I workout early 5 days a week. When you have kids and a full time job finding time to do anything for yourself can be a challenge. I wouldn’t say I’m a natural early bird or night owl (happy hour is my peak time) so it took a little getting used to. I do believe if I can workout early anyone can. So set your alarm somewhere you cant reach it and lay out your workout gear. Here are 3 reasons why I think everyone should give it a try.
Reason #1: Better Sleep
I don’t know about you but some nights I have trouble turning my brain off. Most of the time it is because I’m thinking about work. Financial planning can be a bit of a rabbit hole/reddit thread of a job. Lots of times I’ll think of something I want to mention to a client when I’m trying to fall asleep. I have sent my team emails at completely inappropriate times too. I started to jot down notes and email in the morning instead after a teammates girlfriend wondered why their phone was buzzing at 2 am 🤦♀️. Sometimes I miss the complete disconnect that came when a waitressing shift was done.
When I exercise at 4:45 am there is no chance I will not be asleep by 10 that night. A few nights this week my eyes were shutting on the couch by 8:45. If you workout early you may find yourself so physically exhausted you can’t help but fall asleep easily. Also, when you know how early you need to get up the next day it makes staying up and watching TV or looking at your phone less tempting.
Reason #2: More Energy to Work/Parent
There isn’t a proper warm up when it comes to working or parenting. Once it’s morning the phone starts ringing and no one cares if you haven’t had your coffee yet. My kids get up around 6 (on a good day) and they don’t want to snuggle and wake up slowly. They are full beast mode ready to go whether I am or not.
If I workout super early no one can catch me off guard. I find it is better to do burpees while my mind was still waking up. Also, no one has to deal with a version of me that I’d need to apologize for later. On a good day I have already had coffee, worked out, showered, and had breakfast before the rest of the world hit snooze the first time. There isn’t enough time to start the workday in a fog because all that means for me is that I will need to follow back up with the person I was half listening to later. Finally, if I accomplish nothing else that day I still feel like I did alright.
Reason #3: You might eat better
I love sandwiches. Not the ones you make at home and pack for work with a responsible amount of turkey either. I like the ones you get in Boston that are stuffed with an obnoxious amount of meat and cheese and end up on Phantom Gourmet. If I have one of these the odds of me working out after I get home from work are slim to none. More likely I’ll want to get home and slip into my UConn sweatpants that I wore straight through 2 pregnancies that always make me feel tiny.
Workout early and you are going to be a little more mindful of what you eat. Maybe you wont want to sacrifice all of your hard work with junk food. Even if you get it done early because you know you have plans to eat somewhere great later you are still thinking ahead about food. Either way you will be more aware of what you are doing. I tend to eat better when I exercise early because I want to see some results and nutrition has a lot to do with that. Food is a struggle for a lot of people (I wrote about that here) and doing something great for your health bright and early can set the tone for the entire day.
Do you workout in the morning or evening? How does it change the way you feel throughout the day? Let me know in the comments!