The First Hour: A Gentle Morning Routine for Easier Digestion

The first hour of the day is one you usually control. This is a plain, unhurried way to spend it, so that getting up feels steadier and food sits easier. Every step below is free. Take the ones that suit you and leave the rest.

Some changes are worth a phone call

Before the habits, the important part. Some digestive changes are ordinary. Others are not, and they get missed because they are put down to age. Here are the ones that belong with your doctor rather than with a tip from an article.

Getting out of bed

When you stand up, blood pressure takes a moment to rise. Going in stages gives it that moment, and many people find standing up feels steadier as a result.

• Stay lying down and count to 10. That takes about 10 seconds.
• Sit on the edge of the bed with both feet flat on the floor. Count to 30, which takes about half a minute. Circle your ankles.
• Push up with your hands from the bed, not from your walker. Walkers roll.
• If you use a walker, lock the brakes before you touch it, and leave it beside the bed the night before so you can reach it while sitting.
• Stand still with one hand on something solid. Count to 5 before your first step.

If the room spins, sit back down and wait. Don’t push through it. And if you often feel lightheaded or unsteady on standing, ask your doctor or pharmacist to look over your medicines. That is one of the most common causes, and one of the most fixable.

A glass of water

You lose water overnight just by breathing. Thirst signals are also weaker for many people after 75, so you can be low on fluid without feeling thirsty. Warm water goes down more easily than cold.

Have one glass before your coffee or tea, and sip it slowly. Fill the cup you already own only halfway. A half-full cup is easier to lift than a full one. A mug with two handles is steadier if your grip is weak.

Two things to check first. If your doctor has set a limit on how much you drink (for your heart or your kidneys), follow their number, not this page, and count this glass inside it. And if you ever cough or feel a catch in your throat when you drink, ask your doctor before adding a morning glass. A swallowing check is quick.

Fill the cup you already own only halfway. A half-full cup is easier to lift than a full one.

A small breakfast with some protein

The goal isn’t a big meal. It’s a small one with protein in it, because protein is what keeps muscle on you. These need no stove, no strong grip and no can opener.

• A single cup of plain yogurt. Yogurt is protein on its own.
• A hard-boiled egg. Boil 3 at once on a day you have energy and keep them in the refrigerator.
• A small tub of cottage cheese, or a piece of cheese.
• Peanut butter from a squeeze pouch, spread thin on soft bread.
• Instant oatmeal made with warm milk in a mug with a handle. The milk adds the protein.
• Fruit canned in juice. A countertop electric can opener does the can without any grip at all.

If you have diabetes, choose fruit canned in juice rather than syrup, take your yogurt and milk unsweetened, and leave out added honey or sugar.

Sit fully upright to eat, at a table if you can. Take small bites, one at a time. If your mouth is dry, moisten the food. Milk, gravy, sauce or a small sip between bites all make swallowing easier. If your dentures have gone loose or chewing hurts, no tip will fix that, but a dentist usually can, often in one visit.

Stay sitting up for about 30 minutes after you eat. Some people feel lightheaded shortly after a meal. If that happens to you, sit longer, stand slowly, and mention it to your doctor. It is common and it can be treated.

Why food may feel different than it used to

For many people, the stomach empties a little more slowly than it once did, so a normal meal can feel like a large one. Many people also make less saliva, which makes dry food sticky and harder to get down. When either is pronounced, or new, it is more often a medicine or another condition than age by itself, which is why it is worth raising with your doctor.

Cooking for one narrows the plate too. Toast, tea, a can of soup. Two or three different plant foods a day, such as oatmeal, a banana, stewed apple, canned pears or cooked carrots, give your gut more to work with. If getting food into the house is the hard part, your doctor’s office or your local Area Agency on Aging can point you to meal delivery or a lunch club. Many are free or low cost, and asking costs nothing.

The bathroom, without hurrying

The bowel is most active in the morning. Try to go to the toilet at about the same time each day. After breakfast suits most people.

Put your feet on a low stool, about 6 to 7 inches high. It changes the angle and makes things easier. Choose one that is solid and non-slip, keep it tucked against the base of the toilet so you don’t trip over it, and never stand on it.

Give it about 10 minutes. Don’t strain. If nothing happens, get up and try again after your walk.

A short walk after breakfast

Walking after a meal helps the gut move things along. Indoors is the easy version: the length of your hallway and back, twice, or across the kitchen three times. Wait about 30 minutes after eating, stand up slowly, and hold something solid for a count of 5 first.

A walker, a cane or a hand along the wall all count. If your knees hurt this morning, sit in a chair and lift your feet up and down, then circle your ankles. That counts too.

If you’d rather go outside, look at the ground first. Wet leaves, ice and uneven paving are the things that catch people out. Wear shoes with a back and a flat sole, and take your phone if you have one with you.

A few changes for the rest of the day

These carry the same idea into lunch and dinner. Most cost nothing.

• Cook vegetables until a fork slides through easily. Cooking softens them, so your stomach has less work to do. Frozen vegetables come washed and cut.
• Never lift a pot of boiling water to drain it. Lift the vegetables out with a slotted spoon and leave the water on the stove to cool.
• Add a teaspoon of olive oil or a pat of butter. Your body absorbs some vitamins only when there is fat in the meal, and it makes the food taste better. If you take warfarin, the point with greens is steadiness, not avoidance: keep the amount roughly the same week to week, and tell your anticoagulation clinic if your eating changes a lot.
• Reheat leftovers until they are steaming hot all the way through, then let the plate cool for a minute or two. Don’t leave food standing on the counter to warm up.
• Eat 4 or 5 small plates instead of 3 large ones if a full plate feels like too much. Put some protein on each one: an egg, cheese, yogurt, canned fish, chicken in your soup.
• Sit at the kitchen table to chop, in a chair with a back and arms and both feet on the floor. A counter stool is a fall waiting to happen.
• For a stiff jar lid, grip it with a dry dishcloth or a rubber glove, or run hot water over the lid. A countertop electric can opener does cans without any grip at all.
• If you use a walker or a cane, don’t carry plates. Keep a small wheeled trolley in the kitchen and push the meal to the table.
• Use herbs and lemon instead of chili and black pepper if spice leaves a burn. Parsley, dill, basil, thyme and rosemary all add taste without the sting. If you like broth, choose a low-salt one, because some cans carry a great deal of salt.

One note on herbal teas, because they are not as neutral as they look. If you take a blood thinner, or you react to ragweed, daisies or marigolds, ask your pharmacist before you drink chamomile or ginger tea regularly.

Before you add any supplement, ask your pharmacist

What we make, if you want it

From Anchr

Complete Liver Support Drops (1500mg)

If you and your pharmacist decide turmeric is fine alongside your list, this is ours. It is a liquid rather than a tablet: you squeeze a small rubber top and put two full droppers (2 mL) into water once a day, so there is nothing to swallow whole. Some people much prefer that, though a small dropper does take a pinch grip and a steady hand, so it isn’t easier for everyone.

It contains turmeric curcumin, milk thistle, chamomile and black pepper extract, the four covered in the box above. The amounts per serving are printed on the label, and that is the number your pharmacist will want. It is alcohol-free. A 2 fl oz bottle is $34.99 and holds 30 daily servings, which works out at about $35 a month for a single bottle, and less per month on the bundles. It is not a treatment for any condition, and everything in this article works just as well without it.

Read the full label

Where to start

None of this asks you to change your life. It asks you to sit on the edge of the bed a little longer. To keep a half-full cup where you can reach it. To put an egg in the refrigerator today for tomorrow morning.

Take whichever one sounds easiest. If it helps, keep it. If it doesn’t, drop it and try another. And if something on the phone-call list above is happening to you, make that call first. Everything else can wait a week.

One small thing, tomorrow morning. That is the whole idea.