How This Breakfast Recipe Can Help Stop Binge Eating (2024)

Breakfast is important for anyone who struggles with unwanted eating—and it's not because eating breakfast helps you lose weight.

Breakfast isn't necessarily the most important meal of the day, but if you struggle with afternoon or evening overeating, then having the pleasure, relaxation, and nutrition that comes from a mindful, delicious breakfast can really help.

If breakfast isn't your thing, that's cool (and you can apply these principles to lunch), but don't force yourself. Here's why you might want to consider having a quality breakfast if you struggle with unwanted eating.

Self-care

You might be tempted to skip breakfast if you ate more than you wanted to the night before. It seems to make sense, right? You ate "too many" calories last night, so you'll skip breakfast to make up for it. Even if you're hungry.

But that's not a very caring attitude. If your child ate a lot of candy last night, there's no way you'd make them skip breakfast the next day! So, don't do that to yourself, either.

Instead, treat yourself kindly and give yourself the permission to enjoy breakfast, no matter what you did or ate yesterday. Today's a new start; get it right by caring for yourself. Unwanted eating can really benefit from upping your mindful self-care, so use breakfast as an opportunity to love yourself up.

Stress

If mornings are usually a stressful time for you, setting aside time and space to eat can be amazing. Stress is a major cause of unwanted eating, so the more relaxation you can get into your day, the better. And what better time to start than at breakfast?

Find a nice place to sit down and eat, breathe, and taste your first meal of the day—and know that you're doing right by yourself.

Hunger

An obvious one, but if you wake up hungry, or get ravenous by midmorning and then make food choices that aren't what you really want, then breakfast is a good way to go.

Don't punish yourself or think that feeling hungry is making up for any past overeating. By getting fat, fiber, and protein in your breakfast, you will be able to manage your hunger much better throughout the day.

Nutrition

Another huge contributor to afternoon and evening unwanted eating is not getting enough nutrition throughout the day. Your mind and body are telling you "hey, we're missing some stuff, eat more please!" and so you do.

The easiest way to heal this is to make sure you're getting nutrient-dense foods regularly throughout the day.

Getting quality fats and protein at breakfast is fantastic and will set you up well for the day. Here's a breakfast cake recipe to help you do just that!

Peach + Banana Upside-Down Cake

This recipe is perfect for filling all of the areas we've just talked about.

It's a delicious breakfast for those of us who love muffins but know they don't serve us. Coconut flour can be tricky to work with, but this recipe makes a lovely cake that's not too dry or heavy.

There's a healthy serving of protein (about 14 grams per serving), fiber (15 grams per serving), and fat (24 grams per serving), absolutely no added sugar, and the recipe is totally gluten-free.

This cake is awesome, and I make it weekly, slice it into four parts, and eat a reheated slice every day for breakfast. I feel like I'm treating myself (because: cake!) but also know I'm healing myself from the inside out and supporting my eating choices for the rest of the day.

You also have options for variations on the recipe.

Option 1: Turn it into muffins by using a muffin tin and reducing the baking time by 10 minutes.

Option 2: Use any other kind of sliced soft, dry-ish fruit in the base of the pan. Berries, apricot, or even more banana are great.

Ingredients

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line a 9-by-5-inch baking pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, blend eggs, bananas, and oil. (I do this with my immersion blender, but you can use a food processor or mix by hand. If mixing by hand, mash the bananas first.)

2. Add flour, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger. Blend well. Mix in chia seeds using a rubber spatula. The mixture will be a bit thick, but if it seems very dry, add a little milk.

3. Layer the peaches in the bottom of the baking pan. Gently pour over the cake batter and cover the peaches evenly.

4. Bake for 30 minutes, until the middle of the cake springs back when pressed.

5. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool slightly. Turn out onto cooling rack and remove paper to allow the bottom to dry a little. Cool completely. Cut into 4 servings, and store in an airtight container in the fridge.