For anyone who has followed my journey, knows me well or has ever lived with me, you know I don’t do mornings. So the thought of becoming a morning workout person has never appealed to me. I gave it the gook o’l college try a couple years ago. You know, one of those half-assed New Year’s resolutions that we all make? You do really well for a couple of weeks, then have one long night or weekend, and you’re like, “that was fun, I’ll go back to my evening workouts now.”
What Changed?
Well, fast forward to a life with a new baby, a husband with a non-traditional work schedule, starting a new job and having an active older child. Any chance of working out in the evening totally went out the window. I was already getting up with Nolan to nurse early, so I followed these five tips that I’m going to share with you, and it has completely changed my mindset of getting up and moving in the morning. And whether or not you have a new babe at home, give ’em a try!
Five Tips for Working Out in the Morning
Tip #1: Get it out of your head that morning workouts are punishment! All throughout high school and college, if we had a morning workout it was because somebody screwed up and our coach was pissed and made us pull a double or just tortured us with a morning puke session. This has been a HUGE mental block for me for 20+ years. If you start looking at the amount of time you can gain by getting your workout done in the morning vs. stressing out to make it happen in the evening, it’s really eye opening.
Tip #2: Who doesn’t want their metabolism rev’d up first thing every day? That’s right! When you get up and get moving in the morning, you jump start your metabolism and it runs hard for you all day. Which means, you will find yourself being hungrier during the day (especially by mid-morning), but if you plan healthy, clean, portioned meals and snacks, you’ll keep feeding your metabolism and torching calories all day. I mean, that’s totally worth becoming a morning workout person on it’s own!
Stop Stressing About Supplements
Tip #3: Energize. The thought of drinking a pre-workout supplement used to make my stomach turn. I can’t say that I’ve tried a lot of them. However, I only needed to try a couple to know they weren’t for me. Mostly because I’d get the jitters, have a terrible taste in my mouth, or have a hard crash after my workout. But as my luck and mornings would have it, I started using a premium line of pre/during/post/night time supplements that are safe for all athletes. I don’t start or finish a workout without them now, and it’s made a huge difference. Not only in the level of output during my workout, but also in how my body bounces back!
All I can say is Energize is life changing. For real, I’m not sure I could be writing this without it, mostly because I wouldn’t be keeping up with my morning workouts. It’s the goods. Within 15 minutes of drinking it, I’m feeling great, I crank through my workouts with more intensity than when I don’t take it, and then on with the day. Jitter and crash free! Plant-based, natural ingredients = pure awesome.
It now comes in 3 flavors (40 serving tub or 32 individual packs); lemon, fruit punch and mixed berry! You really can’t go wrong and for the days when you are doing a HIIT workout or long run day, go for a double scoop, I love to mix lemon with either of the other two flavors. SO good!
Tip #4: Get your clothes ready the night before, or sleep in them! Don’t laugh, and don’t act like the thought of sleeping in your workout clothes hasn’t crossed your mind. 🙂 It’s one less thing to think about in the morning when you get up. No matter if you’re working out in your home gym or the rec center, do this!
Tip #5: Leave your phone (or whatever you use for an alarm) in the bathroom or on a dresser. Somewhere other than your nightstand. This was a big one for me in the beginning. If I was getting up with my son at 5:00 or 5:30am then it wasn’t as big of a deal. But once he started sleeping through the night, all I wanted to do was hit the snooze. So, having to get out of bed to turn off my alarm helped me to just get moving.
When All Else Fails!
Bonus Tip: Get a partner!! Whether it’s your spouse, neighbor or gals in a virtual accountability group like the ones I run. When you have someone depending on you as much as you depend on them, it makes a HUGE difference in your motivation to get up and get going. #truth
No doubt, I have a few other tips up my sleeve, but these are my top five go-to’s for sure. I hope that a couple will work for you. Because, trust me, I never knew how great it was to come home and relax in the evening until I got to come home and relax in the evening. 🙂 Stick with it, in a few weeks it’ll be a habit you won’t want to let go of! And if you miss a morning and have to make it work in the evening, you’ll quickly realize that you’ve become a morning workout person too.
Now, rest up and rise and grind tomorrow!
xo, Tiff