Every year I set small monthly goals.

This year my goals are focused on health and wellbeing with the larger aim to form better habits throughout the year (my 2022 goals).

I started the year off by aiming to have porridge for breakfast everyday throughout January.

@dairyfreedaisy Quick breakfast. I like Lilk in my porridge but made this one with water because we were running low. #dairyfreelife #dairyfreeuk #dairyfreebreakfast ♬ original sound – daisy

My go-to breakfast is Marmite on toast. I love it, it’s the perfect way to start the day but it was time to take a step back from eating it every single day.

To put it really simply I need to cut down on how much bread I’m eating and I need a simple and quick way to add chia seeds, kiwi, banana and other superfoods into my diet and so, the simplest way to do that is through porridge.

I like to use those sachets of ready weighed out porridge. I like that I know how much I’m having and although I could weigh out the oats from a regular bag I just prefer these oats in general. This is the way that works for me right now.

Now, rather controversially I like to make my oats with water. On the odd occasion I’ll make them with oat or almond milk but I just find it too creamy. I can only eat porridge if they’ve been cooked with mashed banana and chia seeds. Once the porridge is ready I top it with kiwi and berries. Sometimes I’ll add a swirl of honey or Biscoff, it depends how fancy I’m feeling.

I didn’t hit my goal of eating porridge for breakfast everyday but I did eat it more days than less. I’d say in general I was having oats for breakfast Monday-Friday and it worked really well. On the days I didn’t have porridge I really noticed that my day did not start well and I then didn’t eat as well throughout the day. Overall, I’ve found that starting my day with porridge really set me up for a good food day.

So, am I still eating porridge for breakfast each day?

I most certainly am, with the exception of some fruit bowl days and a Marmite on toast treat once a week. We’re now well into March and at long last we’re having the odd sunny morning so I imagine soon I’ll start to incorporate some overnight oats into my breakfast too.

4 Things That happened when I started eating porridge everyday

I quickly realised the hob gave better results than the microwave

While the microwave is much more convenient to make porridge in there’s no beating the taste of when you make it on the hob. The results are just so much better. When I had a little extra time I’d make my porridge in a pan and really take the time to enjoy the process. as you can probably imagine, that wasn’t a possibility everyday.

I found comfort in routine

I found comfort in the routine of eating porridge for breakfast each morning. I didn’t have to overthink my breakfast or add any extra ingredients into my weekly food shop. As long as I had my oats ready to go I knew I’d be able to find something to top them with.

I liked that I wasn’t overindulging at breakfast too and was able to better decide what to eat at lunch and dinner time.

On the days I skipped oats I noticed

I think it’s fine, for me, to skip oats once a week if I’m having a slow Sunday morning or heading out into the town for breakfast. However, if it happens more than once a week I really notice a negative impact on the start to my day. An exception for this is when I intermittent fast. I find that works really well for me if I’m in the right mindset and have had enough sleep.

Overall having porridge for breakfast really gave me the best start to my day. I knew I’d eaten something healthy for breakfast, ticked off my morning kiwi (people say you should eat them daily) and had the opportunity to get chia seeds and walnuts into my diet.

I didn’t need a mid-morning snack

I was surprised to find that I wasn’t hungry before lunch time when I was eating porridge daily. On the odd occasion I’d finish the rest of my banana that I’d used part of in the porridge but most of the time I’d be good to go ’til lunch rolled around.