Dear iPone (My tips for becoming a morning exerciser)

Dear iPhone,

 Prepare to meet thy doom. Your incessant “dooh dooh dooh dooh” at this ungodly hour and refusal to actually snooze (5 minutes is not my idea of snoozing), have forced drastic measures to be taken in order to ensure that you never again disturb me from my slumber!

Rawrrr!

You don’t want to make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

Any last words?

What? Someone wants to play Words with Friends with me?

All right, you can live to see another day.

 But I’m watching you.

To say I’m not a morning person is a little bit of an understatement. If I don’t have at least one cup of coffee in my system, you don’t want to cross my path. I don’t want to cross my path. I usually can’t even find my path.

I walked into my dog this morning.

And then over her.

And into the wall.

It’s OK; I gave her ten dog treats.

As much as I firmly believe I shouldn’t be up and about before the sun is, (the earth’s power source isn’t on yet? Well then neither am I) sometimes it’s a necessity. Like this morning.

My schedule is so bizarre this week because of the holidays. Things are closed, hours are weird, my body is emotionally exhausted from family get togethers and my kitchen is still trying to recover from the massive amounts of holiday baking I did. The uncertainty of my day has sort of thrown me into panic mode.

When do I workout? When do I eat? What do I eat? Should I sleep now? Heels or flats? Is there a Santa?!

The holidays are usually when I take the approach of “I fit it in when and where I can” in regards to working out. So when the only Barre class (I’m totally addicted, an official barre-bie. Like Barbie but with better biceps) I could get into was 6 a.m. I took a deep breath, said a little prayer, and hit the “make a reservation” button.

It wasn’t the prettiest start to the morning but I got going (my leggings were on inside out but at least they were on) and the after “glow” was even better this time around because A. I tucked my seat like there was no tomorrow and B. I did it before 7 a.m.

Winning!

Working out early in the morning is a great way to make sure you stay in a healthier mind set for the rest of the day. If you’re like me, it’s easy to say you are going to get up early and exercise the night before, but when your alarm starts chirping you turn into the sleepy yet even grumpier Incredible Hulk and hurl it across the room, muttering technological threats as you drift back to sleep.

It’s dark. Dark=sleep. Sleep=no working out. Sleeeeeep.

Do you like my logic?

Unfortunately, my cell phone insurance doesn’t cover damage due to sleep-deprived rage so I have had to establish a routine to make my bum get out of bed and actually workout.

    

•     When my alarm goes off, I sit up and get my feet onto the floor. If I don’t do this quickly, I’ll talk myself out of getting up. I hit the floor literally the second my alarm goes off, before I have time to think how cozy my bed is. Don’t think “cozy,” think “get up NOW!” No snooze for you!
•       Do what’s necessary to wake up. I lay out my gear the night before, clothes, socks, sneakers, iPod, and even hair ties. It’s one less thing to worry about in the morning. If I can stand it, I’ll even sleep in my running clothes because honestly, in the winter, it’s cold in the morning, I really don’t want to have to change clothes. So I simply skip that step!
•       Buy a lamp. My bedside lamp is my go-to tool for getting out of bed. As soon as I shut off my alarm clock, I immediately turn on my bedside lamp, which is a short distance from my pillow. Even just a little light gets me moving.
•       Just do it!  I tend to over think my workouts. “Do I go now or later? Do I want work out at all?” but you know, the people at Nike might be on to something. I’ve found it’s easiest to stop thinking (seriously, my brain causes more problems than it solves) and just go. Drop everything, don’t think, just run out the door before your brain realizes what you are doing! 
• As noble as it would be to say I should get up early simply to work out, it would be a big fat lie So, yes, sometimes I treat myself like a 5-year old and bribe myself. If I get up and workout in the morning as scheduled for a month, I allow myself to buy something fun at the end of the month! 
• Miley Cyrus said it best, "nobody's perfect!" Plan to fail, meaning have a back up plan, just in case your workout doesn't go as planned. Hey, life happens and sometimes we all just end up hitting snooze, our Garmin dies before even locating a signal or our dogs run off with just one of our tennis shoes (she has a preference for only the right one). But if your plan A doesn't work out, there are 25 other letters in the alphabet. 

Some days it is so much harder than others to drag my bum out of bed (during the winter, Saturday mornings, the night after a Real Housewives marathon...) and that is when I just have to remind myself why I am doing this...and the delicious breakfast that I am going to so totally have earned afterwards.

Because when all else fails, I'm easily bribed with food!