For breakfast, I'd always tried to curb my sugar craving by adding frozen banana to a smoothie with oat milk and half a scoop of whey protein isolate powder ($78). However, LeVeque was quick to spot the issue that ultimately led me to a blood sugar spike, crash, and inevitable sugar craving. "When we look at that blender, you have two carbohydrates if you're having a banana and oat milk, so what that mostly is is a blood sugar spike. The protein breaks down to amino acids, not glucose, but there's no fat there at all," she pointed out. "You're not going to feel full for very long and you're probably going to need a snack or you'll be thinking about lunch around 11. You'll go, 'I need a piece of fruit, a yogurt, or avocado toast.'" (When paired with carbohydrates, both fat and protein help slow the body's digestion of the carbs to minimize blood sugar spikes, according to research in the Iranian Journal of Public Health.)
LeVeque's direction? Opt for less banana and put half an avocado in the smoothie instead, which breaks down to fatty acids rather than glucose and adds fiber. Then double the scoop of protein powder, to up the total to 50 grams of protein rather than 25, and add a handful of spinach or blueberries for color. "I'm looking for vibrancy, color, leafy greens, bright berries — something like that," she instructed, explaining, "Berries are low glycemic. They're not going to drive blood sugar up like bananas or oat milk. I would pull any type of concentrated carbohydrate out of breakfast and double down on the protein."
LeVeque also suggested buying grass-fed ground beef and pre-making meatballs, then warming a couple up for breakfast. As a mostly pescatarian, this was a totally new addition for me — and, given my newfound obsession with hot sauce, a delicious one. But for people who want to avoid red meat, turkey meatballs, tinned fish, or even a black bean-and-quinoa ball could be a good substitute.
After two full weeks of blending up LeVeque's suggested smoothie in my beloved Ninja Blast ($54, originally $60) and enjoying two meatballs around 10 a.m., I stayed full until roughly 2 p.m., when I started to think about lunch, rather than panic about it in a hangry state (which happened previously).
