Three Small Evening Preps to Jumpstart Tomorrow.

I believe in the power of daily healthy habits to affect health. I also believe in the power of momentum. When we string together several healthy habits, it gives us a confidence boost to help us keep going. Conversely, when we are not making healthy choices, it becomes easy to get stuck in a rut. Finally, I believe that setting up an environment for success is more important than motivation. If something is easy to do, we will do it with much more consistency, regardless of our motivation, so it’s very important to make our desired choices easy to choose.

With these ideas in mind, here are three small preps you can do each evening that will ensure your next day gets started with three excellent nutritional choices–getting your day off to a healthy, and hopefully easy, start.

Healthy Prep #1–Put a full glass of water on the nightstand by your bed.

This is the simplest of the three habits I’m going to list. It involves less than a minute of prep. Simply fill a glass of water, put it on your nightstand, and when you wake up and put your feet on the floor in the morning, drink the water. So easy! After (hopefully) seven or eight hours of sleep, your body is looking to replenish lost nutrients and fluids. It is not uncommon to feel a bit dehydrated upon waking, and drinking water early in the morning has been linked to many health benefits. Plus, if you’re shooting for a certain amount of liquid each day, having that first glass straight out of bed gets you off to a great start. Finally, there is the psychological boost of knowing that the very first thing you did to begin the day was something beneficial. Well done!

Healthy Prep #2–Prep a healthy breakfast.

My go-to healthy breakfast is a bowl of steal cut oats with toppings that I change up each day to add some variety. I cook the oats stove top, which does require some time and effort. From start to finish I’d say 15-20 minutes. The night before I will often set out my pan, measuring cup, and dry ingredients so they are ready to go in the morning. After bringing the oats to a boil, I’ll do other morning hygiene and prep while the oats simmer.

You don’t have to choose my breakfast—there are many delicious and healthy breakfast options to choose from, and many require less preparation and labor than mine. But no matter your choice, if you do even one or two things before you go to bed to prep, you’ll find getting started easier in the morning. Here are some ideas:

• Clean the counter top.
• Set out any dishes, utensils, and/or cookware you know you’ll use.
• Set out any dry or non-perishable foods you know you’ll use.
• Wash and portion fruit.
• Choose a breakfast you can actually prepare at night, such as overnight oats. Then it’s just ready to go in the morning!

Healthy Prep #3–Prep a healthy lunch.

This one may be the biggest challenge of the three, but you can do it! Remember, you’ll thank yourself in the morning. I think lunch may be the easiest of our three traditional meals to trip up on, for several reasons. If we don’t prepare a healthy lunch for ourselves, then we are likely to grab something that’s quick (perhaps fast food or that day-old doughnut) and less nutritious, or maybe we just skip lunch altogether and head home in a ravenous mode, which also can easily lead to poor nutritional choices.

My wife and I make our middle-school and elementary aged children pack their lunch box the night before and store it in the fridge. This makes everyone’s morning easier and less hectic the next day. If I expect this behavior from my children I try to expect it from myself too, and yes, it makes my morning easier. So whether it’s a salad, soup, sandwich, leftovers, or some combination, if you can portion it out the night before and pack it up, you’ll love yourself in the morning.

Putting it all together

If this plan seems too much, just start with the water. Again, a great start to the day for less than a minute prep. But consider the following effects if you were to do all three:

• You’ve started your day hydrating with a glass of water.
• You’ve ensured that your first two meals of the day are health promoting.
• You’ve decreased your stress and prep time in the morning.
• It’s likely your energy and mood will be increased due to your good nutrition/hydration and decrease of stress.
• You’re well on your way to a healthy day. Great job!

Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t go 3-for-3 everyday, just do the best you can and be as consistent as possible! Maybe put in a really good effort Sunday night to at least start the week with all three and creating momentum.

Remember, setting up your environment for success will lead to more consistent healthy behaviors, and more consistent healthy behaviors will lead to more energy and better overall health and well-being. So try these three simple behaviors to jump-start your day. You’ll thank yourself tomorrow!

Be Well!

Neal