Your Morning Routine: The Best Way to Start Your Day
Do you even have a morning routine or a set of rituals to kick start the day. Or do you chop and change and literally rewrite the script every morning? Getting up is less painful with routines and mini moment rituals.
Dr Bianca Piscioneri
The worlds easiest 2-minute detox and hydrator that really matters: glass of warm water first thing in the morning
At GGDS, we take care to pay attention to the hidden signs of dehydration in the mouth, lips and skin of the face. Dehydration is mostly silent and subclinical. In other words, we are not aware of it. Regardless of how much water we may drink before we go to bed, we are typically dehydrated when we wake up as our bodies go through its renewal nighttime biological processes. Add coffee and tea to the morning and the dehydration balance tips further into a negative direction, affecting our mood and general well-being often much later in the day.
At GGDS, our expertise starts with understanding hydration and its impact on our health inside and out on our skin and face.
Fifteen years ago, I went to a lecture by a forward-thinking professor on the composition of saliva and its impact on every day health of teeth and general well-being. Solidly backed by science, I learnt about the importance of starting the day with a warm glass of water on an empty stomach as soon as you rise from bed. This stimulates salivary flow and you can feel your mouth moistening as an immediate effect. Saliva brings with it digestive enzymes and many other substances that we now know can impact gut health, brain hydration and overall mood, health and well-being. Over all these years, we have helped our patients learn more about themselves and their needs for hydration and impact on their health. They regularly tell us just how much this single piece of advice has helped them.
Serious about Saliva: GGDS expertise leads the way on saliva health and well-being but what about that morning coffee?
Saliva is special. It is made of water and a spectacularly large number of other substances such as complex protein and enzyme systems, and is instrumental in the first processes of digesting our food. Coffee, tea and other dehydrators or diuretics stimulate the production of the diuretic hormone which causes subclinical dehydration.
Having some water after coffee, for example, helps to support the first glass of warm water. The glass of warm water can become a mini-moment morning ritual that we start every day with infusing our bodies with hydration right from the start of our day.
Exercise or a take quiet moment with yourself
Exercise gives you endorphins and many other health benefits. Doing practices like yoga or simply taking the time to light scented candles or spritz our essential oil-infused perfumes in your immediate space and ease into your day. The endorphins in their simplest function help to lift your mood and positivity.
If there is no adequate time for either of these, try and take a moment of quiet stillness with yourself by taking five breaths from your diaphragm and relaxing your shoulders as you exhale.
Add a delicious and nutritious breakfast to your morning routine
Minimise sugar, both refined and natural, as breakfasts loaded with sugars are also dehydrators, which set you up for a slump later in your morning.
"...prepping before you go to bed ... can help eliminate decision fatigue."
Instead, choose carefully and think about and plan your breakfasts so that they have variety and don’t become boring. Make breakfast something you can look forward to in the morning with perhaps some prepping before you go to bed so that you can help eliminate decision fatigue.
Most important is actually to take the time to chew - between 40 and 60 cycles - before swallowing. This is the data from extensive studies on gut health and once again how saliva connects with digestive enzymes before the food reaches our digestive systems.
Oral care: brushing, flossing and other routines set out for your individual needs by our hygienist through Oral Prophylaxis
Don’t rush this part of your morning and be thorough with these procedures!
End your morning routine with a ritual of Hydra Re-New Lip Care, infused with Organic CO2 extracted Sea-buckthorn berry, chamomile and shea butter. This lip care will help to hydrate, nourish and protect your lips and the skin around them from both UVB and UVA rays.
Reapply throughout the day or apply under lipstick for softer, naturally fuller lips that are less strained and can ease into a smile effortlessly and in turn contribute to facing your day with confidence.
