Morning rituals: Why celebrities don't do soggy cornflakes

Did your day begin with a workout, meditation and a breakfast worthy of an Instagram showing - all before getting to work? If not, you'll need to shape up to make it on to the glossy pages of magazines.

We've all rolled our eyes while reading those celebrity day-in-the-life interviews - with the inexplicably early starts, heavy exercise and distinct lack of caffeine as standard.

Beauty editor of Red Magazine, Rosie Green, is one of the latest to share her morning rituals. Hint: there's not a soggy cornflake in sight.

After rising at 06:00, there is an early morning run, "lots of cuddles", "pimped-up porridge" - think fruit and nuts rather than golden syrup - a school drop-off and "just enough time to tong my hair".

This insight led fellow parent and children's author, Pip Jones, to think about her own routine.

"04:30: I wake up because I need a massive wee," she wrote. "05:30: I flop out of bed and go downstairs to make builders' tea. It tastes like crap without sugar in, so I put loads of sugar in it. 06:30: We start the day doing some grunting and arguing. I feel really grateful that no-one is biting anyone else."

Similarly, Twitter user @Tillyecl's routine involved less "pimping" and more Marmite.

But others manage to find the time for far more than dressing or feeding yourself.

A LinkedIn post from a US professional called Mark Sloan went viral after he revealed how he spends the three hours before he heads to the office at 08:15. The tight schedule included "language learning" and drinking a whole litre of water.

Early starts seem to be a non-negotiable for many successful people. After all, how would businessman Sir Richard Branson fit in a spot of kite-surfing before breakfast unless he got up at 05:00?

The Virgin founder, who lives in the British Virgin Islands, also said being an early riser means he can check his emails "before most of the world logs on".

Most of the world that is, except for supermodel Cindy Crawford, who's awake and checking emails at 06:30 before her first cup of green tea. Then it's workout time.

"Often I'll take a Jacuzzi outside for 10 minutes first; it's like my meditation," she told Harper's Bazaar. Then there's cardio, 10 minutes on a trampoline and another 10 running stairs. By 08:00 it's time for her second mug of green tea to match a green "shake".

It's not just celebrities, but royalty too, that are slaves to the alarm clock.

"I get up around 06:45 to start exercising by 7," Princess Eugenie of York said. "I go to the park from 7 to 8. I do circuits, which I love because they're quick... Or I go with my best friend to this amazing, women-only gym called Grace Belgravia. If I need to pick up some groceries, I go to Waitrose, right next to my gym."

Music royalty Simon Cowell keeps pumped to his prime with the help of 500 daily push-ups.

"Then I have a steam and a bath, but I always have breakfast in bed," he added. It remains unclear whether Cowell prepares this himself.

Getting back into bed for a bacon sarnie is not an option for US actor Jennifer Aniston. She begins her day with hot water and lemon, before 20 minutes of meditation.

Breakfast is a shake - which involves something called maca powder and "dynamic greens" - which is followed by a workout to rival most people's weekly exercise: spin for half an hour, yoga for 40 minutes and then the gym.

For actor-turned-lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow, multi-tasking is key to morning productivity.

"Did dance aerobics for 45 minutes then all of the butt lifts and the like. Rushed upstairs to have a shower, doing my post workout stretch while the conditioner was doing its magic on my hair to combine activities," she wrote on her website Goop.

But very occasionally these interviews offer some common ground from a world more familiar to mere mortals.

Author and columnist, Caitlin Moran confessed most mornings she wakes thinking: "'UGH this is too early. This is GHASTLY."

"I pack the kids off at 8.30am, then go swimming for 45 minutes. The bottom of my local pool is endlessly fascinating. Clumps of hair moving like jellyfish; scrunchies; leaves. I once thought I saw a poo there," she told Stylist magazine.