What do you do when you wake up in the morning?  Do you exercise and stretch?  Do you take a shower and then do your hair?  Do you watch tv?  No matter what your plans are, one thing that should be in everyone’s morning schedule is the most important meal of the day: breakfast.

Many students these days, in fact, are not getting enough breakfast. This is a prominent issue in today’s society, resulting in lack of motivation.

Eating breakfast is the first step to a healthy day. It keeps one from munching on unhealthy snacks and provides the energy needed to stay awake.

It is also vital to incorporate nutritious options into this first meal. These choices should fit in with your daily healthy diet.  Some suggested foods include fruits, vegetables, yogurt, eggs, sausage, or even pancakes. All of these options provide the recommended daily nutrients that one should be receiving from their meals.

As far as beverages go, milk, unsweetened juice, and water are perfect options.  Another option is coffee. It may shock some to hear that coffee can be a healthy breakfast drink, but it is not unhealthy to consume caffeine in moderation according to MayoClinic.org. Drinking coffee can improve fatigue, focus, and concentration.  It can also wake you up for the day ahead.

Having a healthy breakfast gets the brain going, and thereby prepares one for the rest of their day. It is of the utmost importance that students realize that skipping breakfast can have some terrible repercussions throughout the course of their lives.

There is some speculation that skipping breakfast can actually lead to losing weight.  However, recent studies at the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health suggest otherwise. The findings show that subjects who skipped breakfast became hungrier later in the day and therefore ate more at night.  This evidence supports the idea that portioning out one’s meals can prevent binge eating which can lead to weight gain. So, even if the first food a student eats isn’t the healthiest option, it is still important to get some sort of nourishment.

“Something is better than nothing,” stated Kale Johnson, one of the health teachers at New Berlin West.  “It’s going to jumpstart your metabolism.”

However, many students claim they simply do not have the time for breakfast.  Because of this lack of time, students are encouraged to munch on something simple, like a protein bar or string cheese.  These healthier options are better because they provide more nutrition. If ingesting sugary products, the student may crash later in the day because they have not been supplied with lasting energy.

Another way to fit breakfast into a person’s day is to have a pre-prepared meal made before hand.  Planning ahead can lead students to avoid more accessible options that are not exactly nutritious.

“Something that’s quick and cheap is probably not going to be healthy,” said Johnson.  “Planning ahead is really important.”

Fixing yourself some strawberry parfaits the night before so that there is no preparation necessary the next morning can prove to be both a quick and healthy strategy for breakfast. This can be a tedious job, but by completing it the night before means having more time in the morning to shower and get ready for the day.