Five Healthy Morning Rituals

 

The way we start our day sets the tone for the rest of the day and helps us maintain an optimal level of health. Through my 30 years of nursing practice as well as research, I have identified 5 Healthy Ways To Start Your Day. The list of things we can do for a healthy start is certainly not limited to these 5, however I’ve personally seen great results when practiced consistently.

My personal 5 morning rituals

1. Drink 16 ounces of spring water with a whole fresh squeezed lemon.

The first thing I do when I open my eyes and make my way to the kitchen is hydrate and energize my cells. Here is a list of the benefits. I am not able to elaborate on each one in this article because each benefit could be a full article in itself.

• Rich in Vitamin C
• Helps maintain pH balance of the body
• Fights infections
• Detoxifier
• Maintains Digestive Health
• Rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium
• Anti-inflammatory
• Helps liver flush out toxins
• Fights common cold

2. Get Moving

It is important to get the body moving after a full nights sleep. After I drink my lemon water, I get moving. Counting your steps on your phone or other device does not count. The body needs 30 minutes of continuous moderate to fast paced movement daily. Below are my morning movement rituals and the many benefits of movement.

• Sit on my yoga mat for 10 minutes of breathing and meditation
• Full set of stretches for my body
• 3 sets of push-ups
• Planks

Benefits of the movement:

• Keeps muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints flexible and strong
• Increases blood flow which provides more oxygen and carries away waste products from the cell
• Elevates the mood
• Energy booster
• Regular bowel habits which rid body of toxins more effectively

3. Healthy Protein Shake After Movement

• Builds/Repairs Tissue: Helps your body repair itself after an injury
• Essential for the production of hormones, enzymes, and other body chemicals
• Building block for healthy skin, bones, muscles, and blood
• Boost metabolism
• Burns fat

4. Eat Healthy Breakfast:

Eating in the morning is just a matter of habit and is essential for optimal health. I normally include a healthy fat like an avocado along with eggs for protein and a small salad of some sorts. There are many healthy options. Some of the benefits of eating a healthy breakfast everyday include:

• Boost in energy
• Provides vital nutrients
• Burns fat
• Keeps blood sugar stable
• Decrease incident of Heart Disease
• Increases concentration
• Increases productivity

Sounds like enough reason for me to eat a healthy breakfast daily.

5. Include Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) in our breakfast

The brain is the fattest organ in our body making up about 60% fat. Our brain needs a lot of energy, which it gets from the fat. EFA’s are also necessary for the synthesis and function of the molecules of the immune system. Essential fatty acids are the primary source of energy for our body.

Growing up my mother cooked with lard and real butter. The Western Medicine philosophy is completely against these saturated fats. My grand-parents lived to be in their 90’s eating essential saturated fats. Saturated fats are not the cause of heart disease. The body needs those fats. Below is a list of some of the EFA’s I’ve started included in my daily diet and the positive outcomes have stunned me. I will continue. Again, I could talk about the benefits of each one individually but it would take a whole article for each.

• Salmon or other fish
• Avocado
• Walnuts
• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Grass-fed beef
• Real butter (No margarine or any type of butter substitute)
• Eggs

Benefits of Essential Fatty Acids: 

• Decrease cardiac disease
• Decrease blood pressure
• Decrease in Cholesterol
• Improved energy
• Improved mental and physical performance
• Increase in overall health

Of course there are many more sources of EFA’s to use as options for daily intake. Choose the ones you like best. The most important thing is to make sure you are including them.

Good Health is Priceless. If you don’t have your health, nothing else seems to matter that much. We have a responsibility to be our own physician by taking our health into our own hands. There are many things we can do on the preventative side to keep cancer, heart disease and other illnesses at bay. I hope you will be inspired to take the necessary steps and climb that ladder to optimal health. It will be worth it.

 

Much love,

Vince