I woke up, and bright light shone around my bedroom curtains. It was 9:00 am! I hadn’t slept that late in years. But this morning, I felt like a total slug. And it didn’t end there…
I groggily opened a few apps on my phone, then absent mindedly opened my emails. Uhg, there’s a lot to do today.
What’s worse is that I had big hopes for the day. Winter had led to slower workouts, more comfort meals, and a few extra pounds I was ready to shed. But now my day would be a big game of catch up.
I rolled out of bed and didn’t bother to put a bra on. Then, instead of filling a glass with water, I went straight to the coffee pot. With a hot mug in hand, I slumped on the couch, opened my laptop, and tried to squeeze out a few emails before the morning was completely gone.
You can guess how the rest of the day went. Something like:
- Scramble here
- Scramble there
- Stress out here
- Forget to eat there
- Skip the gym here
- Plop down there
- Whatever dinner
- Shower, bed
Thankfully, I learned my lesson. The next day, I returned to the habits that help me feel my best all day long. My slug-day reminded me how much my healthy habits (as simple as they are) help me.
They help me feel energized, stay healthy in my 40s, and control my body weight. And they really aren’t that hard or complicated.
With a closer look, I realized that just four small tweaks make all the difference.
So, if you’re feeling sluggish, if the winter weight is sticking to you, and you’re ready to shed a few layers, skip the slug-day. Instead, start with these four small steps that have a big ripple effect.
Each tweak has something in common…Can you spot it?
We want the biggest impact for the smallest shift, and that means starting early. What you do first thing in the morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. It’s like pushing a rock down a hill. Just a little effort is needed to get things rolling in the right direction.
Starting your day right doesn’t have to mean a CrossFit class at 5:00 am. These four steps are realistic because if we want to lose weight, we have to find habits that fit our real, busy lives.
And it starts the moment you open your eyes in the morning…
Shift 1: Sunlight Before Screenlight
By now, you probably know that looking at your phone first thing in the morning isn’t the best habit. But let’s chat about it, real-person to real-person (because I struggle with this habit too). And habits stick when we stop thinking “I should do this” to “Wow! I really want to do this.”
To get to that mindset, let’s talk about a little chemical called dopamine.
Dopamine helps you feel good, focus, and have motivation. It’s our “get-up-and-go” chemical. But, there’s a limited supply of it.
When you use your phone, it triggers high-level dopamine spikes.
Harvard-trained psychiatrist, Dr. Alok Kanojia explains it like this:
“Imagine that you have a lemon that’s full of juice. The very beginning, when it’s full of juice, a small squeeze gets you a lot of juice. But by the end, you have to squeeze a lot to get very little juice.
That is how dopamine is in our brains. Technology is a hard squeeze. So if we use it first thing in the morning (we squeeze the lemon really hard), we get all the juice out, and then you have nothing left to feel good about. All your dopamine stores have been depleted.”
Can you imagine how much better you’ll feel when you stop dumping all your dopamine first thing in the morning?
Kanojia suggests skipping all technology for the first hour of the day.
When you try it, you’ll realize an hour goes by quickly. Take a walk, shower, get dressed, brush your teeth, make coffee and breakfast, fold the laundry, empty the dishwasher, and pack lunches for the day. Just keep your phone locked away to protect your dopamine levels.
Here’s the hitch: most of us use our phones as our alarm clocks. So, the literal first thing we do in the morning (sometimes before our eyes even open) is to pick up our phones. Then, we’re headed down the slippery slope of Slack messages and social media.
The solution? Keep your phone outside of the bedroom and use an alarm clock.
- I love this one that wakes you with its own sunrise.
- This gadget opens your curtains at a set time.
Double your physical reward by replacing your phone with something designed to boost dopamine production.
Sunlight in the morning does more than just wake you up. It boosts dopamine production in the brain. Your eyes contain special light-sensitive cells that detect blue light wavelengths in sunlight. When these cells signal your brain, it stimulates dopamine pathways in your brain’s reward and motivation centers.
Even better, early morning light has a higher proportion of blue wavelength.
So, starting the day with sunlight instead of screenlight, you’ll experience:
- Better alertness throughout the whole day
- Easier sleep at night
- More consistent natural dopamine levels
And guess what? Dopamine, energy, and solid sleep are foundational to weight loss. You need focus, drive, and rest to lose excess fat. This simple step sets your body up for a better composition.
Skip the phone. Shoot for 10-20 minutes of direct morning light instead. I like to take my morning beverages (I’ll tell you those next) onto my back porch. It’s a ritual you’ll love too.
Shift 2: Hydrate Before You Caffeinate
Water is cheap, at our fingertips, and foundational for fat loss. Yet, most of us neglect our hydration needs.
Let me help you switch from the “I should do this” to the “Wow! I really want to do this” mindset about drinking water with a few fun facts:
- 75-80% of your brain is water. A morning drink of water reduces brain fog, increases alertness, and improves your focus for the day ahead.
- During the night, your kidneys build up waste products. Drinking water flushes out these toxins.
- Drinking water on an empty stomach can increase your metabolic rate by up to 25-30%, helping you burn more calories that day.
It’s such an easy, effective, low-effort step to boost your health, energy, mental clarity, and weight loss.
So, on your way out to your back porch to get those 20 minutes of natural light, grab a big jar of water. Before your lips hit the coffee mug, drink it.
This habit will protect your stomach lining from acid irritation, improve nutrient absorption, and even reduce those caffeine jitters.
I like to add an electrolyte supplement to my morning water for enhanced hydration.
Shift 3: Start in a Sports Bra
Dress for the occasion. In this season, that means your favorite workout outfits.
Studies suggest that what you wear increases or decreases your overall activity levels throughout the day. You may have noticed this in your own life. When you’re wearing gym shorts and a tshirt, you’re more likely to take the dog for a walk, pull some weeds in the garden, and jump on the trampoline with your daughter.
So, dress for the gym, even when you’re not going.
When this habit isn’t formed yet, I like to create an outfit schedule:
- On Mondays, I wear my athletic dress
- On Tuesdays, I wear my leggings and pink workout top
- On Wednesdays, I wear my blue workout shorts and white racerback tank
- And so on…
Confidence in your clothing can be a factor, too. When we wear something we like, we’re more successful in our goals.
Wearing clothes you like and feel good in significantly increases the likelihood that you’ll succeed in your goals. Clothes act like a psychological trigger that enhances our confidence, cognitive performance, and mood. This phenomenon is known as “enclothed cognition.”
That doesn’t mean you have to buy a closet full of colorful workout sets. It just means that when you’re wearing something that makes you feel good, you’ll do better.
So give your workout clothes a once-over. Do they make you feel more or less capable and confident? If the answer is less, it may be time to find a few new workout pieces you love.
Shift 4: Ace Breakfast
Breakfast is the meal that breaks our fast. It’s when our bodies are most vulnerable to what we put in our mouths. We’re dehydrated after hours without water. Our stomach is empty, meaning that blood sugar can spike easily with the wrong foods.
Let’s look more closely at why breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.
First, breakfast has a big impact on your blood sugar. After a night of fasting, your body is desperate for fuel and highly sensitive to what it receives.
For example, a carby breakfast (like sugary cereal or pastries) will cause a sharp spike in blood sugar, followed by a crash that leads to fatigue, irritability, and increased hunger later that day.
Second, breakfast creates the “second meal effect.” Your meals are not isolated events. In your body, the nutritional composition of one meal directly improves or hinders your body’s blood sugar and insulin response to the next meal, even if that second meal is eaten hours later.
Here’s how it works:
When you eat a high protein, high fiber, and low glycemic breakfast, your body shifts in a few ways that prepare it for lunch.
- First, the fibers and resistant starches from your meal reach your large intestine undigested. Gut bacteria ferment them in short-chain fatty acids (like butyrate and acetate). These compounds enter your bloodstream, improving insulin sensitivity and slowing your liver’s production of glucose right around the time when you’ll sit down for your second meal.
- Second, fiber-rich meals keep you gut hormones (like GLP-1 and GIP) elevated for longer. This prepares your pancreas, allowing it to release insulin more efficiently when the glucose from lunch arrives.
- Third, a high-sugar breakfast causes a spike and crash cycle that releases fatty acids into the blood stream, which can impair insulin signaling. A balanced breakfast, on the other hand, avoids this, which stabilizes your metabolism and readies it for the next meal.
A high-protein, high-fiber breakfast (like this one) keeps blood sugar stable and triggers the strongest second meal effect. It’s the meal you want to ace. Shoot for 40 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber (note: slowly increase your fiber intake by 2 grams every day to allow your gut bacteria to adjust to the higher fiber load).
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