Seven Tips to Ditch the Snooze Button and Workout in the Morning
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If you really want to make something happen, do it in the morning.
As busy, working moms, our days are often unpredictable. Life gets in the way and changes our plans. Motivation and will-power drains throughout the day as we make decisions and solve problems. This is why we must take care of our top priority, or the most challenging task to squeeze in, first.
Even before my babies were born, I struggled to find time for exercise. Once I had children, making time for workouts was nearly impossible.
For years I said, “If only I could get myself to get up earlier in the morning, I would have time to workout every day.” Instead of figuring out how to make it happen, I repeatedly went through this cycle of beating myself up about not being able to wake up on time and then throwing myself a pity party because I’m a mom and it is just not realistic for moms to have time for exercise. Obviously, no part of this cycle was healthy.
It wasn’t until I read The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod that I finally got out of my own head and realized that creating a productive morning routine that I loved was totally doable and necessary.
Now, if you have ever set out to create a new morning routine that involved you waking up significantly earlier, you’ve probably experienced the zombie motion of turning off that annoying alarm and going right back to sleep without even realizing what is going on. There’s nothing more frustrating than going to sleep with the intention of crushing a workout before starting the rest of your day, only to wake up and realize that you slept right through your entire workout time.
The key is to recognize that making such a change to your morning routine is HARD. With a little planning ahead, you can make it much more doable. These seven tips helped me go from snooze-button-zombie to one of those weirdos that exercises before 6:00 am.
#1 Plan to give yourself time to thaw out.
Be honest with yourself about how much time you need. Most of us cannot realistically go from dead sleep to ready-for-warm-up in 30 seconds. Set your wake-up time early enough to give yourself time to become human before your workout. I LOVE to wake up and read while my caffeine kicks in, so I try to give myself at least 45 minutes between sleep and pushing play on my workout. This might take a little experimentation to find out the right amount of thawing-out time you require. Don’t give up after day one when you realize that in the time you planned to workout, you only accomplished getting dressed and drinking your pre-workout. Adjust and retry until you find a good rhythm.
#2 Prioritize and be grateful for rest.
With your desired wake-up time in mind, think about what time you need to go to bed in order to get an appropriate amount of sleep. Most experts suggest 7-9 hours. Plan your relaxation and bed time around this so that you’re not consistently shorting yourself on sleep. However, not every night will be perfect, and that is ok! Anyone with young children knows that we can function on significantly less sleep when we have to. Before you go to sleep, take a moment to be grateful for the rest that you are about to get, regardless of how much it is. Hal Elrod explains that we wake up feeling as rested as we tell ourselves we will feel when we go to bed at night. Be thankful for whatever amount of rest you are about to get and wake up feeling rested and ready to go.
#3 Make sure your phone is out of reach.
Put your phone (or alarm clock if you use an alarm clock) across the room or outside of the room! This is a GAME CHANGER. The act of physically getting out of your bed and walking to shut your alarm off completely removes the zombie-snooze-button issue. After walking across the room, you will feel significantly more awake and ready to start your day than if you were still under the covers.
#4 Wake up with water.
et a large glass of water next to your alarm and chug it as soon as you get up. Rehydrating your body helps you wake up further and gives you a bonus jumpstart to your hydration for the day.
#5 Set up for the next steps.
Just by getting out of bed on time, you are already accomplishing more than most; reward yourself with a smooth and easy morning routine by getting everything ready the night before. Change into your workout clothes right away. Have your pre-workout ready to go. Keep your journal and books right by the chair where you are going to do your morning personal development. Know what workout you are going to do and what, if any, equipment you need to get it done.
#6 Give yourself something to look forward to.
Drink your pre-workout and do something enjoyable. If you are someone that is ready to go as soon as you’re out of the zombie phase, feel free to skip this step! Personally, it takes me some time to thaw out in the morning and feel ready to crush a workout. Having something enjoyable to look forward to when my alarm goes off gives me an extra boost to get out of bed. Th first thing that I think about in the morning is NOT the fact that I am about to do a workout. I think about how I get to hang out, drink Energize and read a good book in peaceful silence. I highly recommend using your thawing-out time to do Hal’s other Miracle Morning SAVERS – silence, affirmations, visualization, reading, and writing. If this doesn’t quite sound like your jam, throw in an element that gets you excited to get up, like great music, candles, or an accountability partner. I used to get really excited to get up to drink coffee, but I swapped out my morning cup of joe for Energize because drinking coffee motivates me to drink more coffee, not to go workout.
#7 Don’t get too comfy!
Set an extra alarm for when it is time to get up and press play on your workout. If you are like me, you can get sucked into the book you are reading or the final details you are adding to your vision board. Set a reminder for yourself to move on and get your sweat on!
Bonus: Celebrate and give yourself grace.
Establishing a new morning routine takes time and work. Reward yourself for all of the steps that go well and give yourself grace when you slip up. Make your new morning routine a priority for at least 30 to 60 days to establish a routine. Hal teaches us that it takes this long to get past the phases that feel like torture and start actually enjoying and benefiting from a new habit. I promise, you will reach a point where you really look forward to it.
I cannot thank Hal Elrod enough for writing The Miracle Morning. Reading this book is honestly what changed my morning mindset. If you are in the same snooze button cycle that I was, get yourself a copy or add this title to your Audible library and dig in! Here is a link for you to snag your copy from Amazon! -> https://amzn.to/2TZ4Wv1
Share your thoughts in the comments! Do you have a morning routine that you love? What changes do you want to make to your mornings?
