As you might imagine, after two years I’m a pretty seasoned Brave Overnight Breakfast eater. Sometimes I find that our Overnight Breakfast is best consumed on its own. Other times, though, we like to spice it up with additional toppings. Here are my favorite Brave toppings for each flavor: 

Optimum Plant-Based Nutrition

Our Overnight Breakfast was designed ingredient by ingredient to provide you with the nutrition your body needs to start your day. It takes 30 seconds to prepare, is ready when you wake up and easily transportable.

Each delicious flavor is a 100% plant-based (vegan), high protein, low sugar, high fiber wonder-food (and not in the “Wonder Bread” kind of way) with no sugar or preservatives added.

Steel cut oats, chia seeds and hemp hearts form the base of our Overnight Breakfast.

Steel Cut Oats

Oats are the Rocky Balboa of foods. No ego, all pure, understated power. One of the most nutritionally balanced grains out there, oats are high in protein and fiber, and are also loaded with crucial vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They’re also filling, helping you stave off the mid-morning munchies, and have been linked to all kinds of other positive health outcomes such as lower cholesterol and improved blood pressure control. Steel cut oats are less processed than rolled oats, and provide more protein per serving. Oats are naturally gluten free.

Chia Seeds

In Mayan, Chia means strength. Another small, but potent ingredient, this superfood provides you with a large dose of omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and many nutrients that are too often missing from modern human diets such as calcium, phosphorus, and fiber. Chia is also "hydrophilic", and takes in liquid as Brave activates overnight, creating the pleasing texture reminiscent of tapioca. 

Hemp Hearts

Hemp Hearts pack an important punch as a breakfast ingredient. A unique superfood, Hemp Hearts are a source of complete, highly digestible protein all by themselves (meaning they provide all essential amino acids). They’re also a great source of Omega-3s and fiber, and impart a mild nutty flavor. They won't get you high, but they will get you strong.

In the summer of 2017 I was adjusting to the long hours of my first job out of college as a consultant. My active lifestyle was replaced by a series of compromises in service of my job and at the expense of my well being. I was out of shape for the first time in my life and ironically it wasn’t just my abs that suffered, my work did as well.

I signed up for a gym membership and tried to make exercise part of my routine. It did not go well. Each day after work I was too drained for the gym. I was determined to master the art of adult-ing so like any good consultant, I explored the root cause of my problem.

I analyzed the details of my day, working backwards from my too-tired-for-the-gym dilemma. If at 6pm I was tired and craving dinner, lunch must be my problem and the focaccia sandwich I typically devoured appeared the likely culprit. I tried eating a salad instead but after an hour I was starving again. I kept working my way backwards through the day eventually focusing on breakfast. If I could just eat a “real” breakfast, then I wouldn’t be starving by lunch and the salad would be enough fuel for the gym. But was I really supposed to get up earlier and burn time at the stove making eggs and bacon? That early wake up would have left me more compromised by 6pm than I already was. There had to be a better way.

I had heard of overnight oats - oats soaked overnight in almond milk or yogurt. This sounded promising because it would be ready when I woke up. I experimented with recipes, dialing in the nutrition and calories I needed. I souped-up the recipe, loading it with chia seeds, hemp hearts, steel cut oats, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and spices. The result was a “real” breakfast low in sugar and high in protein healthy fats, and fiber. It was ready when I woke up, I could easily bring it to work, and it was filling. With sustained energy throughout the day, not only did I work more effectively, I had enough left in the tank to start going to the gym. This breakfast changed my morning and then the rest of life. 

My friends (now co-founders) and I share the practice of optimizing our mornings as a way of improving the rest of our lives. We created Brave so others could unlock their potential through better mornings. What will you accomplish with your Brave new morning?

-Josh