Rise and Shine! How to Wake Up Earlier

How are my September workouts going you ask? Well, differently than I originally planned. This is a normal occurrence for me. But before you judge too harshly, let me explain that I have been working out! Just not following the original plan.

If you'll recall, I set out to complete the following weekly workouts in September:

P90X Legs and Back
Yoga Today Blissful Hip Opener video
Yoga Today Balancing and Backbends video
Yoga Today Opening to Hanumanasana video (2 times)
FitSugar 10-minute Core Fusion video‭
FitSugar 10-minute Arm Workout video‭
FitSugar 10-minute Tush Toning Pilates video‭
Run (2 times)
Actual Pinterest Workout‭

But, as things turned out my work is now sponsoring a 10k Challenge that I wanted to join in on. Plus the weather has been amazing now that it has finally cooled off a bit. Finally, I keep saying that I want to become a morning person and I never follow through. So all of these things collided to create a perfect storm of early-morning-run inspiration!

Ignore my incredibly slow mile times.
I take a break to walk through a park halfway through my runs.
Plus, I stop at like a billion stop lights.
Plus, I'm slow.

So my new challenge? Get up "early" (early is 7am for me) and go running before work most week days. As you can see, I did great last week and this week is off to a good start!

Here are a couple of my tactics that I have been using to get motivated in the mornings and resist the urge to go back to bed:

Go Slow: My previous wake-up time was 8:00am and I wanted to work towards a wake-up time of 7:00am. I didn't start getting up early all at once though. I actually gave myself a whole week where I set my alarm for 7:30am. I didn't even work out or anything, I just got used to waking up a half hour earlier. This week was actually the hardest in my opinion because it was sooooo tempting to just snooze since I knew I wasn't required to actually do anything with my morning. (Confession: I gave into temptation twice). But then the next week I was ready to tackle the 7:00am wake-up and morning runs. I think easing myself into it was key.

Just Stand Up: I am guilty of snoozing the same as anyone else. But you know what? It's really hard to press the snooze button when your alarm is across the room. Not impossible (I've definitely stood up, pressed snooze, and gotten back in bed), but definitely difficult. I find that just standing up to go turn off my alarm and shuffle off to the bathroom wakes me up enough that I don't consider getting back in to bed. After all, those ten minute snoozes don't really make you feel more rested anyway.

Don't Let Sleepy-You Make Decisions: If I had to pick out an outfit or find my keys or do anything else besides put on clothes and get a cup of tea, my morning workout would be doomed. Be nice to sleep-you. And above all, don't let sleepy-you think or make decisions. Sleepy-you's judgement is clouded by sleep (duh) and decision-making is just one more thing that sleepy-you will refuse to do and use against early-rising-you, cheating you out of your perfect morning. "Find a sports bra? Decide which shirt to wear? Nah, you should probably just sleep." Lies! So lay out your clothes, ID, keys, and shoes the night before. Make a plan for what you are going to do in the morning the night before so that you don't have to think about it when you feel like a zombie.

Reward Yourself: My alarm rings at 7:00am and I am ready to walk out the door at 7:10am, but I don't. I enjoy a cup of tea or coffee first. I use the time to finish waking up and get a little hydration and caffeine in my system before starting off on my run. I'm out the door at 7:30am, which is still plenty of time for a quick run, and I'm awake enough to not trip over uneven pavement or run into traffic (win-win!). My morning tea is my absolute favorite part of my morning and it's definitely something I look forward to. Now, this seems to go against my previous advice since making coffee gives sleepy-you time to start thinking and making decisions, but at this point in my morning I have already been up enough (see: Just Stand Up) to not want to go back to sleep anymore. You can adjust accordingly, but as long as you plan on rewarding yourself for getting up early, I doubt it matters when you do it.

Remind Yourself Why: It can feel torturous to force myself to get up earlier than necessary. But then I go out on my run and I feel so exhilarated and happy and alive. The pay off for getting up early and feeling like a person who has their life together is worth the extra minutes of sleep. If and when you have moments of satisfaction in your morning routine, relish in how awesome they feel and tuck them away for the next morning when you really don't want to get out of bed.

Logan Circle at 7:45am. So pretty and peaceful.

So those are my tips for becoming a morning person. Let me be clear: I am still in the honeymoon stage of my morning-person-ness. I could look back on this post in a few months and not even recognize this responsible, early-riser. But I hope not.