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Starting the morning on the right foot can pave the way for a successful day.

A new wellness trend focuses on the “5 to 9 before your 9 to 5,” which entails a healthy regimen between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. before heading to work.

Behavioral scientist and happiness expert Arthur Brooks, professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School in Boston, has proven these benefits through his six-step morning protocol to live more positively.

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In an in-person interview with Fox News Digital, Brooks broke down each of the six steps that set him up for a productive day, which he says have “dramatically improved” his life.

“You need to be disciplined, and you need to structure your day, and it turns out that what you do first thing in the morning really matters a lot,” he said. “I follow [this] almost every day.”

1. Wake up before dawn (4:30 a.m.)

Brooks said he was not a morning person for years, as he was a musician in his 20s who never woke up before sunrise and thought of himself as a “night owl.”

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“The truth of the matter is, you can change your chronotype,” he said. “You can be more of a morning lark. It’s actually not that genetic, and it’s a really worthwhile endeavor to try to change that.”

“If you get up before dawn, you’ve kind of won the day, but not just morally — you’ve won neuro-scientifically.”

Research suggests that waking up before dawn promotes better focus, creativity and mood. (iStock)

According to the “Office Hours” podcast host, research suggests that waking up before dawn promotes better focus, creativity and mood. This is rooted in an “ancient idea of Indian wisdom” called Brahma Muhurta, which means “creator’s time” in Sanskrit.

“But it’s not just religion. It really does have a lot of science behind it,” Brooks said. “I get up at 4:30 a.m. — it works for me; it works with my schedule. You’ve got to figure out what yours is. But if you’re getting up when the sun is already warm, you’re already kind of behind the eight-ball.”

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Brooks noted that he uses a real alarm clock to wake up, as he keeps his phone out of the bedroom at night to avoid overexposure.

2. Move your body (4:45 a.m.-5:45 a.m.)

Brooks begins his day with a workout in his home gym, noting the importance of getting “real exercise” first thing in the morning.

Armed with an electrolyte drink, he typically does 75% resistance training and 15% Zone 2 cardio —  steady-state aerobic exercise that feels easy to moderate — for an hour.

For those who are just starting out with this new schedule, Brooks recommends light exercise, like walking. (iStock)

There are a variety of ways to exercise, from endurance to yoga, Brooks noted. “If the first thing you do when you wake up is pick up heavy things and run around, you’re going to have a much better day,” he added.

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For those who are just starting out with a fitness and early wake-up routine, Brooks recommends light exercise, like walking.

3. Get metaphysical (6:30 a.m.)

After showering, Brooks heads out of the house for a 6:30 a.m. Catholic mass.

While not everyone is Catholic, or even religious, Brooks recommends participating in some type of “transcendent activity” that connects the body and soul.

Worship and meditation are great for “de-focusing” yourself, Brooks said. (iStock)

“You need to do something to not focus on yourself,” he said. “Worship is great for that. Meditation is good for that. There are a lot of different ways you can actually undertake this, but the whole point is to zoom out and get little.”

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“When I am on the road, which is about half the time, I stay in places where there’s a morning mass if I can possibly find it, such that I’m focusing on my soul just as much as I focus on my body.”

4. Coffee (7:15 a.m.)

Most people who wake up before 5 a.m. will feel inclined to immediately head for the coffee machine, but Brooks discouraged this impulse to reach for caffeine first thing in the morning.

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Caffeine blocks a chemical in the brain called adenosine, which swarms the brain at night and makes you groggy in the morning. As a result, drinking it makes you feel more alert.

But Brooks said this is “not the best use” for coffee, as he instead recommends a morning workout to help clear any remaining adenosine.

Drinking coffee first thing in the morning is “not the best use” for max energy, according to Brooks. (iStock)

By the time coffee is introduced into the system, about an hour or two after waking, the brain is clear of adenosine, and the caffeine can focus on providing the body with energy.

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“You’re not going to wake up with caffeine, you’re going to focus with caffeine,” he said. “It’s going to vacuum dopamine into your prefrontal cortex, and you’ll be more creative, you’ll be more stimulated to come up with new ideas, and that means you’re setting yourself up for a brilliant workday.”

5. Eat a high-protein breakfast (7:30 a.m.)

Protein is “critically important” for getting the most return from your morning workout, building strong muscles and shaping a balanced diet, according to Brooks.

For breakfast, he prefers non-fat Greek yogurt, topped with walnuts for micronutrients, mixed berries for antioxidants, whey protein and sometimes stevia for sweetness.

Clean protein can help build strong muscles and boost mood, the expert said. (iStock)

“I get 60 grams of protein with less than 400 calories. And man, I am ready to go,” he said. “With that caffeine and that meal, I’m ready to work.”

These “clean protein” breakfast options also contain tryptophan, the chemical best known for its presence in turkey that can cause sleepiness. In smaller doses, tryptophan can improve mood and mellow out the nervous system, Brooks noted.

6. Enter a flow state (8:00 a.m.)

Between 8:00 a.m. and noon, Brooks said he gets four solid hours of productivity and creativity, “with a level of focus I was never able to get earlier in my life before I set up this morning protocol.”

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He enters and remains in a “state of flow” during his morning work, uninterrupted by social media or phone notifications.

“I can do more in four hours than I used to be able to do in two days. And I’m happier when I do it,” Brooks said.

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By the time he eats another high-protein meal for lunch, he has completed his essential tasks and can take on other objectives in the latter part of the day.

“It’s really important that you not wreck that period of focus and concentration, spoiling it with your devices,” Brooks added. “Stay clean. Stay focused. Stay creative. And stay happy.”

While the rest of the country’s cancer rates are falling, those in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas — known as the Corn Belt — are rising at an alarming rate, data shows.

The spike in America’s corn-producing states caught the attention of the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, which gathered a panel to investigate the trend. 

One of the experts, Dr. Marian Neuhouser, a professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, served on the panel as an expert in nutrition and obesity.

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“The panel came about after they noticed that the trends for cancer incidence were increasing at a faster rate in Iowa than in other states,” Neuhouser told Fox News Digital.

A data analysis by The Washington Post based on federal health datasets found that the number of people diagnosed with cancer in the six Corn Belt states has outpaced the national average since the mid-2010s. 

In 1999, cancer rates in the Midwest were on par with the national average. Now, among residents aged 15 to 49, those rates are about 5% higher, a pattern that began diverging in the 2000s and has steadily widened.

The Post based its findings on data from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which track cancer incidence nationwide.

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The analysis compared rates from 1999 through 2022 using multi-year averages for Iowa and excluding 2020 due to pandemic disruptions.

Experts probe causes

Neuhouser noted that some of the increases involve cancers that are preventable or detectable through screening.

Researchers are examining both environmental and lifestyle factors that could be driving the increase.

A panel of experts convened in Iowa after more numbers came out about the alarming spike in cancer rates. (iStock)

Outdoor UV exposure and high rates of binge drinking could be contributors, according to the Iowa Cancer Registry, part of the National Institutes of Health’s surveillance network.

Iowa’s Environmental Health Sciences Research Center has described the state as a “hot spot for environmental exposures to carcinogenic agents.” 

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The soil and groundwater in the region reportedly contain some of the nation’s highest levels of natural radon and nitrate, largely because of fertilizer use in farming. Both substances have been linked to high risks of lung and gastrointestinal cancers.

Meanwhile, the widespread application of pesticides and herbicides, including glyphosate, continues to generate debate among scientists and regulators.

Where fields once symbolized abundance, they now raise questions about how the chemicals used to maintain them could affect people’s health. (iStock)

Risk of chemical exposure

Dr. Anne McTiernan, professor of epidemiology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, has analyzed decades of research on glyphosate and cancer risk.

“Glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide, has been used in the U.S. for decades and is reported to be the most widely used pesticide globally,” she told Fox News Digital.

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The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “a 2A carcinogen (“probably carcinogenic to humans”), which is the second-highest grade of carcinogen, according to McTiernan.

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Her review of studies through 2025 found that people with long-term, high exposure to glyphosate, such as those working on farms, had a roughly 40% higher risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma compared to those who were never exposed.

Researchers warn that the causes of cancer spikes in the Corn Belt may lie in decades of invisible exposure. (iStock)

This level of increased risk, combined with lab evidence that glyphosate can damage DNA and cause cellular stress, is considered strong enough to support a causal link, according to the expert.

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Role of obesity and alcohol 

Lifestyle factors are also compounding risk. Per CDC data, about 21% of Iowa adults report heavy drinking or binge drinking, compared to roughly 17% nationally.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services reports that about 35% of adults in the state are classified as obese, placing it among 19 states with obesity prevalence at or above that level. Nationwide, the CDC reports an adult obesity rate of roughly 40%.

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Neuhouser noted that 13 separate cancers are linked to obesity. 

“Everyone would like to be able to narrow down cancer risk … to one exposure, but cancer is so complex that it’s usually several factors working together,” she said.