You CAN Become a Morning Person - Here’s How
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Do you think morning people are born that way? They are not (at least not all of them).
I used to be a night owl. My energy naturally hit its stride in the evening. When I was in both college, I had more energy and focus when I started studying at 8 or 9 PM than AM. And in grad school, my boyfriend, who was a morning person, and I had totally different schedules – I went to bed at 1 or 2 AM and slept in until 9 or 10, while he had a totally different schedule.
A few years after that though, I shifted.
A lot of it was because of the fact that I was back to a corporate job, but what really pushed me into true Morning Person Status was when I started taking Spin classes at 6 AM. You see, one July morning, the Daylight Savings sun woke me up very, very early, and since I couldn’t fall back to sleep, I went to Spinning.
I felt really incredible that day and naturally fell asleep early that night. Which naturally woke me up early the next morning. This quickly became a pattern, because I just felt better.
It was still a bit of a transition, but I realized I was happier when I was up and more productive earlier. I tended to have healthier days where I was better able to deal with stress. (And oh boy, do I need help dealing with stress!) So I learned how to set myself up for morning success.
First things first, the best way to become a morning person is by gradually working your way up to it.
Go to bed 15 minutes earlier and wake up 15 minutes early every week until you are an hour adjusted. This gradual process makes it easy enough that you shouldn’t feel much of a difference.
To help you fall asleep earlier and wake up more easily, I highly recommend the following two things:
1. Lull yourself to sleep.
Pamper yourself with lavender linen spray, read a book, take your melatonin, whatever you need. Or read about how to build your perfect bedtime routine here!
2. Prepare something to look forward to in the morning.
This is undeniably the most effective way to make the shift stick. You need to look forward to something when the alarm goes off!
Have a delicious breakfast, a pot of your favorite coffee, or a TV show you want to watch/podcast you want to listen to. You need something fun when you get out of bed to make you want to get out of bed earlier more than once.
An additional tip is to lay out your clothes the night before. This should include your work clothes (or just work shirt, if you are working from home, because don’t pretend you are not wearing sweatpants on the bottom) and your gym clothes if you want to attempt a morning workout.
Now that you have properly prepared, let’s talk about what to do when the alarm goes off!
This list of suggestions are things I do to ease myself into the day, preparing for what is ahead, and ensuring I feel amazing physically.
1. Allow one snooze.
I know, I know, everyone else tells you to never hit snooze. You need to know your own body though. Personally, I like hitting snooze so that I can roll over and stretch and gradually wake up. This means I take one 9 minute cycle to wake up rather than springing out of bed. That does not mean I hit snooze for an hour and waste all that precious sleep or wake time.
The key here is to get to know whether you need to get out of bed immediately or whether to set the alarm X minutes before you actually need to get out of bed.
2. Open the curtains.
Getting sunshine first thing in the morning keeps your circadian rhythm running smoothly, gives you energy for the day, and boosts your mood.
3. Do a small workout.
At first, this could be a plank in bed or some squats while your coffee brews. A good goal is to work up to 15 or 30 minutes of exercise (if you positively hate morning workouts, ignore this! Some people just hate morning or evening exercise regardless of what they try, so don’t force yourself into a schedule you hate).
An easy way to introduce yourself to morning workouts is barre – read more about what it is and why I love it is this blog post.
4. Take your vitamins.
Get your multivitamin, vitamin D, and probiotic in first thing in the morning.
5. Drink up!
Have your lemon water and coffee. Or chlorophyll water! This gives your system a kickstart with hydration, vitamin C, antioxidants, and a kick of caffeine.
Want to use the morning as a way to start drinking tea? Read more about the health benefits of tea here, simplified and easy to digest (plus a tea quiz that will help you pinpoint your perfect blends)!
6. Easy breakfast.
There are two easy breakfasts anyone can master, and both are tragically healthy and fast:
a. Proffee.
Combine half a premade protein shake with a cup of coffee. The protein shake makes milk and sweetener unnecessary, and you are being efficient here in that you are getting protein to keep you satisfied while also getting caffeine to pep you up.
I highly recommend having the second half with another cup of coffee. (Read more about proffee and a bunch of other drinks that fill nutritional gaps you may have in this blog post).
b. Smoothies. (Even better when there’s no blender required!)
This is really the easiest if you subscribe to smoothies from Evive. They are iced cubes of premade concoctions that you put into a glass of water or milk and shake…no blender needed. So there is legitimately no work involved in getting nutrients into your body.
7. Plan your day.
Make a list of to-do’s (broken out in however you like to organize this type of list). Having something on paper makes you feel more in control and less likely to forget various things that would otherwise slip your mind.
If you slowly begin trying these things (remember, you have to adapt and likely won’t change all at once!), I would be willing to guarantee that you can change your schedule! Be kind to yourself and patient…and know that some days (especially during the winter) you just won’t want to get out of bed, and that’s okay!
If you want to try a morning workout, sign up for my FREE cardio and strength routines, each under a half hour, so perfect for any the extra time you now have in the morning:
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