Mistakes You May Make Before 10 AM

One thing that most successful, happy people have in common is a morning routine. It varies from person to person, but figuring out what works for you, can valuable for your health and well being.

You might; meditate, work out, read the paper, go for a morning walk or relax in a hot shower. There’s no right or wrong answer here, but there are some habits you should generally avoid.

Are You Making These Morning Mistakes?

1. Getting Right into Your Daily Grind - It may be tempting to sleep in as late as possible, then throw on your clothes and sprint off to work. A better idea is to get up a little earlier so you can have some “me time” first thing in the morning.

Research shows that people who start off their workday with a positive mindset experience greater boosts from positive events that occur later in the day and also are less impacted by negative interactions with colleagues. So take time to do something just for you.

2. Keeping Your Bedroom Dark - A pitch-black bedroom is essential for high-quality sleep, but come morning, it’s time to let the sun shine in. Morning light contains more wavelengths of blue light, which are known to have the strongest effect on your circadian rhythm. Exposure to bright morning light helps to reset your internal clock for the day.

3. Hitting the Snooze Button - Rather than staying in bed for another 10 minutes after your alarm goes off, get up and move. Staying in bed might make you groggier and you may even throw your internal clock off schedule. Getting up at the same time every day helps your hormonal balance and circadian rhythms stay in synch. The habit of rising early every day is one shared by many successful people, as it enhances your productivity and focus.

4. Jumping Out of Bed Too Quickly - It’s admirable to leap out of bed, ready to face the day. But your body may be stiff from a night of inactivity. It is a good idea to do some light stretching for a minute or so and then slowly get out of bed.

5. Ruining Your Coffee - If your morning routine includes a cup of coffee, this is fine and may even be beneficial for your health. However, if you’re dousing your coffee with creamer, sugar and other sweeteners and flavorings, you are reducing the therapeutic benefits of the coffee itself. The natural blend of polyphenol antioxidants is part of what makes coffee so healthy. Research suggests adding dairy to your coffee may interfere with your body’s absorption of beneficial chlorogenic acids. Adding sugar to your coffee may spike your insulin levels, which contributes to insulin resistance. If you’re interested in the health benefits, drink your coffee black, without sugar, non-dairy creamer or cream, or flavorings and be sure it’s organic.

Is Breakfast Really The Most Important Meal of the day?

Should your morning routine include a healthy breakfast? Conventional nutritional dogma states that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but if you’re not a fan of breakfast, there may be no harm in skipping it.

If you skip breakfast, you will extend the natural time of your overnight fasting period. This type of intermittent fasting has numerous benefits for your health. There may even be benefits to exercising in the morning while fasting, which would be before eating breakfast.

If you enjoy breakfast and feel better when you eat it, it can certainly be part of a healthy morning routine. An example of a healthy breakfast is organic pastured eggs with organic vegetables and a whey protein smoothie.

Your body probably only needs two meals a day. Eating this way allows you to restrict your eating to a window of six to eight consecutive hours each day. It is important to avoid food for at least three hours before bedtime. Which two meals you prefer are up to you. Let your body and your lifestyle be your guide.

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