The way you start your day is often the way the rest of your day goes: rushed and stressed or mindful and mellow.

1. Start each day with a glass of lukewarm water and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

It will flush away the toxins that were sorted out during sleep and activate your bowels for elimination. Then drink water when you're thirsty for it and not much more often than that. Keeping your stomach full is not necessary and will only cause more hunger. Also, it's possible to dilute valuable water-soluble vitamins if you're drinking too much water.

2. Spend a few minutes in prayer, meditation or silence.

This will mitigate the stress hormone cortisol which stores belly fat. Belly fat is implicated in heart disease and stroke (and it's not so cute spilling over your belt). Try a few minutes of conscious deep belly breathing: 4 seconds in, hold for 4 seconds and breathe 4 seconds out.

Begin your day with a conscious intention. What will you accomplish? What challenges do you expect? What joys do you anticipate? How will you structure your time?

3. If you eat breakfast, avoid sugar.

If you start your day with sugar (even fruit) it's like jumping on a roller coaster. You'll go up and come down more times than you want to before the day is over. Once you burn through that first hit of sugar at breakfast, you'll be craving another in a few hours. By mid afternoon, your willpower will be used up and that caffeine or chocolate you grab fix will most certainly impact your sleep later on.

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, whether you eat it or not. If you wake up hungry, eat. Focus on proteins and fats: eggs, cheese, meat and vegetables are always a great choice or smoothies with little or no fruit added. Powering up this way will keep your willpower in reserve and your brain sharp for the work you have to do during the day.