Is Your Morning Routine Creating the Body and Life you Want?

Your morning routine can either help you create the body and life of your dreams or keep you right where you are.

The fact is, you already have a morning routine, but is it serving you?

What keeps many people from creating a more powerful morning routine is the belief that it has to take a long time, be complicated, and involve candles, long journaling sessions, and making your bed.  Nope.

Let's dive in, my friend!

Courtney

Click here for all the details of my July Coaching Experience....Ready for Change: https://mailchi.mp/courtneygraycoaching/julyreadyforchange

Transcript

Unknown: 0:06

Foreign Welcome to Modern body, modern life. The podcast for women who want to lose weight permanently feel in control around food and learn how to stop obsessing about their body and food a modern way of thinking about your weight, your body and your life includes mindset. I'm body and life coach, Courtney Gray, and each week I'm going to teach you the mindset tools that are necessary for changing the way you eat forever. We will uncover why you're eating when you said you were going to stop, what to do when you're really craving something, and how important it is to decide what you want to believe is possible for you, I believe we can get in the best shape of our lives at any age, a modern body, a modern life, all starts in your mind, and when you learn how to manage that, losing weight permanently becomes so much easier. Welcome to the podcast. Episode 81 is your morning routine, creating the body and life you want. We're going to dive into all of it. Strap in before I dive into it. If you are listening to this podcast in real time, that means you are listening on June 3, you have until 8pm Pacific time to join me in my June coaching experience called ready for change. A bunch of women are already in there. Signed up. I would love to have you join us. It is for women who are ready to change their lives or are ready to do that thing that they keep telling themselves they want to do, whether it's losing weight, getting stronger, being more consistent, getting clarity on any area of your life. So I'm really excited about this group. We start if you're listening in real time, we start tomorrow, so you can come in hot and you have till 8pm tonight to join us, 8pm Pacific time. And there is a link in the show notes, a link on Instagram, a link on my website, and when you join, I will send you an email with the digital workbook, and it's gonna get you excited for the program, and we will start tomorrow. So let me dive into this podcast. Is your morning routine creating the body and life you want. And so first of all, let me just say a powerful morning routine can change your life. I believe that so so to my soul. But before I dive into what that means, oftentimes, I find there's a little bit of resistance. Some people think about, when they think about having a better morning routine, they get like their fists up, like, Please God, don't make me. And I think it's because they think what a powerful morning routine is, is waking up an hour earlier, is making their bed every morning, is maybe cleaning their kitchen before they go to work, is maybe lighting a candle or journaling for an hour, or doing yoga and meditating, this this long process of this beautiful morning routine, and it does not have to be that extensive or that intense, or that intense, I guess is the way to say it. It does not have to be all that. In fact, one of the things I'm going to talk about later in this podcast is you can actually wake up at the same time and create a better morning routine, just by focusing your mind, you can literally create an amazing routine that really amplifies your life just by being more present when you're in the shower or when you're drinking your coffee, when you're even driving to work if you're driving. So this does not have to be an extra time commitment, although I am going to talk about possibly waking up 1020, half hour earlier than you do, and I'm going to give you some options of why you would, how you could do that, and what you would do and why you would want to do it. So please do not, do not. Do not be scared. Do not be scared that I am going to have you doing things that are that are seeming too much for your life, although at the same point, you know things don't change, if things don't change, and I think if you're listening to this podcast, you do want to change, so I'm really glad you're here. So let me talk about what a powerful morning routine can do for you. It really starts out your day with intention and focus. And if we think about our lives and up leveling our lives in any way, creating a body and life that you love even more than what you have now, which I feel like I'm going to constantly be doing until the day I die, always wanting to be happier, more joyful, more intentional, a morning routine can really help you do that. When you create a powerful morning routine. You are setting the tone for your day. The way I like to think about it is, in the mornings I put like a stake in the ground. I say, okay, Courtney, this is what we're doing. And when I say, this is what we're doing, it's not looking at my calendar and thinking, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. I gotta do I'm saying to myself. This is how I want to feel. This is the direction I want my life to go. And this is also what I want for me, especially as women, we start automatically thinking about all the things we have to do for others, and sometimes that might even be for your job, we start going into I got to do this for this person. I got to do this for my kids, I got to do this for the all these other people, wait a minute. Have you taken a few minutes to do for you? So when you're creating a powerful morning routine, you're really like redeciding What is important to you. I re remind myself every day what I want, how I want to feel, how I want to think and where I'm going before I think about what I'm doing for each of my boys, what I'm doing for my husband, even before I think about what I'm doing for my clients, I think, where am I going? What is important to me, and how can I make sure, when I look at my schedule, that I'm fitting me in? You've heard me say this before, and I've said one of my new clients who's starting in this June group coaching experience, told me the other day she goes I heard you on a podcast say that we so often as women, put ourselves on the back burner, but we need to remember that on most stoves, especially the stoves we use here in the US, most stoves have four burners. There are two in the front. We don't have to be on the back burner, ladies, there are two. We can have our kids or our job and put ourselves on that front burner as well. So you're deciding how you want to think and feel on purpose, and you're really being present in the moment when you create a powerful morning routine. I've coached so many women who wake up and they just start reacting to their lives. They just wake up and it's like, go, go, go. And a lot of times it's from this energy of, I'm behind, especially if you're a snooze hitter, if you're like, one of those people that like hit snooze or sleeps into the last minute, you're starting your day telling yourself a story that you're behind. That's not the way we want to start our days. And so long ago, I did not have a great morning routine. This was before I was a coach. This is when my babies were little, and I would, literally, I would wake up when they woke up. I was just a stay home mom, so I wasn't working outside the home, and I would wake up when my boys would call out to me. And in some ways, it was actually quite a lovely way to wake up. I think back to those times, and it was so beautiful to have my alarm clock be one of my boys going, Mom, it was so beautiful. However, the result from that was I had no time to myself. I was very much reacting to my day. First thing. If I could go back and I say this with no regret, but if I could go back in time, what I would probably do is I would let them, and they were twins, so when one would wake up, the other would wake up, I would allow them to wake myself up, and I would go grab them, and I would bring them into bed with me for 10 minutes, and I would just cuddle, and I would tell them how much I love them, and tell them how special they're. I would be more intentional, but what I would do is I'd grab them, and then I would go make coffee, and we would start our day. And there was nothing wrong with it. There was nothing wrong with it, but my routine was very much reactive. And then I remember one of my very good friends, Julie, shout out, Julie, it's been too long. We need to get together. My my friend Julie, we were talking one day, and I told her, I'm like, Oh, I'm just kind of starting out in the day, and then I don't have time to do this. I don't have time to that. And she was, Oh, I get up about an hour before my kids, and I'm laughing, because I remember going, what? And she also, at this point, was a stay home mom. So I remember being like, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're telling me that you don't wait for them to wake you. You get up before them. Like, to me, it was, like, preposterous. Like, why would anyone do this? And I said, Why are you doing that? Tell me the magic. Why are you doing this? And she's like, I just want to be able to take a minute. I want to be able to have my coffee. I want to be able to I can't remember what she said she did, but she took a minute to maybe it was read. I think this is actually way before Instagram, so she was probably reading, maybe she was journaling, maybe she was praying. I know she's religious, I don't know. So she was taking a minute though for herself before her kids got up, and then she would go and wake her kids up. And I remember being like, that's too much for me. I could I could not access the desire to do that. I couldn't access the value in that at the time, but it took me a year or two after that. And I remember one time I woke up just I automatically woke up about an hour before my kids normally woke up. And I kind of did a Julie morning. I went down and I started my coffee and all these things. And I remember thinking, Oh, I get it. I get it. So I started waking up earlier, before they were up, and just taking some time for me. Now, I wasn't a coach, and I had never read a book about morning routines, and I didn't have as much intention back then, but that was a moment that really taught me, oh, I need to really claim my own. Own time, claim my own focus in the morning. So that was a catalyst for really understanding how powerful morning routine can be. Here's one thing I want you to realize right now, you already have a morning routine. The question is, is it creating the body and life you want if you continue to do the routine you've been doing. Is it heading you in the right direction? Is it hurting your future goals or helping your future goals? I think if you have the time, stop the podcast and really just contemplate this question for a moment, I'll say it again. You already have a morning routine. What is it? Is it helping you or hurting you? Is it getting you closer to where you want to be, body, life, or is it moving you forward, or is it making you stay stuck where you're at? I would stop the podcast, and I would ask yourself that, so then you can really go into the rest of this podcast, applying it to you and having a little bit of insight. So the first thing is identifying what your morning routine is now, and take a moment to identify that and say to yourself, okay, okay, this is what I would say, okay, Courtney, I wake up and maybe I hit snooze two or three times, and then I get up. And when you're thinking about what your routine is now, don't just think about what you actually do think about where your mind is. For a lot of people, they're not intentional, honestly, just because they never learn to be intentional, we should have a we should have a class in junior high that teaches kids how to be intentional, lets them know that their mindset is their choice. We don't know that, and you might not know that either. I didn't know that until I became a coach. Became a coach. And so where is your mind in the mornings? Are you like, Oh my God, I didn't sleep. Oh my god, I shouldn't have had that second glass of wine. Oh my god, I have so much to do today. That's where a lot of people, a lot of people are in the first thing in the morning. That energy, whether it's exhaustion, whether it's overwhelm, whether it's regret that you didn't get up earlier, whether it's shame you should be doing this all better. You should have made more time. You should have prepped yourself so you'd have a better day. Is that your morning routine? So your morning routine is not just what you're actually doing, it's where your mind is in the moment. Because our life is dictated by the thoughts we think and the feelings that those thoughts bring on. I'm gonna say that, again, our life really is created dictated by the thoughts we think and the feelings that those thoughts create in our body. And so if you're waking up and feeling overwhelmed and already behind, oh my god. I've so most, so many clients that say they wake up in the morning and they're like, already behind. That's a horrible way to start your day. And the second thing I want you to do is really own that you have control over it. Did you know that you have control over all of this? And if you say, No, Courtney, I really don't. No, no, how do you have control over all of it? And I want you to choose your control on purpose. I want you to say to yourself, Okay, how can I do better like I want you to say, Okay, if I don't feel like I have a lot of time in the morning, how can I do the same things I'm doing? Brush my teeth, make my coffee, take my shower, drive to work. How can you do all of those same things with a focus on thinking things differently and actually feeling differently? So a better morning routine does not need to be some catastrophically reorganization where you're taking an hour and lighting a candle and journaling for an hour. It doesn't have to be that way. It can simply be you choosing your focus. Let me talk about how this can be if you're sitting here, like, Okay, I kind of like this, but I feel like I really don't have time. First of all, I would question that. I would question whether you can wake up 10 minutes earlier. That's the biggest thing I want to give you. The a gift I want to give you is the realization that maybe I can wake up 10 minutes earlier. I remember a long time ago, I wanted to get in better shape. And I remember at this time I was watching alias, it's a show with Jennifer Garner, like, years, years years ago, 2020, 25 years ago. And I remember thinking, oh, you know, the only time I could really wake up would be in the more the the only time I could really work out would be in the mornings, because I've been with the kids all day and and I wanted to actually go to a gym, not just work out at home. And I remember thinking, I can't I can't wake up earlier than than six o'clock. I just can't do it. And I remember watching the alias show, and Jennifer Garner's body was rocking. She was smoking hot. Google it. She looked amazing. She looks amazing now, but in this show, she looked absolutely amazing. And I remember watching the show going, God, I wonder if I could work out and I look like her. And I remember watching an interview with her where she said she had to be on set by 530 in the morning. So she woke up every day at four o'clock to go. To the gym, and I remember going, what like? I remember thinking that that's not possible. It's not possible. But yet it was possible because Jennifer Garner was doing it. It was possible. Now, I'm not trying to get anyone to wake up that early, but there was a time in my life when I did. There was a time in my life when I would wake up at four o'clock. Now, I would get to bed at night at eight o'clock. I go to bed early anyways, but I would wake up at four o'clock to get to the gym by 445 so I could get home and do the work I needed to do, be with my kids, get them off to school, do all the things. Again, not saying you have to do that. You don't, but it is possible. So often we get caught up in the i I'm not a morning person. I can't wake up any earlier. That's not a fact. It's not a fact. I've had many clients tell me they're not a morning person, and by the end of our coaching time together, they're waking up a half hour earlier. They're doing a 10 Minute journaling session, and sometimes they're meditating, sometimes they're stretching, and their lives are better for it. But let's talk for a moment about how maybe you actually don't have time. Maybe in some world, you are like, Courtney, I literally can't do it okay. Or maybe you're like, I don't want to do it, Courtney, don't make me do it. Okay. Here's what you can do to create a better morning routine while you are waiting for your coffee, or while you are brushing your teeth, in the shower, driving, picking out your clothes. Can you create habits around those activities? I like to call it stacking. It's where you actually take something you're already doing and you add a new habit onto it, like one of the things I remember long ago suggesting to my sister when she was working on she wanted, she was a nurse, and she wanted to create a new business. And I was telling her, yeah, how can you make, like, $300,000 as a nurse? And she's like, I have no idea. And I'm like, Yeah, I don't know either. While you're in the shower, anytime you shower, that's going to be your time to think, Huh, how can I make $300,000 as a nurse? So you're stacking the shower, which you already do, is already a habit, with another habit you want to create, of thinking intentionally while you're showering. I just suggested this to one of my clients. She's really busy in the morning, and so I said, while you're on the way to work, because she has, I think, like, a half hour drive. I said, Can you talk to yourself out loud so you can talk to yourself. You can talk to your Creator. You can talk to your future self. You can talk to your inner child, whatever. You can talk to someone who's passed away that you want to connect with. And can you talk to them out loud? There is so much power in saying something out loud. And if you say, well, like, what would I say? Here's what it sounds like. This is what I did all last year in 2024 you know, Courtney, you're really smart. How is that true? It's so interesting. Even as I just said that I felt myself get emotional, because that was my work that I did in 2024 I was reprogramming my mind to believe that I was really smart. So I feel the emotion come up, because I believe it's so much more in my body than I did at one time. And so I would say, Courtney, you're really smart. How is that true? And I would start saying, Gosh, you know, I created a multiple six figure jewelry business out of my home. I have, like, parented three kids, and they're pretty damn amazing. You know, we've made really good finance choices with our 401 Ks in our retirement. You know, you've really gone all in on yourself this, and you're actually really good at it, setting up your, you know, your prepaid taxes, and understanding the back end of your business. I would sit there and say out loud all the reasons I was really smart. Sometimes I would also say, I'm doing a really good job. This is really scary, but you know what, I'm doing a really good job at this? And I would expand on how that's true. So in the moment, I was setting my day up for feeling a certain way, and I would feel powerful. I would feel joy, sometimes, sometimes I would feel acceptance, sometimes I would feel love. And that was a stacking that I just did I already was driving. So I would do this a lot of times. When I was driving my kids to school, of course, after I dropped them off, I would do this when I was alone in the car. I would say, How do I want to feel today? And every day was different. You'd think we'd all say happy, but some days I'd say I want to feel joy, and some days I'd say I want to feel adventurous, or I want us to feel confident, or I want to feel powerful, and I would talk to myself out loud. Another thing you can do is you can stretch while your coffee is brewing. That's something I'm doing because we got a new coffee maker, and it grinds like the whole beans. And so it takes like 10 minutes. And so now, when my coffee is brewing, I will stretch for 10 minutes. I have this back body stretch that I do because sometimes I get a little like plantar fasciitis, and so I do this back body stretch every single day that really just makes my whole body feel better. So here I'm being intentional. While my coffee is brewing, it's not taking me any more time. Maybe while you brush your teeth, you're going to think about what you're grateful for in. Moment, you can brush your teeth, and you can think about each of your children and just wish them well on their day. You can think about someone who has passed away and like connect with them and tell them you're thinking about them. You can say a prayer. So there's so many things you can do that don't take more time, but if you want to take more time, I want to inspire you to wake up 10 minutes earlier or 30 minutes earlier and create your own morning routine. I think that journaling can change your life. And when people think of journaling again, they feel sometimes like, Oh my God, I don't know what to write. That's the main thing my clients tell me I don't know what to write, or they think it has to be some 45 minute practice, and it doesn't. First of all, buy yourself a fun journal. Go to Barnes and Noble, go to a crafts or like a Michael something. Buy yourself a cute journal. And if it feels if it feels less hmm, let's think of the word, if it feels less intimidating, buy yourself a small one, like one you could fit in your purse. Sometimes, when we buy a smaller journal, what we're saying is we don't have to write a lot. It could just be a little bit, right? I have a small journal right by my bed. I journal right before I go to bed every night, and it's very small because I want myself to go, Hey, this doesn't have to be hard. It's going to take two minutes. Journal for five minutes. And there's so many ways to journal. I'll probably eventually do a podcast on journaling. But if you can journal just by saying, What am I grateful for right now? What do I want to think on purpose today, if you could just do five minutes of that, it will help you focus on what you want to be focused on throughout your day. And the reason this is important is we know that what we focus what we give energy to, is what we can grow in our lives. And the problem is, if you think about it, what so many people are giving energy to is scrolling is to what they have to do on their to do list is to how they're not feeling that great, and they're focusing on how things haven't gone right in the past and what they're dreading. There's just so much focus on things that are not heading us in the direction of creating a more amazing body and life for us. So imagine for a moment that tomorrow morning, you're like, all right, Courtney, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do this, and you get your journal, and you sit down, you wake up 10 minutes early, and you're like, Okay, I'm going to have my coffee and I'm going to write down three things I'm grateful for. The first little tip I'm going to give you is, yes, we are all grateful for our health, and we're all grateful for our nice house and things like that. It makes me think of like when I was growing up and we would pray. It got very prayer got very rote, like my mom. We'd be sitting down to dinner. I just wanted to eat my food, but my mom would say, Courtney, why don't you say the prayer tonight? And I'd be like, thank you for all we have. Thank you for this food. Thank you. It was almost like I was pulling a cord in my neck. You don't want to do that with the three things you're grateful for. What I love doing is I love thinking in this moment. What am I grateful for? Yes, I'm grateful for my health. Yes, I'm grateful for my children, all that. But like, what am I especially grateful for right now that is different than maybe other days. Maybe I'm grateful because it stopped raining, maybe I'm grateful because, because I'm really sore, because I worked out really hard yesterday, and I'm just grateful that I did that. So I want you to really connect with what you're really grateful in the moment. And sometimes it seems trivial, but there's something beautiful about being grateful, about something very simple, like that, and making sure it's not rote. It's not just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm grateful for all health, but really diving into the beautiful little parts of your day that you're excited about and that you're grateful for. So you start there, and then you say to yourself, What do I want to think on purpose today? And how do I want to feel today? And every day it might be different, or every day it might be the same, very, very simple, asking yourself a few little questions that literally could take five minutes. Here's some other options for you. Maybe you have been telling yourself for a long time that you want to meditate, but you're like, I don't really know how to start it sounds exhausting. Or maybe you've tried and you're like my mind keeps going elsewhere. First of all, little side note with meditation, your mind going elsewhere is, is how to do it. That's going to happen. That's the whole point to meditation, is getting good at bringing your mind back. So if you're like me, when I started meditating years ago, I would be like, Oh, I'm not good at it, because I keep thinking about, like, defrosting chicken, and I keep thinking, Oh, my God, I need to make sure I put almond milk on my store list. And then I'd be mad at myself because I'm supposed to be breathing and focusing on my feet or whatever it is, and I'd be mad at myself thinking I'm not doing this right. Oh no, no, we're doing it right. That's what meditation is. Meditation is the practice of bringing our mind back and so. You do a five minute meditation, and you are constantly pep like ping ponging back from all the other things, and you're bringing it back. You're doing it right. And you will find, by continuing to practice that meditation, you'll get better and better at bringing it back. And this, you will see, helps your whole life. And so meditation, if that's something you want to do, I just want to shout out. I love Insight Timer. It's an app you can get on your phone. It's called Insight Timer. It has 1000s of meditations. If you're starting out, what can be really helpful is doing a five minute meditation. And you know what else you might find on there? Or like, they have challenges, like they'll have like, a 30 day meditation challenge, or a seven day meditation challenge, but I would start with a short meditation, and I would start with a guided meditation. A lot of the meditations on Insight Timer are guided, and so then you what you're it's easier to focus and not be thinking about defrosting chicken and all the other things. Oh, I need to get my tires rotated all that, because it's guided, meaning someone is walking you through, focusing on your feet and then focusing on this or focusing on your breathing. And so really, what you're focusing on is their voice, and that can be easier, especially in the beginning. Maybe you want to pray, or maybe you want to talk to a loved one, beautiful, amazing. I mean, a lot of people think prayer and meditation are very similar. I do maybe you want to do breath work. I'm loving breath work, right? Maybe you want to stretch. Maybe you want to either just stretch in whatever way feels good. Maybe you want to go onto YouTube and pull up a 10 Minute stretching routine. Yes to all of that. Here's one thing to do, though, after you have done this for a few days or a week, really start to think, is this helping my life? So often we'll start doing something, and then we don't do it for a day, and then we're like, oh my God, I didn't do it. I knew I'd always give up and we just, we just kind of drop it. What I would love for you to do is go, am I glad that I on the days that I do whatever my morning routine is? Am I glad that I did it? Do I feel like it's helping me? If so, how so it's so great to evaluate your efforts. So important to evaluate your efforts. And I just want to finish up with something that I hear so often with my clients these days, is, is that they will say they don't have time for this, or they don't make time for that, and they feel like time is the problem, even if they're retired, even a lot of my retired clients, they say I should be this is what they'll say. I do have all the time in the world. I don't know why I'm not doing what I said I was going to do. And there is one thing that I see so often with my clients, and so often, possibly for you, it's actually two things. It's one or the other. It's either scrolling or TV, scrolling or TV, a lot of times, is getting in the way of you creating a powerful morning routine. And so I really want you to ask yourself, when you look at your day, is the scrolling helping you? Are you going, Wow, I'm feeling really connected and really inspired and motivated from all the things I'm scrolling. Is it really helping me that I'm watching Kelly and Regis or CBS or whatever it is, you know what the Today show is that actually helping me? And yes, you might say, I like to know what's going on in the world. Okay? Is there another way you could know what's going on in the world? Is there another recap you could do and create a better morning routine for yourself. And that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't be scrolling. It doesn't mean you want to get rid of the TV, but maybe it means for you, you want to carve out 10 to 15 minutes, or five minutes before you dive into the scrolling and the TV. And if you could change your life? Would it be worth it? Do not negate the power of a beautiful morning routine. Another thing that I will give one final little tip that I just that occurred to me here is another thing you can do with your morning routine is look for any obstacles that day that are going to deter you from living the way you want to live so often, we plan for all the things. We plan for the dinner we want to make, or we plan to make sure we're home at a certain time when our partner is going to be home. We we plan all these different things, but we don't plan for any potential obstacles that are going to get in the way of doing what we need to do to reach our goals. So that's sometimes something that I will add to my plan in the morning. If I know I have a really busy day, I'll say I'll even write down like, hey, I really need to be very aware that I have to do this first so I don't skip it later. For example, today, it's seven o'clock in the morning right now. I'm recording this podcast. It's pretty early for me to be recording a podcast, but this morning, when I looked at my day, I thought, Oh, wow, okay, I'm not going to want to do this podcast at three o'clock. I just don't have as much energy. And I love, I love recording my podcast when I have high energy. And I thought, the only time it's either three o'clock or it's seven. I'm choosing seven because I know three o'clock is going to be a bit of an obstacle. So that is a beautiful awareness you can choose in your morning routine. So it could be okay. Three things I'm grateful for. What do I want to think on purpose? How do I want to feel on purpose? Are there any obstacles to me doing what I want to do? Those are that's a really powerful journaling session for you to do in the morning. For those of you that are already enrolled in the ready for change program, you are going to get in your workbook a journaling prompt for every single day. There's about five questions for you to answer every single day. It's about five minutes, and it is going to be just one of the many things in this program that is going to help you make permanent changes in your life. So get ready for that. And if you are interested in joining us, you have till 8pm tonight. If you're listening to this in lifetime on June 3, 8pm tonight, Pacific time to join us. It is going to be an amazing month of June. I hope you have a great Tuesday, and I hope you start creating a powerful morning routine. If you are ready to lose weight and keep it off permanently and feel confident and at peace around food, I invite you to head to Courtney Gray coaching.com to learn about how to work with me. I work with women privately, one on one, and I also offer small group coaching, there is a link to my website in the show notes you.