Four morning rituals that can ruin your day

Everyone has a morning routine they could never imagine altering. But what if the actions of your morning routine were negatively impacting your body and mood for the rest of the day without you knowing?

Here are four of the most common morning rituals people commit in the morning that should be stopped:

1. Hitting the snooze button

The alarm goes off and you hit snooze to enjoy the next ten minutes in your warm cosy bed. “I’ll feel alive after these extra few minutes” you tell yourself. Hitting the snooze button multiple times actually throws off your circadian rhythm or “internal clock” instead of feeling energized after your extra snooze you fell groggy.

TIP! Instead of setting multiple alarms or snoozing for an extra hour set your alarm for later in the morning. It will be easier to get up at this time because your body is well rested in its sleep schedule.

2. Only having coffee for breakfast

It’s tempting to skip breakfast in order to sleep in an extra ten minutes but skipping breakfast alters your mood and energy levels for the whole day. Coffee increases your metabolism as well as increasing the production of the hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol can result in extra belly fat, lowered immune function, and impaired cognition.

TIP! It’s perfectly fine to have coffee WITH your breakfast just not as your whole breakfast. Pair your coffee with a granola bar, muffin, or scone that you can eat on the go and feel energised all day.

3. Checking your phone as soon as you wake up

After waking up to your phone alarm it is easy to get distracted by your emails, text messages and social media accounts. You might think this a relaxing way to wake up but depending on the content you are viewing this could be harmful to your daily mood. The first image we see or song we hear in the day sets our mood, so if it’s a negative tweet or Facebook post it could put you in a negative place without you even noticing.

TIP! Stay in bed and meditate or stretch to release all the negative energies from your body and jump-start your day!

4. Swapping out sleep for the gym

Dragging yourself out of bed for your 8am spin class might look like dedication but its actually body suicide. Forcing your body to workout early in the morning when it is not “awake” cancels out all the hard-work you are putting in at the gym. Chronic sleep deprivation — or getting six hours or less a night on a regular basis — can lead to injury while working out.

TIP! Take a later workout class or switch your gym routine to after work.

maternity & infant

Originally posted 2018-11-19 15:48:29.