Four easy ways to make your mornings healthier

Starting the day right is a great way to actively work towards a healthy lifestyle. Pre-pandemic, this was not something I paid much attention to. It was super easy for me to ignore a morning routine because I was so worried about getting to the train on time. My morning routine used to consist of sleeping until the last possible second, running around upstairs like a tornado, hurtling down the steps, grabbing things, shrieking when I could not find things, bulldozing humans (MFD) and dogs (all) in my path, and running out the door like my behind was on fire. Now that I work from home, these are some ways I go about making my mornings - which translates into my days - healthier. 

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is incredibly important to your lifestyle, and I'm going to bet 90% of people reading this do not get the amount of sleep their bodies are asking for. Getting the right amount goes beyond being awake enough to perform the tasks that you do each day. Getting enough sleep can improve your health by a huge degree, enabling your body to have the right amount of rest to digest food, while also improving your mental health by putting less stress on your brain. In most cases, around eight hours of sleep each night should be the minimum that you’re aiming for. Yes, this means maybe letting the house go a little dirty or putting your phone down earlier. 

Start With Exercise and Fresh Air

The idea of starting each morning with exercise is torture to people like me who are not I Love Exercise people. This idea comes with many benefits, though, and this goes beyond simply making yourself look good. Early exercise can kickstart your metabolism, enabling your body to digest food properly and avoid storing things like sugars as fat. Exercise also helps me feel energized. The first few pandemic months I didn't know why I was so sluggish - I never realized how much of my commute involved walking in the morning. When I added walking back to my morning life, things got much better. 

Eat The Right Breakfast

The food you eat in the morning will have an impact on your body throughout the day. Eating fried food each morning is bad for your body, putting pressure on your heart and other organs while also providing very few of the nutrients you actually need. Eating fruit, low-calorie cereals, and other healthy foods will make you feel much healthier throughout the day. Eating healthy breakfasts doesn’t have to be boring, and there are loads of options available on the market that make this easy. I am a huge fan of the breakfast burrito, power breakfast muffins, or hard boiled eggs with a side of raw peppers and some fruit. 

Create Healthy Drinks

Alongside the food you eat, it also makes sense to give yourself access to healthy drinks in the morning. Coffee is fine but mainlining a pot probably isn't. I like to do two cups of iced and then make sure I take in 40 oz of water by 11 and another 40 oz by 2 to make sure I am hitting 100-120 oz by bedtime. I am not a huge smoothie person, but I don't mind juices. I like mango that I buy in the store. Options like sweet beet juice can be very good for you, and you can find recipes for those types of juices all over the web. Your drink can offer a good opportunity to make your mornings healthier.

Making sure that each of your mornings is as healthy as possible doesn’t take much work. Morning routines are infinitely tweakable. How do you start your day off right?