How to Conquer Your Morning, Starting Simple
You need a regenerating MORNING routine to own your day.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning
How do you wake up energized and ready to take dominion of a new day. If the Lord’s mercies are new, shouldn’t our approach to the day reflect gratitude and renewal?
How we start our day determines productivity for the rest of the day.
If you’re wondering why you can’t get off the ground or maintain traction on that habit of prayer or exercise, that’s because it’s not a priority. Priorities are reflected in our schedules. If it’s important, it will get done first. Your willpower towards the end of the day wanes. You are far less apt to train hard or reflect in prayerful meditation after you’ve spent all your energy on your job. And if you want to give your work and your family your best energy, you must start with activities that fuel a productive day.
A renewed morning doesn’t require complex activities or expensive bio-hacks. You don’t need 3 hours. You can set yourself up for success in 30-45 mins.
HERE ARE 7 REGENERATING HABITS YOU CAN DO EACH MORNING.
PRAY first thing upon waking
You cannot enter the day on your own power. You need the power of the One who made the day anew and offers His mercy abundantly. Thank him for your breath, your family, and ask Him for the strength and wisdom to honor Him for the day. Give Him your first fruits. You can roll out of bed straight to your knees, stretch while you pray, or listen to and repeat a Psalm.
COLD exposure: shower or water on head
No gold plunge? No worries. Your shower is cold enough. Don’t need to bathe? Simply shower your head. One of the best things you can do to wake up is expose yourself to cold water. Immersing your head is an easily bearable shock. Get your face wet to reduce puffiness. Now, it won’t take long to brush your hair.
GROUND: bare feet on the earth
SUNLIGHT: exposure to natural light
These can be done at the same time. Get out your door barefoot and look towards the rising sun. Doing this in the morning can extend cold exposure, depending on your location and the season.
Your body needs to discharge all the dirty electricity its subjected to in an artificial environment. This helps with stress by getting your red blood cells fluid and moving, which increases oxygenation. Morning light is crucial for your circadian rhythm. It tells your body to wake up and primes you to produce essential hormones including Vitamin D.
Those first 4 elements are entirely free; they are 4 of the best doctors in the world.
HYDRATE: water with healthy minerals
Your body is dehydrated after sleeping. But true hydration includes minerals, not simply water. And you don’t want the opposite with water that has chemicals, metals and plastics in it. Use filtered water. A well that’s been tested is also great.
Add minerals. The simplest way to do this is with Celtic sea salt. Use a little boiled water first to melt it, then add cool water. Warm water is ideal since cold water shocks the stomach. And even better is incorporating chelated minerals. These are minerals that are 80% more bioavailable and safe because they are bonded with the right amino acids. You need more than just raw isolates like magnesium or zinc oxide. Our food is depleted and minerals are catalysts for every function & structure in the body.
Here are the minerals we use. For other electrolytes & coffee, see bottom of article.
*Note: coffee is not hydrating. It is acidic and a diuretic as and drains your B vitamins & minerals due to the throttle on your adrenals from the isolated caffeine. Organic, mold-free, fresh-roasted and lighter roasted coffee has several benefits, but after you hydrate and consume food to avoid the side effects.
NUTRITION: vitamins, biologically complete protein & probiotics
These are just a few of the critical nutrients you need when you break the fast. The longer you wait to replenish, the poorer your performance will be. Your body is critically deficient in the water-soluble nutrients that it used to repair overnight. Water-soluble nutrients are only retained for hours at a time, which means they must be replenished daily.
A simple way to start is with a piece of organic, seasonal fruit like an apple or berries, especially if you are going to work out and eat breakfast with your family.
Aminos, flavonoids & vitamin C make collagen and other essential structures like blood vessels, along with keeping the immune system primed.
B vitamins and protein control your metabolism and neurons. This means your mood depends on them. Go for the entire B family (all 8).
What about your gut? This is where your body manufactures hormones, cravings, immune cells, and more. The appendix ramps into bacteria production in the early morning, so this is an ideal time to take a guaranteed delivery, clinical probiotic with the human strains that thrive in sections of the gut: Acidophilus Plus. This will also help with elimination regularity.
You should start your day with 15-30g of high quality protein, before coffee. Quality is determined by the amount of amino acids, not the grams. You want easy-to-digest whole foods, so sources such as raw milk and soft boiled or poached eggs are ideal. There are 22 amino acids in human nutrition, so starting your day with all of them is critical. We recommend a biologically complete amino acid solution with added minerals, vitamins, prebiotic fiber, and minimal carbs for a whole food meal < $4. This takes mere minutes to mix & drink, and it can be blended with milk or a smoothie.
The longer you wait to replenish these, the poorer your performance will be. Stay nutriated.
If you want to give any of our whole food concentrates a try, they come with clinical proof and a money-back guarantee from our partner Christian nutrition company. If you set some weight and fitness goals with us in tandem, you can win $500 cash & more.
EXERCISE: 15-30 mins of strength & mobility training
Starting your day with strength training is one of the best things you can do for fat loss. Strength exercise in particular increases your BMR: the rate at which your body burns calories when you’re sedentary. What’s more, it increases oxygenation, gets your lymphatic system moving (far bigger than your blood circulatory system), and activates your nervous system. This will make you far more productive in both your study and work. Incorporating some stretching or mobility at the end or throughout your workout will keep your body from getting tight and prevent injury.
A great exercise to start with is bodyweight HIIT. You need minimal or no equipment to get a good sweat and raise your heart rate. You can also do some light work with weights and follow up with some intense cardio, like jump rope.
We have great programs available for beginners and beyond as well as a custom playlist available to subscribers or members of our Brotherhood.
BREAKFAST & FAMILY WORSHIP
After you’ve attended to your body, you need to attend to your Body: your family. Start their day with good nutrition for body, mind and spirit. Now that you’re alert and filled, you can lead your family in devotions. These should be simple, not tedious. You have their attention over a meal, and morning meals are always the best for kids.
Start with a Psalm or Proverb corresponding the chapter to the day of the month. Read it out loud, then ask your kids or spouse what sticks out. Discuss, apply and pray.
If you keep your morning nutrition simple and budget a few minutes on each of these with the most going to fitness, you don’t need more than an hour to yourself first. Your spouse can join you in any or all of your routine. Men are commanded to nourish their wives as their own bodies.
As you become proficient in your morning routine, you will go to bed earlier because you worked hard at the beginning. You will feel accomplished and sleep well, as the Word promises.
What about Bible study? Shouldn’t that be the utmost priority for Christians!? NO. Intellectual information is not more important than feeding yourself, caring for your body, and praying with your family. Study is extremely valuable and should be prioritized, but not at the expense of invigorating your body and leading your family.
This is obvious in that for most of human history, people did not have access to the written word. They had the good news they heard, small portions of Scripture, and prayer. The largest book of the Bible is a collection of prayers for a reason. Prayer is the oxygen of the soul. It’s easier to read passively than it is to pray, because prayer infuses the truth into our minds and submits us to the Author of the Word.
We are not gnostic. Study & meditation are not exclusive to other disciplines. In fact, you will get more out of them if you move and feed your body properly. Our point here is that you may be missing more some basic elements that would have been obligatory components for most of human history, before the advents of technology and conveniences that are detrimental to our health. We have an abundance of fat fathers & pietistic theologians, but a deficiency in strong, discerning men who understand that wisdom > knowledge. What most of us need is to get on our face in prayer and discipline the flesh. It is not the hearers, but the doers that are blessed. You need God’s power and a healthy body to DO obedience.
Spend a month meditating on one Psalm or obeying one chapter of the New Testament. Incorporate just 3 of these habits: prayer, fitness & nutrition, and you’ll be far more productive than most.
Need help & encouragement tracking these habits? Join the Be Regenerated Brotherhood.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. – James 1:22-25
This was a great read, thank you
This routine has already been super helpful. I feel much better throughout the day and am going to bed tired. The only thing I wish I could do (maybe I need to see if I can make some adjustments with my work) is family worship at breakfast. I leave for work before my family is awake for the day. I love the idea and I hope I can figure out a way to do this.