Episode 20: Why You Need a Morning Routine
In this episode, Coach Jo and Coach Kim dive into the power of morning routines and how they impact productivity, well-being, and overall success. Each coach shares their personal struggles to create and maintain a morning routine and share strategies for how to make their mornings successful. This includes prepping the night before, not hitting the snooze button, skipping the doom scroll, and eating a healthy breakfast. They discuss how small habits—like drinking water first thing in the morning and planning the night before—can make a big difference in energy levels and focus throughout the day.
The conversation highlights key strategies for building a sustainable morning routine, including reducing decision fatigue, prioritizing protein-rich breakfasts, and avoiding common sabotagers like social media and an unorganized start to the day. Coach Jo and Coach Kim also explore how nighttime habits influence mornings and offer practical tips to create a routine that is both effective and flexible when life gets in the way. Tune in for actionable steps to transform your mornings and set yourself up for success!
Resources discussed in this episode:
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Contact Joely Churchill and Kim Berube | Iron Lab:
Coach Jo Instagram: @CoachJoChurch
Coach Kim Instagram: @CoachKimBerube
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Transcript
Coach Jo 00:09
Welcome to Perfectly Unfinished Conversations, the Iron Lab podcast with Coach Jo…
Coach Kim 00:14
…and Coach Kim…
Coach Jo 00:15
Where you ride shotgun with us as we have raw, real, unfiltered, and unfinished conversations about trying to eat, sleep, train, and live with some integrity in a messy, imperfect life.
Coach Kim 00:27
We're all about creating a strong support system, taking radical personal responsibility, having fun, and being authentic. And one of the most common themes you're going to find in this podcast is the idea that we create positive momentum in our life, by doing what we call b-minus work.
Coach Jo 00:45
We’re making gains and getting ahead and loving life without self-sabotaging our goals by striving for perfection. We get it done by moving ahead…
Coach Kim 00:55
…before we're ready…
Coach Jo 00:56
…when we aren't feeling like it…
Coach Kim 00:58
…and without hesitation.
Coach Jo 1:00
Be sure to subscribe now on Apple or Spotify, so you don't miss a single episode. It’s good enough. Let's go. Welcome back, folks. We are going to dive right in today on the importance of morning routines. So Kim, tell me the truth here. How's your morning routine?
Coach Kim 1:19
Well, funny you should ask, because my sleep is a mess right now. And that affects my morning routine for sure. 80% of the time, I love my morning routine, and right now it's pretty dialed in. Like it's Monday, and it's pretty dialed in, and I'm relieved and happy about that. But if you would’ve asked me Friday, I was a mess. And on the days where I'm early coaching mornings and when my alarm goes off at four, like I don't like those mornings very much. And I'm, if I'm not very organized the night before, to get out of the house by 5am I set myself up to fail all day. So, I prefer to wake up without an alarm and to sit and drink something hot. I like to journal and dump out my brain in the morning and then eat breakfast and pack my meals. But recently, I've been opening up my phone too early, which sucks me into the vortex of lost lifetime. And I find the darker winter hard, because I love getting outside when the sun's coming up. That's one of my favourite habits ever, and I'm kind of over the dark right now in the season, just with winter. So I was really excited when I drove to work this morning that the sun's coming up quarter to eight it’s light.
Coach Jo 2:26
The sun was shining before I got my car.
Coach Kim 2:28
Amazing, because it's minus 31 this morning, and that was tough. But on the days that I struggle to make my morning routine happen, like on the days where I don't do all the things that I love, I I'm a disaster all day long. Like, I don't eat a great breakfast, I don't pack adequate meals for lunch or snacks. I leave my water bottle behind. I'll decide, oh, I can just grab something on the way, which is forcing me not only to spend money, and it also forces me to try to rely on someplace out there that fits foods that align with my health and my plan, my goals, right? So, that's just a bad idea. So, to top it off, I come to work feeling like I don't want to be there because I'm not ready, and my hair is probably half-assed and my makeup hasn't done.
Coach Jo 3:09
Oh, I liked your hair today.
Coach Kim 3:10
Oh, thanks.
Coach Jo 3:11
I did. It was nice and straight.
Coach Kim 3:12
Today was a good day, but if you would ask me Friday, what'd you say to me? You said, Elvira or something. I've even forgotten my laptop before, at home.
Coach Jo 3:25
Yeah.
Coach Kim 3:26
Like, talk about disorganized. So, yeah.
Coach Jo 3:27
You know, this topic is so timely because I recently came back from a hockey tournament, which is four and a half hours away, and I feel like I was hit by a dump truck today. Even though, you know, I was sleeping early enough, even though I tried to have food ready, I tried, but I really didn't try. I didn't meal prep, like I should have. I'm just exhausted from the weekend with my two young boys, where I was riding solo and it was just a long ass drive home. So like, what I hear us saying is that this whole thing, things could have been avoided if we had taken a few minutes to plan ahead the previous night.
Coach Kim 4:00
Yeah, makes me wonder how many people are rolling out of bed and totally just hitting the ground running every day, which I would absolutely hate. Like could is rolling out of bed and winging it an actual strategy? It could be a strategy, but probably not a great one. And so we're talking about the importance of a morning routine, because rolling out of bed and winging it might work if you've built really strong habits that keep you on track without much thought, but for most people, this habit or this approach leads to decision fatigue and inconsistency and frustration, so a little bit of structure, like a solid morning routine, a set workout schedule, or even just time set aside to plan meals, can make a huge difference in energy and focus and time, free time and long term success. So sure you can wing it, but you'll probably get better results if you at least. Have a loose plan.
Coach Jo 5:01
Yeah, you ever notice how your most productive date didn't start with you rolling out of bed, staring at your phone and just like hoping for the best? Those days when you crushed your to do list, nailed your workouts and you like, ate like an actual adult and you still had energy left, didn't just magically happen. They started with the plan when you take a few minutes to map things out, whether it's your workout, your meals, or just deciding what actually needs to get done, you're not leaving your success up to chance. Winging, it sounds like fun, but let's be real, it usually leads to skipping your workouts or eating whatever's easiest and ending the day wondering where'd the time go. A plan doesn't have to be crazy complicated, but having a direction means you're running the day, instead of letting the day run you.
Coach Kim 5:44
And how stressful is that? Right like to let the day run you, to jump out of bed, to start crooked, you know the way that you, not crooked, but… what the hell does that mean?
Coach Jo 5:57
Crooked, it's visual, like someone walking out like all Igor.
Coach Kim 6:03
Well, you know, to start the day just off on the total wrong foot right? How stressful. That stress spiral is a real thing. And when we're rushing around in the morning, it sets the tone for the whole day. Like I remember having kids and in school and daycare, and I would be so stressed out and frustrated and yelling like sending them to school upset and me going to work feeling like a terrible mom. And so much of it could have been alleviated by being more organized and having a better morning routine in place too little, too fucking late, apparently.
Coach Jo 6:38
Well, let's chat about like decision fatigue next, because this does tie into everything decision fatigue, like if we explain what it is, it's the mental exhaustion that comes from making too many choices or decisions throughout the day, like every decision, big or small, it's just using up your brain power. And by the time you hit the afternoon, your ability to make good choices, it just starts to tank. That's why starting your day on autopilot can actually make you smarter later, like when you eliminate unnecessary decisions in the morning, like what you have to wear or what you need to eat or when to work out, you conserve so much mental energy for the choices that actually matter. For example, like famous people, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, they wear the same outfits, and they eat the same breakfast every single day because they don't want to have to think about it. They just want to go off and create things. The less energy wasted on small decisions, the more focus, the more willpower you're going to have, like when it really freaking counts. So if you've ever found yourself stress eating snacks at 3pm or skipping the gym because your brain is fried. It's not just a lack of discipline, it's decision fatigue at work. So some fixes, you know, like meal prepping, removes the daily stress of deciding what to eat, scheduling workouts in in advance, eliminates the internal debate of whether or not you need to exercise, laying your clothes out the night before, something I do every time I gotta coach an early morning shift. It makes my morning smoother. I just roll out. There's my clothes, and I slip into it, and sometimes I sleep in that same sports bra because I'm just getting out of bed and I gotta go right? And automating small tasks like bill payments or grocery lists, it just reduces all that unnecessary decision making. So if you automate your mornings, you're going to save your brain power, and you're going to set yourself up for smarter choices all day long.
Coach Kim 8:30
So, here are the big morning habits that are likely sabotaging you. And number one would be hitting snooze, and if not just hitting snooze once or twice, hitting snooze multiple times, like when you hit snooze and then drift back to sleep. There are a couple things that happen for you. One is that your body starts another sleep cycle that it won't have time to finish. And I've noticed this for myself, like I have noticed I need 90 minutes. So for me to sleep, go back to sleep for another 40 minutes, I'm almost better to just get up and be that short on sleep, because when you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle and you actually have to get out of bed, you feel groggy and worse than if you just got up at the end of that natural sleep cycle. So instead of waking up and getting after it, you start the day by procrastinating. This is number two, your body or your brain, I should say. Your brain looks out for you by what you put emphasis on the things that seem important to you. So when you delay getting out of bed by hitting snooze, your brain says we hit snooze, and it gets the message, we delay the things that we don't feel like doing. And the more you snooze, the less time you have to get ready, which adds to your stress, and that spikes your cortisol, so you're already starting the day in fight or flight, not to mention when you hit snooze, the first thing you're doing in the morning is. Breaking a commitment to yourself, a micro promise, when you say you're going to do something and then you don't follow through, that tiny decision weakens your ability to follow through for yourself in other little habits, like staying out of the candy dish at work, or bailing on your walk at lunch, or deciding you're just going to work out tomorrow instead. Now, doom scrolling is another habit that's going to set you up to fail. Doom scrolling in bed, before you get out of bed, or immediately after you get out of bed, hijacks your brain before you even get a chance to wake up. When you're checking emails, texts or social media, first thing you immediately shift into reaction mode, responding to notifications, stressing over messages, or getting lost in the scroll before your feet even hit the floor. So between cortisol surges and quick dopamine hits, scrolling first thing triggers that repetitive behavior, and the problem is is instead of getting out of bed and doing something that is going to set you up to win you stay stuck in a loop of mindless scrolling. Now number three is your brain needs natural light, movement, and hydration to wake up properly. And so when we're staring at a bright phone screen instead, the artificial blue light messes with your melatonin production and makes it harder to feel awake and alert and not to mention screws up the goal you have of sleeping better again at night, right? Plus, scrolling creates time blindness, which I had never heard this term before, but it totally makes sense you just essentially lose track of time. Like, how many times have you been scrolling on your phone, and all of a sudden you're like, what? 48 minutes like, like, I gotta be somewhere, right? So you start the day running late, and suddenly your morning routine is rushed, chaotic or completely skipped entirely. Lke that one's a big one.
Coach Kim 11:59
Another habit that's going to start your day off wrong is sitting too long with a coffee. And I'd add also in here, coffee on an empty stomach, like drinking coffee on an empty stomach in the morning feels like a power move, but for women, especially over the age of 40, it can be a sneaky hormone disruptor. And when I say hormones, I don't mean estrogen, progesterone. I'm talking blood sugar. I'm talking cortisol, like cortisol rises to wake you up and adding coffee on an empty stomach sends that cortisol even higher, creating unnecessary stress on your body. It can influence blood sugar, like I said, trigger hormone imbalances, which is that hormone cascade we've talked about in previous podcasts. It can increase jittery feelings and anxiety and even affect your sleep at night. You see, coffee has a half life of five to six hours in the body, meaning, if you are still, for average kind of people, five to six hours. If you're still drinking a cup at 2pm at 2am your body is still processing half of that caffeine load and slow metabolizers, often women over 40, especially in peri and post menopause, because of liver congestion and hormone struggles, may end up with a half life of closer to eight to 12 hours, which means the caffeine in your 2pm coffee pickup could still be circulating In your system when you'd much rather be sleeping. Another bad morning habit that's sabotaging you is lying to yourself by saying, I'll just eat later and skipping breakfast, and how that keeps us craving and exhausted during the day. So, we're recommending always protein and healthy fat first, like eggs and Greek yogurt or even turkey sausage or turkey, ground turkey with your eggs or a handful of nuts, like if you have to drink coffee first, add some collagen or cream in to buffer the acidity, or, even better, delay coffee 30 to 60 minutes after waking and let your natural cortisol do its job first. This is one of those little details that adds up when you are trying to, quote-unquote, balance your hormones, right? And the last bad habit is not having things organized and ready at the door, backpacks, books, laptops, lunches, clothes to change into, etc, etc, etc. Like these are the things that you can do in about 15 dedicated minutes the night before.
Coach Jo 14:23
And here we're gonna talk about the nighttime habits that are self sabotaging you, not morning habits, but nighttime habits. Scrolling through reels tiktoks, as Kim said, on your phone at nighttime, not just in the morning, but before you go to bed, or just clicking that watch next episode, because you just have to see what is going to happen next. Like you're just staying up way too darn late, which makes any task the next day absolutely torturous, not getting your head on straight for the next day, or not even thinking about the layout of your next day at all. If you're just waking up and being like, oh. Am I doing this morning? Like, what's on my schedule today? You got to have a peek at that the night before. You got to be able to see, oh, I got a kid in sport here, or I got a meeting there, or or whatnot. You got to have a layout of your land of the next day. And not having, for me, this is me, is a big one, not having my kids as lunches made the night before or as well as my own, is huge. If I don't have that made my morning becomes half an hour of me scrambling, making things, and it's I've lost all my own morning time. And some other quick ones, like endless snacking, like it's gonna mess with your digestion and sleep quality. No set bedtime. Like, meh, when I feel tired, I'll just go to bed. Or, you know, when the kids are finally down, I just need some alone time for myself. And then you just stay up as late as you can. You don't realize the time, right? Caffeine too late, as Kim said, it's gonna affect your sleep quality. And just skipping winding down, like, if you're going from full speed to bedtime without actually winding down with a book or stretch, like quiet time, low, amber light, etc. Like you can't just go from 60 to zero. You gotta have a slow turn in to the gate. Messy kitchen like this is something that's kind of different, but for me, I kind of put some things for me, like, if I have a messy kitchen, when I wake up in the morning, I am not creative. I don't want to do anything. It looks like more work. I feel like shit. But if I clean my kitchen the night before and I wake up, I'm like, Okay, what are we going to do? And I kind of get breakfast ready or whatnot, last minute things. It's just a small thing, but you'd be surprised what a clean kitchen the night before can do for you the next morning.
Coach Kim 16:27
I will agree with that, actually, because Claude is the master at he feels exact same way, and I've learned so much from him in 26 years. I actually do a lot.
Coach Jo 16:37
He’s a fantastic vacuum cleaner.
Coach Kim 16:38
He is and he's the one who taught me, not that my mom didn't teach me to make my bed. It was important as a kid, but in the years where I was a single parent and chasing and rushing out of the house to get to work, I just was not a great housekeeper. Was not my priority. There was a couple times where I was watching, what is my problem today? There were a couple of years where I worked multiple jobs, right? And so, house cleaning was not on my list at all,.
Coach Jo 17:05
You didn’t have time.
Coach Kim 17:06
But he is like the guy who is like, taught me how to make the bed. Why that's so important. Same with cleaning up the kitchen. There is nothing sweeter than getting up to a clean kitchen. And all you have to do is hit start on the coffee maker. That's brilliant. So blah offshoot. So now that we talked about all the usual suspects or culprits, let's talk about how we can create a morning routine that doesn't suck. Like, what's the bare minimum you need to do? You need to do to call it a morning routine? Because not everyone needs a 5am cold plunge or cold shower, right? This can be as simple as I need to get up before everyone else in my house, because I just need 15 minutes of silence to collect my thoughts and get a glass of water under my belt, right? Like, a morning routine should just hit the marks for what gets you ready to experience the best possible day you can have.
Coach Jo 18:04
Yeah, I've got two timed solutions. One for the night before and one for the morning. So the 30 second decision hack is specific to your night prior. Simply just put your phone, put 30 seconds on your timer before bed to plan out one key aspect of your next day, like, 30 seconds I'm going to lay out my clothes. 30 seconds I'm going to just quickly get some food together, prepping my breakfast. Or 30 seconds I'm going to decide on my workout time when I'm going to work out the next day, etc. Like this, one small decision is going to save you from the mental clutter of figuring it all out in the morning. Like it's gonna make your day start so much easier. When you remove even just one decision from the morning chaos, you instantly gain more focus and energy to tackle the rest of your day. And the second time solution is for when your alarm goes off in the morning and you ultimately want to reach over and hit snooze. And this can be used literally for anything in the day, but for now, we will apply it towards the alarm problem, the Mel Robbins five second rule, and we've talked about this in previous podcasts. It is a trick to stop procrastinating when you feel the urge to do something, count down from 5-4-3-2-1, and immediately take action. That quick countdown is going to help you push past hesitation and get moving before your brain is just going to talk you out of it. It's a simple way to break the cycle of overthinking and just do the damn thing. Because, like, when your alarm goes off, like for me at four or 15 AM, it goes off, I sit there for a moment, and I literally, I'm like, 5-4-3-2-1, and I just go, just get up and go smart.
Coach Kim 19:42
So as we start to wind up this case for a morning routine that you love, here are two things Joe and I wish every woman over 40 would do first thing in the morning. The first is, no surprise, that women should be eating 35 to 40 grams of protein with their breakfast. And if you're like. How do I get that in at breakfast? That's what the Google search bar is for. Okay, go to Google, type in 35 to 40 grams of protein at breakfast, and you will get all the answers right. And if your first response is, but I'm not hungry in the morning, or who has time to eat, we've got to touch on hormone disruption and radical responsibility. Like no one, but you, can make your morning run smoother. No one, but you, can create the life that you want. Which brings me to number two, and I would encourage you to do a little manifestation exercise here, like visualize it, dream on it for a few minutes. What does your perfect morning look like with your kids, your life in your home, getting ready for your day look like? I think that that is the big lie with manifestation, is that you're, like, trying to create this, like, I got all the money and I got this beautiful home. I'm not in my home, and I'm driving this fancy car, and my kids are perfectly clean and dressed. No like in your life, what does your perfect morning look like for you right now? And then you need to be able to start to create that. Like, are you drinking coffee at the table, doom scrolling and then our panic to get out the door? I would encourage you to take this exercise seriousl. Because my perfect morning gets me outside with a hot drink for a few minutes in the morning to look at the sky and listen to the birds, even five minutes like I'm having breakfast, I've got my food packed for the day. I'm drinking enough water. I'm feeling put together. But mummies with littles. I know it's tough, but do you want to get up 15 minutes earlier than everyone else? Do you need a few more minutes to get your face on or just get your brain working straight? Because this does start with the night before, with less screen time and possibly more sleep.
But you're going to have to plan it out and advocate for yourself. Create it for yourself, envision it and strategize it for you.
Coach Jo 22:06
And what do you do when you sleep in, and you feel like garbage? Like, this is something we need to talk about as well. Like, do you just throw the day away? Or can you actually pivot? Because life is going to happen. We want to control life so bad, but it's going to happen. And sometimes you sleep in, the alarm doesn't go off. Sometimes you wake up stiff, like Igor, like we talked about earlier, or you just feel off. The key is keeping your routine flexible without derailing everything. So, like first number one, just don't stress, take a deep breath, shift your expectations for the day. You're looking for that progress over perfection. So if you miss a workout, do something light instead, like go for a walk later in the sunshine. I mean, if your schedule allows it, or if you're low on energy, focus on small wins, like, did you drink your water periodically throughout the day? Did you eat something nourishing, like whole foods and or doing one productive task that's gonna make your decision fatigue feel grateful? Just because you miss one thing, it doesn't mean the whole day is shot. Try not to throw your towel in right away, like flexibility is about adjusting, pivoting, shifting and ultimately, redirection.
Coach Kim 23:19
So what is one non negotiable you think every man or woman should include in their morning?
Coach Jo 23:24
Non-negotiable is get your butt up when that alarm goes off like no excuses, and then go chug eight ounces of water. Start there and just see what happens. You?
Coach Kim 23:34
Yes, to the water for sure. And then the second would be a protein, fat, home cooked fiber, breakfast, right? Something that you know, something that sets you up to win in all the ways, and then everything else is a bonus.
Coach Jo 23:46
Mm, hmm. Try one thing, guys today from today's episode, and tell us if it made your morning better. See you on the next episode of perfectly unfinished conversations later.
Coach Kim 23:55
Bye, bye.
Coach Jo 23:59
You probably got a sense of who we are by now and what our personal approach is to developing a lifestyle that creates really great health and strength. Using a relational common sense coaching approach that is backed by knowledge and personal experience.
Coach Kim 24:13
There are a couple of ways that you can work with Jo or I, one on one, remote or you can actually train here at Iron Lab.
Coach Jo 24:22
The first is the Metabolic Blueprint, personalized coaching program, which is customized for your life and your body.
Coach Kim 24:29
We work together very closely either in person or remotely to help you conquer old diet drama and to get lasting results.
Coach Jo 24:38
Ideally, we'd love to teach you how to never buy a quick-fix diet program or app again.
Coach Kim 24:45
Next, there is the accelerator academy, which is up to 12 months of self-paced weekly bite-sized lessons and journaling exercises, that we’ve created to help you create the lifestyle habits that generate a true transformation.
Coach Jo 25:00
Find out more on our website: ironlablacombe.com/metabolic-blueprint. We'll see you next time.