Every day I get up at 6:27 am; wash my face, brush my teeth, apply some make-up, kink out my hair, and rush out the door. Thank GOODNESS I am little miss productive the night before because my morning routine has to be finished in exactly 25 minutes flat, and that INCLUDES me lying in bed for ~10 of those minutes. Yes. I am a master. I realize…These are my secrets…
1. PLAN THE NIGHT BEFORE
I spend about 30-45 minutes preparing for the following morning so I CAN rush out the door bright and early. I have to pack a breakfast and two lunches. I put in lots of careful planning because I want to make sure that I have enough food to last the whole day. This way if I find my tummy growling mid-afternoon I have a go-to gobble. (I desperately need to find a lunch box big enough for all the food I take. I practically need to bring my own cooler. Containers take up way too much space).
I discovered that if I pack lunches while cleaning up dinner, I am utilizing my time with the utmost efficiency! Two-birds, one stone concept. Brandon usually likes to take leftovers (super easy to pack) and then I add several snacks he can munch throughout the morning and afternoon. I always follow the same pattern for myself: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, and maybe another afternoon snack if I head to the gym on my way home I also keep an oatmeal packet in my desk just in case I forget my breakfast or afternoon snack one day (Brandon’s idea!).
Then, while I am packing/putting away dinner leftovers, Brandon helps clean the dishes and I finish with a scrub down of the kitchen. Try getting your kids involved with packing lunches. Teach them the importance of packing healthy snacks and to avoid trips to the vending machines or snack carts at school!
Food for following day: CHECK!
2. LAY OUT YOUR CLOTHES
This is something I started doing in high school because there were times I would shut off my alarm, lay my head down for just a minute, and before I knew it the bus was coming down the road! So I learned to lay out my clothes the night before school, so I never had to waste precious morning minutes deciding what top worked best with my jeans. Try this with your kids!! I am sure it’s a mega time saver.
3. PACK A GYM BAG
The best way to keep yourself motivated to hit the gym is to keep a gym bag with you! You are much more likely to go to the gym on your way home from work, as opposed to stopping home first, changing, and then heading back out. There are not as many deterring variables from work to the gym that would prevent you from going! So always keep a bag with shoes, socks, sports bra, shirt, and shorts for those days you want to hit the gym after work!
4. SHOWER THE NIGHT BEFORE
Some people find that they need to shower in the morning to get themselves awake. I am not one of these people. I like to shower at night because that’s when I typically workout and I like to be clean when I lay in bed. I find that splashing some cold water on my face works just as well for a refresher in the morning as a shower. Maybe try it!??? Unless of course you workout in the morning…then shower. You stink.
5. MAKE TIME FOR BREAKFAST…NO MATTER WHAT!!
As you can guess, my morning routine leaves no room for breakfast (at least, at home). So while I do rush out the door, I take breakfast with me and eat in my office. As long as you eat breakfast within the first hour you wake up, you are revving your metabolism and getting an excellent start to your day!
Truth: Nutritional advisers for sumo wrestlers suggest to SKIP breakfast in order to help add weight by slowing their metabolism. Hmmm. Interesting. Heard that one during my internship.
Raw Oats + Yogurt + Fruit = Bliss
This morning I packed one of my new favorite breakfast combos. I decided that I like the taste of raw oats, after experiencing a catastrophe with packing milk in my lunch box a few months ago. Milk + leaky lid = mess. So I banished packing milk for my breakfast for about a month and discovered I LOVE raw oats and yogurt. My little container pictured contains:
1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 large banana
1 T craisins
1 T raisins
~3 T walnut/pecan combo
1/4 cup Stoneyfield’s Organic low-fat blueberry yogurt
Nutritional Profile: ~455 calories, 8.7 g fat (1.6 g sat. fat, 4.6 g poly, 1.7 g mono), 9.4 g fiber, 11.1 g protein
When you mix it all together it looks like a bloody mess of mush but it’s oh so good. Food doesn’t necessarily have to LOOK good for it to taste good!! This combination usually leaves me full for the whole morning. This might be slightly high in calories for some, considering every one has different caloric needs. So you can easily alter calories by adding only a 1/4 cup of oats and half a banana, or skip the banana and add berries, which are lower in calories. I typically eat between 1800-2200 calories a day to maintain my weight, so this is the perfect breakfast to keep my metabolism revved!!
