Morning People

fitnessGETZeasy

I am SO not a morning person. I need to be...I'm just not. My best sleep seems to come riiiight after I hit snooze. I would love to get my workouts in early in the am so I don't have an opportunity to blow it off later in the day. SO, for the morning people.....who of you were able to "convert" yourself into a morning person even though you weren't to begin with. And how the crap did you do it?

NoxDineen

I just set my alarm earlier. The desire to improve my fitness got me up, some kind of miracle.

Swapped the alarm from 6am to 5:45am. Tomorrow may suck.

Try putting your alarm across the room. It's an old trick but it works.

leafstucker16

I am trying the alarm across the room thing tonight, I can wake up early but the early exercising is what gets me. I prefer to do it at night but then I feel tired after work and sometimes it just doesn't happen. We will see what happens tomorrow though!

ElyseL1

I get up an hr earlier than i need to so i have time to make a cup of coffee and sit for an hr before doing my workout. I need coffee to function in the morning

lostropav

I literally wake up on the treadmill. Meaning I get up, change, drive to the gym and suddenly, by the time my body complains about getting up I am starting to run and there is no way back!

bvav5408

For me getting my workout done in the morning makes me feel so much better during the day. I like the feeling of having my workout done. Once you get use to getting up early you will wonder how you had not been doing this all a long.

nwhitley

I'm not a morning person, but during the summer I have been making myself get up at 4:45 to run at 5am. I just jump up and put my clothes on, go to the restroom, and run out of the house. If I hit the snooze, I won't get up. Plus, its too hot later in the day so I have no choice if I plan to go for a run. Maybe try going to bed earlier. I find jumping up quickly the best way so that I don't really have time to think about it (sort of like pulling off a bandaid). I have also been known to sleep in my work out clothes too:)

lane823

I've been going for a 4 mile walk at 5:30 in the morning. It's tough to get out of bed when I could snuggle up with my hubby for 45 more minutes! But, with the extreme heat we've been having, there is no other time of day that I could walk. That has been a great motivator for me. And now...I'm getting used to it and actually look forward to my walks.

maroonmango211

I am wondering about this too! Not so much a concern for me at the moment being a stay at home mom of 2 but our oldest starts kindergarden in just over a month and I would love if by then my work outs went from before lunch to before getting the kids up and get ready, it would just feel so much more productive!

joecollins9385

i 'converted' by using multiple alarms (a clock and my phone). i put my phone across the room and have the clock beside my bed. i set the alarms to go off in 3 minute intervals alternating between the clock and phone. the clock will do 2 alarms per day and my phone will do as many as i set. also my brother struggles with getting up even with the alarms, so he has me call him about 30 minutes before we meet at the gym every morning

cwelch2677

The last time I ran before work I literaly told myself "you need to be a big girl and get out of bed, you're awake anyway" and that worked pretty good

montana_girl

It wasn't easy, that's for sure!

I had to get into a night time routine that would enable me to get to sleep sooner and sleep well. This included no screens (TV, computer, phone) 30 minutes prior to bed, taking melatonin most nights, and reading or relaxing before going to sleep. I also get up at the same time every morning (though I will sleep in an extra 30 to 60 minutes on the weekends).

The other thing that helped was setting out my workout clothes the night before. I basically roll out bed, dress in my workout clothes and start moving before my body/mind realizes what I'm doing. On the mornings I'm really struggling I tell myself to do at least 10 minutes of whatever workout I had planned and if I'm not in the groove by then, then I give myself permission to quit. So far, every time I've thought this... I've completed my workout. Once I'm in the clothes and working out, I figure I might as well finish! :laugh:

lil_pulp

I have my clock set 30 minutes later than the real time. Then I set my alarm for about 45 minutes before I want to wake up. So I still get to hit snooze once or twice in the morning and when I get up, the time on the bedside clock is slightly less scary than the real actual time. I change into my gym clothes immediately (in the dark, since my husband is still sleeping). When I first started working out in the morning, I told a co-worker to ask me how my morning workout went. That was motivating because I didn't want to have to tell her, "uh, yeah, I was too lazy to follow through with my plan." Good luck.

followmyredthread

I think the thing that gets me out of bed the easiest is genuinely looking forward to my exercise in the mornings. I've discovered that it's like meditation for me. When I get up earlier than I have to and go for a run, it's the most perfect "me time" at the very start of my day. It wakes me up, clears my head, and makes me feel like I've already had an accomplished and productive day before really even "starting" my day. It makes me feel good to come home when everyone else is just waking up. There's something great about knowing you've done something for yourself while everyone else was just sleeping. It's become the best part of my day.

InfinitePoss

Well I have never been a "morning person" but I find that what helps me is that I really look at the early morning as my "me time" so that I look forward to getting up early.

Once my day get's going, with work and family committments, I find it harder to take time for myself. Plus I just feel a lot more productive during the day when I work out first thing in the morning.

gxm17

I was never a morning person either. Loved to sleep in. My husband always joked that I was gonna leave him for a Sealy Posturepedic!

But the morning is the only time that I have to myself so I had to start getting up early. That was 9-1/2 years ago and, believe it or not, I look forward to my morning workouts. It's *my* time and now that I'm in the routine, I even wake up early on the weekends.

Sharyn913

I wake up at 5:15am to work out, it's my only opportunity. It sucked at first, but you get used to it. After a few weeks, you will start waking up without your alarm!!

1LRoy

To say I'm not a morning person doesn't even cover it. I still don't get up super early by most people's reckoning, but I'm a swing shift worker and I get up much earlier than I would otherwise be inclined to do. The biggest thing for me was to establish a routine. I get up at the same time pretty much every day. My body has become used to it, and I even wake up on my own most mornings now before the alarm clock goes off. I don't even really sleep in on the weekends because that just throws my body clock off.

SARgirl

I tell myself "you can take a nap when you get home!". It rarely happens but I still manage to trick myself into believing it and get out of bed. I also dont get up early every morning, just Monday, wednsday, and Friday for Spin class at the gym. That also helps get me out of bed because I love the class. It's also nice knowing I'm done then for the day and don't have to worry about going after work.

Fitness_4_Jess

I'm a morning person once I'm up...it is just the getting up part that ws hardest. My workoutsare about 30 minutes long and allow myslef sometime to cool down so I set m alarm 1 hour & 10 minutes early. By doing that I am still waking up early & I can still smack the SNOOZE button. I also set my Kuerig to start when I start so I can make my ice coffee right after working out.

Edit:
My getting up early means setting the alarm for 5:50 so I roll out of bed at 6:00.

Easywider

I attribute my easy rising habits to the Marine Corps...After that it just became second nature.

medicinemantoo

so here's the deal from the "new" sleep study (sorry, can't find it online, but i've been doing it for 3 months and it works like a charm):

your body/mind goes thru a 90 minute cycle of light to deep and back to light sleep. seems most people need 4 to 6 of the cycles. yes, could be less or more, up to you to figure out.

so work backwards from when you want to get up.

i love it, at bed at 9 and up at 4:30 and running by 5.

for me i found the routine of a regular bed time and rise time works best, but variations work well too.

hope that helps.

(qualifier, i am a morning person and a former marine. HOWEVER, i do find the 90 minute cycle to work great!)

Halcyon3608

How's this for unfortunate - I am a natural morning person, and can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 3 a.m. if I need to be. And, frequently, I do need to be up this early for work (wildlife surveys). What's even more of a miracle is that I do not consume any caffeine to speak of.

BUT - though my mind may be up and raring to go, I have tried and tried to go for a run right away in the morning, and without fail I always feel awful. I stumble, I wheeze... there is an ever-present hitch in my giddy-up. I just can't do it. But, when I run at night (I leave with enough time to get back home by dark), I feel AMAZING - it's not effortless because I'm still an out-of-shape chunker, but it's soooo much more enjoyable than trying to run in the morning.

Yes, it would be much more convenient for my schedule if I could run before going to work, but it's so much harder on my morale that it's not worth it.

Jalyst79

Not a morning person, but I get up at 4:15, don't hit snooze, don't think about what you need to do, just do it. I joined a class that helps keeps me motivated and is fun. We meet 6 times a week. My alarm didn't go off this morning so I missed class. Working out before work helps keep me focused and on task with my eating.

MSeel1984

I am SO not a morning person. I need to be...I'm just not. My best sleep seems to come riiiight after I hit snooze. I would love to get my workouts in early in the am so I don't have an opportunity to blow it off later in the day. SO, for the morning people.....who of you were able to "convert" yourself into a morning person even though you weren't to begin with. And how the crap did you do it?

It started this past winter. I was getting too lazy after work to get to the gym. I'd make excuses "I have to pack lunches...I have to start dinner...I need to hit the grocery store."

The solution I came up with was to go to the gym at 5:00AM before I go to work. Then after work i have plenty of time to get other household things done. It freed up my schedule and I have more energy...also sleeping better at night because 1.) I'm up earlier and 2.) I'm getting my workout in regularly.

Now even on weekends I don't sleep in as much and I feel like I get more done. It wasn't easy the first week, but after that it feels good.

fitnessGETZeasy

Thanks for the tips, guys! Some day....it WILL happen. I WILL be a morning person. Just need to crawl my tired, grumpy butt out of bed and DO IT!.

Thank you.