Healthy Breakfasts at the Office

Breakfast sets the course for your eating habits every day. When you take the time to prepare and enjoy a healthful, well-balanced breakfast, you'll be even more resolved to stay on track with your choices the remainder of the day. The following resources can help you plan and prepare a healthy breakfast:

• Why Breakfast is Important
• 10 Tips for a Better Breakfast
• Seven Smart Breakfast Secrets
• Low Cal Breakfast Recipes

But what if you just don't find the time to eat at home before you leave for work? Forget high-cal breakfast sandwiches at the drive-through. It's easier than you think to have healthy breakfasts at the office!

Keep a Breakfast Stash at the Office

If you don't have time to prepare a meal at home before work, bring something with you to eat at the office. To make it easier, bring enough for the week on Monday so you don't have to worry about grabbing it each morning. Some of my favorite office-friendly breakfast ideas include:

• granola bar
• shelf-stable milk (such as Parmalat)
• peanut butter on whole-wheat English muffin
• frozen whole-grain waffle
• high-fiber cereal
• drinkable yogurt
• instant oatmeal packs

Make Your Go-to Breakfast More Filling

Keeping cereal at work is a great solution. If you are a regular cereal eater, you may have found that you're hungry again a few hours in to work. Choosing a whole-grain variety of cereal can help increase your sense of fullness. Add a cup of 2% milk, some fruit and a few nuts -- the protein and fiber combo will make it even more filling and you will feel satisfied longer.

Tame Meeting Treat Temptation

If there is food at an early morning meeting and you left home without eating breakfast, it's virtually impossible to resist a treat. Keep an eye on portions, though, because you'll want something more substantial very soon: Remember, typical office foods -- cookies, pastries, doughnuts -- give you a temporary energy rush, then a crash later, without truly satisfying your hunger. If you're not truly hungry, avoid it; there is a feeling of "stuffed" and there is simply "not hungry" which differs. (Don't eat just because you're "not stuffed" because that's the same as overeating.) If you feel your resolve is waning, try to sit away from, or with your back to, the snacks.

Have an "Emergency" Back-Up Plan

It's important to have a back-up plan for situations in which you just can't seem to get it together in the morning. If you don't have a chance to get any food, but you can't do without your a.m. coffee, choose a tall non-fat latte -- it has just 100 calories and 10 grams of protein and will stave off hunger for a while. Or, store dry cereal, dried fruit and nuts in your car so you can throw together a quick breakfast trail mix in a pinch.