Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Morning Makeover

Good morning everyone!

Happy hump day :) 

Just another busy work week going on over here.  Not a whole lot to report!

Lately, I've really been enjoying catching up on my favorite blogs during my morning Metra commute into downtown.

Yesterday, I saw a link on Fitnessista for this article, which talked all about how important our morning routines/attitudes are to our overall happiness - and gave some ideas for how to improve the morning rush.

"One of the most important parts of your day, if not the most important, are the very moments you wake up in the morning. This is when the tone and course for the day ahead are set." (source)

Back when I first started this blog, my mornings were a piece of cake.

Make that a piece of angel food cake.

When I was in law school, I planned my schedule so my classes never really started all that early.

Back then, I also didn't have to live or die by the Metra schedule (there's much less opportunity to get to where I am going now).

When we moved to the suburbs and I started my first big girl job, it was definitely a tough adjustment.

I was so used to being able to relax in the morning and take my sweet time as I got things done.

It was never too hard to get Justin's lunch made, squeeze in a workout, shower/put myself together, BLOG, and even have some time left to sit on the couch to enjoy my breakfast and coffee.

I mean, seriously, who was I??

Yes, my friends, those days are long gone now.

After a few months of completely stressing myself out in the morning by waking up far too late (lots of snoozing) and still trying to squeeze in that one last thing, I am in full-on morning makeover mode.

I have now made a few changes that are starting to make my mornings more restful.

1) Enlist help. 

I remember a few one morning where I was in such a rush that, just as I was about to run out the door, I managed to spill coffee everywhere, including on myself.

I should note that this is not one bit surprising, because I have a terrible spilling habit.

Ooops.

Anyway, on one morning in particular Justin walked into the kitchen to find me cleaning up the mess, now having missed my train.  He asked me something, and I instantly burst into tears.

Yes, I am 25-years-old, and I still cry over split milk coffee.

It was then that I decided that I needed a little bit of help in the morning.

Just enough to help me shave off a few minutes to get out the door quicker, and not in a frenzie.

Once I asked for some help, Justin started taking over a couple of things.

He now preps my coffee AND makes me a smoothie so I don't go into work like a crabby biotch who needs her breakfast.


Very sweet :)


2) Prep as much as possible the night before.  

This one I am still working on.

You guys know I have become a complete zombie at night after a long work day.

It can be really hard, but doing things like prepping our lunches, packing my work bag, and/or figuring out what I am going to wear to work the next day - REALLY help.


15 minutes of prep at night is so much easier than finding 15 precious minutes in the morning.

3) Cutting myself some slack.  

There are going to be some days where I just don't have time to do a full-on blow dry, make up application, and walk out the door with everything I need while still looking like a fashionista.

There are also some days where my fiance only has a half-packed lunch (sorry Justin!) and I walk out the door with plans to grab take out at lunch.

And you know what, I'm now having to tell myself, and UNDERSTAND, that that's okay.

"Some days" is only some days - it's not every day.

Realizing I am not superwoman is a somewhat daily battle for me - I want to be able to do everything - but I'm slowly learning that it's not possible to do everything and do everything well.

You do what you can!

Something to talk about: How have you worked to de-stress your morning routine?  Anything you think you need to work on in particular? 


Like they talked about in that article - I'm going to work on having positive first-wake-up thoughts, rather then running though the million things I need to accomplish each day.


And with that, I hope you all have a GREAT morning! :)

xoxo

Jess

6 comments:

  1. OMG let fiance leave the house with only a HALF packed lunch? Good grief! Can't he do that for himself?

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  2. He can - he's never asked me to make it for him or made me feel bad on the days I can't - it's just something nice I like to do for him to show him some love :)

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  3. I shower at night and leave my hair in a wet bun and it's half dry in the morning so it cuts blow drying down to a fraction of what it was and then a quick straightening with my chi! This way I sleep 30 minutes longer not having to shower and dry my hair when it's soaking wet!! ~layle

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    1. That is a great idea layle!! :) I should try that, never thought of putting it up, but that way it keeps it from making you super cold while sleeping.

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  4. To keep myself from hitting snooze I put my alarm/phone across the room so I have to get out of bed to turn it off. The hardest part about waking up for me is getting out of my warm bed, but once I'm up, going back to sleep just isn't the same anyway!

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    1. Very clever tactic! I'm actually going to try that next week and see how it goes, those extra "ten minutes" of snoozing are really never necessary and just end up putting me behind.

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