30 Days to a Healthier Life – Morning Routine

I know what you’re thinking – Is this a new Cool Healthy Life challenge?  No, unfortunately you’ll have to wait until later in the year for that.  However, this is an update on the 10 Days to a Healthier Life Challenge from last month.

As some of you may have guessed, we’re now over 30 days into my new morning routine, and I thought it made sense to check in with my progress.

I’m happy to report that I really feel like my new morning schedule has become second nature.  I’m naturally waking up earlier every morning, and I still genuinely look forward to this hour of peace and tranquility prior to a hectic day of work and life.

What Are the Benefits of the Morning Routine?

The greatest benefit I derive from my morning routine is a higher level of energy throughout the day.  It’s amazing how positively my body responds to a morning routine of meditation, exercise and positive thinking.  I can honestly say that I have more consistent energy throughout the day now than I did back in the day when I was running around in Spider Man undies (no, I was not wearing Spider Man underwear last year).

I’d say the second largest benefit of my morning routine is the positive impact it’s had on my relationship with my family (and also my co-workers).  It took me a few weeks to figure this one out, but it’s something that I now reflect on almost daily.  There is an old saying, “happy wife equals happy life.”  Well, I’ve decided to invent my very own “Brentism,” When I’m early to rise, I have three happy girls and clear blue skies.

In all honesty, the feedback from Mrs. Cool Healthy Life has been great.  She feels that my morning routine really puts me in a positive place.  I tend to be more relaxed to start the day and come home from work much more mentally free from the stresses of the 9 to 5. This leads to better engagement with her and our girls and generally makes family time more pleasant all around.

Have You Missed a Single Day?

Oh ya … I’ve missed a couple days. The first time was a few days after I’d completed the ten-day challenge.  It was a Monday morning, and I was really excited to get up early, meditate, and practice yoga.  Only problem was I didn’t quite wake up early.  I’m not really sure what happened; I must have forgotten to set my alarm.  I woke up late and was in a mad dash to shower, eat breakfast and get to work.  That day was horrible.  I was flustered, agitated, and tired.  Don’t believe me?  Ask Mrs. CHL!

I’ve probably missed five or six days in total.  I would say in every instance any additional sleep I may have received was not worth the cost of losing that hour of personal time!

I’ve gotten into a great routine waking up early every weekday.  Outside of the alarm snafu, I’m starting almost all weekdays with my morning routine. Weekends are still a challenge for me.  Even though I normally get more sleep on the weekends to begin with, I still struggle with my will power when the alarm goes off.  I know I need to get up, but that voice in my head says, “just 15 more minutes … it’s the weekend.”

The reason I share my challenges is so we all realize that perfection is not the goal.  The goal is to create new healthy habits that will have a positive impact on our lives.  It’s OK to miss a day or sleep in a little later if that’s what your body needs, as long as sleeping in doesn’t become your new morning routine!

What’s Next for CHL and Healthy Habits?

Without a doubt, I plan to stick with my morning routine.  I’m actually in the process of determining if I want to set my alarm to wake up 90 minutes earlier than usual instead of just 60 minutes!

What I’m finding is that most mornings my 60 minutes quickly dwindles to 40 minutes, as our girls and dogs seem to naturally get up earlier when daddy does.  To ensure that I’m getting a full 60 minutes, I may need to set the alarm just a bit earlier.  Six weeks ago this would have sounded like an impossible task, but now it seems like a rather easy change!

For those of you who expressed interest in participating in our next healthy habit challenge, we’ll be back later in 2015 with version 2.0!   I have a few ideas in my head, but please add a comment if you have a specific healthy habit challenge you’d like to try out in 2015!

Until next time,

Brent

[ois skin=”1″]