My Morning Routine: Mental Health and Positive Vibes

Good morning friends!

Today's post is absolutely 100% about health, BUT! Health is not synonymous with fitness, which is what I normally post about. Let's remember that in fact, not only does fitness mean many different things to different people, but it is also just a subtopic of health! So today I'm going to chat about my mental health and how I like to start my day with hella positive vibes. Let's begin!

I wake up everyday between 7am and 9am. I only use an alarm on Saturdays because I work, otherwise I let myself wake up naturally. 90% of the time it is around 0730, but occasionally I can make it all the way until 0900! On these days, I wake up in a panic because I am high strung and happen to think that when I sleep until 0900, half of my day is wasted. I know, I'm crazy. But I love getting up early! I am Miss Morning Person! Anyway, the "healthy" thing about not using an alarm, which was the original topic of this portion, has to do with what level of sleep you are at when you wake up. When you use an alarm, you could be at any level of sleep when the blasted thing goes off and ruins your life. Why is that bad? Waking up during deep sleep, or REM sleep, leaves you feeling disoriented, groggy, and possibly even exhausted for the entire day because your body had just been in its shutdown mode. This explains why sometimes if you get eight or nine hours, you barely feel rested. On the flip side, being woken up during light sleep, or non-REM sleep, does not have this impact because your body has already started booting back up, putting hormone levels back to what they are at during the day, gradually. 

Okay so you're thinking, "well Ashley, it's great that you don't need an alarm and can wait until you reach light sleep and wake up, but I work early every morning and don't have that freedom." Boy do I have an app for you, my worker friend! It's called Sleep Time. This app tracks your sleep patterns by placing your phone on your bed it can feel your amount of movement. There is a function in the app to set an alarm, and the alarm wakes you up ONLY DURING LIGHT SLEEP. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. So what if you're body does time itself to always have light sleep at the perfect time? Well you simply customize the alarm to have a range instead of an exact time. It's really splendid, and if you experience daily grogginess, I urge you to try it!

This is my favorite morning activity, and it happens immediately following waking up. Chew Cuddles. If Chewy didn't get to sleep in bed the previous night, I call his name and he hops up on the bed to say good morning; Chewy has the greatest morning stretch routine, he looks like a little elastic bunny. He burrows his face into your neck, your side, your arm, he rolls himself all around, and is just the sweetest thing you could possibly be greeted by. It definitely is a happy way to begin the day.

Next comes my face routine. I have been backing off on how much I do to my face lately, and it is really helping. These two products are both from Lush; one is a cleanser and the other is a toner. The cleanser is basically beeswax that goes on to dry skin, and you then wipe off with a warm towel. After that, I spritz on my Eau Roma Water, wipe it off with a cotton pad, and am set! The combination of these two products really helps with any moisture issues, the toner water smells like a field of lavender and roses, and the Ultrabland cleanser uses the concept of oil to break down oil, which I really like.

Most mornings I have at least an hour by myself, and while I adore my boyfriend, I very much cherish this time alone. Starting out my day in silence and having the time to work through my motions helps a lot with the constant anxiety I tend to feel. So my next morning step is to grab my To-Do book, sit down on the couch, and open it up. I look at what I accomplished the day before, see if anything is left over, and write out the things I want to accomplish for the current day. Have some sort of guide about how my day is going to go takes away some of the unknown that can cause me to panic, and at the end of the day, looking back at the things I have checked off the list makes me feel successful and productive, which are feelings I really enjoy, especially on days that I don't work.

COFFEE. COFFEE IS NEXT. Side note, I am in love with all of the t-shirts I have seen that make quips about coffee addictions and obsessions, and I do not care what anyone else thinks about them. I love coffee. I have been drinking it for long enough that it has a niche in my day, it is comforting, and sometimes it is even nostalgic. I love the smell, the taste, the look...I drink coffee almost everyday. The only days I don't drink coffee are the days that I chose to have preworkout before going to the gym. Some days I use coffee as a preworkout, it is just as effective, so save your money if the budget is tight and you are desperate for a way to have energy at the gym. Drink about 30 minutes before working out. Coffee for all. Coffee coffee coffee. Oh! I french press. I love the process of it, it tastes amazing. I will never drink K-cup coffee again.

One more note about coffee; when I can, I drink it through a straw to protect my teeth. This is pretty self explanatory as to why. Coffee stains. I don't want stained teeth. After my To-Do list is done, I try and get in at least a chapter of a book I'm reading. Currently pictured is The Stranger. Thanks Justin.

Two very very important parts of my morning that are not pictured: water intake and breakfast! I try to drink 32 oz of water before 10am and eat a nice big breakfast. My breakfast size changes on if I am working out or not that morning; if I am, i basically just eat half of my breakfast before, and half after. WATER is so important. Water fixes almost everything, so drink more of it.

That's all! #positivevibes #mentalhealth #fitness #health #coffee #lush #water #morning #breakfast 

Let's Talk: Supplements (Part 1/?)

I had a lot of ideas for the title of this blog.

"The Science of Supplements"
"Supplements are Not a Replacement for Hard Work"
"Stop the Supplement Broscience"
"Supplements=/= Muscles"

Instead, I kept it simple. My relationship with supplements is long and varied. Wait. Let's back up and do a definition.

SUP-LE-MENT: 1) Noun. Something that completes or enhances something else when added to it
                              2) Verb. To add an extra element or add to.

In the context of today's blog, supplement will refer to a substance ingested in hopes to add to athletic performance or aesthetic. Now as I was saying, I have tried a lot of different types of supplements. When I was a little bit too obsessed with being thin, I tried caffeine pills, water that claimed to speed up your metabolism, Skinny Fox Detox (forgive me) and Advocare. I am not here to tear apart any supplements or supplement companies, but as a side note, I do not like Advocare. I have taken protein powder, protein gels, protein bars, BCAAs, preworkout, postworkout, and intraworkout. The companies I have tried the previous supplements from are: Optimum Nutrition, Muscle Pharm, Jym, Cellucor, PEScience, and soon to be SLAP Nutrition (I am SO EXCITED for this). Again, this is not going to be a criticism on any company (but Cellucor tastes like shit #what?), but more so about the science of supplements.

So what inspired this blog? Because let me tell you I am very inspired right now; It hit me, and I rushed home from the gym to write it. I was watching a vlog (video blog) from my newest YouTube obsession, who will remain unnamed. It was quite an old video of hers, but she was doing a "Supplement Haul", in which she went through all of the supplements she had just purchased. Girl had like $300+ of supplements. Protein, preworkout, BCAAs, multiple appetite suppressants...I love her, but the things she was saying about the products were very incorrect, and overall the girl is not really a fitness person, lifter, runner, etc. AND THAT'S OKAY. IT IS OKAY TO NOT BE INTO FITNESS. My reason for saying that is, that I got the feeling that she had shelled out all of this money on supplements hoping that just by taking them, she would be able to tone up (I just threw up in my mouth having to type that phrase). Needless to say, it didn't work. That's what this is about. People who buy supplements without matching it with the hard fucking work that has to come first. So let's get into it.

1. Protein. You can get fat from protein. Why would I open with that statement? Because if you supplement your body with protein on protein on protein, but don't have an active lifestyle, all you are doing is increasing your caloric intake without increasing your caloric output. And what happens when you eat more than you spend? You gain. GAINING ISN'T BAD. #gainz are great when they're muscle. But if you do not do the work to build the muscle, then that protein isn't going to just magically turn into muscle on its own. The average, non-exercising adult only needs about 60 grams of protein a day. Increasing this amount without working the hell out of your muscles will not build muscle. Why? Proteins are made of amino acids. Amino acids function to help build cells and repair tissue. If you didn't tear the tissue (by lifting/running/whatever), then you don't have anything to repair...starting to make sense? If you don't use the amino acids, they can absolutely be stored as fat, or the body can just get rid of them. Either way, sounds like a waste of money to be buying supplements just to lose it in urine or gain it in an undesirable way. You have got to work your muscles if you want to put it to work, my friends.  I promise you, simply increasing your protein intake will NOT help you reach your goals unless you have the work that goes with it. Okay. I think that's enough on protein.

After writing about #protein, I realized that one blog post for all the supplements I planned on speaking about would just be tl:dr, you know? SO. That's all for this, Part One, of supplements. Next will be Pre-wokout and BCAAs. :)

#bodybuilding #powerlifting #npc #npcbikini #npcprep #bikiniprep #npccompetitor #fitness #health #girlswholift #girlswithmuscle