six hacks for your morning to achieve a better quality day
Your mornings are sacred — it truly sets the tone for the trajectory of your day. While the hustle and bustle of life can sometimes get in the way, finding time to integrate small action steps can make an enormous difference in mind and body as the day unfolds. Our mental and physical health are dependent on the actions we choose to take — in relation to nutrition, sleep, exercise, self care, and more. If you choose to invest in your morning, it is guaranteed that the remainder of your day will be more energized, more productive, and of a higher quality.
Consider the following SIX action steps you can take in order to promote a better quality day.
Have protein within 30-60 minutes of waking
Don’t skip breakfast! If you’re not feeling hungry first thing in the morning, this may be a sign of an underlying issue and should be addressed as well. Prioritizing a breakfast filled with protein, fiber, and fat supports healthy hormones and blood sugar stability, it promotes satiety and helps promote better nutritional choices throughout the day, and in general, contributes to better mood, energy, and focus. Our carbohydrate rich breakfasts, like pastries, muffins, cereals, pancakes, and so on, have a direct influence on our blood sugar and can cause a roller coaster of highs and lows throughout the day. Instead, choose a breakfast that is rich in protein, fiber, and a source of healthy fat to ensure you’re jump starting your day most effective. If you need support in defining what this looks like for you, let’s chat.
Have your coffee after you’ve eaten or pair with source of fat or fiber
Having coffee on an empty stomach contributes to dysregulated cortisol — our stress hormone, which impacts our mood, sleep, energy, and so on. Coffee is also highly acidic which can be aggravating to our stomach lining, when empty. It can also contribute to poor blood sugar control, especially if your coffee is loaded with sweeteners. Add coconut oil or ghee to your morning coffee, or a scoop of collagen for protein, to help support this process and always pair it with a meal. It’s also recommended, if possible, to delay your coffee ideally 90 minutes after waking as it impacts wakefulness and stability in energy throughout the day.
Keep your phone out of your hands
Immediately upon waking, our brains are most impressionable. That said, consuming media, news outlets, and so on impacts us more sensitively. Answering emails, responding to texts, reading the news, scrolling social media — all very stressful which can activate our stress response before we’ve even left our beds. Our nervous system is an essential part of our health — both physically and mentally — and prioritizing the parasympathetic response, our rest and digest, is essential. Consider going tech-free for the first 1-2 hours upon waking and instead, practice gratitude, journal, movement, read, stretch, exercise, etc. Find something non-technology related to nourish your mind and body.
Don’t snooze
Snoozing is promotes initiation of a new sleep cycle, which takes 75-90 minutes to complete. That said, you’re entering deep sleep amidst the 7 minute snooze window you’ve just snoozed for. This is called sleep inertia — it becomes much more disruptive to your productivity, focus, energy, mood throughout the day when you’ve abruptly forced yourself out of this sleep cycle prematurely. While you may think you’re getting more rest, you’re actually promoting further sleepiness upon waking and then over the course of your day. Get in the habit of rising with your alarm — your day will be infinitely better.
Tongue scrape
Over the course of your sleep, your tongue accumulates lots of bacteria, toxins, and debris which is then consumed upon waking as you take your first sip of water. This flushes all of the residents of your tongue into your body. Oral hygiene is connected to whole body health — scraping can help support immunity, reduce inflammation, improve digestion, among other benefits — and everything tastes better too! I recommend a copper tongue scraper, which can be found on Amazon or your local natural product store. This is a habit I do immediately upon waking up.
Get sunlight exposure
Exposing your eyes, or more specifically, your suprachiasmatic nucleus, to sunlight in the morning helps support your hormones, like cortisol, your circadian rhythm, wakefulness, focus, and more. Direct sunlight signals to the body, and more specifically the pineal gland, that it is, in fact, daytime. Light is our master regulator — just as the morning light can signal to the body that it’s time to wake, darkness in the evenings elicits the equal response that it is time to wind down — hence why limiting your blue light exposure in the evenings is important. Dedicating 15-30 minutes each morning to this practice will do wonders for your quality of sleep, your ability to get up in the morning, general energy throughout the day, your mood, and so on.
If you need support in optimizing your morning for the trajectory of your day, let’s chat. I firmly believe our morning and nighttime routines are the bookends of our day — meaning, they have significant influence on how we feel in both a physical and mental capacity. Click the link below to schedule a free consult!
