Hope This Gets You Moving In The A.M. - Healthy Morning Habits For Optimal Health!

I am not a morning person in the least but maybe with a little motivation like the tips below I can make it a bit more tolerable. Do these things to get your maximum health benefits in the morning and you may just feel better all day long!!

The Early Bird Gets The Worm

Say hello to sweet sunshine-Exposure to natural light in the morning signals your body to cut off production of melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. Light is also a natural antidepressant, according to several studies and increases your body’s production of vitamin D (which can help prevent cancer and heart disease).

Eat Breakfast-Try to eat breakfast within 15 to 30 minutes of waking and no later than 8 a.m. as this will help you to keep from gaining weight. By skipping breakfast your body thinks it is in starvation mode and you will eat more food later on. A Harvard Medical School study indicated that people who ate a morning meal were one third less likely to be obese than those who didn’t. I would recommend that you go for high protein and fruits and vegetables that are low in starch and sugar (ex-strawberries, raspberries, cantaloupe, plain yogurt, eggs ,mushrooms, carrots). I love to have almonds with raspberries on top of plain yogurt each day-really gets me moving in the morning.

Weigh Yourself-A study from Brown University and the University of North Carolina showed that 61 percent of of people who did so maintained their weight within five pounds over time (compared with 32 percent that weighed in less often) mainly because it helped them catch their weight gain early. It is best to weigh yourself first thing in the morning nude, before breakfast for your most accurate reading. Weight gain can fluctuate within three lbs throughout the day!

Hit the alarm button for an extra 20 minutes of sleep-Our bodies naturally have more of the stress hormone cortisone in the morning so our bodies will get up and get moving, but postponing your wake-up time can lower those levels enough to take the edge off. According to a study at London’s University of Westminster, earlier risers (who woke up as early as 5:22 a.m.) had higher cortisol levels during the first 45 minutes of their day tended to be angrier at night than late risers who got up as late as 10:30 a.m.). This was regardless of how much total sleep they got. I am not a morning person at all so this must be another reason why. Getting out of bed in the morning is like pulling teeth for me-just awful!!!!!