155 | Small Morning Changes for Big Health Benefits

Could simple morning habits really transform your midlife health journey? Discover how exposing yourself to morning sunlight can naturally regulate your circadian rhythm and boost cortisol, setting the stage for a better day. Learn about an effective movement routine that involves lifting your arms overhead to improve posture and support lymphatic drainage. Plus, find out why postponing your first cup of coffee until after breakfast might be a game-changer for managing cortisol levels, especially for those practicing intermittent fasting. We tackle these essential habits to help you feel more energized and balanced as you navigate midlife.

In the second part of our discussion, we delve into three straightforward actions that can make a significant impact on your health without overhauling your diet or exercise regimen. These small steps are designed to lower cortisol levels, reduce inflammation from high glucose, and stabilize blood sugar, leading to less stress and a heightened sense of well-being. Join our Moving Through Midlife community on Facebook or visit movingthroughmidlife.com for more insights and personalized guidance. If these tips resonate with you, share the episode with a friend or leave a review to help us support more moms flourishing through midlife.

Chapters

• 0:00 Morning Habits for Healthy Living
• 13:19 Simple Steps to Healthier Living

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you listened to last week's episode, you will know that I shared three things that you can start to do to help you live a healthier life and lose weight. If that is something you're interested in, and it is something that we all can do, those three things, three things. Today I want to talk about three things that you can do first thing in the morning. That is also going to help you with your weight loss journey and your overall health journey. So let's get started. Welcome to Moving Through Midlife. I am your host, courtney, a personal trainer and movement specialist who wants to help you move through midlife with more grace. Each week, we will discuss ways we can show up better for ourselves and our children without the burnout. We will focus on overall health through habit stacking to help increase energy, provide movement snacks to help you move more throughout the day, while also moving your body more, and learn from professionals on moving through midlife with ease so that you can feel confident with aging gracefully. Grab your earbuds and join me on a leisurely walk while we discuss moving through midlife. On a leisurely walk while we discuss moving through midlife, all right. So the first thing that you are going to do when you wake up, and this is going to depend on the sunlight. If you wake up before the sun, then you can go about your morning, do whatever you naturally do and then when the sun rises, you will go outside. If you wake up and the sun is already risen, I want you to get outside. Get outside as quickly as possible and it doesn't matter how long we're not, I'm going to say even just five minutes If you can just go outside and get into the sunlight. And what happens is your morning eyes are going to sense the sunlight and this helps to release cortisol so that your body really starts to wake up. It also helps to regulate your circadian rhythm. There's a whole process that occurs where it signals to your body and brain that it's time to start the day and then it allows for the body to also produce the melatonin once the lights go down at night. So we have a circadian rhythm that's usually about 24 hours long and, depending on when you get that first light in the day, will depend on it'll like fire on that circadian rhythm and then the melatonin then comes during a period after that time. So we want to make sure that we are getting that morning sunlight to help that natural melatonin, sleepy time start to occur, and melatonin is produced based on the light in the evening, but without that morning light it does diminish the effect of it. So we want to make sure we're getting that morning light. Now what I would recommend is when we go outside.

Speaker 1: 3:28

One thing that many of us don't do is we don't put our arms up over our head a lot throughout the day. So I think it is a great idea when we go out into the sunlight, first thing in the morning is to bring our arms up over our head. For a lot of us, if you are a side sleeper or a back sleeper, you will probably have a rounded position, so we want to get the body into extension. So bringing your arms up over your head like you're going to start, say, a sun salutation in yoga and you're going to lift your heart up towards the sky, that is going to create some extension. Now, for those of you who are belly sleepers, you probably are in extension a little more throughout the day, so you don't need to focus on this as much, but it's just a great way to kind of reset your posture is by just bringing those arms up overhead, extending up through that chest to where the heart is reaching towards the sky and then just kind of allow your body to drop over to one side with the arms staying up overhead, and then to the other side and then bring those arms back down and roll those shoulders back. You'll do that about three times. It will help to allow for good shoulder movement. It will allow for the lymphatic system, where many of us tend to get a lot of the lymph drainage around our upper arm chest area can get very stagnant because we don't lift our arms up over our head a lot. So this is going to help with that whole experience, allowing that lymphatic system to kind of drain a little bit more effectively and then it just should feel really good.

Speaker 1: 5:34

So that is the first thing when you wake up in the morning, get outside, don't look at the sun, but get out into the sunlight, allow that natural cortisol to be brought up naturally and get those arms up over your head. The second thing that we're going to do, so when you come back in from getting that sunlight, you're going to. For those of you who are coffee drinkers, now, if you are a greens drinker or lemon water drinker, go do that, enjoy that. That's amazing. I wish I could be you. But for those of you who drink coffee, like myself, it is not a terrible thing. I will not be one who ever doesn't promote coffee, but there are some caveats. So when we went outside, we got that natural cortisol boost. We then do not come inside and continue to boost, boost, boost our cortisol. That is when we start to get into more of that fight or flight response too much cortisol in the system.

Speaker 1: 6:47

So what we're going to do is you can make your coffee, but you have to eat first. To eat first, you have to eat first. Now for my fasters if you are a faster and you don't like that I just said that and you're fasting and it's working then keep doing what you're doing. I don't want to mess with you. Do what is working for you right now. But what I have found with many of my clients is that at this age in midlife, when we are dealing with a lot of stressors, fasting does not work long term. So for those of you who drink your coffee in the morning, you're going to delay, delay drinking your coffee, even that first sip. Okay, please promise me you'll do this and eat breakfast first. Now, if you're not one who eats a lot of breakfast, I want you to grab a handful of nuts, something that is going to help keep that blood sugar more stable when you do drink your coffee, whether you're putting cream and sugar in it or not. Okay, so that is going to help diminish the cortisol spike that naturally occurs when you drink coffee. Okay, so that is two things that you're doing.

Speaker 1: 8:17

I'm going to add another one in here, because I spoke about it last week, and it's that slowing down, and I I mentioned the fight or flight response where, if you're coming inside from seeing the sunlight, you already have a natural. You've given your body the good cortisol boost that it needs. Now, if you're then coming inside drinking coffee and rushing around like a crazy person trying to get everybody else in the household ready, you are naturally bringing up your cortisol response. So we want to make sure that we plan effectively, so make sure that you are giving yourself enough time in the morning to get everything done as a prior. Well, I am still a procrastinator, but as a person who always used to push things to the edge, I will say that when you give yourself an opportunity to wake up, say 10 minutes earlier. It allows you to be a little bit calmer, allows your body to be a little bit calmer as you move through your day. And I would say I prefer you to wake up 10 minutes earlier to be able to do this, even if it means less sleep, because what's going to happen is we're going to find it on the other side. I'd rather you go to bed earlier, okay, so at some point we're going to find it on the other side so that you can get that full night's sleep. So it might be for a couple weeks that you're waking up a little bit earlier I'm talking 10 minutes, I'm not talking an hour 10 minutes earlier and then you can feel a little bit ease, have a little bit more ease while you're getting ready. So that was your little bonus there, but it really wasn't a bonus because we spoke about it last week.

Speaker 1: 10:21

And then the third thing is when you are making your breakfast and you've heard me say this numerous, numerous times, and the reason you will continue to hear me tell you this is because it's that important. It is that important Is you've got to get your protein in in the morning. You have to Now. I would encourage you. The goal is, I would say, 30 grams of protein. Start working on trying to get that much protein in in the morning. What does this mean? What does this look like?

Speaker 1: 10:56

So, for eggs are always a great option. You can always add egg whites to increase the protein without the fat. I like to. Personally, I like to have eggs with egg yolk because of the choline and all the nutrients in that egg yolk Very important. But once you get, say, beyond 2, I'm not sure you need all of those extras, so you can then add some egg whites as well to bump up your protein. The other thing I love personally is yogurts and cottage cheese. Those are, yes, they are dairy products, but I don't have an issue with dairy. I think they're really great ways. You get a lot of bang for your buck. So that as well is another great option to add to your morning to push to 30 grams of protein.

Speaker 1: 12:04

If you have questions about this, head over to the Moving Through Midlife community and ask in our community what some ideas are for some high protein breakfast. I will be happy to share over there for you, and I'm sure other people might say as well what they eat for breakfast. So those are what I'm going to recommend and if you want to kind of really set off your breakfast foods, I always recommend starting with your vegetables. I always recommend starting with your vegetables. Eat your vegetables first, then your protein, then your carbs, whether it be fruit or if you have oatmeal or anything like that. That tends to be the way to help decrease the blood sugar response in the body is if you always eat like that eating your vegetables first, then your protein and then your carbs that will help with keeping the blood sugar more stable. So those are my three to four things that I would recommend that you really focus on.

Speaker 1: 13:19

You're not changing.

Speaker 1: 13:20

I'm not asking you to make a big diet change. I'm not asking you to go work out. I'm asking you to do three simple things that can start to make big changes. Does it mean you're going to lose a lot of weight in the beginning? No, but what this does mean is you are not going to wake up with as high of cortisol levels. You're not going to be dealing with quite as much inflammation due to high glucose levels, your blood sugar being through the roof. All of that and your cortisol being through the roof, you will be less likely to be in that fight or flight response.

Speaker 1: 13:57

You will start to just feel better if you practice these three things, so I hope that helps. I hope you all have an amazing day and make sure to join me over in my community Moving Through Midlife over on Facebook community Moving Through Midlife over on Facebook or head to movingthroughmidlifecom and see how you can work with me. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found something to take away to help you practice healthier habits, move more or handle the midlife and aging with grace. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review to help us reach more moms just like you. Head to movingthroughmidlifecom to join the free community or learn how you can move more and feel better in your daily life.