I Ate Veggies For Breakfast Every Day For 1 Month — Here's How It Affected Sugar Cravings

I follow a well-known whole-food, plant-based YouTuber and author named Chef AJ, and have learned so much about the most-filling nutrient-dense foods, healthy recipes, and how to meal prep. On many of her shows, and in her book, The Secrets to Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss, she mentions one of her tips, which is to eat a big bowl of non-starchy veggies for breakfast.

This is also something Dr. John McDougall encourages in his book The Starch Solution. He refers to it as the 50/50 plate, where you eat half your plate non-starchy veggies and half your plate starch like rice, beans, or potatoes — yes, even at breakfast time!

Chef AJ has a background on food addiction — specifically to refined, processed foods made with sugar and white flour — and suggests that, in her personal experience, starting your day with typical breakfast options that are sweet (like cereal, pancakes, muffins, and even fruit-filled oatmeal) can trigger a person to crave sugar for the rest of the day.

I related to this so much! I thought I was doing a good thing by eating a couple of bananas with peanut butter, overnight oats with berries, or a big fruity green smoothie for my first meal of the day. But within an hour or two, I started wanting something else sweet.

I'd eat some fresh fruit, but it never really satisfied that sweet craving and I couldn't understand why — I just wanted to keep eating. It made me feel a little out of control because deep down I really didn't want something super sweet since too much sugar (even fruit!) upsets my stomach, but still, I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I figured I'd give this a try for a week. As a plant-based eater, I do love my veggies, and was shocked that I actually kept going for an entire month.

I eat my first meal of the day when I'm hungry, which is anywhere from 9:45 a.m. to noon. For the first few days of the veggies-for-breakfast month, I would mix veggies into my oatmeal, like shredded carrots or riced cauliflower. It was yummy, but it changed the texture of my oatmeal too much, and I really loved my creamy oats as they were!

I quickly switched to eating a separate small bowl of steamed broccoli, cauliflower, or carrots (or a mix of all three), and then I'd eat my oatmeal. I started with about half a pound of veggies (half a small bag), and by the end of that first week, I was eating one pound of veggies. By the second week, I was actually looking forward to my warm bowl!

To make eating veggies for breakfast easy, I kept bags in the freezer. The steamable ones were so convenient, but a little pricer. So by the third week, I was buying big bags and dividing them into glass containers so they could thaw in the fridge. Some days I'd eat raw baby carrots, but since it's so cold here in Vermont, 90 percent of the time I went with the steamed veggies. They tasted amazing with a little drizzle of this maple balsamic vinegar I recently discovered!

For the first two weeks, I'd eat a bowl of oatmeal with my veggies, but for the second and fourth weeks, I alternated the oats with roasted sweet potatoes. I'd bake a huge batch on Sunday, so they'd be ready for the week.

Like I've said before, I love eating veggies, and eating them for breakfast for one month just made me love them even more. It solidified what I already know — eating veggies makes me feel awesome! I felt more energetic, and experienced what Chef AJ said I would — reduced sugar cravings! I was shocked, and so grateful. I no longer wanted to eat something sweet all day long. I still had sugar cravings here and there, but they were dramatically decreased.

Filling up on veggies first thing made me feel fuller and more satisfied, and I noticed that I was less hungry throughout the day. It also inspired me to make more healthy choices when it came to eating, but also motivated me to want to move a little more, and take more time for self-care. My digestion felt great, I slept well, and felt energetic for my morning 10,000-meter rows. It also helped me loose the few pounds I gained over the past few months during quarantine.

I honestly thought I wouldn't enjoy eating veggies for breakfast, and that I'd only last one week. But I'm loving it so much and am so excited about this new feel-good habit, that I'm even taking selfies with my veggies (wow, I've hit a new level of plant-based living!). I'm definitely going to continue this practice.

The one negative about this new habit, and the one thing I feel badly about, is the numerous plastic bags that are being wasted. The convenience of the freezer bags was key to help me stick with this the first few weeks, but now that I'm loving it enough to keep going, and I'm actually craving veggies for breakfast, I need to stop buying the frozen bags. I have these reusable produce bags, so I'm planning to buy massive amounts of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and bell peppers to eat for breakfast (on top of all the other veggies I already buy for the rest of my meals). It'll take some extra meal-prep time, but the bonus is that it'll encourage me to eat more of a variety of in-season veggies in the morning.