Learn about my thyroid morning routine. Join me as I share with you my thyroid health morning routine. Discover the things I do every morning and the things I do when I have the time in the morning in order to make sure I am supporting my thyroid for maximum health. Having a good morning routine is a must for you to have good thyroid health.
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Episode Transcript
Hello. This is Anna Laura Brown, host of the Autoimmune Rehab Podcast, where we explore ideas, solutions, and helpful hints to help you in your autoimmune healing journey. We strive to transform your health and inspire hope in you so that we can help you with your emotional healing and self-care, and some of your physical healing, things like diets, that kind of thing, which you know, you would find on any kind of podcast on an autoimmune.
Find all the episodes with show notes@autoimmunerehab.com. And now without any further delay, let’s get started. Welcome to today’s episode of the Autoimmune Rehab Podcast. Ladies, in today’s episode, I’m gonna be sharing with you what I consider to be a sometimes underutilized, under-talked about topic that I feel is really important and that is of the importance of a healthy morning routine.
And in this particular case, I am talking about. A healthy morning routine for your thyroid, just because as somebody who has Hasimoto’s, that is what I have personal experience with. But if you have any kind of an autoimmune condition, and really, I would argue that anybody and everybody needs to have a healthy morning routine, but especially if you have thyroid issues and or any kind of an autoimmune route, Condit.
you definitely need to focus on having a healthy morning routine. So first of all, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna talk about what I used to do as opposed to what I do now, and then share with you a little bit about what my ideal routine is like, as well as a minimum routine for good thyroid help for those days when I’m just a little bit too busy and I just don’t have the time to do my full.
Okay, so what did I used to do? So before I had Hashimotos and thyroid problems, I’ve always been lucky, if you will. I consider myself to be a little bit blessed that I am more of an early bird, early morning riser. So I’ve always been the kind of person that always got up a little bit sooner than maybe what I would need to do before I left for the day.
So, you know, I’ve never been the kind of person that liked to just roll out of bed and then. , you know, throw on clothes and head out the door. I’ve always been somebody who has liked to have an official morning routine. And so that definitely has helped me now that I have my autoimmune issues and having a morning routine is even more important.
And that said, I used to still, you know, not have as much of a formal morning routine, if you will, and I would not get up quite as early as I do now. So what do I actually do now? So now , I have an alarm clock, and yes, I do use it Monday through Friday, especially assuming that it’s a day that I have to get up and go to work on the weekends or days when I don’t have to be out the door by a certain time to go to work.
Then sometimes, you know, I may not use my alarm clock necessarily, and I have an alarm clock that I just got on Amazon that I really like. It’s a really good one. Turns on a bright yellow light about 10 minutes before I wake up and make noises. There’s different settings you can even wake up to the radio.
Currently I have a noise that displays some birds chirping that I like to wake up to, and that works pretty well for me. And I wake up at about five 30 in the morning and. Have to leave for work between about 6: 45 and seven 15. Just kind of depends on different factors, what time I have to be to work at that kind of thing as to how soon I leave.
And I currently still work an in-office job Monday through Friday. We were working from home for just over two years due to Covid, but now we’re officially required to be in office unless you actually have Covid. And then of course you can’t come to the office and you have to stay home for two. Which actually is what happened to me in July, and you’re hearing this episode in September, but.
So that is a little bit about me. So I have, you know, a deadline by which I have to get out the door. Now, if I was completely self-employed or you know, was a stay-at-home mom and didn’t have a specific time I had to leave, then you know, I may or may not in that situation necessarily use an alarm clock and you know, things might be different.
But because I do have a specific time, I have to leave, I have to be out the door, I have to go to work, then I do have to use an alarm clock. , and so here are the things that I do on what I consider to be an ideal morning routine. Now, granted I did point out that there are some days I don’t always have time to do all these things, and so I will at the end cover some of the, what I consider to be some of the very basics.
Of what I consider to be a morning routine for times when I just plain can’t do everything that I feel like I need to do. So these are the things that I do, and I like to do a lot of these things in the order that I’m going to talk about them. So the first one is, I will literally roll right out of bed and go take my thyroid medicine.
And this is a really, really important one. I am currently on Lith thine. I would love to eventually not be on it, and I’m working towards that, but as of right now, I am on it. And. If you were taking thyroid medication, that really should be the first thing on your thyroid health morning routine too, primarily because you do have to wait at least an hour after taking it really before you can take supplements or food or anything else like that.
So I take it and I drink at least a good six to eight ounces of glass of water with it. And so that’s the very first thing I do. Then the next thing I do is I have a little 16 pound black, fluffy, sweet, smart. Super adorable Schnoodle dog who sleeps in her kennel in my bedroom. And so I will take her out and let her go outside.
And while I’m doing that, I will get a little bit of, you know, some stretching in. Some morning movement and then depending on what’s going on with my sister who also lives with me and we share the dog. Sometimes my sister will take the dog and cuddle with her while she’s sleeping because she doesn’t get up as early as me.
or sometimes I’ll take the dog back down with me and just have her with me while I continue with the rest of my morning routine. So then the next thing on this list that I like to do is I spend five to 10 minutes on a T-zone machine. Now, a T-Zone machine is something, if you’re not familiar with it, you can look it up.
Maybe something that I may discuss in more detail on a future podcast. , but you can only use it for up to 10 minutes at one time. You also do not have any food in your stomach. When you get on it and you have different settings that can, it can either shake you just a little bit or you can shake you really a lot for up to 10 minutes.
I sometimes can’t always tolerate the full 10 minutes, so sometimes I only do like five. Minutes, eight minutes, maybe however much I can tolerate up to 10 minutes. And it is really good for your immune system. Your lymphatic system really just shakes you up. Is it somewhat marketed as a form of exercise machine?
There are a lot of times there will be some chiropractic offices, functional medicine clinics, things like that, that actually will have T zones available in their office for their patients. So that is just another really good thing that I like to do. It is to do that T-zone. Then the next thing that I will do is I like to do 10 minutes of red light therapy, and depending on how much time I have, sometimes I’ll just sit there and do it.
Other times I will do some kind of scripture or motivational reading while I am. I need red light therapy, and I have that machine turned on to help save time. Um, other times, you know, I’ll do the scripture and motivational reading separately, or sometimes I’ll even do it while I am taking public transit to work or, you know, just somehow fit.
Try to fit that in sometime before I arrive at work. Then the other thing I do is journaling and or meditation for 10. And like, again, this is another thing that I sometimes can do while I have the red light therapy running in order to save time. And then after I’m through with that, I like to ride a stationary bike for five minutes.
I had knee surgery about not quite six months ago as of the date of this recording, and so my knees are pretty weak and so it really, really helps me to do that stationary bike for the five minutes. I usually don’t last any more than five minutes, but I do usually do it for five. And then after that I used to like to exercise with the Nintendo Switch for 15 to 30 minutes.
Now that may seem like a little bit of maybe a strange way to get exercise, but I found that it’s been really more fun, entertaining. and more encouraging to do at-home exercise with a Nintendo Switch. So I have Let’s Dance with an unlimited subscription. I also have a Zumba more than a Nintendo Switch, and then I also have the Fit Ring as well.
And then also another home fitness program for a Nintendo Switch. So, you know I, well, I do enjoy playing other games like Mario and some of these other games on Into the Switch. I found that I use it a lot more for at-home. So I will do that, like I said, anywhere for 15 to 30 minutes in the morning, depending on how much time I have available.
Then after that, it’s time for me to get dressed and in some cases maybe showered. I currently only wash my hair twice a week. . So you know, I only have to do the shampoo and all that stuff on Wednesdays. And then on Sundays, which I never work on Sundays, so I have more time in the morning on Sundays. So Wednesdays typically have to be one day when I may have to pair this down a little bit, like I’m not, probably not gonna do Nintendo Switch for more than 15 minutes on a Wednesday because I do have to shower and wash my hair, that kind of thing, and get dressed.
And then I also will put some different essential oils and creams and rubs and things on both my feet and my. So for my knees, I rotate usually between the deep blue lotion and deep blue stick, and then I always have one of those with me at work to reapply throughout the day. Then on the feed, I usually will put some on guard and maybe some other different kinds of oils depending on what I feel like I have health needs for.
and I include links with this in the description of the podcast that you can go check them out yourself and then we’ll put the cut pair of cotton socks on directly after doing the essential oils to help them absorb in through my skin. And the main reason I put the essential oils on my. Feed is because that just is a better way of having them absorb up through your skin.
Then the next thing that I do that I feel is a really important part of a healthy morning routine is that I make sure that I have prepared a lot of my food for my breakfast and lunch the night before, so I’m not rushing around, you know, I’m not in a hurry. I’m able to taint my time and focus on the other aspects of the morning routine by having the food ready and I basically just put it in my lunch bag.
Get it outta the fridge freezer. Might have to do a little bit more prep and then get it ready to go. So for example, one thing that I like to take to work with me for breakfast a lot is overnight oats. And I may have to add in things like frozen berries, bananas, that kind of thing in the morning. But of course the overnight oats doesn’t, kind of implies, have to sit in the fridge overnight.
So it has to be ready and prepared for the night. . And then the other thing I will do, you know, is like if I’m gonna have salad, I’ll already have the salad ready, but I may have to add on a can of tuna or the dressing in the morning. You get the idea. But that typically takes me less than 10 minutes because I’m typically ready with most of my food prepped and or, and it’s just a matter of getting it ready a little bit, doing the part of it that I can’t do it at night before and I never eat out during the day while I’m at work.
So I always have enough food with me and have it ready to go. So that’s always a really good thing. And the other thing that I always do is I have started in about the past six months or so doing a form of intermittent fasting. So I don’t do it quite as long as some people might do it, but I do. Stop eating.
Generally speaking, 90% of the time I really try to stop eating by 6:00 PM and then will not eat until 8:00 AM the next day. So I arrive at work at about 7:30 AM so that means that I am already at work for about 30 minutes before I eat my breakfast. And you can wait if you have an autoimmune condition till around 9:00 AM or so, just dependence.
how you know what time you finished eating the night before. I don’t recommend that you wait more than 14 hours. So if the last time you had any food the night before was at 7:00 PM then you know, you may wait till 9:00 AM but you don’t wanna wait super long because that can have an effect on your blood sugar or immune system, that kind of thing.
If you wait and you definitely don’t wanna just skip breakfast completely. So you know, you do want to have some b. You know, like I said, between about eight or 9:00 AM And then the other thing that I also do is I also will take my supplements right before I leave for work, and I try to carry an extra set with me or have it available to me at work in the office, just in case I forget The main supplements that I’m really taking the morning right now is the thyroid supplement and the mito two max from doTERRA.
And then sometimes, depending on how I’m feeling, I might also take a deep BU polyphenol or a turmeric soft gel. But those are really the main ones in the morning. I take some others at night or you know, sometimes if I’m not filling super well then I may take, you know, I have a list of others that I may take depending on my specific needs.
And then also a two chewable multivitamin as well, I should add that I take too. And then right before I get ready to go out the door for usually about 10 minutes or so, sometimes, again, it kind of just depends on how much time I have. , I will walk my dog really quickly and help her get the exercise that she needs to have a good successful day, to be nice and calm down, to make sure that she’s gone potty before I leave to go to work, so that I put her in my bedroom and turn on this little nanny cam that I have, that I use to watch her throughout the day while I am gone at work.
And then I walk out the door and leave. And. Work. So that is my ideal morning routine. Now, like I said, sometimes, you know, like on Wednesdays, especially when I do have to shampoo my hair, or occasionally I will have like a mastermind or coaching call in the morning or you know, just some other things going on that make it so that I can’t do this entire list.
Then some of the things that I consider to be the most important is obviously I have to get my thyroid medicine and my supplements taken. I also really have to let the dog out and let her go pee and take a short walk. That’s just really not an option for that knot to happen. I also obviously have to put clothes on and get ready, and then of these other things on the list, I consider doing some sort of stretching and or stationary bike for five.
And the 10 minutes of red light therapy to be the most important. So if I have to cut things out, I would cut out like the T-zone and maybe the journey or journaling and meditation or the scripture and inspirational reading, and maybe try to see if I can take a break at work to do some of that, or can do it on the way to work or on the way home if I’m taking public transit that day.
or I can do it, you know, during the hour before I go to bed. So anyhow, these are the things that I feel like make up a successful thyroid health morning routine. Help me to not feel too rushed. Help me to have good, strong health when it comes to my thyroid. And to exercise some really good self care as well as part of a good, healthy morning routine.
So I hope you found this helpful. If you have any additional questions for me, my contact information and the link to access all of the episodes on my website, autoimmune rehab.com will be below as well. Some of the other resources. I hope you will reach out. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.
Take care, and I look forward to sharing with you soon on another episode of the Autoimmune Rehab Podcast.
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