Your Perfect Morning Routine

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #RewardHealthyChoices #CollectiveBias

Getting up in the morning has become more difficult as I’ve gotten older. But while it’s nice to sleep in sometimes, I’ve never regretted getting up early (the times when I’ve actually done it). Last school year we were always rushed in the morning to get everyone ready and out the door. I don’t want to do that this year, so I’m instituting Megan’s Morning Routine!

Picture these two scenarios:

1. Your alarm goes off and wakes you up, earlier than you’d like. You want to keep sleeping, but you get out of bed anyway. You stretch to help yourself wake up a bit, and then start your morning routine. Maybe it includes a cup of tea and the next chapter in a great book. Maybe it’s a quick cardio workout and a protein shake. After 30 minutes you’ve forgotten about the inviting warmth of your bed- you’re wide awake and ready for the day.

2. Your alarm goes off and you hit snooze several times, maybe even turning off the alarm completely. You get a bit of extra sleep, but when you finally force yourself out of bed, you’re already running late and find yourself snapping at your kids when they are slow to get ready.

Scenario #2 is all too familiar to me. That little bit of extra sleep just isn’t worth the bad attitude that comes with it! I know that if I get up earlier and get a little time to myself, then I’ll be in a much better place to get the kids up and ready.

Your Perfect Morning Routine

I’ve planned out how I want my morning routine to go, but your routine might look different from mine. Here are some of the habits that you might want to include in your perfect morning routine:

• Meditate
• Exercise
• Drink Water
• Tidy Up
• Write a To Do List
• Take a Walk
• Read
• Pray
• Eat a Healthy Breakfast
• Yoga or Stretching
• Take a Vitamin or Medicine
• Write in a Journal

These are all good things to do, and you might be tempted to try to add them all, but I would suggest choosing just 2-4 things that you can do in the space of about 30 minutes. Even if you have a busy day, you can get up 30 minutes early and complete your morning routine. Then if you want to add in other healthy habits after your routine, you definitely can!

Get Rewarded

Before I share my own routine, I wanted to share with you a really cool way that you can be rewarded for your healthy choices (other than being happy and healthy, of course!). If you ever shop at Walgreens, you may know about their Balance Rewards program. You sign up for a loyalty card, and every time you shop there, you earn points which translate into store credit when you earn enough.

I used to do some couponing, but I couldn’t keep up with the amount of time it took, just for a few small deals. I love Walgreens’ Balance Rewards because it takes little to no effort! You just shop there, swipe your card, and sometimes you see dollars being taken off your total, because you earned them!

So that was already pretty cool, but now Walgreens has started rewarding their Balance Rewards customers just for improving their health, with their Balance Rewards for healthy choices program!

All you have to do is download the Walgreens mobile app, then click on Balance Rewards for healthy choices™. Then you can either sync your other health apps (such as My Fitness Pal or RunKeeper) or enter your workouts and data in manually, and you earn rewards for walking, weight management, and more! Seriously it’s that easy.

And when you get lots of reward points, then you can go shopping at Walgreens for products to support your healthy lifestyle!

Right now through August 29th, if you purchase two J&J Healthy Essentials participating products from Walgreens, you will earn 2,000 Balance Rewards points ($2 reward)!

I got some items that will be useful as we go throughout our daily adventures- Listerine for a fresh, clean mouth (um, this needs to be included in my morning routine!), and Motrin, Neosporin, and Band-Aids for the rougher days!

My Perfect Morning Routine

So which habits did I choose for my own perfect morning routine? Here they are!

• Sun Salutations- I will start with 2 or 3 of this quick yoga combination to stretch, wake myself up, and greet the day.
• Prayer
• 5 Minute Meditation- Including just 5 minutes of meditation each day is supposed to have incredible health benefits.
• Drink Water- I take thyroid medication that I’m supposed to have first thing every morning with water. Drinking water in the morning is a great healthy habit…and so is taking your medication!

That’s it. Simple and easy, but full of healthy benefits. From there I plan to eat a healthy breakfast and hit the gym three mornings a week, but if I get in my morning routine, then I’ll have started the day right, no matter what happens after that!

Tomorrow, while the kids start going back to school, I’ll be starting my morning routine and getting “back to health” and “back to balance.” I can’t wait to report back and share how it goes!

What does your morning look like? Find some great ideas for your new healthy lifestyle here!