Reset With a Break or Rest, Wake Up and Move, and Training Sets Our Abilities
Hi Folks! Connor and Nick here from Healthy Living With Nick and Connor. Thanks again for being on our email list, it means a lot, and we are excited to share our weekly email with you. We hope you enjoy it! Here is what we hope you take away from this one:
Don’t forget to take breaks and reward yourself for all the hard work you are doing!
Getting up and starting the morning off with some movement is a great way to wake up and set yourself up for a great day and a good sleep.
Training becomes the foundation for our abilities and skills
Starter Mindset Tip: Breaks Are a Part of Growth
Every so often it is important to reward yourself for the hard work you are doing by scheduling a well needed rest or break. Whether it is a work or school project, an exercise regime, a new diet or a new habit, taking time to relax and take it easy is an important step in the growing process. It helps serve as a reward, it gives you time to step away from something to return with a fresh perspective, and it allows you to start back with some added vigor. Just as it is a good idea to reward yourself for making healthy food choices by giving yourself a splurge day to indulge in some of those less healthy treats, sometimes the best thing you can do for your fitness is to take a day off. Use but don’t abuse the power of breaks to allow for maintaining healthy habits and improve the longevity of what you enjoy doing.
Health Recipe: Fire Up Your Furnace, Wake Up and Move Baby
Timing: 1-60 minutes. Whatever you can make happen!
Level of Difficulty: Easy - Hard based on how you feel
Serving Size: Start with a short amount of time to create a consistent habit to fit it in most days
Spice Level: Can be spicy while you are doing it, but it will create a clear focused mind
INGREDIENTS
Just yourself and your body folks, no equipment needed. Unless using equipment is what you like to do in the morning, then rock out with your favourite equipment.
REASONING AND BENEFITS
There are a few things that you can do in the morning to set yourself up for a good sleep at night. Sun exposure in the morning is a big one, another big one is morning movement. Do these together and you will be sleeping like a baby in no time. One possible reason why you aren’t sleeping as well as you used to is because of your cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone with many jobs, including managing your stress response, and it helps control your sleep/wake schedule. Just like your internal clock doesn't know what time it is because of a lack of sunlight, your body doesn’t know when to release the proper cortisol levels throughout the day. Our cortisol should be spiking at its max in the morning, and it should be nice and low at bedtime to allow our bodies and minds to get into sleep mode. Moving in the morning has two main benefits: (1) you are taking advantage of your higher cortisol levels in the morning which provide you with energy and focus to carry out that movement and (2) you are helping tell your body to release your cortisol in the morning to get on the proper cortisol releasing schedule to help you sleep at night with low cortisol levels. Not only this, but for the rest of the day you will not be sitting there thinking damn, I haven’t exercised yet, when am I going to fit it in? That is out of your mind because you have already crushed some morning movement. Let’s stack some recipes here. Do your morning movement while getting your morning sun, and oh baby, you will be setting yourself up well for some high quality sleep at night.
INSTRUCTIONS
Start small. Set aside 5-10 minutes, even just 1 minute in the morning for some movement. A quick walk, jumping jacks, bodyweight workout, yoga, burpees, whatever floats your morning movement boat.
Find whatever length of time works best for you to consistently do it. Little victories are better than always waiting for the perfect morning to get your perfect morning movement and never actually doing it.
Consistency is a beautiful thing to make this a routine, and enjoying it will help even more. Pick a routine you enjoy. Listen to some tunes, or just hang with your morning thoughts as you get ready for the day.
PRO TIP: If you have kids and find you can never fit this in between getting them ready in the morning, get them involved and start doing some family movement. This allows you to get it done, it gets them involved, and they see you crushing out some exercise.
* Don’t overthink it. Start with some very simple movement that you know, that you enjoy, that you will consistently do. Build it from there.
** Working out doesn’t have to be a 1 hour session in the gym.
*** Get creative with what prompts you to move. I personally don’t allow myself to drink my morning coffee until I have done push ups, crunches, and squats. Try to find a habit that you already do every morning, and pair this morning movement with it.
Dessert Quote:
“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” ― Archilochus
