Episode 156: 3 Ways You're Sabotaging Yourself Before the Day Even Starts
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Summary
I want you to take a moment and think about how you spend your morning...
For most of us, our morning routine is the most consistent part of our day. We wake up at the same time, eat the same food (or we don't eat at all), and go through the same steps, day in and day out.
But by existing in this state of autopilot, we're missing out on a huge opportunity to set ourselves up for better choices, more energy, and a better mood all throughout the day.
See, our brains like congruency. So if we start our mornings with just a few good habits, we can set a really positive tone for the rest of the day.
Whereas when we begin with bad habits, it can lead to a rabbit hole of cravings, stress, and self-sabotage as the day goes on.
So with that in mind, here are the top 3 morning habits to avoid if you want to stop sabotaging your health goals before the day even begins:
1. Checking your phone first thing in the morning.
This is setting yourself up to immediately jump into people-pleasing mode (I have to respond to her email right now) or comparison mode as you scroll through the edited photos of Instagram.
Your morning is for you. This is the time you are setting up your brain and body. It would be like if you were a race car driver and before the race instead of tending to your car and making sure everything was in order, you were wandering around looking at everyone else's cars. Not helpful.
2. Drinking coffee for breakfast (especially if you workout in the morning).
Also in this category is eating just carbs for breakfast: cereal, muffins, bagels, toast, donuts, etc.
Let's be clear: coffee. is not. a meal. And I know you may not want to break your fast, but as we went over in this episode, women should not be fasting for more than 12-14 hours MAX (our hormones do not respond well to 16 hour fasts).
Which means you don't need to skip breakfast to maintain your fast. For example, if you stop eating by 7 that means you can have a well-balanced breakfast between 7-9 am.
This meal can have a huge impact on your food choices the rest of the day. Why? Because of blood sugar.
If you start off by either not eating or just eating processed carbs, by lunch time your blood sugar is going to be in the toilet.
And that is going to cause you to be way more hungry and overeat, and it's going to cause you to crave more sugary, processed-carby crap to get your blood sugar back up quickly.
This will send you on a blood sugar roller coaster all through the rest of the day, and likely will lead to some gnarly snacking at night.
Instead, start your day with protein, fiber, and healthy fat.
3. You listen to the news as you get ready.
Can you say STRESS anyone??
First of all, we talk all the time about how much stress can inhibit weight loss. And by starting the day listening to how horrible the world is, you're setting your nervous system on edge from the get go.
On top of that, if you're trying to create new healthy habits for yourself like moving your body every day, or eating better, you're having to build new neural pathways in your brain associated with those habits.
And we can think of those neural pathways like a path in the woods that we're trying to create. And we need to clear the brush, pull up weeds, hack away at branches. And if we step away from that path before it solidifies, it'll just grow over again and we'll have to start over.
Well stress is like trying to create that new pathway with a thunderstorm and a tornado going on around you. It isn't impossible, but it's 10x more difficult and chances are at some point you're going to say, "F*ck this, this is way too hard, I'm going back to my old comfortable path that I know" (ie your old habits).
We also know that a stressed brain tends to experience hopelessness, lack of creativity/problem solving, and less motivation. All of which will inhibit you as you try to make positive changes.
So instead, start your day with something that's going to put you in a great headspace like a good podcast, or audiobook, or even a funny, light-hearted tv show!
And this is all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what I call trickle-down habits (the habits that affect your choices for hours, if not days to come).
Every one of my programs are built around this concept of getting out a place of reactivity (where you're just responding in the moment to what life throws at you), and instead living more intentionally to make reaching your goals feel a whole lot easier.
If that sounds like what you're looking for and you want to get ahead of cravings, ahead of low energy days, and ahead of your own excuses, click here to book a consultation with me and let's chat about the best way to work together!
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