benefits of adding a ketogenic meal to your day, and what ketogenic food I eat for breakfast. I do not want to cover old ground here, so if the term ketogenic is new to you I strongly recommend you read my first post before reading further.
• The aim of this post is to share the newest addition to my ketogenic breakfast armoury and explain why I decided it was time to add something new.

New Meal 

• To date my ketogenic breakfast has involved two meals; (1) Egg whites, salsa & spinach and (2) Blueberry and lemon muffins made with almond flour. I alternated these throughout the week to keep from getting bored, 3 days number 1, 2 days number 2 and then swapping the following week. I often eat a different ketogenic breakfast at the weekend consisting of scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes and grilled mushrooms, however am a lot let strict at the weekend and will sometimes have non-ketogenic alternatives. This system worked well for 3 months and I found it very easy to fall into the new routine.
• However, I didn’t like not having a third alternative during the week and felt my weekend breakfast was too lengthy to make to be a week day option. This was very weird for me because prior to moving to a ketogenic breakfast, for more than two years, I ate Weetabix every working day of the week. Perhaps adding a little more variety to my breakfast opened my mind and palate up to wanting more variety, or maybe I’m just a little weird!
• Either way, I decided it was time to add something new into the mix. After a fair amount of deliberation I decided to go with: canned mackerel, a boiled egg and spinach.
• At the moment I’m being rather flexible with how I incorporate the third meal into my breakfast planning. Whereas I used to be rigid about what I had each day now I choose on a Sunday evening and a Wednesday evening want I’ll have for the next few days based on the ingredients I have available and my mood.

Why I’ve added New Meal 

• I’ve touched on the one potential reason why I wanted to add something new above, however there are a few more reasons;
  • Reduce Time – Whilst the blueberry and lemon muffins are very quick and easy to make and eat I was finding the egg whites were taking longer than I really wanted to spend in the morning preparing food. Whereas the mackerel is as easy as opening a can and I cook the hard boiled eggs in batches on the weekend and only take 8mins to do.
  • Reduce Mess – Similar to the above, this one isn’t applicable to the blueberry and lemon muffins. I didn’t enjoy cooking the egg whites in the microwave as Tim Ferriss suggests and it was effort and messy to clean the frying pan each morning, especially with how stringy dried on egg whites can become.
  • Reduce Cost – The almond flour required for the blueberry and lemon muffins costs £5 per 14 muffins, and given I eat 2 muffins per morning on top of the cost for the other ingredients it adds up quickly. Whereas a can of mackerel only costs 60-70p, whilst whole eggs are cheaper than separated egg whites.
• The above reasons weren’t enough for me to want to remove either of my existing breakfasts from the menu, but were enough for me to want to add something new in.

Conclusion 

• I am really happy with my decision to move to having ketogenic breakfasts, and I’ve seen noticeable improvements in my energy levels and muscle gain as a result. I also feel much better for having added a third option to my breakfast routine, providing more flexibility and variety.
• However, I am acutely aware of not wanting to add too many options into the mix. As I highlighted in my ‘Paradox of Options’ blog, here, having too many variations and alternatives isn’t a good thing and can use up valuable time and mental capacity.
• I will continue to evaluate my ketogenic breakfast options, so if you have any recipes or alternative ideas I’d love to hear them!

 

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