Starting the morning right

Slapping on the sneakers at 4am

It’s 4:30 am and here I am at the computer. You might ask why.

It’s nothing at all hair related. It is health related.

About 4-5 times a week, I get up this early or, a tad bit later, to do my workout.

I know a lot of you are probably dying when you think of putting yourself in my shoes. Believe me, when I realized that this was going to be what I had to do, I was not happy. But working out in the morning…works out for my life.

As many of you know, I am training for a triathlon. I am also fighting the battle of the bulge. Since I made the post about that, I have managed to lose about 10 more pounds, give or take. It’s not a lot considering the amount of time and I still have aways to go, but it’s forward progress.

I knew between working full time on the weekend (the gym is closed before and after my typical shifts), my long hours (after 12 hours spent mostly on my feet, I do not feel like jogging), my child (he goes to a program twice a week for 4 hours but twice a week does not cut it), and finally my own laziness/procrastinating, that I would need a definitive plan.

My DH does not get home until 8pm at night, too late for me to get to the gym…also I am usually beat from chasing around a two year old and doing housework. See…? I had all kind of excuses LOL!

I was talking to a coworker who told me that he gets up every morning at 4am to workout in his gym. I won’t lie: I thought his butt was crazy…insane… until he said “I think of it like it’s my job…it’s not an option…you have to go to work everyday and you have to workout.”

I was still skeptical, but when I sat down and tried to plan out my week, figuring in my tiredness/lack of motivation at the end of the day, the early morning was the only time that I could think of to do this.I felt even more sure of this when I was reading my book “Triathlon Training in Four Hours”:

Put exercise first. Get up an hour earlier and exercise first thing in the morning. Studies have shown that people are four times more likely to exercise in the morning than in the evening. This is probably because putting off a workout until later in the day makes it too easy to skip in favor of accomplishing other things. As a bonus, the solitude and peace of a morning exercise session nourishes your soul, making you more productive all day.

The  first morning I tried this a work day for me. Looking at the clock and seeing 4:50 was a little surreal, but once I got out of bed (this is by far the hardest part) I was ok.  I jogged a little and biked. I felt great!

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I felt so great that I skipped my coffee and got a caffeinne headache afterward. So now I get up about 15 minutes earlier and have a cup of coffee before I begin while I surf the net. It has been working out great. I do go to bed a little earlier, but it’s well worth it and I don’t feel run down all day.

Here’s some more points that you can read from the article Fat Burning Morning Workouts. Working out in the morning:

• Increases mental acuity early in the day
• Provides a sense of accomplishment that will follow you all day
• Helps regulate your mindset and keep you eating healthy all day
• “Training in the morning will help “jump-start” your metabolism and keep it elevated for up to 24 hours, thus burning more calories throughout the day.”

But getting up early is not always so easy. I am actually a morning person, so I think it was easier for me than most. However, I feel the pain of night owl sometimes. I have a few suggestions of things you can do to help make it easier to accomplish a morning workout:

• If you are able to, try to incorporate naps. I can do this through the week sometimes when my son takes his. It’s not always possible though. It makes getting up easier the next day for me.
• Lay your workout clothes out the night before or even sleep in them.
• If you are a snooze button person, set your alarm 15-20 minutes ahead of time so you can gradually ease yourself awake as I like to think of it
• If you have to drive to a gym, make sure that you have everything planned out and ready for your day the night before. If you’re going to work afterward, have all of your shower stuff and clothes already in the car. You want to be able to just wake up and leave. If you have to stick around to pack lunch or deodorant ,whatever, that messes things up.
• Consider your hairstyle before you begin to workout and take whatever precautions, etc to preserve it if you’re not doing a wash n go afterward. NappyCurlyCrown has a new blog with a good post about the ways she preserves her hairstyles.