Hello my loves!
2020 has been a weird time for us all (how sick are you of people saying that? 😂) which is the damn truth but one good thing that has come out of it for me is… I have nailed down the most specific morning routine, like ever.
It’s been helping me start my days off on the right note so that I can put my healing first and boost creativity and productivity even on those days where I am feeling pretty terrible from Lyme. My routine sets me up for success because instead of feeling like a painful, inflamed blob all day, which trust me is all too common with chronic illness, I actually pour so much goodness into my body upon waking up that the rest of the day only gets better and better.
Don’t get me wrong, some days are still a big struggle. Yesterday for example, I went from the bed to the sauna to the couch to the bath and somehow between all of those things… the entire day passed me by and I looked at the clock and it was 5 freaking p.m! I do have a job where I can work from anywhere… even the sauna and the bath, so somehow I was still getting the vital things done that needed to get done. While pouring so much love and rest into my day. It did feel a little odd to seemingly do nothing outwardly productive, but sometimes the MOST productive thing we can do for ourselves is rest.
Let me repeat myself here: SOMETIMES THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING WE CAN DO IS REST.
Ya got that? Ya don’t believe me? I hear you. Recovering workaholic people pleaser here, and I actually love my job and feel so filled up by what I do. That makes it even easier to get burnt out.
Let this WEIRD year teach you something about the way that you work! The way that you approach life, your body, your healing, your lifestyle. And even if you aren’t healing from anything specific like I am, healing is an inside job for all of us.
*Side note, totally random, another weird thing I did in the bath yesterday was scroll through a BUNCH of my podcast reviews on iTunes. I haven’t done this in upwards of three years because for a while there I was getting a slew of so many extremely harsh and mean ones, my producers and I decided it was best for me not to look. Yesterday I finally worked up the courage to scroll through them, which was kind of a test for myself on PEACE and how peaceful I can feel even reading mean words about myself (a special form of torture? Maybe)… and my own personal experiment on peacefulness results were pretty surprising.
I read the terrible ones but I saw that there were 100’s more nice ones — REALLY nice ones. Then I remembered that people really only leave a review if they hate you or if they love you. And who leaves hate reviews anyway?! People who are unhappy and usually (always) what they have to say has nothing to do with you. So yes, I felt like I was getting punched in the gut because the anticipation really really challenged me, but in actually reading the words a sort of peace washed over me. And I was bolstered by all the super kind words from our beautiful TBB Tribe that made the experience so. much. better.*
ANYWAY that is not part of my morning routine but I felt like sharing that here, because even in the face of the shit that scares us THE MOST we can stay calm. We can have peace. And when we meet life with a peaceful vibration, nothing can taint our happiness. Yes, it can shake us and that is normal because we are human, but it can’t truly tear us down. And to see how far I have come in just 3-4 years really surprised me and made me feel really good. The truth is — I don’t let strangers on the internet dictate how I feel. You guys are not strangers, you know me. Hate review leavers do not know me. There is a huge diff.
So now that I have written a huge intro without even meaning to (OH BOY), let’s get into MY SUPER SPECIFIC TBB MORNING ROOOOUTINNNEEE!!
✨ TBB MORNING ROUTINE, DOWN TO THE SPECIFICS ! ✨
8 a.m. – WAKE UP! This timing shifts a bit every day, and I am not going to lie to you guys and say that I don’t sometimes wake up at 10:30am because I do and that’s just my reality. (I am a night owl by nature and body chemistry, as well as by choice lol.) So if I do wake up later, this whole routine shifts. Consider these times just placeholders to show you what a typical morning looks like no matter what time I awake!
That said, during the month of June Jonathan challenged me to wake up at the same time every day, and told me if I did then he would buy me a purse I have been wanting forever. Bribery? Maybe. Did it work? YES ! So that has really helped me get on a better schedule and has also helped me fall asleep earlier at night. I wake up, take my thyroid meds (Natur-throid which is a natural thyroid hormone) and stretch in my bed a bit and cuddle with Huddy, my perfect kitty boy!
8:15 a.m. – Make celery juice. The first thing I do every morning is mosey into the kitchen to make celery juice. Ideally, I will have pre-chopped and pre-chopped the celery stalks the night before so I don’t have to do that part which just makes it all the more tedious. Sometimes I am lucky enough that J juices it for me when he wakes up and has it waiting for me!! But most mornings juicing is part of my routine and I have turned it into a sort of moving meditation for me. The juicer I have (Nama, code BLONDE for a discount) is really easy to clean so that part really isn’t too bad. I juice 16 oz or more every morning, which Medical Medium recommends so it can fully cleanse the colon and liver.
Then I bring my juice back to bed and either open a book (The Daily Stoic & A Course in Miracles are my two morning books) or sometimes I open the news on my iPad. I like to browse through a mix of entertainment and world news because to be honest with you the sensationalized world news right now really doesn’t cut it for me.. I don’t trust it and it’s too much to take in all at once. But I do like to stay informed.
I sip on my juice, cuddle with Hud, read and sometimes journal during this time and it is pure BLISS!
8:40 a.m. – Make coconut cold brew coffee & get in the sauna. Once I have given the celery juice some time to absorb into my system, I then make cold brew as soon as I can!! LOVE my morning coffee ritual… it keeps me so happy and literally makes me excited to wake up every morning. I always buy mycotoxin-free coffee (Kion right now is a favorite brand, as well as Four Sigmatic adaptogen coffee always). Usually I make a batch of coffee for a few days at a time, so I pour it straight from the fridge and enjoy it cold, with some cinnamon and stevia and occasionally some oat milk. (I like the brand MALK for oat milk, it’s clean as can be, otherwise I make my own.)
THEN comes my FAVORITE part of the whole day! I bring my coffee as well as a huge water with electrolytes into the sauna, and I sip on both while I lounge, muse, meditate, dream up ideas, and sweat it out. Infrared heat is known to penetrate the skin 5-6x deeper than regular heat, so it draws out those toxins which is so important for me in healing mode. I have a Clearlight sauna from Heal with Heat and you can use the code BLONDE for a discount there! I LOVE to use this time to meditate, gua sha, listen to music, or simply daydream. Right now I am obsessed with Taylor Swift’s new album so that has been on repeat. I usually stay in the sauna from 30 mins to an hour depending on how I am feeling- if I ever start to feel dehydrated I make it a shorter sesh.
Sometimes I will also listen to a podcast in there. My favorite morning podcasts for getting into my masculine energy to get shit done are The Skinny Confidential, Ed Mylett, Oprah, and Rich Roll. I only do this when I am in the mood though because I tend to find mornings the best time to stay in my own lane and let my own creative ideas run wild and flow!
9:30 a.m. – Re-hydrate, write, & shower. After the sauna I always make sure I am re-hydrating with the proper electrolytes and tons of water. Then I will usually have my Athletic Greens, which is a greens powder with 75+ vital vitamins and minerals that I am currently obsessed with. It also tastes amazing. I like re-hydrating with it post-sauna because I know I am not only getting the hydration from the big water glass I drink it in, but the vitamins and minerals that need to be replenished after such a major sauna sweat.
Then I like to write down whatever came to me in the sauna — either poetry, work ideas, someone I want to call / reconnect with, Instagram captions, how I’m feeling, or I will do a page in my Daily Stoic journal. This usually lasts for a while, and then I take a cold shower! Showering is a must after the full-bod sauna sweat.
10:30 a.m. – Big fruit bowl or green smoothie for breakfast. I am not usually very hungry in the mornings so this timing varies, but sweating in the sauna definitely helps with getting my appetite up. I practice intermittent fasting not necessarily on purpose but because it’s what works for me and my digestion — I usually eat an early-ish dinner and a late late breakfast but again, I am not doing so for any reason other than that is what my body likes! I am big on papaya, banana, dates and cacao nibs for breakfast. Sometimes I pour coconut water over it to make it fruit cereal! I also LOVE a simple green smoothie — daily TBB go to smoothie is in this ebook.
This is also when I take all of my supplements. Which right now are a combo Vitamin D, iron, quercetin, licorice root, histamine supps, and a few others. I am on a new regimen from a new doctor that seems to be really working for me right now.
11:00 a.m. – Stretching, writing, musing. Some days I love to get right into work from this routine but to be honest most days I like to take my time. The healing lifestyle FOR ME includes way less work, and only at specific times a day. That means I am actually more productive during those times and I tend to find that it works wonders for my creativity as well as my hormones and my overall approach to healing.
11:30 a.m. – Start emails, podcasting, or other work for the day. I finally start work for the day after this whole routine, and by then I am bolstered AF and ready to go! Lately I have been taking my new Aura capsules from Cured Nutrition (OMG they are amazing — code BLONDE for a discount) which were designed for gut health + immunity but I also find they have helped me increase my focus and alertness tenfold. That is also how and why I am banging out this post right now, unprecedented !! LOL. I love podcasting around this time because I am the most alert and feel my best before a crash I will sometimes have later in the day because I am still dealing with the nasty effects of chronic illness.
BONUS POINTS if I get outside sometime in the morning too, either for a late morning walk, a stroll to coffee, or even to read on our balcony. Nature is calling me right now more than EVER before.
So there you have it, my loves!! MORNING ROUTINE, down to the most very detailed specifics! What do you think? Did I miss anything? Would love to walk you through my afternoon / evening routine too — let me know below if you would like that to be my next post!