Morning routine ideas for a healthy lifestyle

Simple tips for cultivating a healthy morning routine

There’s ample evidence that a good morning routine can set you up for a more successful day. Starting off in a positive way can help improve your mood, reduce stress and increase productivity throughout the remainder of your week.

Therefore, with the new year still in its very early stages, we wanted to offer you some healthy morning routine ideas to try and incorporate into your daily lifestyle.

Prepare the night before

As the great inventor Alexander Graham Bell once said, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” So, if you want to achieve a more productive day, be sure to make your plans the night before.

Simple things such as getting your kids’ PE kits ready, preparing your to-do list and choosing your outfit and hanging it on your wardrobe can all save you time. This allows you to focus on a healthy morning routine when you wake up and will enable you to leave the house in a calm and organised manner.

Maintain fixed sleep and waking times

It’s very well-established just how important quality sleep is for our health and wellbeing. And consistency, it seems, is definitely one of the secrets to getting good rest.

Optimising your bed and wake times helps you to programme your circadian rhythm – which is your internal body clock that programmes your alertness and sleepiness responding to light changes in the environment. You should aim for between 7 – 9 hours of undisturbed sleep each night, so create a bed time that works for your lifestyle as well as a wake-up time that enables you to get ready in the morning without rushing.

Set an alarm to remind you of both your bedtime and an alarm to wake you up, until eventually you should get into a natural routine where you might not even need this to assist you.

Eat a good breakfast

Breakfast restores and replenishes your body’s supply of nutrients and energy after the overnight fast, so it’s vital you consume the right types of foods to set you up for the day.

Start with a glass of water before any food, tea or coffee as this helps to flush out the stomach and balance the lymphatic system. Then choose a light meal that provides energy and boosts brain power. Options such as fibre-rich cereals, oatmeal porridge and whole-wheat pancakes are ideal, as well as a good helping of fruit and vegetables to ensure you are reaching your five-a-day. Eggs are also highly nutritious and rich in vitamin D, so try to incorporate these a couple of times a week too, if possible.   

The main thing to remember is that breakfast doesn’t need to be boring – it’s all about being creative and experimenting with recipes that you find delicious and will look forward to waking up to.

Avoid your screen for a while

We are all looking at ways to cut down on our screen time to improve our overall wellbeing and mental health. And one perfect time to avoid looking at any form of screen is first thing in the morning.

Checking your phone straight away forces your brain to skip the important theta and alpha stages of waking up, and move straight into the delta stage of being wide awake and alert. Plus, if you then see or read something negative that early in the morning, it can trigger your stress response and put you on edge for the rest of the day.

So, the message here is to wait a minimum of one hour after you first wake up before you check your phone or computer. Enjoy the peaceful waking stages of your day and delay any exposure to the outside world for as long as you can!

Do something for your wellbeing

Instead of time scrolling through the latest news posts or social media platforms, choose a healthy morning activity in your routine that is good for your soul and makes you feel happy and positive.

You could do some cardio exercise, practice some yoga or meditation, or write a short journal about everything you hope to achieve that day. It doesn’t have to be a long exercise – just 10 or 15 minutes will be enough for you to reap the benefits.

Other small things such as making a smoothie, listening to a podcast, watering your plants or sitting down to stroke your pet can all be very beneficial to your mental health by stimulating positive hormone responses early on.

Find what works for you

Every individual’s morning routine is sure to be different. Depending on your living situation, your job and your family obligations, you may have restrictions or timeframes to work towards. But whatever your situation, you are sure to find healthy morning ideas that suit you.

To begin, make a list of all your morning priorities as well as the things you would love to do, and work them into a brief schedule with timings. Obviously, life will throw the odd spanner in the works occasionally and spoil your routine. However, if you have clear morning goals to live by, you will soon get back into the swing of it when things calm down again.

If you found this article beneficial and are interested in reading more tips on wellbeing in the home, head over to our Hammonds blog hub for further advice and ideas.