She has also had 16 wellness books published by major publishers including the bestselling Easy GI Diet, The Macro Method, Quit Alcohol (For a Month) and Eat 5. Her books have sold over one million copies.
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So, you want to create a healthy morning routine. Here’s what you might want to put in it – and a few mistakes not to make if you do.
Mornings can be chaos – a flurry of clothes thrown around the room as you decide what to wear, toast scarfed down in gulps as you head out of the door – and coffee scarfed down even faster. Or, they can be times to reset your mind for the day, increase your nutrient intake, start building some healthy habits and set your daily intentions to meet a goal.
The whole point of creating a healthy morning routine is to achieve the latter, but, there’s a few ways you can sabotage your healthy plans if you’re not careful.
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Why a Healthy Morning Routine Works
How you start your day can play a large part in how the rest of it goes. For example, researchers in Pennsylvania discovered that if you wake up deciding it’s going to be a bad day, it will be.
“When you wake up in the morning with a certain outlook, in some sense, the die is already cast,” says the study’s author, neuropsychologist Martin Sliwinski. “If you think your day is going to be stressful, you’re going to feel those effects even if nothing stressful ends up happening.”
If, however, you wake up and within the first hour of your day you do three healthy things – say drink a glass of water, tick off a portion of fruit off of your five a day and make a healthy lunch, you’re already saying to yourself, we’re going to do well on our goals for today.
And, the more you repeat that the more it sticks. In fact, According to Carrie Barron, psychiatrist and author of The Creativity Cure: How to Build Happiness With Your Own Two Hands, setting a routine of a set time and place to do a task can make it easier to get into the zone and stay there, “When you repeatedly show up at a certain place and/or time to, say, paint or write or draw your body and mind become trained to give themselves over to the task on cue,” she says
That concept also works for other morning good habits like getting into an exercise routine or spending some time working on your mindset or stress levels.
What Should Yours Involve?
When I first started investigating the concept of a morning routine, I was looking for a way to be more productive – I run two other blogs alongside this one as well as my main job as an author and journalist and time was getting away from me (mainly watching dogs on TikTok).
I started reading other people’s routines, and they seemed to spend about two hours on exercise, self-development and whisking up gourmet pancakes – I was knackered just reading them. But then I realised none of those things were going to help me with my goals.
At this point, I realised someone else’s morning routine wasn’t going to help me – and they won’t help you either.
Don’t Make This Mistake
Not knowing what you’re trying to achieve. Maybe you’ve heard that a morning routine is the key to success, but if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, you could do 20 things every AM and still not get where you want to be.
So, the first step in setting up a morning routine is to think about your main goal. Think about the things that might help you achieve it – particularly the things that tend to get crowded out at the end of the day. Those are the things that you should include in your morning routine.
So if you want to be fitter, exercise should be part of your plan, but also think about ways you can feel more motivated and energized. If you want to eat better, making and planning healthy food should be part of your plan. If you want to feel less stressed, look into meditation, journalling and other activities that calm your brain or reduce your worries before the day begins
How Long Should Your Morning Routine Be
Again, that’s up to you – if one of your goals is to eat more healthily, you could achieve that in five minutes by simply swapping a high-sugar breakfast cereal for some oats you soaked overnight and a handful of berries (or a serving of savoury oats), ten if you also pack a salad for lunch!
If you are aiming to exercise as part of your morning routine though, then you need to allocate more time.
And chances are, unless you’re like me and basically waste the first two hours of your day frittering about on social media with endless cups of tea, you might have to get up a bit earlier to do that – and this is where you might make another mistake.
Don’t Make This Mistake
Do not sacrifice your sleep for this thing.
If you go to bed at midnight and then wake yourself up at 5 am to carry out a two-hour morning routine – and that leaves you feeling like death warmed up for the rest of the day, then it’s not going to be helping you – it’s likely to do the opposite as you need good sleep for energy, immunity, stress control, productivity and even weight control.
The healthiest morning routine should, therefore, be long enough to help you achieve something toward your goals – not so long that you’re sacrificing sleep to achieve it.
While spending, say, 20 minutes a day working on meditation (or, even less if our experts are correct) or going for a walk might not seem a lot, by the end of the year, you’ll have spent 120 hours stilling your mind, or racking up the steps, – even a little but of working on yourself every morning will add up.
How to Create Time For Your Morning Routine
If you need a little more time to work toward your goals than your normal morning allows, here are some healthier ways to fit things in.
Get Up When You Wake Up
If you wake up naturally and push snooze three times, dump the snooze button.
Waking up naturally, assuming it’s close to your normal wake-up time and not 2am, is a sign that your body is in a light phase of sleep, and you’ll probably feel better if you get up now than two snooze cycles later.
And don’t faff about, start your routine as soon as you are out of bed – and absolutely do not check your phone first.
Wake Yourself Up After 7-8 Hours of Sleep
A healthy amount of sleep is around 6-8 hours, so if you let yourself sleep for 7-8 hours and then wake yourself up with an alarm to make time for your routine, you’re unlikely to suffer too many negative consequences.
Sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley once told me that a good sign is to see how you feel at 11 am. If you’re awake, that’s normal – if you’re sleepy, then you might be a long sleeper who does need more sleep.
To get yourself going, try one of these brilliantly positive wake up songs – or, make a few of them the soundtrack to your morning routine.
Go To Bed a Little Earlier
If you find yourself regularly staying up until midnight or 1 am and have a normal 9-5 job, there’s less chance of you being able to wake up early and still get the sleep you need, so, try pulling your bedtime earlier to make room for your new morning habits and those 7-8 hours of sleep.
Don’t Make This Mistake
Fighting your chronotype.
Your chronotype determines when in the day you feel more energetic, positive and enthused.
If you really can’t get moving first thing, you might have what’s known as an owl chronotype (see more here), and in that case, you do your best work later in the day, and a morning routine probably isn’t going to get the best results for you no matter what’s in it.
Try creating an after-work routine that helps you reach your goals instead.
If you find it hard to fall asleep, then you might want to check out one of these tips to help you fall asleep faster.
Or, consider a nighttime routine including a sleep-inducing drink like Horlicks – see more about why that’s healthy here.
Healthy Morning Habits to Develop
So, what are some of the things that you can add to a healthy morning routine. Here’s 13 ideas that can help boost both your body and your mind …
1. Drink a Glass of Water
As soon as you get up.
Good hydration helps raise your energy level and ensure your brain is working at full speed.
It’s also been linked to other health benefits because it helps thin the blood.
Generally, we wake up dehydrated, and so, drinking a glass of water should definitely be part of your morning routine.
Don’t Make This Mistake
Adding lemon to it. You’re often told to add lemon juice to your water first thing to detox your system – it doesn’t do that. Lemon has no magical detox properties.
It will add a little bit of vitamin C to the mix, but and it tastes nice, but it also true that lemon water is absolutely not the best choice for your teeth – particularly if you’re planning on brushing them in the next hour.
In one UK study , twice daily drinkers of hot water and lemon or fruity herbal teas were found to be at 11 times more risk of severe acid erosion than normal – and that leads to thinner, darker and more sensitive teeth.
If you do want to try hot water and lemon, have it with breakfast which the study found reduces the damage, or drink it through a straw so it doesn’t touch your teeth.
If you do drink it normally, wait at least an hour after drinking it to brush your teeth so you don’t speed up erosion.
If you’re doing intermittent fasting as part of your healthy lifestyle, you might wonder if drinking lemon water breaks that fast – we found out.
2. Solve Some Problems
If you’re stuck on something that stressing you out or making you unhappy, adding some time in your morning routine to try and think of solutions is a great idea.
The reason is that your levels of the hormone cortisol are higher in the morning. This is more commonly associated with stress, but it’s also related to making changes in behaviour and addressing fears and concerns.
It’s even been shown that people having therapy for phobias got faster results when their sessions were scheduled in the AM.
If you’re stuck, just sit and write about the problem, don’t try and solve it, just scribble and see what comes out. You might find the solution in there; if it’s not, at least addressing the issue will help.
3. Eat a Good Breakfast
By a good breakfast, we mean something containing protein like eggs or Greek yogurt; some fruit or vegetables and a small portion of wholegrain carbohydrates like porridge oats, wholemeal bread or Weetabix – this will balance your energy throughout the rest of the morning.
Don’t Make This Mistake
Eating for the sake of eating. If you’re not hungry in the morning, don’t force yourself to eat breakfast as part of your morning routine.
It’s not going to hurt if you eat something healthy (as opposed to inhaling a doughnut) when you get to work if that works better for you, it’s also fine to not eat anything at all (see the arguments for and against breakfast here).
However, do assess your body – if you skip breakfast and then feel fuzzy-headed, irritable or just not quite with it until lunch, you might find that eating breakfast shakes things up for you even if you don’t feel hungry.
Also, a healthy breakfast will add extra fibre and calcium your day, so if you do skip it, then make sure you try and get these later in the day.
4. Try an Appreciation Shower
You should also look into working on your mental health as part of your morning routine – and this is one of the nicest ideas I’ve heard.
‘Instead of zoning out or worse, stressing on all the things you need to do today, spend shower time focusing on the good things you have in your life – whether it’s good eyesight, a loving partner or just enough hot water,’ says lifecoach Michelle Zelli . ‘Keep at it for the duration of your shower and you’ll start every day in a positive frame of mind.’
5. Watch the Sunrise
Not only is it the perfect background for a morning yoga or journalling session, if your morning routine sees you up early enough, watching the sunrise is one way to create a sense of awe in your life – and this has been shown to help fight inflammation in the body that’s linked to a whole heap of health concerns – and also boost your immunity.
And it’s pretty!
6. Meet a Friend for Breakfast
This doesn’t have to be part of your daily morning routine, but maybe book a slot on a certain day every month for a healthy goals catch up with friends.
While it’s more common to see friends in the evening, it can turn into a gripe fest where you spend the time hashing over what’s got you down that day. And there’s more likely to be wine!
If you meet first thing, you’re actually more likely to talk about positive things and ways you make changes – in fact, make that the point of these mornings.
Between you aim to come up with solutions and positive ideas rather than commiserating over wine.
7. Make Your Bed
The theory behind this is that if you aim to make your bed every day – and achieve it, then you start your day with a success mindset that sets you up for a day of getting things done. Plus, getting into a nicely made bed each night is a treat. And it works…. but
8. Get Some Sunlight
Sunlight first thing in the morning is associated with a number of health benefits including more energy throughout the day, better sleep and even lower anxiety.
You don’t even need to head outside to get results, just sitting by a window has the same effects.
9. Think About Your Impact on Others
If you’re not happy with your job or how your life is going, this could be a great happiness-boosting step to your morning routine.
Think about how what you have to do today, will help others says Dr Srikumar S. Rao, author of Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated and Successful – No Matter What.
This can help keep you motivated and feel more positive about what you’re doing – which then puts you in a better frame of mind to try and change it.
10. Make Your Lunch
If you’re trying to lose weight or eat more healthily, the more meals you make at home, the better. It allows you to create meals that fit your goals – so ensure they do.
Think about what you need to add to the meal to help raise your energy, increase your nutrients, help you reach 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day – or whatever your healthy eating goal might be and use the first two meals of your day to put yourself firmly on track for success.
If you still find yourself falling off the wagon in the evening though, take a look at this post on how to keep up your healthy eating plan at night.
11. Exercise
People who exercise in the morning are more likely to stick to their workout than those who work out later in the day – mainly because nothing gets in the way of you doing it.
Exercising in the morning has also been shown to help you sleep better at night and makes you more productive during the day.
Don’t Make This Mistake
Not warming up before you workout. And I’m not just talking about heading out for Boot Camp or a run, here, even early morning stretches can cause problems if you do them when your body is completely cold first thing.
During the night your discs in your back plump up and restore to their normal shape. Bending forward now can put compress the front parts of the disc too much and squish it around which can lead to pain and other problems.
Get up, stretch for the ceiling and walk around a bit before you start bending forward..
12. Get Frisky
“Morning sex can strengthen your immune system for the day by enhancing your levels of IgA, an antibody that protects against infection,” says Dr Debby Herbenick, in her book Because It Feels Good. On top of that it also leaves you and your partner feeling closer for the day.
13. Chill Out With a Coffee
One of the biggest myths in health is that coffee is bad for you. In fact, it’s the most common source of antioxidants in the diet for most people (and yes, even instant coffee can be healthy). Taking time to relax with a coffee is, therefore, the perfect addition to any morning routine.
Don’t Make This Mistake
If that coffee is too large or too full of sugar, syrup or other additions it’s not going to help you.
Let’s start with the size thing. Drinking too much coffee in one go can trigger fatigue (as it causes your blood sugar to rise then fall) but research suggests that drinking a small cup (about 50ml) every 2-3 hours throughout the morning helps you avoid this crash.
You should also eat your breakfast before you drink a coffee to stabilise your blood sugar levels which helps your health – and your energy levels.
And as for the syrup, sugar and whipped cream thing – if you’re already consumed half of your day’s calories before lunch, there’s a good chance you’re on your way to added pounds.
Stick with a basic flat one, an espresso or even a cappuccino – or check out our guides to the lowest calorie drinks in Starbucks – this is the US version and if you live in the UK you’ll find the list of the best choices for you here in our guide to UK Starbucks calories.
So there you have it, a few tips on how to create a healthy morning routine, what you might want it to include – and a few mistakes to try not to make while you’re doing it.
So, did I miss anything?
Have you got any healthy steps in your morning routine that you suggest or other advice on how to make one easier to stick to? Then please do leave them in the comments.
Who is The Wellness Nerd?
My name is Helen Foster, and I’m a health journalist and wellness author. Publications I’ve written for include Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Body and Soul, Good Health at the Daily Mail, and more. I have also written 16 books on health and nutrition.
