Wake up!

patsully98

Hi folks, looking for some tips and tricks for getting out of bed early and working out. My 6-month-old often wakes up at around 5:30am (usually because she pooped, lol), but if I get her back to sleep or my fiancé takes her to feed her, I usually crawl back into bed for an hour until it's time to get up and get ready for the day.

I would really like to do a quick home workout at around 5 or 5:30, but the siren song of the bed is just too strong! I am not a morning person, and as a great many of you know, sleep is hard to come by as a new parent.

Does anyone have any tips for waking up and staying up? Step outside for a few minutes? Splash water on my face? Punch myself in the crotch really hard?

Shuuma

Well, I get up at 5:30 and go the bathroom, weigh myself, and put on my workout clothes. Then, I grab my HRM, my laptop, and a huge glass of water and go downstairs and workout.

I'm doing P90X3 and there's a workout called "Cold Start" that really does wake you up and it's just 15 minutes. Then, I do my workout for the day straight after.

Now, I'm by no means a new parent of a little one (my baby is almost 17!), but sleep is mega-important for new parents. There never seems to be enough hours for sleeping for the first several years of your child's life. So, sleeping is priority, if you can get it.

If you can get to bed a bit earlier, you'll feel less exhausted to stay up in the morning. I'm NOT a morning person, but by the time I get through Cold Start and my workout, I'm not only awake, I'm super-energized. I am more productive during the day and feel better, overall.

So, I guess my official TL;DR answer is: If you have slept enough, just get up and do it. If you haven't, get the rest so you are at your best for your little bundle of happiness.

Either way, you can do it!

reddz12

to be totally honest I wasnt until I started MFP (again) This time I came back super dedicated. And for once I feel like I'm losing weight like a man (meaning its just falling off) although I'm doing a lot more work then a guy would have to.

Typically I force myself out of bed.. brush my teeth wash my face with cold water and then go and get a drink (usually water) sometimes juice.. I do some stretching (like 5 min) and make myself breakfast. by the time I eat I'm usually awake enough to get dressed and do what I have to do.

Don't get me wrong.. there are still days where I'm totally dragging walking into the gym but then I remember why I'm there, and that even doing a little is better than laying at home.

My typical day
530 get up
545 eat breakfast
600 leaving for the gym
630 starting my workout
745 hitting the showers
800 work.

Its totally possible just have to put your mind to it and figure out what works best for you!

ktaisey

I would always rather go back to bed!

BUT

I do find that while I might be tired for the first 5 minutes of my morning workout - after that - the fact that I am happy I am working out outweighs the desire to be in bed.

The mornings I let myself hit snooze a ton of times are the days I am so tired at the 1/2 way point of the day. Snoozing just makes me seem like I slept badly the night before.

Also - I take a 30 minute power nap EVERY day on my lunch break at work...That should tell you how much I enjoy sleeping

dinosnopro

Can you do it in the evening?

1Cor1510

The only way I can ever do it is to sleep in my work out clothes. Then I don't have to think when I get up, I just grab my water, shoes and get moving. If there are any snags or delays in that routine, I go back to bed. My brain does not function in the morning!

TravelinChiGal

I don't have any tricks... Just have to get up and do it. After about a week or so it gets easier. Your body adjusts to the routine.

Lizzy622

Getting dressed and having some coffee or water usually does the trick.

swsays

I agree with the commenter above about the importance of sleep when you have a baby in the house. I remember those days with a shudder because there were times I went to work on 1 hour of sleep and that is just not good for anyone. If you have had a decent night's sleep when the baby wakes at 5:30a, then by all means grab some water and a piece of fruit and get your work out done. If it was a rough night, then go back to bed and try again another day.

As for getting yourself to wake up, I am pretty much a morning person, so once I sit up and for sure by the time I've gotten dressed and downstairs, I'm fully awake and couldn't go back to sleep if I tried. The trick for me is to SIT UP and not hit the snooze. That snooze alarm guarantees me a groggier start, no matter what, so I need to remember to just get up when the alarm goes off.

Good luck and enjoy that baby! :-)

xonophone

I don't have any tricks... Just have to get up and do it. After about a week or so it gets easier. Your body adjusts to the routine.

Truth!

For years I would wake up early and exercise before work, because if I didn't do it in the morning it would never get done. I would lay out my workout clothes the night before, set the alarm, and when the alarm went off in the morning I would get out of bed and get to it before my brain had a chance to wake up and talk me out of it. But that was when I was not a mother and the only de-motivating factor was the glass or two of wine I had the night before. Now that I am a mom, I find that I value my sleep above anything else. 5 years ago, I started MFP and it helped get me in the best shape of my life. Now I have gained back all that weight, and it is settling in some very unpleasant places. . Maybe we can start a little early morning motivational group to give each other some positive peer pressure???

patsully98

You guys rule. I managed to do a quick workout this morning after the baby got up. I was seriously dragging during the warmup since we got less than five hours of sleep last night, but by the end I felt really good. After calming the baby and giving her to my fiancé to nurse, I brushed my teeth instead of crawling back into bed. That seemed to do the trick.