Your morning routine starts the night before and sets the tone for the rest of your day.
A consistently good night’s sleep gives you the energy to start your day on the right foot. It makes it possible to prioritise what is truly important in your life. The morning routine starts the night before. The time you choose to go to bed affects how you feel and how much time you have in the morning.
A morning routine can be as simple as waking up and drinking a cup of coffee, getting dressed, brushing your teeth and heading off to work… but, there is so much more you could do. In a recent interview with Brent Bultitude, Dr Ron shared his morning routine.
“I think I’ve probably had this current morning routine for the last 15 or so years.”
~ Dr Ron Ehrlich
Dr Ron wakes up with the birds at about quarter past five. And then his routine begins:
- Pokes & peels the micropore tape carefully from his lips….DO NOT RIP the tape off!!
- Removes the appliance that keeps his airway open and prevents snoring.
- Drinks from the 800ml stainless steel bottle kept next to the bed; hydrating first thing in the day.
- Tongue scraping
- Neti pot
- Ten minutes of stretching and gentle exercise
- Finish bottle of water
- Dry brush scrub, using a body brush covering legs, body and arms… improves lymphatic drainage
- Shower
From start to finish the routine takes about twenty to thirty minutes. Dr Ron follows the same morning regime seven days per week.
Maintain Good Sleep Hygiene
A big part of good sleep hygiene is developing a routine. As humans, we have been guided by routine throughout our human journey. The routine of the sun coming up and going down each day is central to all life on earth, and despite our ability to ‘light up our world’ it still plays an important role.
Remember that a consistently good night’s sleep is a function of both quantity (7-9 hours a night) and quality (breathing well while you sleep).
So the question is… when is your optimal time for going to bed?
Are you really a ‘morning lark’ or a ‘night owl’?
Try this quick online quiz to give you a clue….when is your best time?
MORNINGNESS-EVENINGNESS QUIZ >
A good morning routine is a great way to set you up for the day.
Expose Your Skin To The Morning Sun
Say good morning to the sun. Exposing your skin and your eyes to the early morning sun allows you to reap the benefits without getting burnt:
- It lets your body know that the sun has come up.
- Gets the melatonin cycle started.
- Starts the production of Vitamin D.
The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
You will note that Dr Ron’s morning routine doesn’t include breakfast. It used to be thought that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. We were told to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Recently intermittent fasting has been shown to be more beneficial than eating frequent meals throughout the day.
The goal is to extend the overnight fast to sixteen hours and eat within an eight-hour window during the day. Typically, that means eating your first meal of the day at mid-morning, about ten o’clock. Your final meal is then an early dinner between five and six in the evening.
A WORD OF WARNING: To make intermittent fasting easier and to prevent extreme hunger, it is best not to go directly from a low-fat diet to a time-restricted eating pattern. Start with a low-carb diet with healthy fats for a few weeks before transitioning into time-restricted eating.
“You have to incorporate healthy fats, and it’s like throwing a big log on the fire. You don’t have to worry about it.
Then, for most of the day, you won’t get hungry.”
~ Dr Ron Ehrlich
