How to Update Your Morning Routine

Are you stuck in a morning rut? Is it time for you to change up your routine? Here are some ideas to get you motivated in time to face the day.

Alternative Eye-Openers

If you are not getting the charge out of your normal morning latte at home, there are quite a few coffee-free alternatives that have come on the market to get you motivated without some of the side effects that a ton of caffeine might cause. Taking a nutrient supplement like Balance of Nature in the morning may help you feel more energized. If you would like to wake up and get moving and have more energy without using caffeine, here are some of the most popular coffee alternatives out there that allow you to hydrate fast, and feel great:

• MitoQ: The mitochondria of the cells in the human body are responsible for creating the energy that fuels all of the living cells of living organisms. MitoQ is a nootropic supplement that was formulated to ramp up mitochondrial activity, by delivering a ramped-up form of CoQ10 (an antioxidant that helps control free radical damage in the cells) that helps the mitochondria deliver more energy to body cells, and reduce free radical damage. That’s a mouthful, for sure, but the main thing is it helps us get more energy naturally.
• Mushroom Coffee: Usually made from a blend of mushrooms (in most forms of mushroom coffee, the most common types being Reishi, Chaga, Lion’s Mane, and Cordyceps) this coffee-free beverage is also a nootropic (or brain-sharpening substance) that can help charge up the brain and body in preparation for a busy day. It does contain some caffeine but is also used for immune system support, stress relief, and as an anti-inflammatory. 
• Chicory: This root tastes like coffee, but has no caffeine, and is full of inulin — a substance that helps support gut health as a prebiotic. 
• Golden Milk: This warm morning beverage is caffeine-free, and gives you a boost from beneficial ingredients such as ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, cardamom, vanilla, and honey. Add any kind of milk (dairy or non-dairy) you like for a soothing, warm, pick me up before your workday.
• Yerba Mate: Although a cup of yerba has about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, it also contains beneficial antioxidants, vitamins C & E, riboflavin, phosphorus, thiamine, iron, and calcium. 

Healthful Morning Activities

Lots of people like to get in a morning run, some yoga, or a trip to the gym before they head to work. If you can’t squeeze in a trip to your spinning class in time to make it to work, there are some great at-home alternatives for fitness lovers. Great online at-home workouts can be found on your laptop or tablet at sites like ClassPass, which offers a tremendous number of types of workouts, like boxing, yoga, circuit training, dance, and many more. Any fitness level can find something that will work, and they can all be done from wherever you can log in to your instructed course. 

Do you have little ones to get up and moving? There are better things to supplement their breakfast than a cartoon character shaped “vitamin” that is more candy than it is nutrition. Most kids’ multivitamins are based upon nutritional statistics that were collected in the 1980s… and that seems as if it is high time for an update. The fun supplemental kid’s multivitamin HiYa provides a variety of nutrients that a child’s growing body needs, plus it comes with a sticker pack for your kids, too. 

Get Your Shopping Done

If you are too tired to want to grab groceries after work, there is a much better way to get your dinner planned and groceries purchased in just a few minutes in the morning at the breakfast table. 

JOW is a grocery service that allows you to input the size of your household, any dietary restrictions or preferences you might have, and what kind of cooking appliances you have. You then have a number of recipes to choose from that reflect your own taste. When you choose a recipe for tonight’s dinner, JOW will connect to your favorite grocery store, order the ingredients you need to make dinner, and arrange delivery to your home or for pickup. 

You can also order housewares like detergent, toilet paper, beverages, shampoo, or anything else you might grab at the grocery store, and it will all be ready for you at the end of your workday. This kind of service can be an amazing use of time for those who have little time to spare and want to maximize their time at home and with loved ones. 

Skin and Beauty Updates 

Your morning isn’t complete without a shower and (in some cases) a shave, so here are some updates for your morning bathroom routine.

• If you have any qualms about fluoride and other chemicals in your toothpaste and mouthwash, Coral toothpaste offers products that are free of questionable chemicals that you don’t want your family ingesting on a daily basis. 
• Natural skin, hair, and soap products are offered by Wow Skin Science. A great selection of shampoo and conditioner sets, moisturizers, cosmetics, body washes and more are all made with natural ingredients, at prices that are affordable.
• If ethically sourced and produced, vegan, and high-quality cosmetics are of interest to you or your loved ones, Roo Skincare has a huge line of amazing cosmetics to make you look beautiful, while not compromising your ethics to do so. 

Use Your Time Wisely

Do you like to get up bright and early, and get things accomplished before most people have even hit the snooze button? Here are a few things to get done early in the morning, while the house is quiet and the family is sleeping, happily snug in their beds:

• Make a list of your worst time-wasters (hello… that Facebook farming game that you inexplicably can not put down…) and make a pledge not to do them in the morning when you have better things that you can accomplish.
• Uninstall or hide apps on your phone that are notorious time wasters.
• Set reminders on your calendar or your phone to get you motivated and set a schedule to get certain tasks done.
• If you have a task that you hate (cleaning that cat box), get it out of the way first. Everything that you do after that will seem like less of a chore.
• Don’t pretend you are a superhero: multitasking is overrated, and we all tend to do things more sloppily when we try to do more than one thing at once. Give yourself a break, and get one thing done at a time.
• Make use of chunks of “dead time”: if you have to wait in line for 15 minutes at the bank, the pharmacy, or at the bakery in the morning, find a small online task that you can knock out of the way while you wait. Alternatively, you can use this time to do deep-breathing exercises, or stress relief exercises. 

Now that you have updated your morning routine, give yourself a pat on the back. We all heap ourselves with too many tasks, and some of us feel guilty when we can’t get it all done. Realize that you can only do what you can do and that you are a good person, and a valuable person, even if you tend to hit the snooze button and sleep in once in a while.