5 Ways to boost your morning routine

12 Aug 5 Ways to boost your morning routine

A morning routine is important to set the tone of the day. The day is all about morning 90% of the time. If you boost your morning routine, you are good to go for the whole day. Who does not want to conquer the day before it starts? well, is it about conquering? or is it just facing it head-on? or just slipping in with the time. I prefer slipping in with time throughout the day. Taking the day as it comes, accepting the small challenges, and finding my way through it. The key to having a great morning routine is that morning should be acknowledged by your body. 

If you are doing some of the following things the earlier day, it is obvious that you would not get up early in the morning and after getting up you will be feeling lethargic for the longest time.

Drinking coffee/ tea more than 3 – 4 times a day.

caffeine is a stimulant and if you drink coffee once it usually takes 6 hours to partly eliminate it from the system.It may increase alertness which may be damaging to your normal sleep cycle.

What should you do instead to be alert?

Using tea/coffee to stay alert is like using sleeping pills for sleep. We usually do not resort to sleeping pills unless it is prescribed by the doctor. To stay alert through the day you must sleep enough and eat moderately to avoid lethargy. 

Overeating in the night 

In India, heavy dinners are a norm. It is that time of the day when most of the family members are together and one can leisurely have food with family. There is no harm in having food with family but late-night dinner may cause sleep issues. 

What should you do to prevent overeating?

Plan your meals wisely as per your daily calorie intake requirement to prevent overeating 

Intake of refined sugar: 

Having 4-5 cups of tea equals to 8-10 teaspoons of sugar. Refined sugar spikes the blood sugar level and you might not be able to sleep properly with raised sugar levels. 

How to maintain sugar levels throughout the day

Have balanced meals throughout the day and reduce your refined sugar intake, swap refined sugar with substitutes if you cannot quit sugar. 

Overuse of gadgets

Using your gadgets throughout the day is a norm but using it before sleep is the latest trend. Most of us do it without even noticing the effects it causes on eyes and sleep patterns. Most wellness coaches loathe the usage of gadgets even one hour before sleeping.

How to reduce the usage of gadgets?

Regulating usage of gadgets is possible by engaging in a meaninful night care routine before sleep. Talking to your kids, having a dedicated story time with them works wonders. Catching up with your long cherished book is one more way to avoid gadgets post 8.00 pm.

The sleep pattern gets disturbed due to all the above things. If you want to ensure a better morning, the preparation starts from the earlier day. Is it easy to quit everything in a day? I would suggest, slowly, take on thing at a time. 

Recently, a social media influencer put it on her feed, that she is planning to quit coffee. And she was not sure, how she will pull through the day especially the morning time. 

This is a struggle most of us go through the day. But 

Here are 5 ways you can boost up your morning routine:

• Sleeping early and waking up after you are feeling fresh: 

Sleeping earlier than usual will certainly bring back that half an hour which you are missing out in the morning. You will wake up once the body is fully rested. Tuning in to the body clock works wonders here. 

• Do not check emails first thing in the morning

Waking up should be a pleasant experience, do not tune into something you despise doing. Do not take up something you do not like to do at all. 

• Checking people’s social media posts first thing in the morning

The purpose of getting up in the morning is to dedicate sometime in the morning for your cause. Not to help someone else’s cause by checking on their social media posts. Be aware of your ‘why’ when you get up in the morning. 

• Drinking tea/coffee first thing in the morning 

Start your day with water/warm water and not tea/coffee in the morning. If you are waking up before 5.00 am, do not have anything before sunrise. It is always better to start your day with Banana/Local seasonal fruit. 

• Maintaining a journal and writing it first thing in the morning

Imagine how wonderful it would be to write down what you are going to accomplish on a particular day. Maintain a journal and prepare a to-do list or just a list of things that you would like to accomplish in the day.

 These are some ways to boost your morning routine, but as the saying goes, you have to sow a seed to eat the fruit, you will have to make some efforts to make sure you wake up fresh. The pointers are given above.

References:

(https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/caffeine-and-sleep)