It’s easy to forget about a healthy morning routine when your day is packed with tasks and personal obligations. Luckily, there’s a very simple solution to this problem. If you add good habits that directly relate to your personal goals, it becomes easy to create a daily routine, which can dramatically improve your life.
If you don’t currently have a morning routine and feel like you end up getting lost in the day, we hope this post helps you think about creating a little more structure into your morning.
When It Comes to Building a STRONG Morning Routine…
Wake Up With Happy Thoughts
While it might appear somewhat obscure to think about the character of your thoughts, but it has been proven that positive thought patterns have a healthy effect on our mindset and therefore on our attitude for the rest of the day.
Positive thinking promotes healthy behavior and builds personal resources that result in increased social support and attention to the good things in life. A positive outlook is good for your health.
Lemon Water
Try to start your day by drinking a large glass of lemon water to wake you up faster. You don’t need to be putting in a whole lemon and juicing it. Instead, it’s better to put in just a few drops.
It will help you:
- Wake up faster
- Freshen up your breath
- Get large amounts of vitamins
- Reduce the feeling of hunger
- Help your digestive system
This is a lot easier to do than it seems, and it’s a great healthy way to start your day. All you need to do is pour some water into a glass and add a couple of drops of lemon juice. Simple and healthy.
Stretch Out
It’s normal to wake up feeling like a zombie. That’s good news because it means we’re not alone in the groggy state of being. But there are some easy ways to make your way into the state of wakefulness, just stretch your body.
There is no need to do Zen-like sun salutations, you don’t even get out of bed. Just throw your arms up and stretch out your legs to shake off the stiffness of sleep.
There’s an actual reason this feels so good. When you sleep, your muscles start losing tone and fluid tends to pool along your back. Stretching helps to put fluid gently back into the normal position.
Drink More Water
This is the advice you always come across no matter what you were looking for. But drinking plenty of water in the morning is the best way to flush your system, get your metabolism going, and replenish your body. If you want to take it more seriously, its recommend drinking lukewarm water, maybe with a bit of lemon juice, or if you can handle it, even some ginger and turmeric on an empty stomach.
Turmeric has anti-inflammatory benefits, and ginger is the perfect metabolism booster and stomach soother.
Take a Cold Shower
Start your day with a cold shower, or at least I start it cold. It wakes you up and energizes you like no other thing, and when you finally turn the water warm, you appreciate it much more.
Take Daily Vitamins
Daily vitamins are a must for anyone, and you’ll feel better about your day if you commit to taking them every day.
Vitamins are essential because they will:
- Help build a stronger immune system
- Increase awareness
- Ensures your body gets essential nutrients
- Build stronger bones
Vitamins can give your body the boost it needs to get started in the mornings and help your mind stay focused throughout the day. Be sure to read the directions on specific vitamins so that you make sure you are taking them properly.
Fuel Up
What is a healthy breakfast? A healthy breakfast is an important part of a healthy morning routine. Last but not least, breakfast has a huge impact on our eating pattern for the remaining day.
When we have something good and healthy for breakfast it gets easier to eat healthy foods when lunch and dinner time comes around. What is healthy for you mainly depends on your body type compatibility and your personal preferences. For example, someone loves to have breakfast with natural yogurt, fresh fruits, granola and loads of nut butter. Some people prefer something heartier, it is recommended the rainbow breakfast with plenty of veggies and eggs.
Avocado on toast is always a great option and suitable for vegans and vegetarians, as well as hummus, grilled veggies or a variety of smoothies and smoothie bowls.
Even if you’re not a breakfast eater or you are doing intermittent fasting, you might still like to spend some time indulging in a morning cup of coffee, therefore it is super important that you find the best coffee pods that fit your morning needs. Research supports a moderate amount of caffeine as an enjoyable way to boost your energy levels and mood.
Keep a Food Journal
This is another aspect of your morning that you are probably not too keen about doing, but need to do if you want to balance your weight.
Maintaining a food journal helps you see exactly what you’re putting into your body and how much of what you’re eating. You’d be surprised at just how much you can consume in a given day.
Food journals are effective because:
- Make you responsible for what you eat
- Give you a visual representation of your daily habits
- Encourage you to avoid snacks
- Help you meet your health goals
- Food journals might seem like a negative thing at first, but you’ll soon be able to take pride in recording what you eat.
Workout Gently
This is a hard one. We are often too tired and too busy getting ready for work in the morning that we don’t have time to think about, let alone get to work out. If you are a person whose morning routine looks different every single day, try not to set your alarm clock hours before necessary to run laps or do push-ups and force yourself to jump out of bed.
It is believed that getting a lot of sleep, as this is when we truly rejuvenate and renew our cells, which is more important than a morning workout. However, make time to experience getting some gentle exercise in the morning, and see that it helps to kick-off healthy habits and stick to healthy routines during the rest of the day.
Declutter Your Desktop
It is harder to stay focused when your ambiance is in chaos. Find 5 minutes in your morning routine to dedicate it to clear your work area. It mentally conditions you and helps you become more productive.
A cluttered desk is a source of stress. It reminds you about other things that you need to do, taking away your focus from the task that you need to do. It is also a major waste of time if you constantly have to dig through a stack of files to find what you need.
Here are some tips for effective decluttering:
- Paperwork that you need for the day should be the only files you have on your desk.
- Put paperwork that you don’t need for the day into folders, filing cabinets, or drawers.
- Delete temporary files that you don’t need from your computer.
- Place files in appropriate folders, using a standard system for file-labeling.
Schedule Your Day
How do you schedule your day and stick?
Without a schedule, it’s easy to get to the end of the day and realize you’ve achieved nothing that was of importance.
At least, you should make a list of the tasks you want to accomplish during the day and decide what your priorities are.
Make a list of the tasks and goals you want to complete by the end of the day. Try to stay realistic about your efficiency instead of creating a lengthy list of tasks that will be impossible to complete.
Use the importance of each task: 1. that is important and urgent, 2 important, but not urgent, 3 not that important, but urgent, or 4 not important, not urgent.
Review Your Goals
Everybody has goals and wishes. It doesn’t matter if they are big or small, we all have things that we want to accomplish. Sadly, the daily hustle and stress of life can make us get off track.
You need to review your goals so that you can:
- Create plans to reach those goals
- Put your day in perspective
- Know what’s important to accomplish
You can set goals for the day of the year, but you can’t just aimlessly wander every day. Make sure you use every minute for what it’s worth and accomplish what you set your mind to.
Do Something That Makes You Happy
It is difficult to be happy in life if you’re unhappy with yourself. Taking a few moments of “me” time in the morning (and during different times of the day) is essential to become grounded and centered.
Make clearing your mind every morning a part of your routine. Here are some ways you can do this:
- Write in a journal
- Have a cup of coffee or tea and allow your mind to just drift
- Spend your 5 minutes outside, feeling the sunshine on your face
- Play with your pet
- Laugh a little while reading some jokes
- Listen to your favorite song
- Eat some chocolate
- Read a few pages of your preferred fiction
Snack Smart
When it comes to snacking, pick snacks that will give you a slow release of energy. Pairing a protein with a complex carbohydrate is the best choice. For example, try cutting up apples into slices and coat them with peanut butter.
Habits are the building blocks of routines, and routines are good for us physically, and emotionally. Not only is a routine a source of self-discipline, but it can also be comforting us from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep at night. So why not make it a goal to love mornings with a routine.
When starting up your morning habits, don’t ignore the importance of the night before. One expert shared that mental preparations for a successful day begin the night before. So, to wrap up your day before going to bed, write out my to-do list for the next day and reflect upon three good things that happened that day, it will help you clear your mind and prepare your body for a restful night of sleep.
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