Early morning exercisers

browneyes1520

I'm a mostly stay at home mom and I used to exercise in my basement after my older child went off to school and my youngest child hopefully behaving beside me so I could have just 1 uninterrupted hour of exercise. As u can imagine most days this did not happen. I came to the conclusion about 2 months ago that if I really wanted exercise (which I do) then the best time to do it would be early morning before everyone is up. So I've been getting up at 450 am every day (Wednesdays has to be 4am) and going out for a brisk walk with running intervals for an hour. It sucks getting up so early but I enjoying my alone time and I feel really good. I go to bed between 10 and 1030 and spend a few minutes reading then fall asleep. The issue is that I find I'm not sleeping solidly cuz I'm thinking about when the alarm is going to go off and keep waking up and looking at the clock. Not sure how to get myself to stop thinking of the alarm and just sleep solidly. I want to be able to keep going with morning workouts and not get burned out from sleep deprivation. Thoughts?

sammyliftsandeats

Your constantly waking up and looking at the clock when you have an early wake up time describes me perfectly. I'm quite sure my Fitbit knows when I'm 'restless' is when I'm shifting to look at what time it is on my phone.

Are you feeling deprived? Are you unable to run after your children during the day?

This is a mental thing. I, myself, have not had any sleep deprivation issues from doing the time check thing while waking up in the morning to exercise. However, I don't have any children so I don't know how tiring it is to be a parent. For me, what works sometimes is double checking to make sure the alarm is set before I go to bed and then turning the phone/clock face away from me. I know it'll go off.

Also - if you have a Fitbit device, you can set a vibrating alarm that won't disturb your partner so then you don't even need to look at the time on a clock.

DancingMoosie

Give it time. You will probably get used to the schedule and stop checking the clock because it will become your normal routine. It might help to set the alarm for a few minutes later, just to start, and keep your workout to 45-50 min, then gradually add in the extra 15 min when you get used to it.

2011rocket3touring

Took me about a month that I affectionately refer to as "month of hell" to get used to waking up early to exercise. I'm in bed at about 9pm and sleep like the dead.

sunnybeaches105

I've tried for years. Mornings suck.

bmayes2014

I wish I had some good advice for you. I workout at 5am. I am up at 4:30am and this often happens to me in anticipation of the alarm. Also, my kiddo wakes me up at night quite often. Only thing I can say is that you will get in the habit and getting up early is TOTALLY worth the alone time.

cnbbnc

DancingMoosie wrote: »

Give it time. You will probably get used to the schedule and stop checking the clock because it will become your normal routine. It might help to set the alarm for a few minutes later, just to start, and keep your workout to 45-50 min, then gradually add in the extra 15 min when you get used to it.

This is what I was going to say. When I first started setting the alarm for 4:30am I would keep waking. Believe me....your body will adjust and before you know it you'll be falling asleep earlier (make sure you're going to bed early so you're getting enough rest) and popping out of bed to get that workout in.