Why a morning routine?
1.Wake up, drink a glass of water and make my bed. Time Dedication: 3 minutes
2.Journalling/Morning Prayer/Affirmations: Time Dedication: 5 minutes
One of my besties Racquida introduced me to journalling late last year, and honestly, it is one of the most calming things ever. On top of that, she bought me this adorable journal! I love to write a few thoughts out, and to write down three things that I am grateful for that I can’t buy/don’t cost money (I first heard this from Mattie James ). It really helps to set my priorities and brings me into a state of appreciation. After journalling, I say a quick prayer thanking God for the day, and that I know it’ll be an amazing day! If I need to, I say some affirmations – “I am enough” “I can and will conquer today” “I am doing important work” to get my confidence up. Depending on the day I’ve had, I’ll journal right before bed too to get all the thoughts out.
3.Meditate: Time Dedication: 10 minutes
Oh, meditation! I mean, I could go on about this forever, so I wrote a separate post addressing it . Needless to say, this ten minutes in the morning reminds me to be mindful (so necessary for me!), to respond instead of reacting, and to remember that even on hard days, I can come back to a place of peace and calm in my mind.
4.Exercise/Yoga: Time Dedication: whatever fancies you
5.After I’ve showered, I make some matcha latte. Time Dedication: 5 minutes
I love matcha latte !! It takes like 2-3 minutes for the water to boil, one minute to add the ingredients to my blender and another 1 minute to blend it all together. It has almost 100% replaced my coffee habit, and helps to keep me energised while keeping me really calm. I love using my Silk Protein Nutmilk in my matcha latte for a boost of protein in the morning. Adding more protein into my mornings actually ties into one of my 2018 self-love goals , so this helps to get me on the right track already. What this means is that I get 5g of protein in my matcha latte (I use ½ cup milk) thanks to the Nutmilk , which is an amazing way to start the day. You could even replace the ½ cup water and use a full cup of milk to amp that up to 10g protein!
6. Breakfast Time! Time Dedication: Anywhere from 1 minute to as long as you can
Then I start my day! See? Not difficult, and super grounding. After a morning routine like that, I feel like I can do anything!
Tips For Starting Your Own Morning Routine:
- Test it out, and try a few different things! Don’t feel like you need stick to something because you think you should. I tried several different practices in the morning before sticking to one routine that quickly felt natural to me. Play around, and do what feels good .
- Don’t become a slave to your morning routine . Let me say this – I LOVE completing every single step of my morning routine. However, if I have an early morning appointment, or something else that must be done, I might skip some steps, or rearrange them. Maybe I’ll do yoga in the evening instead, or journal right before bed. The whole point is that, let me say it again, it makes you feel good. It shouldn’t make you feel stressed, or make you late! Being flexible with it is okay, and not something to feel guilty about.
- Start from the night before. I totally get that if you’re not working from home, adding a morning routine on top of your scrambling breakfast and packing lunch may seem impossible. If you always feel like you’re rushing, create a to-do list the night before of what you need to do the next day, including what can be done the night before. Can you maybe pack lunch the night before? I find that creating a list every night anyway helps make the next day go better. I know for a fact that my brain can’t think of a nice and logical list while I’m rushing!
- Don’t skip breakfast. No matter what your routine is, breakfast is a crucial part of it. If you’re like me and want to have a high protein breakfast, then using Silk Protein Nutmilk is the easiest way to go. In just a cup, you’ve already added 10g to your dish.
I hope you enjoyed this post! What do you do in your own morning routine? I would love to know!
Quinoa Breakfast Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cooked quinoa
- 5.25 ounces gluten free certified old fashioned oats 1 ½ cups
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 cup Silk Protein Nutmilk
- 2 flax eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons coconut flakes optional
- 2 tablespoons dried cranberries optional
- 2 tablespoons cacao nibs optional
- 2 tablespoons pepitas pumpkin seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease an 8x8 baking dish and set aside. In your blender of food processor, grind down the oats.
- In a bowl, mix the “oat flour”, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon together. Add in the quinoa, maple syrup, Silk Protein Nutmilk and the flax eggs. Mix everything together until combined. The batter should be wet. Fold in the coconut flakes, dried cranberries, cacao nibs and pepitas to combine. I like to reserve some to sprinkle on top, or even add more on top. You can even fold in different ingredients here if you’d like.
- Pour the mixture into the 8x8 baking dish and spread until even. Top with your additional toppings if desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes (I did 30) until the bars are set completely.
- Allow the bars to cool. Slice into bars - 9 or 12, and serve! Enjoy!
Nutrition
Quinoa Breakfast Bars https://jessicainthekitchen.com/progress-morning-routine-quinoa-breakfast-bars/ January 10, 2018
Today is an INCREDIBLY exciting post for me, because it’s something I’ve wanted to share with you for a while! At the end of this month I’ll be going to California for five weeks!!
Okay okay, you have a ton of questions, and I’m here to answer them all for you.
Why California? Well, a couple of reasons. The first reason calendar date wise is because I’ve been nominated and chosen as a finalist for a best original photography award !!! Scrolling through my inbox one day I found an email that said congrats finalists! I thought it was a general email going out to all conference attendees, but then I saw my face as I was scrolling down!!!! Friends, I’ve been nominated for a best original photography award!! This was out of hundreds of choices apparently that got narrowed down to a top 3.
Needless to say, I am incredibly excited. The self-doubt in me said wait what how why me? But the pure self love in me said you deserve this. It made me say – what have I been doubting?! It feels amazing to pour so much into something without reward, and to get one anyway. Even better, the Mr. and my mom and dad are coming with me to the Awards Ceremony!! The award ceremony will be held at the Shiftcon conference on February 3, 2018. Okay – I am so excited about this one!! I’m so excited to also go to the Shiftcon conference, check out the Irvine, California area and explore Laguna Beach beside it!! PS if you’ve been to Shiftcon before or you’re going this year then you can vote for me here !
Also, I’m going to GOOGLE !
As in…whaaaaaat?! Last year I went to Charleston, South Carolina for Mediavine’s very first conference. This year, Mediavine’s next conference is being held at the GOOGLEPLEX headquarters in Silicon Valley! When I first didn’t get a ticket, I really had to pray HARD for acceptance and I finally decided that God knew why. Then when I got pulled from the waiting list to get a ticket, I was even more happy since I had accepted not getting it. I immediately bought my conference ticket and did a happy dance around my living room in front of my mom and the Mr.
Google, friends!
I’m really excited to see how the inside of Google looks, how it works, and of course to see my blogging friends!!!! I can’t wait to see my blogging friends again, spend time, go on donut runs and laugh and chat endlessly. Blogging conferences are so fun for increasing your positive energy that I really recommend you attend one if you’re a blogger. Imagine hundreds of people, just like you, in the room. People who get it! It’s a total high vine energy boost for me that lasts months. Anyway, I’ll definitely be updating you via social media and I’ll do a post on this when I come back. I’ve never been to do conferences in a year so I am INCREDIBLY excited to feel that energy boost x 2!!
Last, and DEF not least, I’ll be spending a week with one of my best friends.
I was supposed to leave after the conference, but then Kellie (I named cupcakes after her a bunch of years ago ) said she wanted to come up. I immediately changed my ticket and we’ll be in San Francisco for a week! We’ve already gone on a trip before to see a Sia concert, so I already know we are going to have so much fun. She’s a total foodie too (she introduced me to quinoa!! So you can thank her all the quinoa posts) so look out for lots of food pics. Plus it’ll give us a week to really experience some cool parts of San Fran and totally be tourists, sans fanny pack. Unless they come in glitter pink. I kid, I kid.
So all in all, the time between the Shiftcon conference with the Awards Ceremony and the Google conference will be spent experiencing California. The Mr. will be there for two weeks, so we will get to spend lots of time being long term tourists, trying all the restaurants, doing all the hikes, and taking all the photos. Then I’m thinking of staying in West Hollywood after that! I’m so unbelievably excited friends. Our itinerary isn’t yet set, but you can keep up with our adventures over on Instagram !
Why is this a life changing trip?
One – it’ll be the longest that I’ve ever been away from my home country since living here! Also, I’ve never lived on my “own”. I went from living with my parents to the next day literally living with the Mr. While I have taken solo trips for work or to a conference that hasn’t lasted more than like 5 days by myself. In fact, the last solo trip that I took to a conference taught me so much about myself that I knew I wanted to experience that again. So for two weeks I’ll be by myself. I plan to use the time to get to know myself better, show myself self-love and enjoy California. Of course I’ll meet new people and probably Skype the Mr. daily. It’ll be a really exciting time. I want to try and take the time to rely on my own opinions, instead of asking someone else what they think I should do. It’s a bit scary, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Book Recommendation!
Of course, I can’t end this post without a book recommendation. Going away for five weeks wasn’t an easy decision, but at 26 I said there is NO time like now. Reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown is a book that really helped to propel me into taking this “risk” and trying out something totally new.
That’s it!!
If you have any recommendations, please, let me know!! If you live in any of the areas I mentioned I would also love to meet up! In fact, I’m thinking that a JESSICA IN THE KITCHEN MEETUP would be amazing! What say you?! Also yes, I’ll definitely be blogging the whole time.
Till next time friends!
