Sally McMullen
Hey chicks, I'm Sal.
Alex Hourigan
And I'm Al.
Sally McMullen
And this is Two Broke Chicks, the show that shares life lessons for the gals, from the gals. And we're back with another mini episode of Fact or Cap, where we put a challenge or trend or something that we've seen on the internet to the test to tell you if it's shit or legit. Today's episode of Fact or Cap, we decided to put a morning routine challenge to the test, because we've all seen them all over TikTok and Instagram.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah
Sally McMullen
I feel like ever since COVID.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah
Sally McMullen
We've been all about the 'that girl' lifestyle morning routine will change your life. So we decided to make our own based on a lot of these trends that we've seen to see if it actually works. Did you want to run through what our 'that girl' morning routine was Al?
Alex Hourigan
Do you know what, Sal? I'd love to. As Sal said, we put together a morning routine that we kind of pulled from the science, the things that put you in the best mood, for like stress levels and energy levels, and how to like centre yourself before you start your day. So this includes four steps, which is to wake up at the same time every morning, move your body for at least 30 minutes, have a healthy breakfast, and to journal or write down your to do list for the day. We're gonna break down how that went. First of all, I would like to say I am not a morning person. I am a creature of the night, I like to stay up late, read books, do tequila shots and be a gremlin in bed for the whole morning. The reason why it's important to develop a morning routine is because it's good for your mental health, whether or not you're working from home, studying, going to work, waking up and doing straightaway, that thing that you need to do that day, whether it's going school, work blah blah blah, all that shit I just said, It's not good for you to just get straight into that. You need to kind of develop a routine that wakes your body up and gets it ready for the day mentally, emotionally and physically. Waking up at the same time every morning, our first step, my alarm goes off at 7am. But for this, I actually changed it to 7:30 because I knew myself that I always snooze it till 7:30am. And with this, I'm trying to curb that. So by putting it at 7:30 It's like, okay, you've just had a half an hour treat, no snooze. And if you listen to our recent episode about like the nice kind of ambient noises you can have as an alarm. That also really helped. But I didn't do it every day, I'll be honest, because there was a Saturday morning that I was like, "No, I'm going to sleep in". And I think that's okay. Like I think it's fine to have a routine for Monday to Friday. And then Saturday and Sunday. Just chill.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, exactly. Give yourself the permission and the room to sleep in or skip the exercise, whatever it is, on the weekend or whenever it suits you. Otherwise, you're doomed to fail.
Alex Hourigan
So with this, what I kind of learned, even from step one, was this is a Monday to Friday routine for me and a Saturday and Sunday looks different. What did you think about waking up at the same time every morning?
Sally McMullen
Yeah, I did the same thing, so I set it for 7:30. The best part for me was actually knowing that I'm going to wake up at that time every morning, so I know when to go to bed to get my full eight hours. Because I think I usually stay up all night and then I'm like, "Whatever, I'll just wake up whenever", and then I never get enough sleep. Whereas knowing that I was gonna get up at that same time every morning, forced me to go to bed a little bit earlier to get enough hours. So I always see that Flex is like, "Yeah, I don't get up earlier than like 10am", or whatever and she's like the most successful person I know.
Alex Hourigan
She's got like so many side hustles.
Sally McMullen
Exactly, like she is working hard. So just make it work for you. It doesn't have to be 'get up at 6am'. I actually found that really helpful and again, making it achievable. If I was going to make it 5:30 In the morning, like there's no way I'm going to do it.
Alex Hourigan
Okay, so moving your body for at least 30 minutes. I think this is my favourite part of the step because again, I don't like waking up early and I'm lazy by nature. I'm a real catch. But I find doing this, it really resets your brain it really gets all those good brain juices flowing. And having that same time wake up makes it easier to develop the routine of going for a walk for 30 minutes. My body actually, and brain actually was like okay, wake up, now we put on our active wear. Whereas like before doing this, I would wake up and be like, "Oh, I really should go for a walk. I really should do that". But I was like, but I'm tired and I want to sleep longer. But this kind of forced me to build that healthy habit loop that was spoken about before. And I'm a slut for a hot girl walk, I love it. And I'm lucky enough to live in Bondi where it's beautiful to just walk down to the beach and grab my iced coffee, pat lots of dogs, see lots of sexy people.
Sally McMullen
Like make it an enjoyable experience. If a HIIT class is your jam, good for you, if it's a hot girl walk, great.
Alex Hourigan
Also, it doesn't have to be the same thing. You can go for a walk, you can do a HIIT class. And if you're feeling a little bit more tired that day, maybe just do a stretch, like maybe pull up a yoga video on YouTube.
Sally McMullen
Exactly. That's why I love the 30 minute move your body not go to the gym. So I did the same thing, some mornings I would get up and go to the gym, some mornings, I would get up and stretch for 15 minutes, and then I would walk to a cafe that's a little bit further than where I usually go. So mix it up, because, yeah, don't want to go to the gym every day, and again, setting yourself up for failure. Super easy.
Alex Hourigan
Super easy. Moving on to have a healthy breakfast. I know it's bad, but I don't always eat breakfast every morning because some mornings I wake up and I am a ravenous beast that hasn't eaten for a month. That's how it feels. And then some mornings I am not hungry at all and probably wouldn't eat till like two o'clock. But with this I realised I am hungry. And then that's why I get to two o'clock and I see that I don't eat and I eat for a small village. And oh my gosh, my energy levels. So we speak all the time about how about 3-3:30, Sal and I get really tired and we have like an energy dip. And after making sure that I ate breakfast and it was like a good breakfast, and like a hearty meal every day, I noticed the biggest jump in my energy levels.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, totally. We drink coffee every morning without fail. So I think that's the thing is that, that curbs your appetite a little bit so you don't feel hungry. But then you get the like coffee anxiety shakes at about 10:30 whereas I wasn't getting that when I was actually eating breakfast.
Alex Hourigan
I would like to tell you about some of the breakfasts I had.
Sally McMullen
Please do.
Alex Hourigan
That were some of my favourites. Obviously a bagel with cream cheese, the everything bagel with cream cheese, a thin slice of tomato, some onion, salt, pepper and chilli flakes. Oh my god my mouth just started watering
Sally McMullen
Me too. I'm so hungry.
Alex Hourigan
The next one is, I'm not a big eggs person, but shakshuka. Shakshuka eggs are so good. They're this Mediterranean dish that's in like a spiced tomato base and the eggs are poached in, get some toast, dip it in the tomato and the eggs. Oh my god, my mouths watering, I'm so hungry right now. And then my third was an acai bowl. I have recently discovered these and they are so yum. They are the yummiest thing, I don't know how they're not a dessert because they are so yum. I'm like this is naughty, right? And it's like no, it's healthy, it's berries. It's high in sugar because it's a lot of berries, but I'm like, give it to me.
Sally McMullen
Literally.
Alex Hourigan
Good stuff. And then last but not least, some Vegemite toast.
Sally McMullen
Can't go wrong with some Vegemite toast.
Alex Hourigan
Butter, Vegemite toast. I had some really lovely breakfasts. Breakfast hasn't always been one of my favourite meals of the day but it's kind of slowly creeping up the ladder. Dinner will still reign supreme. But I think it's overtaken dessert.
Sally McMullen
Wow!
Alex Hourigan
Dessert might be my least favourite now.
Sally McMullen
Anyway, we're really hungry if you can tell.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah!
Sally McMullen
But yes, absolutely have a healthy breakfast, completely change your day. And then, this is probably my favourite out of all of them and that is journal or write down a to do list for the day. So I was finding myself writing down my to do list. I like tried to journal and just talk and I was like, I f*cking hate this. Like, this is not my jam.
Alex Hourigan
You're not a big fan of the journal, are ya?
Sally McMullen
No, it's not for me. Whereas the to do list was super productive and we're both the same in terms of we have like a lot going on in our mind constantly. We also have a lot going on in the work day and a lot of moving parts so I found that writing down my to do list, I would break it down by what I had to do at work, like top three priorities. What I had to do just in my home life, so whether that was take the rubbish downstairs, do this washing, call whatever about the phone bill and then also have like fun stuff in there as well. So like watch this, listen to this podcast.
Alex Hourigan
That's good!
Sally McMullen
Like stuff that I probably don't need to have,
Alex Hourigan
Yeah!
Sally McMullen
a reminder of but I was like, "This is fun".
Alex Hourigan
That's good, add fun things to your to do list. So be like, 'Watch Stranger Things'.
Sally McMullen
Yeah
Alex Hourigan
Read my smutty fairy book for 5 minutes.
Sally McMullen
Exactly.
Alex Hourigan
I do like journaling but I need a prompt. So I have a journal that has questions and prompts in it that I answer that. Because if I journal without a prompt, it's like "Dear Diary".
Sally McMullen
Exactly.
Alex Hourigan
Cuz I've got too much to say.
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
And then I feel a bit lame. You know?
Sally McMullen
Totally. It's like, it's just me, myself and my journal and yet it's still so cringe. I just can't.
Alex Hourigan
Maybe that's why it's cringe because we can't confront our emotions. But if you struggle with journaling, get a prompt journal notebook. There's also heaps of prompts on like Pinterest as well.
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
So you don't have to buy a certain journal, you can just write out the prompt for you as well. And then the thing that I started doing after we did this, is we were sitting on the couch on Sunday and I was in like a really good mood. And I was thinking about all the things that day that had happened really good. I was getting to keep my foster puppy. for another week. I was watching like a really funny TV show, I was having a glass of wine and a cute boy had come to the apartment, and like all that stuff. And then I started a group chat with Sal and our other best friend and I was like, do you know what? Every day, at the end of the day, we're now going to send in the three things that we were grateful for that day. And since then, oh my god, we didn't do it last night.
Sally McMullen
I just realised we didn't do it last night, because we went out for drinks and so was Helena. We'll do it after this.
Alex Hourigan
That's fine. But it's just so nice because one, you are practising gratitude on things that was so good about your day, no matter how small they were. Like, I think one of my things that I was grateful for was just crawling into my like, toasty warm bed. I was like, I'm so excited to do that. And also to hear what your friends, like really enjoyed about their day rather than being like, how was your day and people will be like, "Yeah, it was good", or, "Oh, it was a bit stressful". But you actually get the specific things about the day that they've really enjoyed. And you were like, "Oh, I finished Stranger Things". And then we started talking about that. We were like, "How good was it?".
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
So this is your sign to start a gratitude chat with your friends. This chat, you are only allowed to discuss the three dot points that you send in each day. Otherwise, it gets convoluted with too much other stuff. So if it sparks a conversation about something else, take it to your normal group chat. This group chat is just for the grateful vibes.
Sally McMullen
Exactly. It's been so much fun. I've been loving it. So definitely. Now we've got the morning routine sorted. And then that's your bedtime routine.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah. Well Sal, Fact or Cap, bitch?
Sally McMullen
Wow, I'd say that it was a fact.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
I think that I was the same as you like, there were a few mornings, like on the weekends, especially where I forgot or allowed myself to sleep in. But I think just give yourself that permission to do that on the weekends or whenever works for you. And again, like you can cater this routine to be whatever you want it to be. It doesn't have to be get up and go to the gym at 5:30. But I think just having any sort of routine is really helpful and give yourself that time before you start the work day to just enjoy your life.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah! Because you don't live to work. You work to live. There was a hungover morning there where I was like, f*ck this morning routine.
Sally McMullen
F*ck the journal.
Alex Hourigan
F*ck the journal, babe.
Sally McMullen
And that's okay.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, it's a fact. It's a fact.
Sally McMullen
It's a fact. That's a wrap for another episode of Fact or Cap. We can pop a bunch of links to some of the TikToks and journals and everything else that we found helpful for this challenge in the show notes. If you want to read a transcript of today's episode had to finder.com.au/two-broke-chicks. And also I want to hear from y'all and what are some of your like morning routines or little things that you like to do to get that 'that girl' energy, we'll put it in a Facebook group, Broke Chicks Club. Hit us up in the comments. Let us know what gets you going. Not like that. But also.
Alex Hourigan
I had another part of the routine but we won't discuss that.
Sally McMullen
Oh my god. Thank you to our executive producer Pariya Taherzadeh, Bamby Media for editing today's episode and Made in Katana studios for having us. And thanks to you, chicks for having us in your ear holes, we love to be here. See you next Tuesday.
Alex Hourigan
See you next Tuesday.
Sally McMullen
Bye chicks!
Alex Hourigan
Bye!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
