15 Fit Girls Morning Rituals – Healthy Habits That Changed My Life

15 Fit Girls Morning Rituals – Healthy Habits That Changed My Life

You’ve fallen off the wagon and you don’t know how to get back on track?

You start every morning with the guilt of what you’re doing, but you don’t have the strength to finally step up and make a change…

Well don’t worry, because that happens to every one of us.

We wake up, feeling angry and bad, with only one wish – to change ourselves, but somehow we always end up saying: “Nah, not today.”

The fact that you’re not the only one shouldn’t be comforting at all, but it’s a clear sign that everyone is doing something wrong, right?

So because of that, I decided to give you my own solution to this problem I struggled with for years.

That’s why today, I’m going to tell you a short story about a few tiny healthy habits – the morning rituals that absolutely changed my life!

They changed the way I look at mornings, the way I start my day and most important of all the way I look at fitness, health and life overall.

15 Fit Girls Morning Rituals – Healthy Habits That Changed My Life

You may be wondering how can a morning ritual change your life.

Well, morning is the most important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.

This means that if you start your morning well, you’re most likely to have a good day.

But what if, you make your morning extraordinary?

That means that your day has a high chance of becoming extraordinary too, and if every day of your life has a high chance of becoming extraordinary, your whole life has a chance of becoming that too.

And that’s how you change your life!

By changing one tiny little thing in the morning, you can improve your whole life in the long term.

That’s how I changed it, and how I manage to keep fit and healthy habits throughout my life.

That’s the best thing about mornings, they are like almost clean slates – the residue of yesterdays is sometimes stuck on them, but we get to decide if we’re going to drag that same thing with us to the next morning.

So don’t let another bad morning slip through your fingers, with the help of my 15 morning rituals.

If you successfully implement at least few of these morning healthy habits, you will:

• Feel better, stronger and fresher;
• Lose weight, get and stay fit;
• Improve your mood;
• Fall in love with healthy food;
• Improve your health;
• Become more active and energized;
• Never feel tired or exhausted;
• Fell more concentrated;
• Fall in love with mornings.

Just note as you’re reading through these healthy morning habits, that different things work for different people, and some of these will be much easier for you than others.

My only goal is to present you my own fitness story through my morning rituals, so that you can pick those that fit best with your lifestyle.

So don’t waste a minute more, and head on to my morning rituals to change your life!

1. Get Out Of Bed At The Same Time Each Morning

You don’t have to be a morning person to wake up early, you just have to do a tiny trick – try waking up at the same time each morning.

This will help you build up the habit of getting earlier every morning, since getting into regular habits does neurologically program the mind, making it easier to pre-empt the alarm call as time goes by.

That means that getting out of bed will be easier if it’s done at the same time each day, no matter when you go to sleep.

Note that you don’t have to wake up before the sun, just make sure to do it at least close to it ��

Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.” — Richard Whately

2. Drink A Glass Of Hot Water

I start every single morning with a glass of hot water.

Drinking very warm water in the morning on an empty stomach has many benefits:

• Cleanse digestion;
• Stimulates bowel movements and aid constipation;
• Improves blood circulation;
• Promotes healthy sweating and weight loss;
• Forces toxins out of the body.

At the end, you don’t clean a dirty pan with ice cold water, right? ��

3. Do Few Yoga Poses In Bed

There is something magical about doing yoga poses first thing when you wake up in the morning.

Yoga is a calming and healing art no matter what time of day you do it, but there’s something in the morning yoga that makes you rise and shine through the whole day.

Imagine you could go about your everyday life with more clarity, steadiness, and equanimity – embodying a deeper sense of ease, spaciousness, balance and strength. A morning yoga practice helps give rise to, and potentiate, these qualities and effects.” – Manda Greenblatt

Yoga in the morning helps me wake every single muscle up and get them ready for the day ahead.

It takes only a few minutes, with 6 short yoga poses in the comfort of my bed to help me start the day with great energy.

Morning Yoga Stretches in Bed - You can do them as an ab cool down too!

PS: Everyone is asking me where to get these muscle leggings, you can get them on the link ��

4. Avoid Technology For At Least One Hour

I tend to avoid screens, for at least the first hour after I wake up.

And by screens, I mean smartphone, tablet, laptop, TV, and almost any electronic device that has a screen.

That’s because they have blue light electrons, which send a lot of signals with only one look at the screen, that are pretty disturbing to the brain.

We don’t feel them, but our bodies do.

So instead of reading e-mails or news, or chatting on your phone as soon as you wake up, try avoiding these blue light electrons by turning on the radio.

5. Welcome An Airflow Of Fresh Air

As soon as you wake up, open the window.

Take a few deep breaths of fresh air and bathe your sleepy organs in nourishing oxygen.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Breath is the source of nourishment for your vital organs: brain, heart, and liver.

It may seem simple, but breath is the easiest, most available conduit to emotional, physical, and spiritual well being.

Deep breathing allows you to take normal breaths while maximizing the amount of oxygen that goes into the bloodstream.

6. Start Your Day With Cacao Beans

Most mornings, I wake up not feeling the need to eat my breakfast right away.

Since it’s really important to fuel up the body with some nutrients after you wake up, I usually take a few raw cacao seeds, or cacao beans as they’re probably known as.

They are a bit bitter, but they do amazing things to your body.

Starting from calcium, magnesium and iron, cocoa seeds are loaded with healthful compounds that keep our cardiovascular health, load us up with energy, promote weight loss and improve our health overall.

Cacao beans are also considered to be nature’s anti-depressant, since they contain dopamine, phenylethylamine and serotonin, all of which are used to promote positive mental health and better moods.

So if you can’t stand the bitter flavor they have, you can mix them in a smoothie.

Also you can try cacao nibs too, they’re better for smoothies and shakes ��

7. Earn A Shower

I always sneak in an A.M. sweat in my morning routine.

A 20-30 minute cardio workout such as rope skipping, a short run, jog or at least a full yoga session, will have many benefits for your body and mind especially if it’s done on an empty stomach.

An empty stomach triggers a cascade of hormonal changes throughout the body that are conducive to both building muscle and burning fat.” – Nick English

You’ll feel lighter, fresher, more energized and on top of that you’re going to maximize the calorie burning, fasten up your weight loss process and tone up your body.

It will leave you feeling so good after you finish, that you’ll want to keep that ritual every single morning for the rest of your life.

8. Hike

I love to hike on weekend mornings.

I may not have the time to do it through the week, but when Saturday comes the mountains are calling me and I must go!

I’m not going to go on and on about the benefits of hiking, since I can go on and on for pages, so I’m just going to tell you to try replacing your morning sweat off with a hike at least once a week and feel the benefits yourself.

They say: “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves!” …and that couldn’t be said any better.

Hiking with my loved one is a self-inspiring adventure that fills my soul and keeps me full until the next date with nature.

You have to try it!

9. Go Nuts For Breakfast

It’s not that important if you have your breakfast right after you wake up, as it is to actually make the most out of it.

What you have for breakfast is really important, since that usually determines what you’ll eat the rest of your day, so you have to make sure that every breakfast counts.

And one way to make sure that your breakfast counts is to go with raw food.

Including foods like nuts and seeds in your diet, that are unprocessed in their native Paleo form, are actually the best choice for breakfast.

You’ll load yourself with fibers, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and loads of other nutrients, while keeping yourself full to the next meal.

My ideal breakfast looks like this:

• 1 bowl of low fat Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon minced flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon sesame
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• a handful of almonds or cashews

If I feel really hungry, I make myself avocado crackers:

• 2 soft boiled eggs
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 avocado
• no flour protein bread or seed crackers

I love adding avocados and cottage cheese on top of a slice of my favorite no flour protein bread, or seed crackers that I make myself at home.

And most important of all, I eat my eggs soft boiled – I like them better that way ��

And of course, there are mornings when I don’t feel like eating a breakfast, so I like to start with a smoothie.

My favorite blend is:

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 green apple
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 2 cocoa seeds
• 1 teaspoon chia seeds
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup water

I occasionally make a raspberry smoothie with flax seeds and almond milk, since it’s my second favorite blend full of fibers! ��

10. Enjoy A Mug Full Of Caffeine

I can’t imagine my day without my morning coffee – my eye opening pleasure that comes from a simple bean.

I like it black and strong, and I really admire its power to wake every single sense in my body at the moment I feel its smell.

Drinking a lot of coffee can be harmful, but by enjoying that one morning mug of caffeine you intake loads of healthy components, since coffee contains several important nutrients, including Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Manganese, Potassium, Magnesium and Niacin.

It improves your energy levels, boosts the metabolic rate, improves physical performance, protects your heart and liver…

These are only a few of the countless benefits you get from including coffee on a daily basis.

Instead of coffee, you can make yourself a cup of green tea too, since it’s also high in caffeine – combining it with a few drops of fresh lemon, you’re not only giving yourself more energized morning, but you burn a few more calories when doing it.

Just remember to never add sugar in your morning mugs – keep it clean at least in the beginning of the day.

11. Make A Plan For The Day

Planning is one really important key in every morning.

Not only that you should plan your daily activities, but you should plan your meals and workouts too.

How else are you supposed to have time for everything if you don’t make it, right?

So make sure you plan what you’re going to do – just think about it while you drink your coffee, it doesn’t always have to be written down, even though writing it down helps a lot.

Here’s a planner that can help a lot – I use it every morning ��

12. Get A Cold Shower

Brrr…right?

I bet it freckles your skin just by thinking about it, but believe it or not – it helps you a lot in building healthy morning habits.

Wondering how?

First, while warm water causes your blood vessels to dilate and relax, a cold shower wakes them up, so when exposed to a cold temperature, the arteries begin to rapidly pump hot blood by increasing the circulation and shaking up the body.

Next, it prepares your body for the upcoming daily activities, since the cold shower is considered as a great body warm up for the day, by helping you to “rise and shine”.

So, if, like me, you’re not a morning person, this will help you wake up and feel fresh in a few seconds.

In the end, hot showers were invented as a luxury to human kind – they don’t provide any health benefits.

It doesn’t have to be ice cold, you just have to make sure it’s cooler than what you’re used to.

Step by step, day by day, the colder it gets – the better.

13. Choose A Smarter Commute

The way we choose to travel has a big effect on our health and life overall.

And it’s not only us – the way we transport from one place to another, affects our environment too, impacts climate as well as air, water, and soil quality.

Rather than trying to change your lifestyle overnight, you can just start with some tiny simple changes.

• Walk to the train station instead of driving;
• Try biking at least once a week to see if that fits into your lifestyle;
• Park your car a bit further;
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator;

The goal isn’t to work up a sweat, but to raise your metabolic rate and burn more fat, while getting some extra sunlight and fresh air through your lungs and to give your body an extra edge.

These little changes can make a really big difference in your usual grueling morning routine, to your health and your lifestyle.

14. Stretch Your Feet

Our feet do such a big work for us – they carry us around and keep us standing during the whole day, and yet, we never seem to give them credit for the amazing work they really do for us every day.

Feet are not just blocks to clomp around on – we need to take good care of them so that they take good care of us.

That’s why it’s really important to take a few minutes in the morning and prepare them for the upcoming daily activities they’re going to fight through.

Here’re a few stretches you want to consider doing:

15. Eat Your Breakfast With Your Non-Dominant Hand

Yep, you heard me!

I have been trying eating my breakfast with my left hand for over a year now.

Actually, when we challenge our brains, we force our neurons to make new connections, and that helps us improve the brain’s capacity for attention and memory.

This simple trick also helps you eat more mindfully, since making things more difficult is a great way to force yourself to pay attention to what you’re doing.

So try to feed yourself with your non dominant hand for breakfast, and your body and mind will like the changes for sure.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Every morning you have two choices- continue to sleep with dreams or wake up and chase your dreams. The choice is yours!” – Unknown

So what are you waiting for?!

By including just a few of these healthy habits in your morning routine, you’ll start changing your life.

You’ll feel better, look better, sleep better and make the best out of your life.

Download the Fit Girls Healthy Habits Checker to include these morning rituals more easily into your everyday life.

Go get it, girl!

Don’t forget to share these morning rituals with your friends, because healthy habits are better gained in a team! ��

Original article and pictures take fitgirlsdiary.com site