8 Healthy Ways to Start Your Day

Are you a morning person? For some of us, seemingly no matter how early we go to bed the night before, we always wake up feeling exhausted and lethargic. Here are a few tips for how to start your morning in a healthy way that leaves you feeling energetic and ready for your day.

1. Wake Up Naturally

One trick to improve how you feel in the morning is to go to sleep with the blinds or curtains halfway open. This way, you will be gradually woken up by the rising sunlight, and if you can keep this routine, you may find yourself able to consistently get up in the morning without an alarm clock.

Another thing that a lot of people do to trick their senses into waking up naturally is to get their morning coffee ready the night before and set it on a timer just before their alarm clock. That way, you awake to the smell of coffee, which has the mental trigger of telling your body to wake up.

2. Exercise or Stretch

While it may seem like a challenge for some to wake up early enough to have time for a healthy morning run or bike ride, exercising soon after you wake up can help improve your concentration, energy, and mood throughout the day.

Another trick to eliminate some early morning grogginess if you don’t have time to exercise is to spend some time stretching soon after you wake up. This gets the blood flowing to your arms and legs, and can help you feel limber and energetic as you’re starting the day.

3. Water First, Caffeine Second

A cup of coffee is the first thing that many of us drink in the morning. When you have a busy day ahead of you, it can be very easy to become distracted and drink nothing but coffee until well into the afternoon. Be sure that you take care of your basic health before you begin filling your body with other healthy beverages. Even juice, soda, or other sugary beverages, are not a good substitute for water. Start your morning off with a tall glass of water before you pour yourself a cup of coffee. Dehydration can impact your focus, productivity, and mood, so drink up!

4. Avoid Hitting the Snooze Button

Hitting the snooze button has actually been shown to be more harmful than helpful because those extra few minutes of sleep do not provide you with quality, restorative rest. This can make you groggier in the morning and interfere with your body’s urge to wake up at the same time every day. As painful as it may be on some mornings, once you hear that alarm, do your best to get out of bed.

5. Eat Breakfast

It’s the most important meal of the day! A fairly obvious tip, but easy to overlook when you’re busy. Start your day off with a decent meal, combining protein, whole grains, and healthy fats. Ideally, you should budget time for something like whole-grain toast with peanut butter and banana, fruit, and yogurt. And if you’re really feeling like making it a special morning add some vegetables to an omelet to really kick-start your day.

6. Minimize Morning Stressors

To make your mornings easier, limit the amount of decisions you need to make before you leave for the day. Laying out your outfit the night before is a good place to start, as well as tidying up anything around your place that you may feel compelled to clean the following morning. Ideally, you want to be able to just wake up, get ready, and head out, without having to rush or make any unnecessary decisions.

7. Limit Electronics

It’s tempting to start your day off by flipping open your laptop, but checking your email, Facebook, or the news, are all activities that can unintentionally interfere with your morning, and subsequently, the rest of your day. Rather than use your computer right after you wake up, try a more engaging, less passive activity, such as writing in a journal for 10 minutes or listening to an inspiring song.

8. Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Unsurprisingly, the key to a great start to your day is to get a healthy amount of sleep the night before. The key to improving your sleep is to start with your bedtime habits, creating a relaxing environment for your body to find rest. Some techniques that have been shown to help include:

Make your room a relaxing space: do your best to clear your bed and eliminate clutter
Limit electronics before bed (phones, TV, computers; everything!).
Do something relaxing before bed (reading for 15 minutes, meditating, or listening to relaxing music).

Lastly, try and go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Our bodies crave routine and naturally follow the good habits that form. Routines are not put in place for when you are feeling great, they are there for the days when you aren’t feeling your best. If you practice healthy routines, your body is more likely to recover faster and less likely to get sick in the first place.