10 ‘Give it 10’ 

Tips to Supercharge Your Day

 

So, how many plates are you spinning?

Mum, Partner, Cleaner, Cook, Sister, Carer, Chief of Domestic Admin, Family Taxi and possibly your own career to boot –  there is no doubt about it, we are busy women.  If you spend each day careering from one role to the next and end each day in a dizzy heap, wondering if you are ever going to get through your ‘to do’ list, the last thing you need to hear about is to get up earlier; but that is just what I am going to suggest.

Now, I can’t promise this will reduce your to-do list, but following a morning ritual can greatly impact your productivity throughout the day.  How you start your day has a real bearing on how that day goes.  So many women who want to lose weight, feel stronger, gain confidence and have more energy start the day in a stressful state that immediately negatively impacts all of those desires.

Poor sleep, late nights, social media, IT, caffeine, alcohol and stress all cause chaos with our hormones which can signal the body to create a ‘fight or flight’ reaction that over the long term causes a toxic environment in our body.  Cortisol is the common hormone associated with this, and whilst it is great in an immediate danger situation, it is extremely destructive when it’s consistently present as it curbs functions that are non-essential to the fight or flight response (including digestion, repair, fighting inflammation and reproduction).

Now, Stress is a monumental subject and we aren’t going in to it now.  What we are going to discuss is a morning ritual that will signal your body that you are in charge and everything is OK!  A ritual that will begin to teach your body that it is not required to start the day fighting for survival.

 

Let me introduce you to the 10 Step, ‘Give it 10’ Morning Ritual. 

Note – each of these tips is a blog post in itself, but we’d be here all day!

1. Alarm Time
Set your alarm for 30 mins earlier than you usually get up.

This will probably mean you will have to go to bed earlier and may take a week or 2 for you to adjust to.  This first step will be one of your biggest hurdles.  It may mean you miss you fave TV show, or will have to curb scrolling social media or could even mean you go to bed before your kids (assuming they are 13 ish +)!

2. 10 Second Rule
Now this one is the hardest step.  Once your alarm rings – get out of bed within 10 seconds!  Do not hit snooze, do not roll over, just throw of the covers and get up.  There is a long and complicated neurological explanation of how your brain will try and reason with you to stay put, don’t give that thought chance to take root!

3. Water
Drink a glass of water (having placed it there the night before).  After 8 ish hours of sleep, your body is dehydrated.  If the first thing you drink is coffee, the caffeine will send you straight into stress mode, despite what you think about it waking you up.  Save the caffeine till mid-morning (then and only then!)

4. Cold Shower!
Have your normal shower, but after you have washed, blast your body on the coldest setting for at least 10 seconds.  It may take a few days to work up to 10 seconds, but believe me, it will make you feel awesome.  Cold water is fantastic for your circulation (which is great for smashing cellulite), it’s great for your skin and it will wake you up.

5. Mobility and flexibility
You can do this before or after your shower.  I do it after as I don’t work up a sweat and my body is a little more awake and warmed up (and you can just do it in your underwear!). Anything from a few repetitions to a 10-minute routine done consistently can be truly transformative.

6. 10 Breaths
Lie on the floor with your feet over a chair and take 10 deep belly breaths.  Great as a form of meditation, but also great for any suffers of lower back pain – if this is the case, I highly recommend staying in this position for 10 minutes. 

7. Journal
Set your intentions for the day and you can also comment on them at the end of the day.  Just use a notebook, or you could always use a more structured journal to help you (I use the 5 Minute Journal).

8. Protein
Protein at breakfast is vital if you are to feel satiated until lunchtime.  It will help to curb the need to snack midmorning (although the habit to snack is a much different monster to deal with!!).  This can seem like a real challenge to some and may take some getting used to.  Just ditch the cereal and go for eggs, a smoothie, yoghurt, homemade granola (I use the one from ‘I Quit Sugar’), banana nut loaf (give me a shout for the recipe) or if you really struggle for time and motivation, a protein shake (I was adamantly against these, but have now discovered an awesome one).

9. Supplements
Quite a contentious subject.  Like the protein shake, these are a ‘shouldn’t be necessary, but usually are’ type product.  In an ideal word where we all eat a vast selection of colourful organic fruit and veg we would not need them, but the reality is, generally we are deficient in some essential vitamins, oils and minerals.  The industry is huge, not nearly regulated enough and full of expensive, unnecessary and often ineffective products.  

Supplementation is a humunganorous subject.  I take some from a company I have followed for years just to belt and braces my nutrition, especially as I hit an age where my hormones are doing crazy things and I know nutrition plays a key role in regulating many of those hormones.  I’m happy to discuss this further – give me a shout! 

And finally……

10. Smile
Walk out the door and face the day with a smile.  Even if you have to ‘fake it till you make it’ smiling tells your brain you are in a good mood.  This guy explains the power of smiling much better than me.

 

So, this is my 10 Step Morning Ritual.  It can seem a little overwhelming, but much of it is already what you are doing, all you are really adding extra is that bit of working out and perhaps writing the journal.  This is not necessarily about what time you get up, but it is about how you get up and start your day.  There are numerous scientific papers about the power of a morning routine and because of this, there is also a lot of ‘noise’ around what you should do – often written by single guys with no kids to get ready for school!

What you should do, is what you can do for the time of life you are in.  But whatever that is make it a ritual, give it at least 10 minutes.  Customise it to work for you, because if it doesn’t fit with where you are, you will not do it.  There will always be an excuse not to do the things you need to do, and the day will quickly get hijacked if you don’t have a routine.  Results require rituals, get some momentum, be consistent and GO!

Jennie Edmondson

www.gohealthandfitness.co.uk