I’ve had to wake up at 6 am for work for the past six years. I’m not a morning person but I’ve recently been interested in exploring ways I can make morning (my least favorite time of day) more joyful. I also want to work on being kinder to my body. Waking up from an average of seven hours of sleep nightly, my brain feels fuzzy and my verbal skills are non-existent. I used to have to drag myself to my coffee maker and Larry (the morning bird) knew it would be impossible for me understand what he’s saying or respond with anything coherent until half a cup of coffee had been ingested. While I still love my morning coffee I’ve recently adopted squeezing half a fresh lemon into an 8 oz glass of room temperature water and chugging it before getting ready in the morning. I’ve heard hot lemon water is also extremely beneficial but psychologically things I do when it comes to nutrition and hydration have to feel easy. So room temperature water it is!
The benefits of drinking lemon water are healthier skin, maintaining a healthy weight, slight immune system boost and a natural flush for the body. I would describe its effects as waking up my brain and body. Pre-lemon water I’m wandering around like a walker from Walking Dead (once they had a bigger budget and the zombies looked gnarly). Post lemon water I’m engaging in conversation with my fiancé, organizing my day in my mind and finding the access to creative thinking sooner in the day.
When Larry and I moved in together he came with a handy dandy lemon press. I made fun of him and showed him my lemon press (my hand). We then had a juice off and he got 3 times the amount of juice from the press that I did from a hulk squeeze of my half. Okay, Larry, I’ll use the press.
Action Steps:
- This is a super easy way to show your body some gratitude for all the sled pushes, burpees, and sit ups it did last night.
- Make sure you have access to a private bathroom because a glass of lemon water followed up by some coffee equals flush city!
- Lemon water is my mental re-set. If I have it, I’m more likely to make better food choices throughout the day.