Imagine this……by the time you shake off the morning cobwebs and head off to work that you’ve already completed 5-10 positive actions that move you towards your weight loss goal!
What if all of these tasks were completed almost unconsciously? What if it was as simple and routine as fixing your morning coffee?
THAT is the power of intentionally designing your morning routine! Once you’ve made this actions daily habits they will help you drop weight painlessly.
Why Intentionally Design Your Own Routine?
There’s lists of other people’s daily routines all over the internet. They say you should do this, or not do that.
Here’s the problem: They aren’t YOU.
Everyone has different goals, is starting from a different place, have more or less time available to them in the morning, is more or less comfortable with physical activity, and just about every blend of criteria you can think of.
Looking at a big cookie-cutter list of things to do in the morning, your first instinct might be to hide the page and say it doesn’t apply to you.
Surprise!! Your first instinct isn’t wrong.
YOU are different, so why shouldn’t your morning routine be different?
I’ve compiled a list of habits that will serve you well to losing weight and controlling cravings.
You are free to pick and choose the habits that you would like to implement, AND the ones you want to put aside. I’ve found it is best to only try to implement one of these habits every week and let them build on top of each other.
I Skipped A Daily Habit
Weight loss is a long game. Sometimes in building up a routine you might end up missing a day or forget something. I don’t want you to get frustrated by these missteps.
Don’t beat yourself up over it! Instead, think about why it happened and plan for how to avoid it in the future. One way to prevent missing a habit is by slowly building up more over time.
This article will still be here (go ahead and bookmark it for future reference).
What Are The Habits?
For your convenience I have these steps ordered from easiest to implement to the hardest. I also included a rough estimate of how much time each should take so you won’t be late for work.
Sleeping In (Time: Depends)
Okay, enough of this one will make it so you can’t try any of the other habits. This is by far the easiest of the habits on the list because let’s be honest…I didn’t need to convince you of the health benefits for you to want to sleep longer in the morning.
People who don’t sleep enough are more likely to make poor diet choices and overeat. Not only that but getting enough sleep helps keep your hormones in check and prevents your metabolism for slowing down.
Drink Water (Time: 5 Minutes)
Even if your not thirsty your body may still need water. In fact, if your starting to feel thirsty that may be a sign that you are already dehydrated.
By starting your day off with a glass or two of water you will feel fuller throughout the day and will likely have more energy. I know someone who has kicked her coffee habit completely by drinking water in the morning.
She was most likely chronically dehydrated and it felt like fatigue.
As for weight loss, one study on overweight women showed that drinking 34 oz or more per day helped them lose an average of 4.4 lbs.
Not bad considering that’s the only change they made.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18787524)
Destress Using Your Preferred Method (5-20 minutes)
There’s a few options I have for you here depending on your time and preferences.
First up:
Gratitude Journal (5-10 minutes)
Life can be hectic. Stress can build up and, if you don’t tend to it, it can cause your hormones to get out of whack. Particularly, your insulin sensitivity can decrease, which in turn makes you more likely to hold on to fat.
One of the most interesting ways I’ve found to de-stress is to write down and keep of all the things you are grateful for in a journal.
Everyone has something to be grateful for. If you don’t think you do, try walking around the house with your eyes closed. Hopefully you’ll be grateful to have vision before you trip over the cat. And your cat will be grateful if you skip this exercise and just start a gratitude journal.
Meditation (10-20 minutes)
Meditation has become quite the buzzword, but for a very good reason.
I know of no better way to destress, cultivate mindfulness, be more at peace, and have more self control than a daily meditation practice. All in less time than it takes to watch an episode of Friends (Am I aging myself?)
Focusing on your breath and being silent and mindful is meditation in a nutshell.
There are volumes written about meditation, but it really can be as simple as downloading an app (I like Insight Timer) and following along with a guided meditation.
A Suggestion For Emotional Eaters
While we are on the subject of de-stressing to prevent overeating you may want to fix these binges all day and not just at breakfast time.
After all, being relaxed about your relationship with food should be a state-of-mind you can maintain all day. We all deserve that.
If you don’t know much about emotional eating, or if you aren’t sure you’re an emotional eater I have a free quiz that will help: Free Quiz – Heal your Hunger
A Protein Packed Breakfast (10-15 minutes)
Depending on what you make here you could complete this the night before and take up no time.
But just in case you like your food fresh like I tend to I estimated about 10-15 minutes.
A study conducted by Biofortis Clinical Research and the University of Missouri discovered the effect of high protein at breakfast. They used three groups of women: One group with just water, one with three grams of protein, and a final group with 30 to 39 grams of protein.
The final high protein group felt less hungry by lunch time and consumed 81 fewer calories total. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4334852/)
Conclusion
Building your own personal morning routine takes time and patience. However, these small wins will deliver massive results over time.
Think you might be an emotional eater and would you like to talk to Tricia about overcoming it? Book your 1-hour complimentary session with her by clicking here.
