Latest / Find Your Edge: Training, Nutrition + Longevity for Endurance Athletes / Why “Perfect” Morning Routines Don’t Matter — And What to Do Instead Ep 121
Transcript
- 1:03Coach Carlie: Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast.
- 1:05Coach Carlie: I am your host, Coach Chris, and I am here again with Coach Carly because she's amazing.
- 1:11Coach Carlie: And we have so much fun talking all the things over our pretend coffee that we're drinking.
- 1:19Coach Carlie: I don't think.
- 1:20Coach Carlie: Are you a decaf girl too?
- 1:22Coach Chris: I am.
- 1:22Coach Chris: Yes, I know.
- 1:23Coach Carlie: Isn't that?
- 1:24Coach Chris: I feel like such a fraud.
- 1:30Coach Carlie: I also do, because I'm like, I use caffeine so strategically.
- 1:35Coach Chris: Oh my gosh.
- 1:36Coach Chris: I honestly I feel like this contributes to the whole entire topic of today with morning routines.
- 1:42Coach Carlie: Absolutely, which is all about morning routines.
- 1:44Coach Carlie: So I don't know if you guys get hammered uh with um, I don't know, social media, books, whatever.
- 1:51Coach Carlie: It's like, oh, it's all that you have to have like you are a bad human unless you have this magical morning routine.
- 1:59Coach Carlie: Or if you do the same exact thing every single I don't know, I don't know.
- 2:03Coach Carlie: But I just feel like all these self-development things expect that you're supposed to like.
- 2:09Coach Carlie: I think I think somebody added up all the things that Huberman was supposed to be doing in his morning routine.
- 2:15Coach Carlie: It was gonna seem like three hours or something like that.
- 2:18Coach Carlie: Whether that's fake news, I don't know.
- 2:20Coach Carlie: Doesn't matter.
- 2:21Coach Carlie: But Carly is here to just like maybe we should talk about morning routines.
- 2:26Coach Carlie: You're like, oh, I have so many things to say about that.
- 2:28Coach Carlie: I'm like, oh, bring it on.
- 2:30Coach Carlie: I cannot wait.
- 2:32Coach Carlie: So enlighten us, Carly.
- 2:34Coach Chris: What's your what's your take on this?
- 2:37Coach Chris: The irony is not lost on me that I would say something like that when I am very much a woman of few words.
- 2:42Coach Chris: You are not.
- 2:44Coach Chris: For me to have a lot to say means I might talk for two minutes.
- 2:49Coach Carlie: But here we are.
- 2:50Coach Carlie: Well, it just goes to show that there are so many things that I feel like we have an expectation of like, oh, well, this if I do this thing, maybe it's gonna make me magically, I don't know, more perfect, but like better in whose mind?
- 3:07Coach Carlie: Uh you know, is this the magic missing link to what?
- 3:11Coach Carlie: To like what, like, what are you trying to achieve?
- 3:15Coach Chris: Particularly, I think, in the um in the wellness space right now, and generally like the self-improvement journey that uh our culture is on right now of like how can I be the best version of myself?
- 3:34Coach Chris: How do I take care of myself?
- 3:35Coach Chris: How do I optimize my day?
- 3:37Coach Chris: And it's kind of evolved into like, how do I optimize every minute of every waking moment that I have?
- 3:45Coach Chris: And we've just like, it's gone too far, y'all.
- 3:48Coach Chris: Bring it in.
- 3:49Coach Chris: Rain it in.
- 3:51Coach Chris: Okay.
- 3:51Coach Chris: That's it, close.
- 3:53Coach Chris: End the podcast.
- 3:54Coach Chris: That's what I have to say.
- 3:57Coach Carlie: Well, we were just on another uh we're we're batch recording, you guys.
- 4:02Coach Carlie: I'm getting ahead.
- 4:03Coach Carlie: I'm so proud of myself.
- 4:04Coach Carlie: Uh, I I need some validation from Carly here too, because like she also helps with this present.
- 4:11Coach Carlie: She's like, oh my gosh, Chris, you are so behind.
- 4:13Coach Carlie: We are not behind anymore.
- 4:14Coach Carlie: And we were just talking about hustle culture.
- 4:17Coach Carlie: And um had the irony.
- 4:19Coach Carlie: I'm talking about like, oh, but I have to get all these podcasts out to people.
- 4:24Coach Chris: Well, you do have a podcast, so yes, you do have to do the podcast.
- 4:28Coach Chris: Yes.
- 4:28Coach Chris: Does that mean you need some like very intricate morning routine to set yourself up?
- 4:35Coach Chris: Y'all, we can have a good day without having this like very perfectionistic routine in the morning that you are now waking up at 4 a.m.
- 4:48Coach Chris: to have time before your kids get up to journal and meditate and see the first sunlight.
- 4:54Coach Chris: And I don't uh what uh what else are the kids doing these days?
- 5:02Coach Chris: Oh god.
- 5:03Coach Carlie: Okay.
- 5:04Coach Chris: Anyways, um, my not so hot take is to think about what will actually set you up to have a lovely morning.
- 5:20Coach Chris: Okay, what resets you to go into whenever your day starts, I'll say eight.
- 5:27Coach Chris: Can you get to eight o'clock and be like, all right, cool, let's start the day.
- 5:31Coach Chris: And maybe that does include cold plunges and a slew of other things.
- 5:35Coach Chris: It doesn't for me, and it probably never will.
- 5:38Coach Chris: And I'm not a morning person, I'm also not a night owl.
- 5:42Coach Chris: Uh, your girl likes to sleep a lot.
- 5:45Coach Chris: So I'm not gonna stress about waking up extra early so I can do all of these things before my workout, before I get my kid ready for school, before I go to work.
- 5:55Coach Chris: It's not gonna happen.
- 5:57Coach Chris: But most importantly, the purpose of whatever sort of routine you have in the morning, because I'm sure you do have some version, even if it's loosely a version of a routine for the morning, you have some sort of like something that you do every morning, right?
- 6:13Coach Chris: Um run through it.
- 6:15Coach Chris: Is it benefiting you?
- 6:16Coach Chris: Is it something you want to improve?
- 6:17Coach Chris: And is it something you want to improve because you actually feel like it would help you start your day better?
- 6:24Coach Chris: And not because you heard it on a podcast.
- 6:28Coach Chris: Uh the irony is not lost.
- 6:34Coach Chris: Just gonna bite the hand that feeds me for a second here, but um but uh just because you know we have evidence that you know journaling is really great and it is a phenomenal tool, y'all.
- 6:53Coach Chris: Meditation.
- 6:54Coach Chris: The findings that we have on long-term, like long-term studies that have looked at people that have meditated for years and years, like amazing things that can happen.
- 7:05Coach Chris: I am not saying that is all true, it's all great and wonderful and lovely stuff.
- 7:11Coach Chris: I'm just saying we don't all have to do it every morning.
- 7:14Coach Chris: And I don't mean that uh as like a pun for your coffee.
- 7:21Coach Chris: I was gonna say, but can it?
- 7:23Coach Chris: Yeah.
- 7:25Coach Chris: Uh and I guess let me circle back and then we'll kind of get into what different versions can look like.
- 7:33Coach Chris: But I figured out that starting my day with a caffeinated coffee makes me a little crazy when I'm so with you there.
- 7:45Coach Chris: I was like, the anxiety.
- 7:47Coach Carlie: Why is my heart rate so high?
- 7:49Coach Carlie: First thing in the morning, I'm like, oh, it's caffeine.
- 7:53Coach Carlie: And you know, to no fault of like, I know my genetics, but I am constantly revisiting them.
- 7:59Coach Carlie: And while I clear caffeine theoretically quickly with some genes, there are other genes for me that like to hold on to the extra production of adrenaline, epinephrine, norepinephrine that are not serving me.
- 8:13Coach Carlie: And I found that reducing for me, reducing caffeine, I was like, I feel so much more peaceful.
- 8:20Coach Carlie: Yeah, relaxed.
- 8:22Coach Carlie: And it is worth it.
- 8:25Coach Chris: Yeah, absolutely.
- 8:26Coach Chris: Uh, two big points really quickly.
- 8:29Coach Chris: One, Chris and I did not uh know this about each other before coming on this call.
- 8:34Coach Chris: This is not like a setup to switch everyone over to decaf coffee.
- 8:38Coach Chris: No, no, not at all.
- 8:39Coach Chris: That's not what we're hearing.
- 8:40Coach Chris: This is purely coincidental.
- 8:42Coach Chris: Two, even more coincidental is that it sounds like Chris and I have very similar genes when it comes to how our bodies use caffeine.
- 8:51Coach Chris: And both of them sound like they somewhat go against what we are are experiencing in our day, which is which brings me back to the like, take a minute to reflect on, like pay attention to what you're experiencing throughout your day.
- 9:07Coach Chris: We very much, when we are in like a I get up, I whatever, I have breakfast, I have my coffee, I shower, maybe you work out first, then you shower, then you go to work, you have your day, you come home.
- 9:18Coach Chris: Like we put up blinders when we're in routines like this, when our every weekday looks the same and we're in this really regimented, we stop paying attention to how things are making our bodies feel, how we're mentally feeling.
- 9:33Coach Chris: If we're having like dips and peaks with our energy throughout the day, we're just like laser beam, we're cows in a funnel, frankly.
- 9:43Coach Chris: Take the minute to reflect on what's happening.
- 9:45Coach Chris: What are you experiencing?
- 9:47Coach Chris: Because things like this, like I have my genetic reports.
- 9:51Coach Chris: I know that, you know, um, in terms of caffeine, like, cool, I use it up real quick and I'm good to go.
- 9:56Coach Chris: Reality is it makes me real anxious.
- 10:00Coach Chris: And I feel like a little bit of a crazy person for quite some time if I have a good chunk of caffeine first thing in the morning.
- 10:07Coach Chris: So I changed to decaf and it's been lovely.
- 10:11Coach Chris: I love the coziness of a warm cup of decaf coffee in the morning.
- 10:16Coach Chris: I particularly love if neither my husband and I have meetings first thing in the morning and we get to sit next to each other and have our warm cups of the morning.
- 10:25Coach Carlie: So would you call that a morning routine or would you call that a ritual, or can it be both?
- 10:31Coach Chris: I would call it neither because it's circumstantial.
- 10:36Coach Chris: Hmm, okay.
- 10:38Coach Chris: I like this.
- 10:39Coach Chris: But it's nice.
- 10:42Coach Chris: And like when I take my daughter to school in the morning, and I'm like, hey, are you like, do you have meeting?
- 10:48Coach Chris: Will you be in a meeting when I get back or can we have coffee together?
- 10:51Coach Chris: And it's like a nice little way to start our day.
- 10:53Coach Chris: We check in with each other.
- 10:55Coach Chris: Any of y'all that have tinier humans know that like you don't really get to talk to each other when they're around because they ask a lot of questions and they make a lot of noises and they just generally interrupt every three statements that you make.
- 11:08Coach Chris: So it's really nice and we just check in and see how we're doing, and it's really lovely.
- 11:12Coach Chris: And I'm so glad that I take that time instead of like doing a cold plunge or being in the middle of some very regimented thing that I have set for that time of day.
- 11:23Coach Chris: Now, if my husband has a meeting, or obviously if I have a meeting, I'm off to work.
- 11:28Coach Chris: But if he's busy, I just pop on and I get started with my day.
- 11:31Coach Chris: And it's it's no thing, right?
- 11:33Coach Chris: Like it's it's very fluid.
- 11:35Coach Chris: But I do always have my nice little warm cup of co-coffee because it makes me cozy and I like it.
- 11:41Coach Chris: And that's really all you need.
- 11:44Coach Chris: Not coffee, just something that you enjoy in the morning to start your day off on a nice, on a nice little note.
- 11:51Coach Chris: Yeah.
- 11:52Coach Carlie: My little ritual is that I like to use certain mugs that make me super happy.
- 11:57Coach Carlie: There you go.
- 11:58Coach Carlie: Like, you know, fold it just right.
- 12:02Coach Carlie: Maybe it's got like pictures of my kids on it.
- 12:04Coach Carlie: You know, one of my mugs says joy on it.
- 12:06Coach Carlie: When my youngest was maybe four or five, he would take a piece of paper and write joy and then put it at the holidays, put it in everybody's mailbox, but the J was backwards.
- 12:17Coach Carlie: So, like that just makes me feel like, oh, this is like one of my core values is family and joy.
- 12:24Coach Carlie: And so that's what my hot beverage goes in.
- 12:27Coach Carlie: Sometimes it's tea, sometimes it's espresso, sometimes it's coffee, and it just makes me so happy.
- 12:33Coach Carlie: And uh, that's not to say that um I poo-poo on your cold plunge.
- 12:37Coach Carlie: I feel like there seems to be a pressure of doing something every single morning where I find that there's flow in uh certain mornings, like certain mornings.
- 12:50Coach Carlie: I'm coaching at six o'clock in the morning, like and I am not waking up at four o'clock in the morning because generally speaking, that's like the peak of melatonin release.
- 12:58Coach Carlie: So I ain't gonna skip that because I need that for me to be a nice human.
- 13:02Coach Carlie: And that's no shot on you if you get up at four o'clock in the morning.
- 13:05Coach Carlie: I hope that your sleep routine is meaningful and uh works well for you.
- 13:09Coach Carlie: But I also find that there's weekends for me are opportunities to journal deeper.
- 13:15Coach Carlie: And I feel like mornings on the weekdays, it's gonna be rushed.
- 13:21Coach Carlie: Not to say it's not meaningful, but I feel like it's not going to provide me the deepest value for the amount of time that I can like contribute to it.
- 13:32Coach Chris: So oh, and I think and I can't emphasize this enough.
- 13:37Coach Chris: Likely, majority of what you're seeing that like creates these wonderful morning routines that you are learning about, hearing about, seeing, whatever, they're great components of a day or a week.
- 13:52Coach Chris: Do they have to happen from 4 to 6 a.m.
- 13:55Coach Chris: every morning?
- 13:56Coach Chris: And if you miss it, things will be miserable.
- 13:59Coach Chris: I think that's my main point here is no.
- 14:03Coach Chris: If you need to meditate at lunch, go for it.
- 14:07Coach Chris: Especially don't skip your sleep to wake up and and do things that can be done later in the day.
- 14:15Coach Chris: Like that's just get your sleep, y'all.
- 14:18Coach Chris: That's the one thing.
- 14:19Coach Chris: Everybody skips their sleep thinking that they're waking up to like, you know, be efficient with their day when really your brain would really like you to sleep more, please.
- 14:30Coach Chris: Thank you.
- 14:31Coach Carlie: Yes.
- 14:31Coach Carlie: The amount of benefits that come from quality sleep is just so vast.
- 14:37Coach Carlie: Like, let me begin the benefits of your metabolism, human growth hormone release, memory consolidation, etc., etc.
- 14:47Coach Chris: And I guess let me also add, because I'm sure a large portion of those of you listening are like, yeah, but I train in the morning.
- 14:55Coach Chris: I'm I'm not at home, Carly.
- 14:58Coach Chris: I have also gone through periods of life like that as well.
- 15:02Coach Chris: And that doesn't negate the underlying message I'm trying to send here of it's great if you want to wake up and go work out, and that's the best time of day for you to do that.
- 15:13Coach Chris: Excellent.
- 15:14Coach Chris: I hope you're getting to bed at a reasonable time, like we said.
- 15:18Coach Chris: I also hope you don't feel the pressure to try and like habit stack some other things into that morning routine.
- 15:28Coach Chris: You're already off to a great start.
- 15:30Coach Chris: You're moving your body, you're getting your endorphins go.
- 15:32Coach Chris: Like all the good things are already happening just because you woke up and and got out the door.
- 15:37Coach Chris: So don't feel pressured that you need to also add these other elements and these really intricate things into it.
- 15:44Coach Chris: Like check it off a list.
- 15:45Coach Chris: Great, you had a great morning, off to a great start.
- 15:47Coach Chris: Now go start your day.
- 15:48Coach Chris: Again, meditate in the afternoon, journal before bed.
- 15:52Coach Chris: It doesn't all have to happen.
- 15:54Coach Chris: A, it all doesn't have to happen, y'all.
- 15:56Coach Chris: B, it doesn't all have to happen in the morning.
- 16:00Coach Carlie: But I need to be a perfect human and meet some random expectation of some Navy SEAL that I don't know.
- 16:11Coach Chris: I would be the worst Navy SEAL.
- 16:12Coach Chris: Which is why I'm not one.
- 16:15Coach Chris: So there's that.
- 16:17Coach Chris: Same.
- 16:18Coach Chris: Same.
- 16:19Coach Chris: There's also, okay, if any of you are also like, but I really like Navy SEALs, because I'm sure maybe certain ones are coming into mind at the moment.
- 16:27Coach Chris: Full respect to actual naval Navy SEALs, first of all.
- 16:30Coach Chris: Oh, yeah.
- 16:31Coach Chris: 100%, yeah.
- 16:32Coach Chris: Second of all, what you're learning for them and why they teach what they teach and teach it so well, is because they had to have those skills to do their job.
- 16:45Coach Chris: Yeah, to survive.
- 16:47Coach Chris: Yeah.
- 16:48Coach Carlie: Yeah.
- 16:48Coach Carlie: And not just survive, but have an expectation for an entire country.
- 16:57Coach Chris: This is my counterpoint.
- 16:59Coach Chris: Okay.
- 17:01Coach Chris: You're not a Navy SEAL.
- 17:03Coach Chris: So you probably don't need a lot of those things.
- 17:08Coach Chris: Now, are those skills maybe applicable in other areas and at different levels and intensities that could be helpful?
- 17:15Coach Chris: Yes.
- 17:16Coach Chris: Do they need to be done to the levels and expectations of a Navy SEAL?
- 17:22Coach Chris: No.
- 17:23Coach Chris: Because you're not a Navy SEAL.
- 17:25Coach Chris: Yeah.
- 17:26Coach Chris: So that's likely not very fitting for your life and life balance.
- 17:29Coach Chris: Mm-hmm.
- 17:30Coach Chris: And lots of other things.
- 17:32Coach Carlie: Yeah.
- 17:32Coach Carlie: I digress.
- 17:33Coach Carlie: Yes, I know.
- 17:34Coach Carlie: And as you're saying that, I'm like, oh my gosh, I would love to see their genes because I have a sneaking suspicion that they're all uh like there's one particular gene, it's the compt gene.
- 17:45Coach Carlie: So if you have a certain genetic variant of that, you tend to be like thrill seekers.
- 17:51Coach Chris: Oh yeah.
- 17:52Coach Carlie: Like because you clear that epinephrine, norepinephrine for which I am the opposite, you clear that super quick, and then you're just like, next, next, next, bring on the dopamine, like bring on the thrill.
- 18:02Coach Carlie: You know, we're not all in that boat.
- 18:05Coach Carlie: And I don't know.
- 18:06Coach Carlie: I feel like we're meant to have all these different journeys and these different challenges.
- 18:10Coach Carlie: That's why we've been put on this planet.
- 18:13Coach Carlie: Yeah.
- 18:13Coach Chris: Well, and it always circles back to every time I say, like, stop comparing yourself to other people.
- 18:18Coach Chris: This is a prime example why.
- 18:20Coach Chris: They're either for a multitude of reasons, but when we look when we look at genetics of people and they're like when we think of how brains operate can so differently with things like what you were just talking about.
- 18:34Coach Chris: Yeah.
- 18:35Coach Chris: And then we think of things like recovery needs or, you know, genes that can be proponents for building strength or building endurance easier than other people.
- 18:46Coach Chris: While we're all the same, your body doesn't necessarily work like that person.
- 18:50Coach Chris: You could be doing the same things and have vastly different experiences doing them.
- 18:54Coach Chris: And maybe that's why that person's always excited to go out and run a thousand miles a day.
- 18:59Coach Chris: And you're like this doesn't feel great.
- 19:01Coach Chris: And I feel terrible.
- 19:02Coach Chris: Yeah.
- 19:03Coach Chris: And that doesn't mean that either of you are right or either of you are wrong.
- 19:06Coach Chris: You're just your own person.
- 19:09Coach Chris: So create your routines around being you and not, again, a Navy SEAL that maybe has quite different genes than you and different objectives and why they're doing those things.
- 19:20Coach Chris: Yes.
- 19:21Coach Carlie: Which makes me think about our longevity nutrition coaching group and how everyone who walks into that program, the very first module they have to do is all about their core values.
- 19:31Coach Carlie: It's like, well, what does that have to do with the, you know, chicken that I'm eating?
- 19:37Coach Carlie: Has a lot to do with that.
- 19:40Coach Carlie: And it has a lot to do with your morning routine.
- 19:43Coach Carlie: And eating for sure and exercise all relates to habits and behaviors.
- 19:48Coach Carlie: Yeah.
- 19:48Coach Carlie: And if you're not tying them back to your core values and then what is meaningful for you, then you're just gonna be drawn straws of like, well, maybe I need to do a cold plunge every morning.
- 19:59Coach Carlie: Which interestingly, that's not a great habit for someone who might have cardiac issues, having this like massive shock to the system.
- 20:09Coach Carlie: That's another conversation.
- 20:11Coach Carlie: We need to have some like research roundups.
- 20:13Coach Carlie: And we talk about that in in genetics.
- 20:15Coach Carlie: There are certain genetics that actually don't do great with cold plunges.
- 20:19Coach Carlie: Anyway, all that to say is that you are unique and wonderful and pick your morning routine to match you.
- 20:27Coach Carlie: Yeah.
- 20:28Coach Carlie: Yeah.
- 20:29Coach Carlie: Did that anything else to sum it up?
- 20:31Coach Chris: No, I think that's the perfect summary.
- 20:33Coach Carlie: Wait, we done did the thing.
- 20:35Coach Carlie: We did us.
- 20:35Coach Carlie: So good.
- 20:37Coach Carlie: So bad.
- 20:38Coach Carlie: Yes.
- 20:39Coach Carlie: Awesome.
- 20:40Coach Carlie: Uh and again, if you need a reminder, all of you wonderful people out there, that you are beautifully and wonderfully made.
- 20:47Coach Carlie: And I know I'm so grateful for you.
- 20:49Coach Carlie: And I'm also grateful for Carly.
- 20:51Coach Carlie: So thank you for being here and sharing your thoughts on the morning routine.
- 20:55Coach Carlie: And thanks for listening, y'all.
- 20:57Coach Carlie: Bye.