Your Brain Called; It Wants Breakfast

Want a calmer mind and sharper focus without chasing another fad? We share a practical, flexible way to fuel your brain from breakfast to dinner so your energy feels steady, your choices feel easier, and your mood stays on track—especially through the mid-morning and mid-afternoon danger zones.

We start by setting a simple anchor: protein plus healthy fat to open the day without a crash. From eggs with spinach and avocado to yoghurt with berries and seeds or a smoothie with protein and nut butter, you’ll get clear templates you can adapt to your taste, budget, and culture. We unpack why protein is a natural filler that cools cravings for sugar and salt, and how that single shift can smooth emotional spikes and keep you out of the drive-through spiral.

Then we move through the day with intent. Morning snacks that prevent dips rather than rescue them. Lunches that fuel the afternoon—think tuna or chicken salads with olive oil, tofu or lentil bowls, wraps with hummus, and the underrated hero: leftovers. We explain how heavy, high-sugar lunches trigger the three o’clock slump and what to swap in to stay clear. For the afternoon, you’ll hear smart pairings like nuts with dark chocolate, veggie sticks with hummus, and the simple water-first cue that often fixes “hunger” that’s really dehydration. Dinner closes the loop with restoration: fish or lean meat, colourful stir-fries, protein-packed pastas, and slow-cooked soups or curries that set up tomorrow’s focus.

Throughout, we return to one image: you’re a high-performance machine. Premium fuel in, premium performance out. Pair that with less tech noise, consistent sleep, light daily movement, and better conversations, and you compound wins fast. We close with three journaling prompts to turn awareness into action so you can design your lifestyle instead of reacting to it.

If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs steadier energy, and leave a quick review—what one food habit will you change this week?

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Chapters

• 0:18 Fuel For Focus: The Premise
• 0:41 Real Food Over Perfection
• 1:14 Why Protein Leads The Day
• 2:41 Breakfast Templates That Prevent Crashes
• 3:44 Smart Morning Snacks For Steady Energy
• 6:05 Lunch Without The 3 PM Slump
• 8:06 Afternoon Snack Strategies And Hydration
• 10:56 Dinner To Restore And Prime Tomorrow

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:18

Welcome to another edition of G Deb Unspoken. We talk about things we don't typically talk about, but probably shouldn't we here with season two episode five and or one for perfect around New Year's. Fuel for focus, nutrition for mental clarity. And it's coming from our series on healthy habits and lifestyle design. Last time we talked about sleep, so let's talk into the subject of fuel for focus. Real food, real life. You know, it's not about perfection. And look, before we wrap this episode, I want to get very practical because clarity doesn't come from theory alone. This is one example day, not a prescription. Okay, so think of it as a template you can adjust based on taste, culture, budget, allergies, and lifestyle. The goal is stable energy, steady focus, and that then gives us what we predominantly probably need as a society. Think about Christmas, how busy people have been and how angry people have been and frustrated and impatient. Emotional regulation, so food can help that. All right, so here we go. Let's set the tone. What's something we can have for Brecky? So the idea is protein plus healthy fat to avoid the mid-morning crash. That's it. And I know there's going to be people out there who say, well, you know, I do fasting and it works for me, and I've done the research and it's proven I get all that. That's fine. Keep going with your day. I'm just talking about meals in general. So I'm going to blanket this into a typical day if you weren't fasting. If you are fasting, pick and choose maybe some of these ideas in around when you are actually consuming food. So example, scrambled eggs with spinach and avocado, you know, Greek yogurt with berries, seeds, maybe a drizzle of honey to actually get some of that sweetness in there. Some people have a protein smoothie, like bananas and berries and protein powder, nut butter, milk, yogurt, whatever you like. Some people have like uh more specific roll like whole grain toast with eggs and even a bit of olive oil for, and olive oil is actually good for you. You know, and so and so why would something like that work for breakfast? Well, it stabilizes your blood sugar, protein does, and fats support your brain function. So your brain wakes up, it's supported, and it's not stressed. And I went to a couple of probably been about three or four now nutrition workshops and seminars, and the overwhelming, I guess, key message from each of those different speakers and each of those different different conferences were or was protein is the key. So I'm not saying get rid of carbs, I'm not saying get rid of sugar, fats, all those other things. I'm saying protein is a natural filler. So when we get hungry, we naturally seek sugar and salt, and that's why our fast food train chains are so strong and probably well off and rich and do well, because our brain goes, I want sugar, I want salt, I want sugar, macca's please, can mum can have KFC, Mama, Dad, can I have this? I'm starving, I'm starving, I'm starving. All right, protein will stop those hunger pangs. All right. Here's a morning snack, so to sustain focus. So the idea is to prevent dips, not just treat your hunger. So try and keep that insulin as level as we can so we don't look for that sugar and salt. So examples are you know, apple or pear with a handful of nuts because you've got the protein there as well. Um, maybe a yogurt pouch or some boiled eggs, if it's sociably acceptable, cheese and whole grain crackers, uh, smoothie leftovers or a protein ball. All right, and you can actually make them at home. They're really easy to make. So, and your and your brain around this should be, you know, support my brain, not spike it, not give it a heap of sugar. And hopefully there's some parents out there thinking about this, how they can do some lunchbox fillers for their kids when they go to school. Alright, let's do some lunch. How can you fuel the afternoon? Because the idea is to balance the plate without the heaviness. So some exam examples might be again your protein, your tuna, or your chicken. Or if you don't like that, you might like tofu or lentil salad with olive oil and dressing again, uh, some kind of rice, a rice bowl with protein, veggies, and healthy fats again in it. Maybe a wrap if you didn't want like the heavy carbs with lean protein, like again, like a lean chicken or something, with salad, some people like hummus, so maybe some hummus in there. Or you could have some leftovers from dinner, and that's probably one of the most underrated options. If you've got it, you loved it, and it had protein and fats and that and carbs in it, and you can keep it cold, or if you you know just take it to school or work, have that. Because you've got to watch the trap. Heavy, high sugar lunches will give you that foggy afternoon. There's so many people I've been there before experience it where you get what's called the three o'clock sleepy. So around that two, three o'clock, you start coming down. It's often because we've had that high sugar and heavy lunch. So, what about afternoon snack? So, how do we avoid these two to three pm crashes? Because the idea is to calm your energy and not rescue, not have rescue eating, you know. So, again, a handful of peanuts, ones that just fit, I guess that's enough to fit in your hands. Some people are craving maybe some sugar, so maybe some dark chocolates are a better option there with your peanuts or nuts. Some cottage cheese or yogurt if you like cottage cheese or yogurt, veggie sticks with hummus again, smooth your protein shake again, banana with peanut butter, again, a bit of sweetness there, you can see coming through with protein and vitamins and minerals with the fruit. And yes, drink water first because dehydration often disguises itself as hunger or fatigue. So, water, have water first. It'll actually fill up your stomach and less you and make your it'll actually make you have less chance of just eating and eating into your overfall. All right, dinner is to restore and recover. So the goal is nourishment without overstimulation. You can actually get to sleep at night time. So, what can we do there? Fish or lean meat. They should be saying we should have fish three times a week, some good quality fish, some deep water fish. So fish or lean meat with vegetables and/or rice or potatoes. Some people like stir-fry, can put lots of veggies in there with healthy oils and proteins again, with whatever you like, beef, chicken, pork, whatever it is you like. Pasta with protein and vegetables is another good one. Or when it gets into the colder months, or if you can't be bothered, you can put this on in the morning if you're ready and you can do this. And that's have some slow-cooked meals. So soup, stews, curries, that kind of stuff. Because what you have at dinner will support your tomorrow focus as well, if that makes sense. Not just tonight's hunger. It'll set you up for success. All right. So what about so that's just some like really basic principles some protein, some good fats and oils, and some carbs, and vitamins and minerals, obviously, and water. So but what if you're hungry between the meals? This matters, especially if you're if you've got a growing body in the right proportion, and or if you're an active person or you need some more regulation in your nervous system. All right. So here's some good options ready: fruit, nuts, toast with some kind of nut butter, yogurt, leftovers, smoothies. Okay, again, vitamins, minerals, and proteins is probably the backbone of all those uh all of those options. All right, so the idea is we're avoiding what we're avoiding is long gaps, because if we do, we'll start getting into emotional eating. I don't know how many times I've overeaten where I'm on the boat not catching fish, or don't have breakfast, I'm starving by 10 o'clock, and just go for anything there and just overeat. So try and fuel early, fuel gently, and fuel as often as needed. So just remember nutrition is not about control, it's about capacity. So when your brain is well fueled, your focus improves, your emotional regulation strengthens, your decision making becomes easier, and you stop fighting yourself. And that's and that's lifestyle by design. Okay. So try and think about that. Try and think about how I use the analogy when I'm talking to young kids about um a motorbike. I've got a sports bike, it's a thousand, it's a thousand racer, it's a Honda, it's been there. Sorry for your Honda haters out there, but it's been I've had it for nearly nine years now or ten years, and I'll say, will I put crap fuel or diesel or or low-grade unleaded fuel into my superpowered bike? No. What would I put in? I'll pay the money and I'll put in some premium fuel for unleaded fuel because that's what it needs, that's what it likes, that's what it uses. All right. Now let's let's now presume you are now a high performance machine, your body is a high performance machine. Are you gonna feed it crap all the time and expect it to be regulated? Expect it to have like really good focus. You're gonna have lots of energy for sustainable long periods of time. Uh if you have junk food as your fuel for your superhuman body, your mechanism, your mechanics there. And the answer is always no, of course not. Okay, so you want your body to be in peak performance, your brain and your moods to be in peak performance. What are you gonna do? You're gonna feed it accordingly. So, whatever you feed it and fuel it and rest, it'll set you up ready to go. Like you, you had those with exercise, you're gonna be a machine this year that people won't even be able to stop or know. They'll look at you and go, What the hell? What's been going on with you? You know, what kind of steroid are you on at the moment? And you'll just go, No, I've just changed three big things. You know, add a fourth, go lack on technology, focus on something more important, like growing yourself by reading a book or something, or get around good people and have good conversations face to face. You get those four things right and you do that for like three months, and you develop a habit around that, people will not know who you are, and they'll go, my gosh. And you'll be leaving probably all of those people who are maybe bad influencers in your community or connections behind and starting to thrive and look for new connections. And that's that's something I really wish for you. So, what can we do today for our journal prompts? You know, I love you to do this because what gets measured improves. Take the time, it's three things, it's easy. Our brain usually thinks in threes: intro, body, end. Think of a movie, it's usually got a really strong intro, really good ending. In the middle, it it it you know it revolves around a plot. It's pretty easy thinking. Three things to reflect on. So please write this down and answer these. Number one, which meal in your day has the most impact on your focus? And is that impact positive or negative? So identify it, write down. Second one, where do you tend to underfuel or skip meals? And what's the cost of that? Not talking financially necessarily, unless you go out and binge eat after that and you you use a lot of money around that. What's the cost of you skipping meals, socio-emotionally, energy, that kind of stuff? Is it affecting you in your three o'clock sleepies? All right. And number three, what's one food habit that you could adjust this week to better support your brain? Write down awareness creates that choice. And look, in the next episode of G Don't Spoken, we're going to continue with this series and we look at more movement for food and and and why 10 minutes is just enough to start. We're going to break down why movement is one of the fastest mood regulators. My gosh, sometimes I just need to run. Actually, my wife says sometimes you just need to run because I'm getting impatient in the household. You know, the neuroscience behind shortbursts of activity, why you don't need the gym, like raw motivation, and how just 10 minutes can shift anxiety, stress, and emotional load. You know, if you've ever thought I know I should move more, but I just don't have the energy, this episode is going to be for you. So tune in and I look forward to your company then.