How I Became a Morning Person

I don't know about you, but I love my mornings. I generally wake up between 6-7am, even though I don't have class until later in the day, and yet I never feel the need to turn over and go back to sleep.

I wake up completely refreshed and ready to start the day.

But I wasn't always this way.

I used to absolutely despise mornings. I was anemic for many years and would dread waking up. I knew no matter how early I went to bed, I would always wake up feeling groggy and ticked off.

So just how exactly did I become a morning person?

I Adopted a Low Fat Raw Vegan Diet

The very first step that improved my mornings was switching to a healthy raw food diet. While I didn't go raw to solve my aversion to the AM, this just so happened to be one of the effects.

You see, when you no longer consume toxic cooked foods, your body is no longer over burdened and does not have to work so hard to process what you eat.

When you eat a cooked food diet, particularly a high-fat SAD version, your body is almost constantly digesting food. Depending upon the types of foods you are eating, it can take hours and hours for your body to completely digest (digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination) just one meal.

So even if you eat an early dinner around 6pm, you will still be digesting your food well into the night. Now your body has to continue working instead of resting, which means a less restful and deep sleep for you.

And we know how painful those Monday mornings are when we haven't had a good night's sleep!

When you eat a healthy low fat raw food diet, on the other hand, digestion takes much less time and effort. Literally minutes after a large fruit meal, your body will already have run through the first few stages of digestion with relative ease.

And the final stage...you know the one...is not too far *behind*!

Haha, pun intended.:D

So if you eat dinner around 6pm, your body will have plenty of time to completely digest your food before bedtime. This means a much more effective sleepy session and a much more peaceful, refreshed morning.

I Killed My Alarm Clock

The second step I took that made me impervious to morning grogginess was to get rid of my alarm clock.

Think about it: how in the world can you expect to wake up to loud, incessant beeping and feel comfortable, refreshed, and ready to start your day?

It just isn't possible!

When you use artificial means to wake up, whether it's the beep of an alarm clock or the not-so-gentle nudge from a spouse, you risk awaking during an REM cycle.

These cycles occur every 90-120 minutes and this is when you are at your deepest point of sleep. Awaking during this time usually leaves you feeling super sleepy because you have not completed the cycle and, therefore, you have not gotten enough sleep.

Getting rid of your alarm clock means that you can allow your body to wake up naturally. You will awaken when your body is ready, feeling completely energized and ready to go.

I Ate Dinner Earlier

The final step I took that helped me become a morning person was to start consuming my dinner meals earlier in the evening. While it's much less-noticeable change than the first two, adopting this technique does make a difference.

Even on a raw food diet, our digestion slows down in the evening in preparation for rest. If we eat too late in the day, our bodies may still be working by the time we go to sleep.

The general rule is to eat your last meal 2-3 hours before you go to sleep. So instead of eating dinner at 8pm or so, I began eating between 5-7pm. This way, I could make sure that my meals were fully digested before my head hit the pillow.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to start eating early in the day. If you eat three meals a day and have breakfast at 9am, you could wait four hours between meals and have lunch at 1pm and then dinner 5pm.

*Easy, but I do have a little caveat:*

If you are brand new to raw foods, I do not recommend worrying about eating late just yet. It is more important to make sure you are getting enough calories and become comfortable with this way of eating first and foremost.

Even if you continue to eat late, you will still see a remarkable change in the way you sleep and how you feel when you awake if you adopt a low fat raw vegan diet and say bye-bye to your alarm clock.

When I first went raw and had trouble with undereating, I often woke up in the middle of the night and ate grapes or other fruit. Even with this late night snacking, I still woke up early and felt a BILLION times better than when I was a poor little anemic cooked food alarm-loving vegan.

Go raw, be fit, and embrace your mornings,

Swayze

For more information on the best raw vegan diet, be sure to visit http://www.fitonraw.com and subscribe to Swayze's newsletter Peachy Keen Ezine. By subscribing, you will also receive the free report The 4 Principles of a Healthy Raw Diet as well as the 5-week mini-course The Fool Proof Transition to Raw.