#5am club

[adria-test]

The 5 am club 😆

[wildfirekate]

I need to start doing life....

so life stops doing me!!!!

[5amclvb]

Challenge accepted!

[mental-serendipity]

Good Morning early risers! Check out my "pirate candle." Years of writing by candlelight right there!

[cringecat9]

Is this normal?

So I go to bed at a normal time and then my brain is like, “lol nope you’re gonna wake up at 5am for no reason today haha” so I beat WarioWare. Why? I have no fucking clue :)

[wellness-university]

Creating a Morning Routine

Have you ever jumped at the sound of your alarm clock ringing unexpectedly from someone else’s smartphone? Before you know it, all the stresses of your morning flood your thoughts and you’re transported back to 6 a.m. 

Let’s be honest here- when you think of a typical morning in your life, is it something you look forward to?

Most students dread waking up early for various reasons such as not getting enough sleep the night before. But these students all share something in common: a lack of a morning routine.

Morning routines are essential to starting your day on a positive note. They are also an act of self care because morning routines exist to help you reach your daily goals and improve your mood. 

The first hour you spend awake is the most important part of your day. It can shape how the rest of your day turns out. So let’s talk about why you should organize a regular morning routine for yourself and how it can help you reach your daily goals. 

Creating a Morning Routine

You don’t have to be a morning person to have a morning routine and enjoy it. When creating your morning routine, there are a few components you should include:

- Exposure to light

- Movement

- Shower

- Food

Numerous research papers and studies have been done to show why these aspects of your routine are beneficial. But if you don’t want to add to your list of readings for the week, I’ll break down the important stuff:

- Exposure to direct sunlight is the best way to reset your circadian rhythm (your awake/asleep schedule) - Movement promotes the flow of endorphins throughout your body which regulate your mood - Taking a shower should be self-explanatory… but I’m going to go into this in the next section - Eating a balanced breakfast in the morning gives you energy to go about your day

Here’s what you need to figure out before making your morning routine:

- What do I want to accomplish before leaving my house/apartment/dorm?

- What is a reasonable time to wake up so I’m getting enough sleep?

It’s also important to note your personal characteristics in the morning. For me, I tend to move slower in the morning because I’m tired. This means that I have to wake up a bit earlier than most people to leave on time. Here’s an example of my morning routine:

5:25 a.m. – Wake up, feed pets, take dog outside

5:40 a.m. – Walk on treadmill 

5:50 a.m. – Shower 

6:05 a.m. – Get dressed & do makeup

6:30 a.m. – Dry hair

6:40 a.m. – Make breakfast & eat

6:55 a.m. – Pack lunch & snacks for the day, start car (during colder months)

7:00 a.m. – Take vitamins, leave latest 7:05 a.m.

When you have your morning routine written down, be sure to follow it for a few days and see if it’s doable and enjoyable. Remember, the whole point of a morning routine is to help you and make you look forward to your day. If you don’t like it, change something and try again.

Extra Tips

I’d like to talk about some specific tips you can apply to your morning routine to enhance its effectiveness. First, let’s talk about your shower. 

Research suggests that taking cold showers could help regulate your stress levels. 

But if we’re being honest, the last thing I want to do is step into a cold shower before 6 a.m. Instead, I take the majority of my shower in warm water and then expose myself to cold water for about a minute. I’ve personally seen an improvement in my anxiety and stress using this method. This is because cold water spikes your cortisol (stress hormone). After the spike, your cortisol slowly lowers throughout the rest of your day. 

Next, I want to discuss movement. If you’re an active person or an athlete, doing your entire workout routine in the morning could be great. There’s less people in the gym during the early morning hours. Plus, once you’re done with your routine in the morning, you’ll be free from it for the rest of the day. 

The only con to a full morning workout is that you’ll probably have to wake up a lot earlier. And again, you have to be realistic. Are you able to wake up at 4:30 a.m. and have the mental strength and energy for leg day? 

If the answer is no, then you have some choices in terms of movement. Running, walking, Pilates, and yoga are all low-impact exercises for those early morning hours. Going to the gym isn’t necessary to perform these exercises, either. 

Finally, I’m going to touch on your exposure to light. The best exposure is direct sunlight. But based on the time you wake up and what season it is, you might wake up while the moon is the only light in the sky. If this is the case, you can purchase a sunrise alarm clock or a sunlight lamp. But the lights you already have in your house are fine. 

Following your Routine

Once you’ve decided your morning routine, it’s time to follow it consistently. The key is – 

Rely on discipline, not motivation.

You won’t always be motivated to wake up, get sunlight, exercise, shower, and do countless other things before sitting in your 3-hour lecture. It can be really tempting to “sleep in” once you’ve set your routine and you know you don’t have to leave until 30 minutes before your class. 

But your discipline will carry you through those tough days.

Discipline is following the rules you set for yourself. In simple terms, this means that you must do this for yourself. 

Do it for your benefit. 

Do it because you love yourself. 

In this life, you need to become your most dependable person. Staying consistent in your routines is where that starts. 

[wool-f]

Wellness: Through & Through | Part Six: The 5am Club 

I’ve spent the last decade online watching videos and reading blogs and articles all claiming that waking up at 5am is the key to changing your life, being productive, becoming to most successful person in the world, the list goes ON. 

As part of this experiment on my body that I’ve been undertaking here on Wellness: Through & Through, I really wanted to try out waking up at 5am and see what changes it had on my life and body. 

If you’re more of a video person, I’ve uploaded a video to my channel for you to watch here, but if you want to see a structured, written out approach, come with me through a journal style approach to waking up at 5am. 

Immediately when I first thought about getting into the 5am routine, I was filled with doubts at the possibility of me becoming a morning person. 

I had hated waking up early for 7am starts when I was in retail and hospitality, I could never imagine doing it WILLINGLY, let alone enjoying it. 

But was I in for the shock of my life - waking up at 5am has changed my life, and I will never go back. 

There are so many significant changes I’ve noticed in my daily routine that have been positive additions since starting my 5am routine and I hate to admit it, but all those articles were correct. It is life changing, you do become a better person. 

I want to start this from the outset saying that waking up at 5am is not going to be for everyone. But I think if the idea has crossed your mind ever, it’s worth giving it a go. 

The biggest change I’ve found in waking up at 5am is that when combined with early morning exercise, I am so much more productive throughout my entire day. It’s actually embarrassing to think about what I was doing before I was waking up at 5am. 

I was doing so much less, I was a lot more lethargic and I was procrastinating a huge amount throughout the day. 

I’m not in any way saying that waking up at 5am has fixed all my problems or cured my love of procrastination, but I am so much more focused and on point when I’m waking up and exercising before the sun has risen. 

I have noticed that when exercise is not factored into the morning routine, I am less productive so that should be noted, but it’s a huge thing that has changed for me. 

Combined in that little change, I’ve noticed I am far less lethargic throughout the afternoon, a fact that has really surprised me. 

Where I would normally go through a mid-afternoon slump, I am powering through my to-do lists, work or off time on the weekends. It’s like a magic trick. 

I’m not sure what the cause of this is, but I’m sure there is a scientist out there who has done a study on it. 

One thing I have enjoyed thoroughly about waking up at 5am, is the extra two hours I get to myself in the morning. Where I was rushing around, shoving my breakfast down my throat and burning my mouth on hot coffee, now I am relaxed, showered and able to eat my breakfast at a normal pace while reading a book. 

There is also a beautiful smell in the air early in the morning, that fades away as the day goes on. I can’t describe it, but I’m sure other people who are early risers can relate. It’s a fresh, crisp smell that hits your nose, and it almost is what I would imagine a fresh imagination to smell like. 

I think deep down it’s the knowledge that nothing bad has happened in the day yet, and there is so much opportunity yet to come, it’s the smell of a new beginning! 

A beautiful part of waking up so early is getting the opportunity to see the sunrise every single day. It’s getting later for me as daylight savings has ended in Melbourne and winter is setting in, but there is really nothing like watching the sunrise and the day begin, knowing you’ve already gotten through the first few hours. 

So, if you hadn’t already guessed, this is a tried and approved message to give the 5am club a go. I honestly am obsessed with waking up early now. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older and this is what happens, but it’s definitely something I wish I had done earlier. 

Two tips I have for anyone giving this a go: 

1. Preparation is key: make sure you’re getting enough sleep the night before, that you’re hydrated before bed and that you have your clothes ready to go for the following morning to motivate you to move from the comfortable pillow palace you’ve made yourself over night. It will be a rough first week/two weeks when you begin, but if you’re ready to go from the moment you open your eyes, it will make it so much easier. 

2. Have a consequence for not getting up - I always book a 6am pilates class to force me out of bed, otherwise I’ll cop a late cancellation or a no-show fee. Having something to do as soon as you get up is honestly the key to success with this, especially if you’re a lover of sleep like I am. 

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself if you’re giving this a go, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to conquer. The day won’t change if you get up at 5.30am or 5.45am, but I think it’s really worth giving it a go, even just to give yourself an extra few hours in the morning to do something you enjoy, like read a book, or catch up on a TV show. 

Let me know if you give this one a go, and how you enjoyed/hated it in the comments below! 

You can find me on all my other socials using the handle @kweenofthieves, but outside that, I’ll be back with you all next week! 

All my love, 

Gxx

[eggwhiteswithspinach]

I've always been an early riser, for the reason that my mom had been strict about ridiculously early bedtimes, even into my twenties. That sounds ridiculous, right? Twenties? Well, if someone wielded a knife to threaten you, you'd rather sleep early than to fight that too.

UNPUBLISHED PIECE / subscribe to get notified when this piece is published!

[mixedworldview]

Do You Want to Wake up at 5 AM? Here’s How to Do It

Waking up at 5 AM might sound hard, but it can change your life in amazing ways. It gives you more time in the morning to focus on yourself and start your day feeling productive. If you’re wondering how to wake up at 5 AM, we’ll walk you through the steps to make it easy. With the right routine, it’s totally possible! Let’s talk about my 5 a.m. morning routine that you can adapt too. If you…

[therealmannex]

Rock Zottegem and it's toll

Dear Henry,

I have not been drinking alcohol for (almost) 2 weeks now, even though there were some challenges ahead: a Nashville Pussy concert was my baptism of fire, but I survived without a problem. After that a concert of Dr. Lektroluv… Again, no problem to leave the alcohol. The last weekend of my 2 weeks was Rock Zottegem, a festival where I volunteer behind the bar for 3 days. Here I did treat myself to 3 beers : one each day.

In terms of weight, it's still going in the right direction: I'm now under 113 kg, coming from 118 kg. The irregular weekend of Rock Zottegem (eating, working, sleeping and repeating) disrupted my biorhythm a bit. Sleeping at 10pm was out of the question…. It was rather 4am and getting up at 11am.

I think I also caught corona because I've been tired all week and cough a lot.

Well, in the meantime I got back into the South Beach eating regime and decided to stay in phase 1 for another 2 weeks.

Trying to get up at 5 a.m. again tomorrow to get back into the routine.

Regards, M

[thinkover-overthink]

5am CLUB

Today (4/30/2024) I decided to start with the 5am Club. I feel like I could really get a lot out of this as a person. Structure and clarity are important to me, and I think this could really turn my life around in a positive way. I'm curious to see how it goes.

This morning was my first go at it and it turned out super well!

(I also tried to do this without stress and pressure, which was still a bit tough. I felt like I was rushing, so there’s definitely room for improvement 🙂)

Here’s what I managed to do:

Put on some meditation/relaxing music on Spotify

Did 100 sit-ups and 25 push-ups

Threw the dirty laundry in the washer

Took a thorough shower, ending with a refreshing cold blast (felt amazing!)

Did a 15-minute body scan meditation with Edel Maex on Spotify

To be continued—I'm curious to see how it goes. The key is to keep at it because I know I tend to slip back into old (bad) habits pretty quickly.

What do you guys think about this idea?

[5amclvb]

Natures Medicine! I love it.

[outragedtortilla]

I've always been an early riser, for the reason that my mom had been strict about ridiculously early bedtimes, even into my twenties. That sounds ridiculous, right? Twenties? Well, if someone wielded a knife to threaten you, you'd rather sleep early than to fight that too.

UNPUBLISHED PIECE / subscribe to get notified when this piece is published!

[wool-f]

Wellness: Through & Through - Pilates and Running Update

Hello friends! 

This week I'm going to return to the beginning of my health and wellness experiment that I started last year and talk about pilates. 

To the people who know me and who read this blog please forgive me because no I cannot shut up about pilates, but I seriously can't stop. 

It's been one year since I began practicing pilates and I am completely embedded in the cult-like practice and seriously can't stop talking about it. 

But in any case, I've been doing pilates five times a week for the last 12 months and I've noticed amazing results in that time both mentally and physically. 

Since the start of this experiment I have done a lot of things to improve my health and general wellbeing, but pilates is the one thing that has stayed in my routine. 

In celebration of this, I've decided to really challenge myself over the next three weeks and run a half marathon while also completing a 5x5 challenge being done by my pilates studio. 

If you're interested in my plan and current progress, keep reading here! 

Ok so, like I said, I've been doing pilates for 5 days a week every week (except for the period between July - September when I was of course, travelling), and to say I haven't noticed the difference in my body would be a huge lie.

I have said it before and I will reiterate it now, I don't believe in exercising for only aesthetic reasons - I think it's a dangerous way to exist and can easily spiral into disordered eating and other problematic behaviours that can negatively affect health. However, I have noticed a huge difference in my body since beginning pilates. When I started the practice I was in a really bad mental state, I had put on weight and was doing next to no exercise at all. I needed a shock to my system. When I saw my body in comparison to what I looked like a mere eight months prior, I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Taken aback by how much I had let myself go mentally that I didn't notice the physical change in myself. It was like looking at myself with clear eyes again. 

 I got a really good deal at my studio as they had just opened and started going a few times a week. I slowly upped the days I would go until now where I try to get there at least 5 times, if not more. I have noticed that I am not only stronger, more lean and definitely slightly more muscular, but I have also dropped a significant amount of bloatedness and weight around my stomach, back and arms. 

The more important factors of difference for me however, have been the mental health changes I have noticed. I am happier and more focused and have so much more clarity in my daily thoughts and tasks. My sleep is much deeper and of better quality and in general I am just a much more healthy person. 

I enjoy the practice of pilates as a whole and the instructors at my studio are amazing, which definitely makes a difference for me. 

On to the half marathon. 

I began running properly in the Covid lockdowns, despite a lifetime telling myself that I hated running and that I was bad at it. Now I'm fully in the cult of running as well. This year I made a resolution that I would run a half marathon, and I decided to finally bite the bullet and sign up for one in the last month of the year. 

I will be running 21kms on December 3rd in Melbourne and I have started training properly (a bit later than I should have but better late than never) while also doing a pilates challenge, which means I'll be doing two types of strenuous exercise twice a day. 

I've been attempting to run most days now for two weeks. This hasn't gone off to the best start but I've been trying! 

I definitely have had to up my food intake and water intake and I'll be purchasing electrolyte jellies to try out before the big day. 

I'll update you all as I go along and if you want to get in the moment or more consistent updates, head over to my instagram and tiktok!

Otherwise, I'll be back next week with another blog post and as always please let me know if there is anything specific you want to hear/read about, I want this blog to be like a conversation with you all.

Love always,

G xx