Graduating college didn’t really hit me until about five months after working my first full-time job. Winter was a’brewin’ with grey skies, I was cold, and I realized that my job sucked. I also came to the conclusion that I was going to join the rest of American adults and work my life away.

I pictured myself blinking into the future and what I saw, I did not like. I thought long and hard, and saw that now is the time to live my life on the edge, make mistakes, travel, meet new people, move to various places and find myself through my experiences. Working a nine to five job really prevents me from achieving these goals. But regardless, working to earn money is something respectable in today’s day and age, and I will continue down this path until I have enough money to get the hell out of Wisconsin for good.

Now, since I am in that full-time mindset and sleep schedule, living in a city where the cloudy skies make you want to sleep for the entire day, I need to wake myself up each morning somehow. It is truly something I find extremely difficult, and I know many of my friends have the same troubles.

After researching and practicing different morning routines, I found a few that work tremendously well. I want to share them with you in hopes that you can continue down a path of health and wellness, and be energized throughout the day.

Stretching

As soon as I wake up each morning, I practice two long stretches, both of which you can do while still laying in bed. The first is called the cross over stretch, where you keep your back flat on the bed with your arms extended outward. You then take your right leg and cross it over the left leg, giving your back a nice good stretch. Hold that pose for about 30 seconds and switch sides.

The second exercise is child’s pose, which is very common in yoga. For those that don’t know, you sit on your knees and bend your body forward, extending your arms as far as they can go and laying your face flat on the bed. You’ll give yourself a little jolt of energy with these different stretches, which will get your butt out of bed. Of course you can add more stretches to this routine, wherever you see fit.

Water

After you are up, chug as much water as you possibly can. I read that drinking 8 ounces is ideal, but I usually just guzzle my water bottle until I can’t guzzle anymore. You will be surprised how awake this makes you feel, and be on your way to starting the day off right!

Fruit

One fruit that I find incredibly awakening is an apple. Every morning I feel groggy or sleepy, I eat an apple and immediately have more energy. A lot of my friends do not eat breakfast, which I can truly relate too. Each morning I wake up, I really don’t feel like eating anything. But more recently, I have been forcing myself to eat an apple as soon as I arrive to work in order to jumpstart my metabolism and wake tf up. If you’re not into eating apples, you can choose other fruits like bananas and grapes. And as always, freshly squeezed juice is something that makes me unbelievably awake throughout the entire day.

Working out

Although more recently I have had to slow down on the exercise because of my awful ligaments, working out before starting your day off has incredible benefits. Not only are you getting your daily exercise out-of-the-way, you are building up a habit that will drastically and positively change your lifestyle.

So there you have it friends, how to wake up in the morning. As always, please share with me your thoughts on morning routines, if you have any…and good luck to those joining the workforce.