Welcome to My Morning Routine, where Amanda De Cadenet and other good-life gurus share their personal (frequently surprising, often healthy) morning rituals—to help you make your a.m.’s more awesome.
I’m an early riser thanks to my 9-year-old twins. I usually get up around 6:30 a.m. and the very first thing I do is check my phone—of course. I have friends who forget my parental sleeping habits and will call me at 3 a.m., so during the night I keep my phone away from me and turned off.
Then, I go make my coffee. My husband and I are really into our coffee, so I enjoy the process of making it—and drinking it. Then, the next few hours are really devoted to getting my kids up and out. Sometimes, I don’t even look in the mirror until I’m home from dropping them off [at school]; I just throw on something easy. I love Christy Dawn Jumpsuits—I have it in a ton of colors and it’s so chic and easy, but my kids like to joke that I look like a sausage!
Once I’m home, my day can begin. Three to four days a week in the mornings, I have a trainer come to the house to help me work out. I really don’t love it—I would so much rather eat cake—but I have pre-diabetes and exercise is one of the major measures to help reverse the effects. I love nature, so we’ll hike for a half-hour and then do resistance training for a half-hour. Once I’m done with my workout, I’ll sometimes do Transcendental Meditation. I try to meditate twice a day, but sometimes it makes me too tired so I’ll occasionally skip it and scroll through Instagram instead.
For breakfast, I have the same exact thing every single day: a smoothie with unsweetened almond milk, my nutritionist David Allen’s Chocolate Protein Powder, a tablespoon of nut butter, and ice. It keeps my blood sugar leveled and keeps me full.
After breakfast I always pack a bunch of snacks for my day, too, to make sure my levels stay even. I’ll pack almonds, blackberries, sometimes an apple and nut butter—I put them in special bags and bring them to all my meetings and appointments. Wellness is a major part of my life right now, so I’m just trying to be as conscious and healthy as possible. I’m crazy about how much water I drink: I pack a cooler with bottles, leave it in the back of my car, and I make sure to drink all of them by the end the day.
My beauty routine is pretty simple. I clean my face, make sure to apply a ton of sunscreen and moisturizer, and I’m on my way. Truthfully, I tend to bring my makeup bag in the car with me for my meetings—I’ve got it down to a 10-minute science. I could probably do it with my eyes closed—I do my brows, a little lip, and swipe some mascara, and I’m done.
For more brilliant advice, check out the Suri-approved breakfast that fuels Katie Holmes’ day or the healthy beauty secret that all supermodels swear by, according to Veronica Webb.