Tips for getting out of bed in the morning to get your sweat on

You want to get up earlier so you can workout, or get to work earlier, or have time to enjoy the morning, or any other number of reasons.

But it’s SO HARD to do, am I right?!? Your bed is super comfy, and it's cold out, or rainy, or dark, or you're still tired because you went to bed later than you anticipated. So you press snooze and lie to yourself "just five more minutes!" but then you keep pressing snooze, and then you finally have to get up because now you REALLY need to get up or you'll be late.

I get it. These are just a few of the reasons I personally used to get a few more minutes of sleep. But I also realized that by doing this,  I was hindering progress towards achieving my goals.  It's easy to say "Oh I'll do it after work today," but more times than not, I end up not doing it, as there is always an errand to do, or someone invites me out for dinner/drinks, or I'm just plain tired from a long day and all I want to do is veg.

So over the years, I've developed tactics that help me help myself.  Here are my tips and tricks for getting up and out of bed early in the morning:

1.  Set multiple alarms. This might seem like a simple tip, but it works for me. I have several alarms on my phone, as well as on my Fitbit and with my Sonos speakers. The Sonos alarm is great, as I have it play an upbeat, motivational playlist that makes me want to dance (and thus, get out of bed!). 

2. Make the sun rise earlier.  Not seriously! Your body's natural alarm clock tends to wake up with the sun, but if you need to get up before the sun does, it can be challenging.  One of the biggest game changers for me is this clock. Not only does it have sound like an alarm clock (which I turn off), but it also has a light bulb. 30 minutes prior to your alarm, the light starts to come on. It starts very dim and gradually lights over the next 30 minutes until it achieves full strength, which you can control.  It's phenomenal.  If you ever have trouble after Daylight Savings Time, this solves the problem!

What my bedroom looks like at 6am before the real sun rises!

3. Utilize Jedi Mind Tricks. I call them Jedi Mind Tricks because it's fun, but also because it works.  Sometimes you just need to fake your brain out, especially if your body and mind are screaming for more sleep. So here are two JMTs I use: 

• JMT #1. Tell yourself “Just five minutes” - not as in "five more minutes of sleep", but rather "Just workout for five minutes. If after five minutes you are still tired, you can go back to sleep. There is only one time in the past four years that I can recall actually stopping working out to go back to sleep.  I feel so good that I just keep going!
• JMT #2. Tell yourself "Just get up, put your workout clothes on, and you don't have to workout.  You can sit on the couch!".  It's an easy way to get out of bed, without committing to actually breaking a sweat. Inevitably you start to feel pretty dumb wasting time sitting on the couch, and so the next time you go ahead and press play.

4. Prep the night before. Everyone tells you this, but it's because it works.  If you prepare the night before by gathering everything you'll need to get started the next morning, it makes it easier. You're not rushing around gathering everything first thing when your brain is still half awake.

5. Develop a morning ritual that you actually look forward to. Some people look forward to a cup of coffee, or reading the newspaper, or any other pleasurable habit. It's easier to roll out of bed if you have something exciting to do, so build time into your morning routine for something that you will look forward to doing.  Speaking of things I look forward to, I love Energize. It's a preworkout supplement from the Beachbody Performance Line, and it's an instant pick-me-up that not only makes me feel like a bada$$, but helps me push harder in my workouts. It tastes good, and believe it or not, I actually look forward to drinking it!

My favorite is Fruit Punch, but Lemon flavor is also tasty!

6. Write your Why. Why do you want to get up early in the morning? What are the goals you are trying to achieve? What are the results you want? Knowing your Why is one of the key steps towards helping you achieve your goals. Keep asking yourself questions about why you want your goals. Dig deep and get to the real truths, and write those down. You can have many whys. But writing them down, and reading them every few days, keeps them fresh in your mind, and helps remind you as to why you are doing what you're doing.

7. Get enough sleep. Yawn. You've heard this before, and you know you need to get enough sleep. And it can be extremely difficult, especially if you have young kids who don't sleep through the night! But it is so important for a ton of reasons. So look at your schedule and see what you can cut out. Maybe it's browsing on social media, or watching shows on Netflix. It can be hard to give up things you find pleasurable, but you NEED sleep. And if your goal is to get up earlier, then you need to go to bed earlier.

8. Set your alarm five minutes earlier. You've likely heard this one before, but again - it works.  If you get up at 7:30am to run into the shower to leave on time to get to work, then try waking up at 7:25am this week.  Next week, adjust it down five more minutes to 7:20am. Maybe do ten minutes of crunches and squats to start getting ready.  The following week, wake up at 7:15am, and so on.

9. Just press play. For me, the hardest part can simply be pressing play on the remote control to start my workout. It's easier to sit on the couch staring at a blank TV or scrolling Facebook for five, ten minutes, or more. If I take one simple action, which is literally just press the play button, then the workout starts and someone on screen is telling me what I need to do, and it's not that bad anymore. 

10. Limit/eliminate alcohol. This might be controversial. I love a good glass of wine (or three...), but we all know that alcohol is "empty" calories that don't fuel your body, and end up disrupting your sleep and make you feel sluggish the next day, or worse, hungover. So be the adult, and tell your inner toddler to hush up while you say no to alcohol. You'll start sleeping better, which makes it easier to wake up, and since you'll be well rested, you'll have a better workout. WIN WIN. (If you want to learn more about the impacts of alcohol and how to improve your relationship, I highly recommend reading This Naked Mind, and joining the FREE 30 day Alcohol Experiment.)

As an added Bonus, getting up earlier allows you to experience the quiet magic of being awake before the rest of the world, as well as the (real) sun rising!

Sunrise in West Palm Beach, FL

Skyway 10K run

One of the things I love most about racing is the experience.  In the past, I've always been trying to get a better time, be faster, not stop to walk, so I didn't really get to experience the race as much... I was rushing through it, not wanting to stop and admire what was around me.

Well, on March 3, 2019, I ran a 10K.  Which is monumental because the last actual run I did was a 2 mile slow run around my neighborhood on February 6!  So with no real running for the past month, I ended up run/walking a 10K, and finished only 10 minutes slower than my fastest 10K time. 

This 10K?  It's called the Skyway 10K.  The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a four mile long bridge that connects St Petersburg to Bradenton. It's a massive bridge, and driving over is an awesome experience.  So when the opportunity to run over it arises, you jump at the chance... especially as the race is limited to just 8,000 runners.

It's an awesome experience.  And you know what's the kicker?  I ENJOYED every minute of it.  I allowed myself to stop.  To take photos.  I marveled at the scenery.  I told fellow racers that I liked their outfits.  I was not worried about my time.  When my body felt like it needed to walk, I let it walk.  When I felt myself recovering, I started to run again, and I reminder thinking "oh yes I am strong, that recovery was good and now I can run again!"

The race experience was magnified.  It reminded me of why I love running.

It was such a cool experience to run up a bridge... ascending 200 feet in the air over the course of 1 mile, and then running down. I finished that race feeling like a bad a$$, despite my slower time. 

I don't remember thinking "oh my god I'm dying", ever, and I recall distinctly in every other race that I had that thought at least once if not twice (or more!).

Now, just because I wasn't running doesn't mean I wasn't working out. I had been completed Beachbody workouts - in particular Shaun T's Transform 20 and The Masters Hammer & Chisel, so that likely kept me in fighting form. And I don't recommend that everyone run a race without any training... I'm saying that, for me, the experience of slowing down was almost as important.

I feel pretty awesome.  Maybe I'm done running long distances, maybe I'm not.  But whatever I am, I LOVED being OK with simply enjoying the ride.