An Oversimplified morning routine

Of all the ideas that always resurface in self-improvement work, the topic of “Best morning routine” always stays at the top. The internet is full of motivational videos of influencers who wake up at 4:00 am and drink their sponsored smoothies or brush their teeth with a sponsored toothbrush and then go on through the rest of the day to expand their empires. The worst thing about these videos is that they are not meant to teach us anything but flex and sell the sponsored products. And at the end of the video, we just feel like shit rather than being motivated because we do not have a Lamborghini that we drive when we are feeling down during the day.

Here today, I will offer you an oversimplified morning routine that you could follow anywhere and feel better and more motivated for the rest of the day. Morning routines are important since they set your tone/mood for the rest of the day. So, it should be simple and less complicated. The morning routine is as follows:

Set a sleep cycle:

This is not exactly a part of the morning routine but it is very crucial to maintain it. Getting a good rest is very crucial to feeling fresh the next day. So, 7-8 hours of sleep is very important, some people could even do with 6 hours but less in not preferred. But I have seen a lot of people complaining about still feeling tired after a night of proper sleep. Improper sleep cycle could be one of the reasons for this. Setting the sleep cycle means always sleeping and waking at the same time every day. It is as if we feel hungry at noon every day because noontime is lunchtime. The same thing happens when you sleep and wake every day around the same time. This lets your body set a bio clock and hence it knows when it is sleep time and when it is the time to wake up. Farmers from some county regions have such good sleep cycle that they wake precisely at the same time every morning with no alarms because their body is used to that routine since they have followed it for a very long time.

Hydration:

I could not emphasize this enough. The first thing to do after you wake up and take a leak of course is to drink a big full glass of water. Since you have been in bed for 6-8 hours straight, your body is highly dehydrated and needs water. Drinking water in the morning is very crucial for hydration and it also helps you regulate your bowel movements. You could also add lemon or honey to the water since they are very good antioxidants and helps in the detox of your body.

Empty cardio for weight loss

People who are aiming to lose weight, doing a workout session empty stomach in the morning is bliss. After 6-7 hours of sleep, your stomach is empty hence your body does not have any food in the stomach to extract the energy from. So, it starts eating up the body and hence you start losing weight. People need to know that weight loss not necessarily means fat loss. To clear any doubts about morning workouts, refer to this blog's second paragraph.

Hot shower vs cold shower

Showers are a good way to cleanse your body and feel refreshed. Showers could be of two types. Hot shower is good for cramps(it soothes muscle fatigues), cleanse your pores, and relieves any respiratory Symptoms(sore throat, blocked nose, etc). But taking excessive hot showers could lead to dry skins and scalp. Cold showers on the other hand protect your skin and hair, makes you more alert and energetic, and relieves itchy skin. Type of showers should be chosen according to how you are feeling during the morning.

Do not skip Breakfasts

In this constantly running busy world, skipping meals seems a productive idea, some people also skip breakfast so that they can maintain a calorie deficit for fat loss. But trust me skipping breakfasts do you more harm than good. When you skip breakfast, you keep your body hungry for a very prolonged time (7-8 hours of sleep plus time till lunch), this could cause some serious irreversible metabolism damage. A weak metabolism could work against the cause (Fat loss) that you are skipping your breakfast for. You should try to eat a good healthy breakfast with lots of proteins and vitamins. This also gives you enough energy to battle the rest of the day. If you want to skip a meal, skipping dinner is much better than skipping breakfasts.

No phone till breakfast

A research conducted by IDC shows that 80% of mobile smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up. This checking of smartphones eventually leads to checking social media accounts and then scrolling through feeds which for most people at least wastes 20 minutes of their time. This sets the mood of the day to procrastination which is not very effective if you want to be productive. A good idea is to prevent yourself from checking your phone until you have done your morning routines and have eaten your breakfast so that you already have a sense of accomplishment. This way you are already motivated and are likely to spend less time on your phone and procrastinate.

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