My Morning Ritual as a Nutrition Coach & Soon-to-Be Mama

I’m just under half way through my first pregnancy. Almost every morning, rain or shine, I go through the same morning ritual.

There are certain things that make me feel like a functional human no matter what else is happening in my life, and I’ve slowly put together a simple-to-complete routine that I can easily do every single morning.

A few pieces of the ritual come from my certification as a nutrition coach. Others come from my personal experience. Even when I was sick throughout the entire first-trimester, I was still able to do this routine almost every morning, which helped me stay regular in my digestion, keep my energy up, and kept me feeling human.

Let’s talk about the routine and why each piece is so important.

• Drink some water

Right when I wake up, I reach for my 40-ounce water bottle. Our bodies are desperate for hydration after a night of sleep. As a pregnant woman, my blood volume has nearly doubled and my body is busy creating amniotic fluid and transporting nutrients to my baby. Water helps support all of that hard work.

Drinking water first thing in the morning helps jump start metabolism, increases morning energy, and improves brain function.

It also helps digestion continue to work properly, which is vital for comfort and digestive function during pregnancy, and in general. Many pregnant women struggle with constipation, but by drinking water first thing in the morning, I help my body continue to eliminate waste efficiently to keep me feeling at ease while my body works hard to build my strong baby boy.

Experts recommend you drink around 20 ounces of water first thing in the morning. I drink around 10, and up to 20 ounces, of water. I don’t drink so much that I feel waterlogged, but I drink enough to feel energized and hydrated.

• Take my probiotic supplement

I decided to start taking a probiotic during pregnancy to aid in digestion and support vaginal health. My brand of choice is Perelel Health. Their probiotic is specifically formulated for vaginal bacteria health and is safe for pregnancy. I take it in the morning so I can make sure to have it on an empty stomach, which is when it is most effective.

Probiotics have been shown through research to be important for digestion, a healthy immune system, and for maintaining healthy energy levels.

During pregnancy, women's vaginal health can be affected by hormonal changes that increase vaginal discharge, potentially increasing yeast and other bacteria in the vagina, which can lead to infection. Most women are required to test for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) prior to birth. Women who are positive for GBS risk infecting their babies at birth, which can lead to potentially serious issues for newborns.

A probiotic can help improve vaginal bacteria balance and support general digestive and vaginal health.

It is vital that all women, particularly pregnant women, consult their care providers before starting any supplement.

• Brush teeth

Next I brush my teeth. We all know that we should brush our teeth twice a day for 2 minutes each time, but pregnant women in particular run a higher risk of gum disease due to poor oral hygiene. This is due to hormonal changes that can make the gums more sensitive to plaque and can lead to infection.

Pregnant women also often experience changes to their diets, an increase in stress, and issues like morning sickness that can make it challenging to brush regularly.

While I experienced some general morning sickness (it hit me worst in the evenings), the biggest issue for me with brushing my teeth during pregnancy was that my gag reflex became significantly worse. Brushing my teeth now quite often makes me feel like gagging, but I do my best to brush my teeth and gums and my tongue every morning during my morning ritual.

I currently use Crest Deep Clean toothpaste and a soft bristle tooth brush. I plan to switch to Bite tooth paste bits and a bamboo toothbrush eventually as part of my low-tox, low-waste journey. Read more about how to go Low-Tox/Low-Waste in my Clean Living Blog category.

• Go for a short walk

Next, I go for a short walk, 0.5 mile or so. I walk as fast as I feel comfortable, without breaking a sweat or getting out of breath. I tend to get short of breath throughout the day as it is (a common symptom during pregnancy), so I take it easy on the walk.

I can always tell when I don’t get my morning walk in because I feel sluggish and have more digestive issues. When I was feeling exhausted and nauseous during the first trimester, going out for a short, slow walk helped move food through my body, helped my nausea subside, at least temporarily, and gave me a little bit of energy from being outside in the fresh air.

A short morning walk can offer a bunch of general benefits, including boosting mood by releasing endorphins, improving mental clarity by increasing blood flow to the brain, jump-starting metabolism, strengthening muscles and joints, and reducing stress and anxiety.

Start slow and short, like a walk around the block or down the road and back. Increase distance or speed if you want to, but do whatever you can consistently do every morning without fail. Consistency is so much more important than “performance” when you’re pregnant or just trying to improve your general health.

• Make breakfast with the big 3 Macros

Finally, before I start my work day, I make breakfast with a source of protein, a carbohydrate, and a healthy fat source, the big 3 Macro-nutrients.

Keeping blood-sugar steady throughout the day is important for healthy metabolism in general, but it is especially important during pregnancy. Eating protein and a healthy fat alongside a carbohydrate first thing in the morning (and throughout the day) helps keep your blood sugar stable for a longer, more consistent energy boost that also helps you feel satisfied and helps your body continually recover.

My go-to breakfast during pregnancy is a homemade biscuit, a fried egg, a slice of center-cut bacon, and a little cheese. I also drink more water and have a glass of either skim milk or orange juice to add more nutrients.

Other options could be a smoothie with fruit, peanut butter, milk, and Greek yogurt or oatmeal with fruit and crushed nuts and scrambled eggs.

Check out my Nourish Blog category for future posts all about the importance of eating all three macro-nutrients and including micro-nutrient rich foods in your diet. To get all my best tips delivered to you, share your email address below:

Build Your Own Morning Ritual

You can build your own morning ritual to help boost your energy and improve your mental and physical health. Simply pick a few simple habits that you can do daily without much effort.

It’s most important that you pick things you can do Consistently without fail. The ritual needs to be simple enough to repeat over and over with very little time and effort put it (we mom’s are busy enough!!) but thorough enough to make a difference in our health and well-being.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your own simple and repeatable morning ritual:

• What are 5-6 healthy habits you might want to implement into your morning routine?

• What are 3 habits you can commit to doing every single day?

• Pick 3 to start and put them in order of how you plan to complete them.

• Try completing those 3 habits every morning for 5 days.

• Too easy? Want more? Add 1 or 2 other habits from your list and try it out again for 5 days.

• Keep adding small habits until your morning ritual feels complete enough to help improve what you want to improve, but still doable so you can do it every single morning without fail.

Do you have a morning habit you love? Share it in the comments!