A few months ago, I really started thinking about how I could start my day in a way that gave me energy and motivated me to get out of bed in the morning. I had fallen into a pattern of hitting snooze so many times that I rolled out of bed right before my kids. One of the pitfalls of working from home is that there’s really no motivation to look presentable each day, thus my rolling out of bed at the last minute and working in sweatpants everyday wasn’t a problem. But, it actually was a problem. You see, I recently finished reading Girl, Stop Apologizing and it was like a huge wake up call to me that I wasn’t making time to work on my goals. I wasn’t making time to take care of myself. I certainly wasn’t making myself a priority. From the second my feet hit the ground in the morning to the second I went to bed at night, I was doing things at full speed, for other people. As I walked through the steps in the book, I began to piece together what an energizing morning routine would look like for me. Here’s how it’s come together:
5:00 Wake up, drink a glass of cold water while I make my coffee. Then I spend the next hour drinking my coffee and working on my one primary goal.
6:00 I belong to The Balanced Life Online, which provides a calendar of Pilates workouts Monday-Friday. MWF workouts are about 15 minutes, while T-Th are more like 30 minutes. At 6 AM, I do my pilates workout for the day.
6:15/6:30 I head to my favorite comfy chair to do 10 minutes of meditation through Headspace. Then I write in my gratitude journal, following the #last90days methodology.
6:45 Pack school lunch for my Kindergartner, set out backpacks, shoes, coats, etc.
7:00 Get my kids up (if they aren’t up already). Get them ready for school.
7:10-7:20/7:30 The boys watch a show and have a glass of milk, while we snuggle. I have thought so many times about doing away with this part of the morning routine, but these morning snuggles start the day off right for all of us and are truly one of the things I’m most grateful for each day!
7:30 My husband takes the boys to school and I get myself dressed and ready for the day, while listening to my favorite playlist or podcast.
8:00 Make my favorite green smoothie and sit down at my desk to check email and begin my work day.
So, that was a really long post to get to the point….which is that this green smoothie is a rock solid part of my morning routine! It’s smooth and delicious, and easy to make thanks to my freezer smoothie packs. Once in a while I get crazy and swap out the smoothie for an oatmeal bowl or acai bowl (look for those recipes soon!), but it’s rare that I don’t start my day with this smoothie! And I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. 🙂
Morning Green Smoothie
Ingredients
1 cup spinach
1/3 cup avocadoÂ
1/2 banana
1/3 cup frozen pineapple cubes
1/3 cup frozen mango chunks
1 tsp matcha powder
1/2 cup coconut water
1/3 cup coconut milk
Instructions
*Note: For this recipe, I use frozen avocado chunks from Costco. I pre-assemble smoothie packs by combining the frozen avocado, pineapple, and mango, along with half a banana that I have peeled and sliced into individual smoothie portions and freezing. Each morning, I dump a smoothie pack and the remaining ingredients in my Vitamix blender.
To mix the smoothie: Combine all ingredients in a blender. I use a Vitamix and blend on the smoothie setting. If the smoothie looks too thick, I add a little coconut water.