For a while, skipping breakfast felt like the perfect solution. It worked, until it didn't.
It worked until I was running on stress hormones every day. Until my blood sugar was chronically high. Until my hormones were a mess. Until I was completely depleted. Until I burnt out.
When I started intermittent fasting, giving up breakfast seemed the easiest option. Dinner was my social meal, and I wasn't giving that up. Every fasting guide at the time said to skip breakfast anyway. And at first it felt great. My mornings were productive, my mind was sharp and I felt on top of the world. Looking back, that high was running on cortisol and adrenaline, my body's stress hormones.
What nobody was talking about then was how fasting affects women differently. Most of the advice was based on research in men. But I didn't question it. Why wouldn't I be able to do what men did?
I grew up believing I could achieve anything if I worked hard enough. Nobody taught me how to listen to my body, respect what it needed, or notice what happened when I kept overriding it. I was in my push-my-body-as-hard-as-I-can era. When things stopped working, I didn't question the approach. I pushed harder.
So I made my fasting window longer. I ate less, exercised more and expected my body to go along with it. The harder I pushed, the more it pushed back. My face got puffier, my clothes got tighter, and I couldn't shift even a few pounds. The approach that was supposed to help me was holding me back.
When I hit burnout, I knew something had to change. I needed to nourish my body instead of fighting it. I swapped restriction and intensity for rest and proper meals, starting with a protein-rich breakfast. Slowly, things settled. My energy steadied, the puffiness went, and the extra weight came off without me forcing it.
Today I believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for women and anyone under a lot of stress. My go-to is my protein-packed breakfast smoothie, which keeps my energy steady all morning.
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