Ep. 47 | How To Become A Morning Person When You Hate Mornings

If your mornings are rushed the moment you finally peel yourself out of bed, it’s really understandable you’re not a “morning person”. In this episode, I share 6 key components to add to your mourning routine to start making mornings a whole lot more enjoyable. The way you start your day sets the tone for the entire day. These 6 components will help you start your morning feeling more positive, energized, and in control so that you don't dread the start of your day... you might even start enjoying them. ;-) 

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Music: “Play Thing” by Ketsa
From Free Music Archive

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To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today

I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

Transcript

0:01

Hey life booster. This is Dr. Amelia health coach and veterinarian here to help you ditch yoyo, dieting people, pleasing and perfectionism by breaking the norm and living a life that energizes you from within good morning. So I always automatically wanna start the podcast saying good morning, because I typically record these early in the morning because that's a time when I just am in a great mood, I feel talkative. I am definitely a morning person. And that's the topic that I want to talk about today because lately I have been speaking with a lot of clients and friends who aren't as excited about mornings as I am. And there are so many really understandable reasons why they may not love mornings. And there ends up being this vicious cycle of, if you are not a morning person, you tend to do things that make your mornings really miserable. And then it's totally understandable that you aren't enjoying your mornings. And then you are kind of dreading the morning. So you stay up later and then you're more exhaustive in the morning. And it's really hard to get out of that cycle. However, the way that you start the day has such a dramatic impact on the way that you feel throughout the, the rest of the day. And there's so much that you can do early on to make the start of your day so much more enjoyable. And also to help to make sure you're starting the day with your stress levels really low having had that like pop off valve. Right? So instead of stress, just like building and building, being able to have the morning, a time when you actually are relieving it, dealing with stressors and really addressing your mindset. What you do in the morning really has the power to impact the way that you experience life in a really powerful way. So that's what I wanted to talk about today. One of the reasons why I am a morning person is that for many years, I have woken up with enough time to just have some time for me in the morning, it has been important to me. I like to sit down to have breakfast and to be able to make a breakfast. I work out in the mornings because I realized that if I want to feel awake for the rest of the day, moving my body is really critical. It helps to wake up my brain. It helps me to, to boost my mood and my energy. and that's something that I want to have in my life. For me if I don't work out in the morning, then it's just something that like I want to be doing or like, feel like I should be doing at another point in the day and the day just happens and it I'm always like trying to think of a time. Squeeze it in, or, you know, at the beginning of the day, it seems like an awesome idea to work out after work. But then like, especially after a hospital shift, I'm exhausted and I'm like ready for dinner for me working out in the evening is just mentally more heavy for the whole rest of the day. Whereas if I work out in the morning, it, it gives me this sense of accomplishment, a mood boost, energy boost. It really works for me. And I prefer towards the end of the day to do something more relaxing. So if I'm going to do something that would be like a walk or yoga, something like that. So ideally for a morning routine, I recommend prioritizing five things. And I really want to emphasize that a morning routine does not have to be some extravagant time intensive thing. You can really incorporate these components in a very short period of time. but each of these will really set you up for success. So the five things I would think about would. Hydrating movement, mindset, nourishment, and fresh air. If you incorporate those five things into your morning routine, I guarantee you are going to start to be much more of a morning person. So for those that are not morning people. The really common thing that I see is that they like staying up late and oftentimes aren't going to bed on time or when they technically feel like they should. And it's really understandable that this happens because when we look at their day, they tend to be extremely busy. They're either extremely busy with their jobs, like work, work, work, or they're a parent as well. And so what happens is that they don't have any time for them until the very end of the day, like once they finish all their work or once the kids are in bed, it's like, finally, there's this moment at the end of the day, just this like blissful period, just for them to breathe and to unwind. and so of course you don't want that to end. You're finally, like you've carried all that stress from the day and you finally have some time to just like, sit on the couch, watch some TV, eat some stuff that is when you get to unwind. And then the thought of going to bed. What does going to bed mean? It means that you're gonna have to wake up in the morning. Start rushed. And then just do all of that all over again. When at night you have that sense of like you've made it, you made it through the day. So, of course it's so understandable that you don't wanna go to bed on time. It's understandable that you're just scrolling on social media or you can't pull yourself away from the couch when the next step of like going to sleep means waking up and just hitting the ground running and being exhausted again. And probably a lot of stress. And the thing is because maybe there's a tendency to go to bed at like the last minute or to stay up too late. You feel exhausted in the morning, right? So there's that tendency to hit this snooze button. You don't want to wake up. You're exhausted, but in the morning. So then what happens? You wait until the very last minute to wake up. and that alone is stressful. You are starting your morning with a jolt of stress already, a micro stressor. That like little thing, every time you hit snooze and your alarm goes off again, that's another little micro stressor. So even before you get out of bed, how many micro stressors have you had? Are you looking at your phone immediately and seeing all the emails that you have to address? So you're exhausted. It's really hard to get outta bed. You finally peel yourself outta bed and now you're running late. Now you're rushed, right? Everything's busy. You have to try to get ready maybe because you were staying up late, maybe. Don't have like a lunch pack or your clothes out things aren't really prepared. You're just like running around, trying to get yourself ready to date. Ready? Maybe your kids ready. It's just hectic. You probably don't have time for a lot of breakfast. Maybe you just grab a little coffee or there's something that you can grab quickly, maybe something that causes your blood sugar to spike and then crash because you just want something like sweet or need something to get you going. Whether that's like a bagel on your drive to work or some like sweet, um, little breakfast bar, or maybe you're putting a lot of sugar into your coffee doing that is another micro stressor because you're kind of spiking your blood sugar and your cortisol because you need energy. And that is the form that you're going to get it the fastest. And then you're probably driving. So you're either trying to drive to work or you have to drop your kids off. And because you waited till the last minute you guys are rushed. And so that's more micro stressors that stress of being behind. And so before you really even started your day, you have had zero time for you. You haven't had time to eat a breakfast that's going to set you up for success. You haven't really addressed your mindset at all, or taken a moment to even check in with yourself. Instead you've just been like exhausted, had so many doses of stress and you feel behind and that's before you've even started your actual day. You're just already starting that day, feeling behind and with that busy mindset and that thought of there's not enough time in the day, and that's a really crappy way to start your day. If that sounds familiar and you do not identify as a morning person, it's really understandable that you're not a morning person, right. Why would you possibly like mornings, if that is what they represent to you? Now, they don't have to be that way because you do have the power to change that. It doesn't have to be extravagant. You don't suddenly have to go from waking up at like seven or eight o'clock to four in the morning. But if you start to prioritize these five things and you can start just one at a time experimenting with how they make you feel in the morning. The more and more, you will start to be rewarded by these. You will start to notice how your energy changes and how your mindset changes and how your entire day starts to feel more doable because of the things that you do for you in the morning. So the first place to start would be hydrating, right? Because your brain is at least 75% water. And as I like to say, raisin brain is no way to start the day. If you are not hydrating, your brain is going to just feel shriveled up and your energy is going to suffer. You're not going to be mentally focused. It's just really hard to feel your best if you're not hydrating. And when you wake up, you haven't had water for a long time. so you need to replenish that and hydrate. So as soon as you wake up, before you turn to your cup of coffee, you can totally have coffee. But before you do that, have a glass of water help to plump up your brain. And you'll find that that gives you an amazing energy boost. And if you have to start somewhere you 100% have time to drink a glass of water when you wake up, no matter what. The second thing that I recommend is movement. Now this does not have to be like a one hour workout routine, right. But some kind of movement to get your body going. It really will have such an incredible impact on your energy levels, your mood, it just gets you going and it could be even five minutes. Like, can you go for a little walk? Can you do a few jumping jacks? Do you wanna do just like five minutes of stretching and a little yoga flow just to help to counteract any stress in the morning. If you want to do a workout in the morning, that's fantastic. but start small and doable. if one minute of jumping jacks is all that feels like it would be possible to do, or just five minutes of stretching or walking. Do whatever feels doable. Now, a huge thing that I strongly recommend doing in the morning is something to address your mindset and your brain. You need a moment in the morning to check in with yourself and it doesn't matter how busy you are, how many responsibilities you have, or how many people you have relying on you. You, 100% have time for this because so much of this is just your mindset. You need a moment in the morning to ask yourself, how are you feeling? And what do you need for the day to feel more doable? This does not have to be time consuming. Ideally, I really recommend journaling writing it out because there is something really magical that happens when you give yourself the opportunity to put all the thoughts going on in your head, down on paper. But if that doesn't feel doable right now, what about while you're brushing your teeth while you're taking a shower, while you are driving some point in the morning, you need to check in with yourself. And notice, like, are you feeling stressed? What are you stressed about? Why does it feel stressful? Getting curious about why you feel that way and giving yourself an opportunity to think about what you can do to make your your day feel more doable. That alone has the power to just change your stress so much. Just the act of being like, okay, I'm going to help myself out. Now I understand why I am feeling this way now I see, like, how am I making my life harder than it has to be. Give yourself the opportunity to set yourself up for success. If you are interested in meditating, or if you're not interested in meditating this is really something that I recommend trying, right. Typically the, those who are resistant to meditating the most are the ones who need it speaking from experience. My brain just doesn't like to be clear, calm, and it took me a long time to get into meditating. And yet that was a sign that I really needed it. And it is so impactful. Even if I'm just doing like five minutes in the morning, it makes such a big difference. And the biggest thing that helped me to start to prioritize that was thinking of it as a brain vacation. When I was, when I realized like, wow, this is just a tiny pocket of time in the day when the only thing I have to do is just sit and close my eyes and breathe and see what comes up. And yeah, I may have thoughts that pop up and that's fine. But literally for those five minutes, all I have to do is just sit there. That's blissful, right? That is the only responsibility that I have in that moment. So thinking of it like that, can you, can you start with just one minute of time just to sit there, be with yourself? It can have such a huge impact on your whole day. And the fourth thing is nourish. Really encourage you to think about how you are starting your morning, what fuel you are giving yourself, because the norm in our society is to have something that just causes your blood sugar to spike and then crash. And that sets you up for a day of roller coaster blood sugar rises and crashes, and your energy is going to go right along with that, your energy is just going to crash. You're gonna be craving more sweets to get you through the day. It's going to make your life so much harder than it has to be. It's going to make it so that you are so much less focused. Maybe you're even skipping your breakfast. Maybe you're having just coffee with some sugar and that's causing the spike and nothing to help to sustain you. That's a really tough way to start the day. And so starting to think about how can you have a nice dose of protein? How can you have some fiber, some veggies or fruit? How can you have some healthy fats instead of just quick carbs and quick energy. That's not going to, to get you past nine in the morning. You know, if you find that you have breakfast, but then by like nine or 10, you're already starving and waiting for lunch that's definitely an opportunity to check in with your breakfast and to think about how you can start to be making some adjustments to give you better fuel, because it's so hard to be focused and productive if you are already, if you're starting to be starving by 10 in the morning. And then finally fresh air, just a moment of being outside and connecting with nature is really powerful. It doesn't have to be long, right? It could just be like stepping outside while your dogs are going to the bathroom, or while you drink a cup of coffee, it doesn't have to be extravagant, but getting outside just for a moment, it can be incredibly grounding. And once again, help to decrease that stress. Now there is one really critical component to your morning routine that I haven't mentioned yet. And that ingredient is fun. Regardless of how busy you are, you can add more fun into your morning, and that makes a huge difference in the way that you feel throughout the day. It doesn't mean that you have to do more. It just means doing things differently and with a different mindset. For me, that means dance parties. I always have some kind of dance party every morning, and it helps me so much, even if I have a lot of my plate or if I have a really stressful day, I'm going to a hospital that I'm maybe not as excited about working at. I have some go-to playlists that just have all these songs that I just can't resist dancing to, or that put me in a great mood. And so while I'm getting ready in the bathroom, like while I'm taking a shower, getting dressed, bring on my makeup, um, or as I'm driving somewhere during my. I throw it on and I dance and it just makes things so much more fun. I'll also sometimes do that while working out like in between circuits or as a warmup, I will just dance and it is the best stress reliever. So I really encourage you, think about what is something maybe that's singing for you. Maybe you can play a game with your kids, like turn something that you already have to do into something fun. Just how can you make something more enjoyable even if you're going through the same motions, right. I would love to hear from you what fun looks like for you in the morning, because if you are not a morning person, if you start injecting some fun into those early hours, you may start to like them a whole lot more. It truly does just change your perspective for the whole day. And it's such a great way of really making sure that you're at least starting your day with your stress level pretty low, regardless of what you encounter later in the day. So I love my morning routine and people are curious about it often. So I'll walk you through my morning routine, but I want to emphasize that you do you. You have to find what feels fun and doable to you. I look forward to my mornings so much, and that makes going to bed so much easier. And another key piece is that your morning routine, it really starts at night, right? Because if you're going to bed super late, then your morning routine is going to feel harder, cuz you're gonna be exhausted. And so, you know, there does have to be a initial trigger and effort to start going to bed at a better time. And to start waking up at the time that you wanted to in order to start to get that reward of incorporating these things in your morning routine. So I like to wake up really early and that means that I go to bed pretty early as well. So I wake. Get up as soon as my alarm goes off, typically I do, I am already kind of waking up sometimes before my alarm, because even on the weekends, I tend to get up at a very similar time so my body is just used to going to bed at a certain time and waking up at a certain time. And that is something really to think about. The more consistent you are, um, the more your body is just going to be getting into this rhythm. And that is even great just for GI health as well, because your microbes also like to have a rhythm. So if you do experience lots of fluctuations, like with your bowel habits or your gut health. That's something to be thinking about, like, is your schedule really erratic of like when you're awake or like when you're going to sleep and, and getting up. So wake up, brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, and then I immediately have a big glass of water. Then I have my black coffee and I put acacia powder in it, which is a prebiotic, great for gut health. So a prebiotic is the food for the good gut microbes that you want. So it's just a powder that I put in and I also add lion's main powder. So lion's main is a mushroom and it's really great for cognitive health and brain health. It just kind of a supplement. I let the dogs out. That's a moment outside and also just a moment of joy to connect with my like cute little pups. And then I go upstairs. Um, not that you needed to know where in my house I'm going and I sit down with my journal and that has made such a huge impact. It just really helps me to check in with myself, just, uh, noticing how am I feeling? What's going on. It's just an opportunity pen to paper. I just see what comes out. I get asked a lot if I have specific questions and right now with a slumber party program, um, with that you do get daily journal prompts and that can be really helpful just thought provoking questions. But if you were to start somewhere, the biggest thing I would say is to practice writing out, how am I feeling? Because again, that's something that so many of us aren't even very in tune with or good at articulating. And so really a great place to start is just practicing, identifying how you're feeling and then asking what do I need for today to feel more doable? So I take time to journal and that really helps because sometimes I do wake up and I'm kind of irritable. I just am feeling stressed or not in a great mood. And so I take some time and I work it out to understand why, because when you understand why you're feeling a certain way, you feel so much more empowered. But if you don't give yourself the opportunity or time to figure that out or to get curious about it, then it, it just starting, it makes the day really hard. After journaling that's when I work out and for me, that just gives me a major energy boost, confidence boost, mood boost. Sometimes I'll listen to a podcast. Sometimes I'll have a dance party... it just makes me feel strong and really great in my body. And then I do take like five to 10 minutes to meditate and to do my brain vacation. Then depending on the day, usually I'll go out for a quick walk sometimes like a, a run, sometimes a run walk just a little bit of time, fresh air. If I'm pressed for time, I'll literally just do that for like five minutes. Just like quick little run, because I love that opportunity where I don't have my headphones, I just listen to, like right now it's the summer, the birds are chirping. Sprinklers are going. just a nice, like, very grounding, um, just to be outside for a moment and to have that fresh air, then shower, get ready. And I sit down for a nourishing breakfast and then I start my day. And that really helps me to just be totally ready to conquer the day. Now, yours doesn't have to be nearly that time intensive I've my morning routine has just slowly become that over time. It definitely didn't just like instantly go from no morning routine to that. And so there are so many ways that you could incorporate all of these, these five components with just a few simple things. So, for example, one client who wanted to start to have more of a morning routine, she liked yoga, but it wasn't something that she was having time to do as much as she wanted to. And she also had like, this really great kind of screened in porch. So what she could do is wake up, have a glass of water and then go out to that porch and just do even five minutes of a yoga flow. And then at the end of that yoga flow, just sit for a moment, you know, when Sava just like lie down or sit and have that be a minute of mindfulness. So with all of that, she could be getting hydration, movement, mindset, and some fresh air all with just like five or 10 minutes. Right. For another one of my clients, she really was not having any time in the day for her until very late at night. And then she would wake up at the very last minute in the morning. And so one of the things that she said was, yeah, like I'm hitting snooze a lot, but really like that's not really quality sleep. It's just kind of broken. And so that's a huge thing to think about, even though it feels like it would be really appealing to keep hitting the snooze, really like it's not helping you to have a lot more energy and yet it is making your morning a whole lot more miserable. So how can you get yourself out of bed and have a little bit of extra time for you? So instead it was like, how about when your alarm goes off, you do wake up. But the first thing you have to do is just something that's just for you, because really it was that she just likes that time just to lay in bed. So just to get her out of bed so she wasn't rushing. it's like, what would feel good to you? And she said it would be really cool to just go outside and have like a moment to drink my coffee and some fresh air. And that's a great time to have some fresh air, mindfulness, just time, like silence to start your day instead of in rushed mode. Now if you're not a morning person, right. That getting out of bed is really hard. And so you may need a little push and initial motivation to start doing that in order for you to start getting that reward, like the more that you do these morning things. The more, you're going to notice the impact that it has on your mindset and your energy. But initially it's going to be hard to get out of bed. And so that's where I do recommend doing something like if you set your alarm on your phone, put it on the opposite side of your bedroom so that you physically have to get out of bed in order to turn the alarm off to get you going. And then you're rewarded. Right? Okay. Now you have a moment in your day when you can just go, go have your coffee in peace outside before the day really starts. So start just playing around and seeing how each of these things really impacts the way that you feel. The other thing I really encourage you to think about-it all boils down to how am I making my life harder than it has to be. Are there things that are in your morning routine that are making your mornings more miserable than they need to be? So for example, I had one client who during her commute was calling a parent who she felt like she should connect with and yet those conversations typically didn't make her feel very great, kind of made her feel judged. And so every morning, she was having a rushed morning and then she had that pocket of time in her car and she was doing something that was already making her kind of feel like she was failing before even getting to work. That's a crappy way to start the day. While, in reality, that time in the car was an opportunity for her to have some time just for her. And one thing that she had observed, like on a day when she was feeling pretty stressed, like not in a great mood, something happened in that day when suddenly she, the afternoon, she felt just like she was in a much better mood. And when we got curious about what that was, one thing that she found was like, she had gone for a little drive and had been able to listen to some music. And that ended up being like this great pocket of time just for her. And that really helped to change her mood and her day. So we had learned that, that time in the car with some great music that really had a huge impact on her mood. And yet instead she really wasn't feeling like she had any time in her day for her, but she was making time for somebody else. She was making that a greater priority than time for herself because of that feeling like she should. Really call out anytime you notice that should, is that actually something that you should be doing? This is an important time to always call out. What are your top three priorities? Where are you on your priority list? And if you're not on the top, how can you change that? because what was happening is that because of that, should she was prioritizing somebody else. She was sacrificing a little chunk of time. That could be for her, which she didn't have, because she felt like she should be giving it to somebody else. And then that was setting her up to really have kind of a negative mindset to start her..So that was something, where she could create that boundary. and recognize that it really was more of a priority that in the morning she has some time for herself. And so now that time in the car can be devoted to a dance party, a really great podcast that is, can just a commute. Can be that time to address your mindset and to check in with yourself to really get curious about what are the components right now in your morning that you're doing because you think that you should, or that you're doing, that's making your life harder than it has to be? Continue to get curious, like, why is it understandable that I'm not a morning person? And what ideally would I like my mornings to be like?. what would a perfect morning look like for you? Like if you didn't have any commitments, how would you like to start your morning and then start getting curious about how you can start incorporating little components of that into your mornings now, with the reality that you have, the more that you do this, the more you play around with it, the more you. Stop having that limiting belief that you aren't a morning person. And the more that you give yourself the opportunity instead to get curious, like how could I enjoy mornings more? What would be something that I could do in the beginning of the day, that feels really enjoyable that I look forward to? The more you start to do that, the easier it's going to be to also start going to bed on. Because the more you do that and the more your morning sets you up for success, you're gonna find that instead of getting to work or starting your day with your stress already elevated, and then that just continuing to make your day more and more stressful because you're like feeling behind that stress level is rising until like that very end of the day. If instead, you're doing things in the morning that help you to feel grounded, to feel in control, to feel nourished, to feel mentally clear your whole day is going to feel so much more doable. And so by the evening, you aren't going to need to be as glued to the couch, you're not going to have to do those numbing behaviors, right? Like turning to that glass of wine, scrolling on social media, not being able to pull yourself up off the couch because going to bed doesn't mean another really hard miserable morning and day. It means that you're going to have a little bit more time for yourself. So right now, choose at least one of those five things, hydrate movement, mindset, nourishment, fresh air, decide which one you want to start prioritizing tomorrow. And also think about, can you wake up? Even like five minutes earlier in order to do that, what feels doable? And then how are you going to get yourself out of bed? You may need to put your phone on the opposite side of the bedroom, and that could be really helpful for also going to bed. If you tend to be on your phone a little bit too long before closing your eyes. And if you do really just wanna start getting curious and really setting yourself up for success, then there are a couple of amazing options. Like I said, the slumber party, which is a one month program for women to start checking in with how you're feeling to start speaking up for and identifying what you need, boosting self-compassion and confidence and adding a little bit more fun into your day, you will start creating a really awesome morning and evening routine that doesn't take a lot of time. So that is a program available to you. And then my one-on-one programs are definitely a time where we get really curious and we problem solve. It's completely customized to you, but that's where we really call out, like, how are you making your life harder than it has to be? How can we make healthy, really add so much energy into your life? How can we make it feel fun and doable? Healthy should not feel hard, right? Even though we're a society makes you think that it just involves so much willpower and discipline. That's bullshit. if you want a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. It has to be something that you love. It has to be enjoyable and it has to be something that you want to do long term. So, if you wanna get curious about this, or even if you just wanna talk about your morning routine and what you could do, then I have complimentary one hour calls. So that's just a time for us to talk about where you're feeling stuck and we can problem solve together. And the goal with those calls is always for you to leave feeling empowered, excited, to have clarity on what your next step forward is going to be that just makes your heart feel a little bit lighter and gives you a little boost. If you want to schedule that, you can send me a message. You can always email me at amelia@lifeboost.today. You can visit my website, www.lifeboost.today or you can find me on Instagram, Facebook. I'm at life boost with Amelia, and then I'll also leave the links in the caption here. Okay. Wishing you a good morning. Cheers to your inevitable health, happiness and success.