For those of you with less time, here’s our roundup of the most popular articles this week. You can read these four introductions then decide if you’d like the read the piece in full… easy morning reading.
This week, we interviewed the millionaire founder of Huffington Post – Arianna Huffington – about mornings, the importance of sleep (she is the QUEEN of sleep) and running a 24-hour news platform. Also, four hands-on dads talk us through their daily juggle. Then there’s a moving article from Jenn McRobbie about being a cancer survivor and a great piece on family nutrition.
Morning reading #1
1. Arianna Huffington on Sleep, Mornings and Work
If you have an internet connection, you’ll know about Huffington Post – the blogging platform and news agency that basically rules the media world. Well, at the helm is Arianna Huffington who started out in journalism, started writing books, launched Huff Post from her kitchen table then sold it for over $300m but stayed on as CEO and editor-in-chief.
Huffington soon noticed that her health was deteriorating due to her unpredictable and – frankly – unhealthy lifestyle. After fainting from exhaustion, she decided to make some serious changes, most notably: sleep. She is obsessed with sleep, and making sure everyone’s getting enough. Also holidays (they use technology at Huff Post that automatically deletes emails sent to an employee while they’re away).
We interviewed Arianna Huffington about her morning routine, sleep (of course), family and how she decides what to wear each morning.
Morning reading #2
2. Hands-on Dads: How do They Work and Parent?
A question so often posed to working mums and yet so rarely asked of working dads: how do you do it all? Perhaps it’s because traditionally, dads worked full time supporting the family and women stayed at home with the kids. But things haven’t been like this for a long time – not only are women continuing to work after having children, but dads are becoming more hands-on in the home.
So… we asked four dads who take an active role in parenting; choosing to work a shorter week, or flexi hours so that they can do the school run or be around for sport/plays, how they juggle work and home life. While their answers are interestingly varied, there was one question that they all answered the same; about what their own father was like when they were little.
Have a read about these hands-on dads and just how they make it work.
Morning reading #3
3. Cancer Survivor: Waking up Each Day is a Gift
In a guest post, life coach Jenn McRobbie writes about the moment her life turned upside down. She was 38 and happily plodding along with two kids to look after when she noticed that her breast looked different. The doctor sent her for a mammogram and further tests, which confirmed her worst fear: it was cancer.
After gruelling treatment (a mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. She’s also on endocrine therapy for the next 10 years), McRobbie was eventually confirmed ‘cancer free’. And she has since made it her mission to treat each day like a gift. So each morning, on waking, her first thought is that it’s good to be alive.
Read Jenn McRobbie’s moving account of life after the diagnosis and how it’s changed her perspective on life…
Morning reading #4
4. Nutrition: From City Worker to Life Coach
A childhood of Mediterranean-style mealtimes – lots of fresh fruit and veg, sitting round the table as a family – meant Francine Roberts had always been keen on nutrition. But during pregnancy, she became fascinated with what she was eating to help grow her baby, and this continued after the birth, as she started introducing solids into her daughter life.
She quit her finance job in the City and re-trained as a health coach. In this article we talk mornings, juggling motherhood and childcare, meal ideas, childhood obesity and messy weaning. Have a read.
And that’s all for this week’s morning reading. Have a lovely Sunday, an epic week and see you again for next week’s digest in seven days’ time. (Unless you find time to read the 5am articles throughout the week, in which case: see you tomorrow morning).