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A morning routine to start a stress free day

Writer's picture: Nicole PlantNicole Plant

5.45am.

Alarm goes off.

Bounce out of bed (ish).

Hastily dress in gym clothes (laid out the night before).

Be at the gym by 6am.

Weight train for 50 minutes.

Go home and walk the dog for an hour.

Grab packed lunch (prepared the night before) and pop in work bag (packed the night before).

Cycle to work.

Come home. Eat, Sleep, Repeat.


For the best part of two years this was my morning routine and with the three hours that I had to carry it all out, it was done with military precision - until COVID kicked in.


In the two years that have followed, I have had more morning routines than a dog-walking mum on a school run with three kids at different schools, multi-tasking as a milk-man with a paper round.


First of all, it turned into a long dog walk at the crack of dawn and training in the living room while the gyms were shut before commuting from the living room to the conservatory to work.

No need for pre-packed lunches and rucksacks and getting ready for work became a thing of the past.


When gyms re-opened, I still worked from home but the time-scales of everything else became sporadic as long as I could log on by 9.30am (on 90 per cent of such occasions I was still wearing what I had on to the gym or walking the dog).


Then we left the city lights of Leeds behind and returned to Whitby after many years of me badgering my husband about a better work life balance, but, to be honest by this point the scales were tipped all over the place.


It took a few months and with a few house moves still to come and all our worldly goods in a storage container and suitcases - sometimes the morning routine was just about finding clean underwear and the dog lead.


Eventually we got to a dog walk first and then gym scenario (the gym here opens an hour later) or vice versa depending on the mood of the dog who by now is older, arthritic and incredibly stubborn.


It was all beginning to work itself back out though. Until. Another dog. We have rehomed an actual furry rocket on four very fast legs.


With a dog aged 16 and a two-year-old working Border Collie now on board - the routine can literally vary with the weather.

Sometimes it is both dogs out together, sometimes the younger first then a second walk with the older one. Sometimes it is running, sometimes it is not at all as said older dog is refusing to soldier in favour of a duvet day.


The gym more often than not happens at night now after work.


Is this just me who seems to have put what was a strict routine out with the bath water or has the world changed the way for everyone?


However, one thing is a constant if nothing else. A morning routine at the coast could not be more different to one in the city and it always features the outdoors at its very best.

Whether that is a maraud through the woods, a walk on the beach or a run on the lines or the cliff taking in the spectacular views.

When a long stint in front of the laptop in the home office beckons - whatever which way the routine is working today, I know I have made the most of my morning.





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