In this episode, Coach Jo and Coach Kim dive into the power of morning routines and how they impact productivity, well-being, and overall success. Each coach shares their personal struggles to create and maintain a morning routine and share strategies for how to make their mornings successful. This includes prepping the night before, not hitting the snooze button, skipping the doom scroll, and eating a healthy breakfast. They discuss how small habits—like drinking water first thing in the morning and planning the night before—can make a big difference in energy levels and focus throughout the day.
The conversation highlights key strategies for building a sustainable morning routine, including reducing decision fatigue, prioritizing protein-rich breakfasts, and avoiding common sabotagers like social media and an unorganized start to the day. Coach Jo and Coach Kim also explore how nighttime habits influence mornings and offer practical tips to create a routine that is both effective and flexible when life gets in the way. Tune in for actionable steps to transform your mornings and set yourself up for success!
Resources discussed in this episode:
--
Contact Joely Churchill and Kim Berube | Iron Lab:
--
Transcript
Coach Jo 00:09
Welcome to Perfectly Unfinished Conversations, the Iron Lab podcast with Coach Jo…
Coach Kim 00:14
…and Coach Kim…
Coach Jo 00:15
Where you ride shotgun with us as we have raw, real, unfiltered, and unfinished conversations about trying to eat, sleep, train, and live with some integrity in a messy, imperfect life.
Coach Kim 00:27
We're all about creating a strong support system, taking radical personal responsibility, having fun, and being authentic. And one of the most common themes you're going to find in this podcast is the idea that we create positive momentum in our life, by doing what we call b-minus work.
Coach Jo 00:45
We’re making gains and getting ahead and loving life without self-sabotaging our goals by striving for perfection. We get it done by moving ahead…
Coach Kim 00:55
…before we're ready…
Coach Jo 00:56
…when we aren't feeling like it…
Coach Kim 00:58
…and without hesitation.
Coach Jo 1:00
Be sure to subscribe now on Apple or Spotify, so you don't miss a single episode. It’s good enough. Let's go. Welcome back, folks. We are going to dive right in today on the importance of morning routines. So Kim, tell me the truth here. How's your morning routine?
Coach Kim 1:19
Well, funny you should ask, because my sleep is a mess right now. And that affects my morning routine for sure. 80% of the time, I love my morning routine, and right now it's pretty dialed in. Like it's Monday, and it's pretty dialed in, and I'm relieved and happy about that. But if you would’ve asked me Friday, I was a mess. And on the days where I'm early coaching mornings and when my alarm goes off at four, like I don't like those mornings very much. And I'm, if I'm not very organized the night before, to get out of the house by 5am I set myself up to fail all day. So, I prefer to wake up without an alarm and to sit and drink something hot. I like to journal and dump out my brain in the morning and then eat breakfast and pack my meals. But recently, I've been opening up my phone too early, which sucks me into the vortex of lost lifetime. And I find the darker winter hard, because I love getting outside when the sun's coming up. That's one of my favourite habits ever, and I'm kind of over the dark right now in the season, just with winter. So I was really excited when I drove to work this morning that the sun's coming up quarter to eight it’s light.
Coach Jo 2:26
The sun was shining before I got my car.
Coach Kim 2:28
Amazing, because it's minus 31 this morning, and that was tough. But on the days that I struggle to make my morning routine happen, like on the days where I don't do all the things that I love, I I'm a disaster all day long. Like, I don't eat a great breakfast, I don't pack adequate meals for lunch or snacks. I leave my water bottle behind. I'll decide, oh, I can just grab something on the way, which is forcing me not only to spend money, and it also forces me to try to rely on someplace out there that fits foods that align with my health and my plan, my goals, right? So, that's just a bad idea. So, to top it off, I come to work feeling like I don't want to be there because I'm not ready, and my hair is probably half-assed and my makeup hasn't done.
Coach Jo 3:09
Oh, I liked your hair today.
Coach Kim 3:10
Oh, thanks.
Coach Jo 3:11
I did. It was nice and straight.
Coach Kim 3:12
Today was a good day, but if you would ask me Friday, what'd you say to me? You said, Elvira or something. I've even forgotten my laptop before, at home.
Coach Jo 3:25
Yeah.
Coach Kim 3:26
Like, talk about disorganized. So, yeah.
Coach Jo 3:27
You know, this topic is so timely because I recently came back from a hockey tournament, which is four and a half hours away, and I feel like I was hit by a dump truck today. Even though, you know, I was sleeping early enough, even though I tried to have food ready, I tried, but I really didn't try. I didn't meal prep, like I should have. I'm just exhausted from the weekend with my two young boys, where I was riding solo and it was just a long ass drive home. So like, what I hear us saying is that this whole thing, things could have been avoided if we had taken a few minutes to plan ahead the previous night.
Coach Kim 4:00
Yeah, makes me wonder how many people are rolling out of bed and totally just hitting the ground running every day, which I would absolutely hate. Like could is rolling out of bed and winging it an actual strategy? It could be a strategy, but probably not a great one. And so we're talking about the importance of a morning routine, because rolling out of bed and winging it might work if you've built really strong habits that keep you on track without much thought, but for most people, this habit or this approach leads to decision fatigue and inconsistency and frustration, so a little bit of structure, like a solid morning routine, a set workout schedule, or even just time set aside to plan meals, can make a huge difference in energy and focus and time, free time and long term success. So sure you can wing it, but you'll probably get better results if you at least. Have a loose plan.
Coach J...