5
Seek natural light.
Perking up your morning
might be as simple as getting
a dose of natural light. Try
opening the shades, eating
breakfast outside, watering
your vegetable garden, or
taking a walk. “Light is like a
cup of coffee. It has an acute
alerting effect,” says Mariana
Figueiro, PhD, professor
and director at the Lighting
Research Center at Rensse-
laer Polytechnic Institute in
Troy, New York. Plus, being
out in nature, even for five
minutes, can give you a hap-
piness high, according to a
2018 study in the Journal of
Positive Psychology. Can’t
get outside in the morning?
Change the light in your
indoor space to brighten
things up, move your com-
puter closer to a window,
or paint your walls a more
vivid color.
4
Wear a feel-good outfit.
You know you feel better in
clothes you like—and science
backs that up. “You can use
clothing to improve negative
emotions,” says Dawnn Karen,
founder of the Fashion Psy-
chology Institute in New York
City. To better your mood,
choose bright colors, your
favorite fabrics or prints, or a
sustainable brand you feel
great about. Better yet, pick
out your outfit the night before
so you avoid a wardrobe crisis
Monday morning, says Ettus.
3
Rethink breakfast.
“Eating a satisfying and bal-
anced breakfast will allow you
to hear appropriate hunger
and fullness signals through-
out the day,” says nutrition
therapist Elyse Resch, RDN,
coauthor of Intuitive Eating
and author of The Intuitive
Eating Workbook for Teens.
But don’t think you have to
eat immediately upon rising,
which is the biggest miscon-
ception people have about
breakfast. If you get up at
6 a.m., you may not feel hun-
gry then, and that’s OK. Wait
until you do, and then eat
breakfast, says Resch. You’ll
get the energy you need and
enable your body to eat more
healthfully the rest of the day
because you won’t be starv-
ing. You’ll also get a mood
boost, according to a review
in the International Journal
of Gastronomy and Food Sci-
ence. When you eat, aim to
get about 15 to 25 percent of
your total calories (between
300 and 500 calories for
women) from that meal, says
review author Charles Spence,
PhD, professor of experimen-
tal psychology at the Univer-
sity of Oxford. Try oatmeal
with blueberries and walnuts,
or whole-wheat sourdough
toast and avocado, with fruit
and yogurt on the side. Resist
dashing to the coffeepot
when you first get up. Caf-
feine is more effective if you
wait to sip your first cup until
you’ve been up for an hour or
two, when stress hormone
levels naturally decrease. Not
into caffeine or fresh out of
beans? Sipping decaf, smell-
ing coffee, or even just think-
ing about coffee can be
enough to give you a boost,
notes Spence.
FROM
LEFT: GETTY IM
AGES; KEVIN SW
EENEY, SOFT STYLING BY ALEX SILVA; SHUTTERSTOCK
108 REAL SIMPLE SEPTEMBER 2019
BALANCE
