Last updated on June 23, 2015

When I still smoked I had a rather unhealthy morning routine. There was the “morning hack” aka smoker’s cough, but of course that’s not what I had…at least not officially. I called it a “sinus problem”, because I didn’t want to admit the truth, but nevertheless, it was part of my early morning routine. Coughing and trying to breeze normally, it took some time.Then I went into the kitchen, poured me a strong cup of coffee and searched for a cookie or something like that. I was smart, I knew that smoking on an empty stomach wasn’t a good thing to do, so I declared a cookie and a cup of coffee as breakfast in our house…and that’s what I had every morning. After that I could finally take the cup with me, open the door to the outside, let the dogs out and could smoke the first cigarette of the day, that I so desperately seemed to need.

My morning routine has changed so much after I quit smoking. “Morning hack” what is that? The cough is gone since a long time. I really can’t remember, but I think it took only 2 weeks of not smoking and the problem just disappeared. I officially cured my sinus problem. Now I get up and get dressed right away. That’s right, I get dressed without a shower, but not for the day, just sweatpants and an old, unattractive t-shirt and tennis shoes. I go downstairs and start the coffee, grab a banana or some other piece of fruit or still an old cookie, if available. Then I turn around and call the guys, our four-legged family members – some people call them dogs – and out the door we go for our morning walk.

“Lets go guys” is so much better than my old routine!

Today’s daily prompt asked what I do within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning, to make sure my day starts on the right foot. Oh my Gosh my early morning routine has changed so much over the last 11 months and I never really thought about it until now.