Good Ole Caffeine.

Are you addicted?  Do you just have to have a cup of coffee before you feel like a human again?

Well, for me it was Diet Coke.  Or Pepsi.  Or Mountain Dew.  Whatever I could get my caffeine addicted little hands on.  I couldn’t ever develop a taste for coffee, so I turned to a much more horrible source of caffeine.

I’ve been diet soda free for four years now.  Not a drop.  Cold Turkey.  Gobbles all a burrrrr…..

And I’m better for it.  Now, I know coffee does have some health benefits, so I’m NOT Judy McJudgy here.  I’m just here to give you some tips for how I deal with no caffeine in the morning.  Even if I loved coffee, I just couldn’t drink it right now anyway because it would stress my adrenal glands out too much.

So, I have to wake up and deal with it naturally!

Here’s my list of 5 Easy Things to Do to Help You Wake Up in the Morning Without Drinking Coffee!

1.  Breathe

When you first wake up, before you do anything, do some deep breathing exercises right in your bed. If you are familiar with yoga, you can do some Ujjayi breathing.  This will help get the oxygen flowing through your body even before your feet hit the floor.

I used to think that if I didn’t just bounce out of bed, I didn’t sleep well or there was something wrong with me.  While that might be true, most of the time is isn’t.  Over the past few weeks even, I’ve had a revelation that I need to give myself more grace, particularly in the morning.

One way I do that is to just enjoy my warm covers and give myself a minute to breathe.  It does wonders.

2.  Drink water

Remember when you wake up, you are not only coming out of a fast of food, but also of hydration. Keep a glass or bottle of water by your bedside, and when you sit up, drink at least 8oz of water (if not 16).  Your body needs hydration and drinking water first thing in the morning will help wake you up without the caffeine monster.

3.  Use a face toner and wash your eyes with water

This is one of the most effective ways to wake myself up.  I found that if I take a lightly damp cotton pad and wash my eyes (getting all the grody sandman bits) I feel much more alive.  Then I use a Clinique toner to wake up my face.  It tingles a bit and is so refreshing!  I do this before I take a shower even.

4.  Get your blood pumping

If you don’t have time to go for a walk or go to the gym, just run in place for a minute or do ten minutes of morning yoga.  You don’t have to go out and kill yourself running to have a great cardio bump.

Do some jumping jacks or put on some music and just bebop around the room. Have fun with it!  Not only will your body wake up, but your mind will be happier too.

5.  If you’re still feeling groggy, go stand in front of the mirror and make silly faces.

I’m serious.  Go make yourself laugh.  Laughter is life and will start your day off in the best possible of ways.

It’s been stressful here this week for a myriad of reasons, one being that we sent our oldest baby off to college.  So, I’ve been binge watching Jimmy Fallon to de-stress and get some laughter in my life!

There are so many other ways to deal with tiredness than leaning on caffeine.  I’m not totally against it, mind you, but I try to stay away from it if at all possible. At least stay away from feeling addicted to it.  It’s much better to be able to get up and have natural energy.

I hope these simple tips will help you be able to wake up with a sense of peace and energy to start your day!

Do you have any other tips for waking up without caffeine?  Let me know down in the comments below!

xoxo

Gwen