We all have certain habits that we engage in most mornings and for some people, these habits may be waking up and getting out of bed at 10 am or skipping breakfast and grabbing a large lunch or walking the dog, etc. Morning habits are things that we regularly do in the morning however our morning habits can either be healthy or unhealthy or a combination of both. Starting your morning off healthy is the smart thing to do because what if our morning habits you know the things that we do in the morning can have a positive impact on our health? What if these very habits can make us more productive, less stressed, give us more energy and so on? Won't you want to practice these instead?


Start your day off healthy with these 7 healthy morning habits.



1. Wake up early

If you're going to wake up early you'll first have to ensure that you get at least 6-8 hours of sleep and to achieve this you'll need to know when you're going to wake up and go to sleep according to that. Additionally, it's important that you don't go to sleep extremely late and then want to/try to wake up early. Sleep is important so don't sacrifice that. An example: If you want to wake up at 6 am and you want to get 7 hours of sleep then the latest you should go to sleep is at 11 p.m. What you don't do is go to sleep at 2 a.m. in the morning and wake up at 6 a.m. in the morning, that will give you about 4 hours of sleep which is not healthy.

So, you know how to achieve this so let me ask you this! Are you one of those people who hate waking up early in the morning? If so then hear me out!

Waking up early basically gives you more TIME. On the other hand, waking up late gives you less or no time to get things done in the morning and this can be very stressful. When you have more time you can make/eat a healthy breakfast instead of grabbing an unhealthy one or skipping breakfast. If you skip breakfast you may make unhealthy choices at your next meal. This can be: you're so hungry and unhealthy foods seem like a good idea or you can end up overeating because you're so hungry.
Skipping breakfast is not a good idea! You've been sleeping for hours and that will put your body into starvation mode which will result in you overeating when you do eat and crave unhealthy foods.


So waking up early enables you to have a healthy diet but how else can it benefit you?

When you wake up early:
- you're more productive
- you get time to exercise and get that out of the way

- you can enjoy a peaceful quiet time/enjoy peace and quiet. Early in the morning is quiet and thus you get to enjoy that peacefully
- you don't have to stress because you have to get a lot done and don't have the time

- you get to mediate
- you see the sunrise, seeing the sunrise is beautiful
- you can read/listen to useful books and Podcasts- fill your mind with knowledge

In conclusion, when you wake up late you won't have enough time. That can be enough time to make a healthy breakfast or exercise and so on. When you wake early you don't have to rush to get things done and stress yourself out.



2. Start your day with water or lemon water





What can drinking water do for you? Drinking water:

- rehydrates the body (Water is great for hydrating the body from all those hours of sleeping).
- flushes toxins from the body
- boost your metabolism, etc.

Alternatively, the highly popular warm lemon water is also another option to consume! Making lemon water the first thing you consume in the morning is a healthy morning habit. Why? The reason is very simple, lemons provide various health benefits and lower your risks of diseases.

First, what is warm lemon water?
Warm lemon water is basically lemon juice added to warm water. Apart from giving water a different taste (a delicious taste by the way) it has many health benefits as already stated above.

 
Ok, let's look at the health benefits of lemons.

The enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase is not present in humans and as such we cannot synthesize our own vitamin C (ascorbic acid). So, therefore, in order to obtain this vitamin, we need to consume it through our diets. This vitamin can come from certain foods that we eat or we can take tablets/oral supplements. This is where lemons come in; lemons are a rich source of vitamin C and vitamin C is an essential micronutrient that us humans need.

Some roles of vitamin C are:

Vitamin C is an ANTIOXIDANT and acts as a COFACTOR

- This vitamin as an antioxidant protects us from harmful free radicals. For those of who don't know, free radicals are produced during metabolic processes within the body and we can also be exposed to these from the environment.

- Additionally, the consumption of vitamin C may relieve or prevent infections (1).

- Prevent and relieve cold

- Promote the absorption of iron from non-heme iron sources

- Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disorder and vitamin C as an antioxidant can maintain periodontal health.

- the transformation of cholesterol to bile acids

- synthesis of muscle carnitine

- maintain collagen

- freshens breath
 

Vitamin C deficiency
Think about it this way! If someone is vitamin C deficient then a number of health conditions will arise in the body like scurvy, anemia, and infections to name a few.

Vitamin C deficiency can occur due to:

• not enough consumption of vitamin C containing foods in the diet
• stress
• tobacco smoking
• pregnancy

Note: These 4 ways that I have listed above are not the only ways that one can become vitamin C deficient.

Furthermore, apart from lemons being a rich source of vitamin C, they are also great for digestion and weight loss.


3. Eat a healthy breakfast





I feel so much better when I start my day off eating something healthy and so will you. There are so many healthy options out there like smoothies, smoothie bowls, oatmeal, fruit and so on just to name a few. I try to at least have some sort of fruit or vegetable and a healthy protein with my first meal.

Some healthy foods/ingredients that you can eat for breakfast/use to make breakfast are:

• yogurt
• chia seeds
• flaxseeds 
• granola
• eggs
• nuts
• almond butter/peanut butter
• fruits (e.g. strawberries, blueberries, bananas, apples, lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, watermelon, avocados, tomatoes and so on)
• vegetables (e.g. spinach)
• mushrooms 
• whole wheat bread
• whole grain muffins
• honey 
• beans
• quinoa
• plant-based milk (e.g. almond milk)

4. Read or listen to an eBook/book or Podcast





For this, try to fill your mind with knowledge for reading gives you more knowledge and that's never a bad thing. Try to allot time to read or listen to a book or Podcast or you can even listen to a book or Podcast whilst your exercising or eating if you don't have all that time.

Why in the morning? Your brain is more active in the morning and you're able to concentrate more in the morning and retain the information that you gain from reading. Additionally, the morning is calm and so you're better able to concentrate more. Apart from that, reading also offers relaxation, peace, 
and tranquility.


Reading as a way of relieving stress?
Reading is good for relieving stress. I can't tell you the number of times that I've read a book to take my mind off stressful situations in my life. You just lose yourself in whatever it is that you're reading and you don't think about whatever it is that's stressing you out. This works because when you read you're in the present moment of what you're reading and so you're not dealing with the past and future or your stressful life.




5. Exercise

Exercise has many health benefits. One, exercise regulates our weight and when we exercise in a fasted state fat oxidation can increase.


If you exercise in the morning you don't have to worry about it for the rest of the day. However, if you can't in the morning maybe because of time or whatever it is, try doing a couple minutes of some sort of exercise, this will make you feel good like going for a walk or run.

Additionally, we'll have more energy in the morning after a good night's sleep as opposed to the end of the day (tired after work for some of us). Due to less energy, we might not work out or if we do, we won't do it properly or only do a part or the thought of exercising at the end of the day can stress 
us out.




6. Mediate







Meditation can put your mind and body in a state of calmness and relaxation. What I love about meditation is that it trains your mind to focus on the present moment rather than the past or future.

But why in the morning? Well, your mind is clear and free in the morning and additionally, it can be difficult to mediate with distractions (it can be around you or of the day) and so what better time to mediate than early in the morning when your outer world and inner world is quite.

If you didn't wake up that early in the morning it is still great to mediate in the morning because it can give you an energy boost which we all need in the morning by the way.

There are various meditation technique that you can try, just do what works for you (You can meditate for 20 minutes in the morning after waking up).





7. Shower






Morning showers are great because they make you feel so refreshed and what better time to feel so than in the morning when you have your whole day ahead of you.



What are your morning habits? Are they healthy, somewhat healthy or just really unhealthy? Whatever your morning habits are how does it impact the rest of your day? Personally, from implementing healthy habits in the morning, I have had a positive health impact on my mind and body.



 References

1.  Hemilä, Harri. 2017. "Vitamin C and Infections." Nutrients 9, no. 4: 339.