After the sun rises and your alarm clock sounds, the morning often feels like it slips away. However, there are several ways to ensure this part of your day is utilized to the fullest. “Studies show that a positive start can significantly impact overall happiness levels and enhance productivity,” Kayote Joseph, a therapist, says, noting that it only takes 10 minutes to jumpstart your morning. The reason? “How you begin your day impacts your reticular activating system, which sifts and sorts external information,” she says, and helps you identify “more things to be grateful for or feel positively about.” Creating a habitual routine specific to your morning can ultimately help you have better days. “The science of habit creation looks like this: A behavior needs to be easily repeatable and followed by reward,” Andrea Marcellus, a wellness expert, shares. “Pick just one adjustment to focus on at a time, and be as consistent as possible for at least a week before adding another element to the [morning] routine.” Here, discover some of the best changes to make to your morning routine to maximize your wellness and efficiency throughout the remainder of the day.

Understand your body.

“A healthy and productive morning routine is one that sets you up for a positive mindset coupled with an energized body,” Marcellus says, something that might look very different from person to person. She recommends checking in with yourself to determine what makes you feel inspired mentally and physically; consider which foods, practices, and movements contribute to this. Then, instill “four or five activities that stimulate and empower you emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually” into your regimen, adds Marcellus.

Get moving.

Exercising, even for a short period of time, is part of a productive, healthy morning routine. “Movement combined with breath oxygenates every cell in the body, enlivening you both physically and mentally,” shares Marcellus, noting that intentional workouts and mindful breathing shuts down the brain’s amygdala—its fear and anxiety center—and activates the pathways that bolster problem solving and creativity. Adding gentle, impactful motion into your morning regimen, then, can empower your body and mind.

Eat a healthy breakfast.

According to Marcellus, eating one or two superfoods at breakfast each morning (or during a mid-morning snack if you wait over four hours between breakfast and lunch) will boost brain and body health and amplify dopamine (the happy hormone). “The key is to figure out which foods make you feel most energetic,” she says. “Many of my clients do better with yogurt or egg-based breakfasts and save grains for later in the day.”

Start the morning device-free.

Don’t begin your day by reaching for your devices—yes, this includes your cell phone. “Research shows that the first 10 minutes of one’s morning set the tone for one’s entire day, and checking emails and social media produce stress hormones in the brain, like adrenaline and cortisol,” Joseph explains.

Practice self-care techniques.

There are two main self-care practices Joseph says make for a better morning: meditating and writing in a gratitude journal. She guides beginners towards the former by way of YouTube (simply research guided morning meditations to get started). For the latter, Joseph likes to “wake up and write down all the good things I can remember from the day before.” However, any form of self-care—like making your favorite drink or visualizing your day ahead—works. “The goal here is to ease your brain out of theta (the brain wave state you’re in during sleep) and keep it out of high-beta (the brain wave state of stress) for as long as possible at the beginning of the day,” Joseph says.

Get dressed every day.

“I encourage people to get dressed and [look] put together, no matter what. It’s not about vanity—it’s about energy,” Marcellus says. This is particularly salient if you work from home. Practice “morning renewal” by putting on an outfit that fits well, arranging your hair, and applying a few makeup products, she shares. Feeling put together on the outside, Marcellus continues, gives us a mental and emotional boost on the inside.

Be consistent.

You’ll know if the changes in your morning routine are making a difference based on your response to the first challenge of the day, Marcellus notes. “If your knee-jerk response is to immediately shift to dread or anger that doesn’t quickly move to possibility, your morning routine can still use some work,” she says. “Once you start to notice that challenges don’t penetrate so deeply, and that you are able to see solutions relatively quickly and without a huge emotional response, you know that you are well set up for success each day.”

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We know a proper diet is the best way to be healthy but do we all really follow a proper diet? Trying to eat healthy and really eating healthy not always the route everyone goes. Of course, when I see some of the things, I eat on the healthy list you know I get excited. Avocados go with everything salads, sandwich, guacamole, you can always find something to add avocado to. Now imagine it’s good for your heart win- win people! Check out this article from http://www.marthastewart.com and below is another article on cranberries also healthy for your heart:

Avocados are delicious just about any time of day (for breakfast, lunch, and yes, even in ice cream). As you’ve heard, they pack plenty of healthy fats and nutrients and now, according to a new study, there’s even more reason to eat avocado for your good health. In fact, researchers have concluded that consuming just two servings of the fruit each week (one whole avocado or one cup diced avocado) could decrease your risk of having a heart attack by 21 percent (compared to those who don’t eat the fruit), reports the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers found that having a couple of servings of this healthy fat (equal to 80 grams) limits heart attack risks in women and men also when eaten in place of butter, cheese, and processed meats. To conduct their study, researchers followed more than 68,000 women and 41,000 men over a 30-year period for the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. None of the participants had experienced cancer, coronary heart disease, or stroke at the start of the study; and, as a way for researchers to track participants’ health overtime, each participant filled out dietary questionnaires every four years over the course of the three decades.

Related: Beyond Smashing: Our Absolute Favorite Avocado Recipes for Every Meal

The team noted that eating half a serving of avocado (¼ cup) each day instead of the same serving of eggs, yogurt, cheese, margarine, butter, or processed meats, like bacon, limited the risk of heart attacks by 16 to 22 percent.

There are replacements for avocado if it isn’t readily available in your area, says Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine and nutrition. He recommends trading high fat and processed foods for inexpensive alternatives such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils.

To prevent heart disease overall, the National Library of Medicine shares that reducing your sugar intake, as well as avoiding processed foods and saturated fats, is helpful. The American Heart Association adds that everyone’s body needs fat to increase energy, keep organs healthy, and more. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are known to protect the heart the most. Olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, and sesame oil, avocados, and peanut butter are all examples of monounsaturated fats.

Eating Cranberries Every Day Could Benefit Your Heart, New Study Reveals

Do you have a favorite fruit? While apples, oranges, and bananas are common picks, you don’t want to overlook other delicious and nutritious options you can grab from your local market. Take cranberries, for example: You could reap benefits far beyond a satisfying snack just by incorporating the sweet-tart fruit into your daily diet. A recent study published in the journal Food & Function found that the natural substances in cranberries could boost the health of your blood vessels in addition to decreasing your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

“The increases in polyphenols and metabolites in the bloodstream and the related improvements in flow-mediated dilation after cranberry consumption emphasize the important role cranberries may play in cardiovascular disease prevention,” Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, a co-author of the study, said. “Furthermore, the fact that these improvements in cardiovascular health were seen with an amount of cranberries that can be reasonably consumed daily makes cranberry an important fruit in the prevention of cardiovascular disease for the general public.”

Related: 10 Fresh Cranberry Recipes That Aren’t Sauce

The team came to their findings after their clinical trial that studied how freeze-dried whole cranberry powder, instead of juice, could benefit people’s hearts. (They noted that 9 grams of cranberry powder would be the same as consuming 100 grams of cranberries.) To conduct their study, researchers rounded up 45 men and they gave half of the group 4.5 grams of freeze-dried cranberry powder to drink twice every day and provided a placebo powder similar to the cranberry option for the other group for one month.

As a result, the researchers discovered that the volunteers’ who consumed the cranberry powder had improvements in their vascular function, even after the first day, based on flow-mediated dilation (FMD), meaning, participants got boosts in blood flow to their arteries from consuming the fruit. After the month period, the team also noted that the FMD increases linked to the increase in polyphenol metabolites, which prevents oxidative stress that often causes heart disease.

“Our findings provide solid evidence that cranberries can significantly affect vascular health even in people with low cardiovascular risk,” Christian Heiss, a co-author of the study out of the University of Surrey, added. “This study further indicates that specific metabolites present in the blood after cranberry consumption are related to the beneficial effects.”