health

How to Look and Feel Your Best in Mornings

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Everyone stresses out in the mornings, right? We’re always wondering about everything. Wondering why you are having a rough morning? What can you do to improve the start of your day? Why are you having a rough start to your day? Why did you stay up so late last night? And are colds contagious? How do you have a better morning? 

Have a Routine!  

Keeping a routine is highly important. Keep a schedule, too. Without a schedule or a routine, life is chaos. Help yourself by keeping these two things going! You will be thanking yourself later when you are not scrambling to throw everything together at the last minute. Great days do not happen on their own, you have to make them.  Believe it or not, a great morning starts with a great plan….the night before.  Go to bed at a reasonable time.  (No TV in the bedroom … or keep it on a timer if you have no self control. If you have self control, keep it off at bedtime.) And make sure you’re falling asleep at a reasonable time, too. No staying up until 11 despite being in bed by 9.

Decide on what you are wearing for the next day the night before.

Have a meeting? Is it a casual day? Are you training? Choose something appropriate, all the way down to your socks, shoes, and jacket/coat. Put them all together in the same space. You will be thankful you did when you’re not rushing around to gather everything and deciding what to wear if you happen to miss your alarm or not.

Stop SNOOZING your alarm! 

Set it for when you need to get up and have enough time to do everything that needs to be done.  Do not set yourself up for a day of chaos, it is never pretty and will only leave you stressed out and frazzled for the day. Not a great way to start the day at all.

Speaking of the alarm – it should be an actual clock and not your cell phone.  Your cell phone should be charging in any other room of the house, just NOT in your bedroom. You will be thankful about this when you are not up until 11 on your cell phone and are unable to get a good night’s sleep because of it. No phone means sleep is easier.

  • Set your clock five minutes fast to give yourself just a little bit of a buffer – but only do this if you don’t spend the morning negotiating those five minutes out of your routine. If you do, then leave it set to five minutes fast! You will thank yourself for it later.

 

Before you get out of bed …

Go ahead and give yourself a minute to think about the things that you are grateful for and what things make you happy.  Set the tone like this so you start the day on a high note. It just might be the highest note of the day, or the base on your way to the top for the day. Either way, something good happened.

  • Sit up, get out of bed, stand up, and stretch! Reach up high … up on your tippy toes!

Now that you are out of bed …

Go open the blinds and/or the curtains, get some sunlight.  It will help you feel more awake and alert.

  • Play your favorite upbeat style music!  Put a few moves in and get your body going. Dance it out! You will be thankful for it when you are walking into work with a big smile on your face.
  • Drink at least 8 ounces of water.  You have been dehydrating for EIGHT whole hours (or however many hours you slept … for those of you who do not sleep 8 hours)!  Also, you can add a little lemon to it to freshen your breath and help remove toxins from your body. It is still suggested to brush your teeth, though!
  • Do something quickly to start the day with accomplishment – for example, load the dishwasher or take out the trash.
  • DIABETICS: be sure to use your diathrive meter and check your sugar levels!

Put your best self forward 

Grab a shower, wash your face, brush your teeth, style your hair, pamper your skin and put on a little lotion, make up or no make up – whatever makes you feel confident. The point of this is to leave you feeling fantastic about yourself. If you are not feeling fantastic about yourself by the time you finish doing all of these things, something is not right in the routine.

NOW you can check your cell phone! 

The outside world does not take precedence over your self care. Do yourself a favor and make the first item you read every morning something positive, devotional, prayers, jokes, whatever you need. If it helps you start your day, it is highly important. Don’t skip it. You will definitely regret skipping it later if you do.

Breakfast or no breakfast?  

That is completely and entirely up to you – some people will swear by a good hearty breakfast and others will swear by fasting for a few hours after getting up for the day.  It really just depends on your nutritional needs and your preferences. If you skip, consider grabbing an energy bar or something to get you through to whenever you have breakfast. Or if you skip it altogether, keep an energy bar to get you through to lunch time.

Make a to-do list

If you make a to-do list, you will have something to go off of if you have a moment where you can not think. We all have our days. Make a to-do list of three or four of your main goals for the day – these goals should be attainable, but altogether worthwhile.

Wash your face and brush your teeth when you go into the bathroom for the first time of the day.

Doing these things the first time you walk into the bathroom will leave you feeling refreshed and good about yourself. More often than not, those who don’t do this are usually feeling “sloth-like” in the mornings or end up dragging themselves to get through until they are fully awake.

Apply a face mask to help you wake up and greet the morning.

Face masks tend to have the “tingly” feeling of the mask cleaning your face and latching on to the dirt in your pores. Most people find that that feeling wakes them up a good bit. See for yourself.

Take vitamins first thing in the morning.

Unless the vitamins say to take them at night, take your vitamins in the morning. This leaves you feeling better because it’s one thing you made sure to accomplish.

Go for a run.

The endorphins pumping through your system from doing this task will wake you up and boost your energy.

Make your bed as soon as you get out of it.

So many people swear by this because it leaves you feeling better about yourself. It’s one task they are finished with, which tends to leave them wondering what else they can tackle for the day. It’s a wonderful way to begin the day.

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