SUPERCHARGE YOUR MORNING IN 3.5 MINUTES

I love starting my day with a solid routine that blasts me out the door feeling like a goddamn man. Over the years I’ve ironed out a few morning rituals I think you might like. Two ideas I focus are streamlining and fueling.  These routines are for the days I'm getting after it. I enjoy slow paced mornings spent in my undies and chillin too. This article is not about one of those mornings. This article is about gabe day.

Streamlining is removing any unnecessary movements or decisions from your morning. Every movement from geting out of bed to walking out the door should be on auto-pilot. Robot Mode Engaged. What you wear, eat, brushing teeth, feeding the cat...everything is premeditated. You are not allowed to actually make any decisions. By eliminating decision making, guesswork and unnecessary movements you preserve cognitive load and time for the rest of the day. Each decision you make drains your finite amount of focus. Plan every detaile out the night before. Mine are basically the same every weekday. So…what’s for breakfast?

Fueling is giving your body and mind high performance food to work at capacity. Let me suggest the following tips:

1.       Keep breakfast low or completely devoid of any sugar or carbohydrate.

When we eat carbs and sugar in the morning we begin a vicious cycle of increasing and decreasing blood glucose that doesn’t end until we fall asleep.  After eating carbs we get a surge of energy, feeling full and satiated. Your pancreas will then secrete insulin and your blood sugar will drop an hour or so later, triggering cravings, drowsiness and even irritability. The only way to solve this is to eat more carbs or sugar, and on goes this process throughout the day. How can we expect to perform like this?

2.       Add in healthy fats

Fats will power our body and mind with a more stable, sustained energy so you can focus on your mission. Fats do not mess with our blood glucose like sugars and carbs. Fats take longer to metabolize and if we eat enough of the right type we can have plenty of energy well into the day without any cravings.

3.       Keep it light

Don’t get me wrong, I love a huge tasty breakfast full of comfort foods, this article is for high performance mornings to improve productivity early in the day. Eating a light breakfast will not stifle energy levels by sending large amounts of blood to your stomach or intestinal tract, sacrificing brain power.

FAT TEA! Prep time-3.5 minutes

This is one of my favorite breakfast meals because it’s tasty, super-fast and powers me through lunchtime with zero cravings. Experiment with different teas to add variety.

Tools:

Electronic kettle

French press

Large thermos with lid

Ingredients:

Caffeinated tea (I like green sencha, Darjeeling, hibiscus and Pu-Erh) feel free to mix and match.

Grass-fed butter (unsalted)

MCT-Oil (medium chain triglyceride) is a saturated fat derived from coconut oil. Its tasteless, colorless and odorless and VERY powerful. When consumed its metabolized into energy extremely fast. Beginners should proceed with caution and start with small amounts as it could cause disaster pants...Its that powerful and does take some getting use to. Start small and work your way up. 

Recipe:

1.       Heat water in electronic kettle (temp varies depending on tea type)

2.       Add a 1 tablespoon of grass-fed butter and 1 tablespoon of MCT-Oil to thermos.

3.       Steep tea in French press

4.       Add tea to fats in thermos and shake like a mad man.

How bad ass is your current morning routine? How fast can you get out the door fueled and fired up to conquer the day? I’d love to hear from anyone who tries this technique and if it improves their morning. Give it a shot and share. Supercharge your morning!

Thanks for reading,

Gabe