Growing up I was never a morning person. Working slightly changed this but my full transition to morning person truly occurred after my first child was born.
I gained quite a bit of weight with my pregnancy (55lbs to be exact) and knew I needed to workout but when was that going to happen? When I got home from work I was mentally and physically exhausted and I have always been a sweater so lunchtime workouts weren't for me. This left early mornings.
5 years later I wake up even earlier to not only workout but to set the intention for my day,read, meditate and even whip up breakfast before my kids get up. I want to share how I started each habit and why I can't go a day without them.
Workout
This one seems obvious right? I wanted to lose the 55 lbs I gained, but it became so much more.
It's important to note that I enlisted a friend to workout with me. We promised to email each other when our workouts for the day were complete. Knowing she was somewhere, working out I didn't want to let her down. This accountability got me over the 2 week hurdle, when the majority of people quit a new routine.
But why did I keep going?
Because something else happened in those moments of sweating my guts out and wanting to die. I actually started enjoying the work! I felt accomplished and saw my muscles build, the weight came off and I found a source of stress relief.
I lost the weight in 9 months but have gotten up 5-6 days a week ever since to feel good about myself.
With all this feeling good about myself happening I started to wonder if there was more I could do....
Breakfast
Before this morning routine started I was a chronic breakfast skipper, which also meant I binged at lunch. Incorporating a morning workout routine meant I got hungrier sooner and breakfast was going to have to start happening.
I had a 6 month old baby and needed something fast that I could simply drink and go. Enter my daily breakfast, a nutrient dense shake! I like to call this lazy nutrition because I get a full serving of fruits and veggies but I spend 3 minutes making it.
As soon as I incorporated a healthy shake for my breakfast I was blown away by my energy level and my ability to not binge at lunch anymore! What a concept!
Reading
As time progressed I found myself waking up and needing a second to get ready for a workout. I also drink a pre-workout supplement that takes a few minutes to kick in. What ended up happening is I would log in to Facebook for those 10 minutes and feel kind of behind the 8 ball. You know, the comparison game we all start when we look at social media. This sort of killed my workout mood.
I was listening to personal development books on my way to and from work and always felt energized after each 30-45 minute session. Then in dawned on me, why not also read an actual book. (I do realize how juvenile that last sentence sounded)
And so began my 10 minutes of reading something motivational. I have now read over 50 books by just carving out this small window of time for reading. The books vary from religion, how to, best practices and leadership growth. I love spending this small window of time on something productive and uplifting.
Meditation
When you read a lot of personal development, like I do, you start to hear similar things repeated and if something is repeated numerous times it must be worth looking into. Meditation is one of the most predominant themes present in my reading. From Oprah to actors to motivational speakers, all of these people swear by it.
So, 23 days ago I started my meditation journey. How do I know it's been 23 days? Because I have an app for it that tells me these fun little statistics. The app is Headspace and I would recommend it to anyone looking to dip their toe into this interesting and quite difficult practice.
It's difficult because I'm always thinking about something and being told not to think makes it worse! Although slowly but surely I'm learning to let go. I'm a work in progress and some days are better than others but each day I feel a little more at peace when I finish.
Meditation is another 10 minute activity that I like to do right before I sit down to read.
Intention and Affirmation
During the guided meditation sessions you are asked to set intention. I'm a goal oriented person and naturally latched onto this idea. It has helped my meditation greatly but then I had a deeper thought. If setting intention helps me for 10 minutes why can't I set intentions for my entire day? For me this is in the form of an affirmation that I wrote for myself.
Today I will give
Today I will listen
Today I will learn
Today I will teach
Everyday? And for How long?
A note about frequency.
I read, meditate and set intention daily
I workout 5-6 days a week
I spend 10 minutes reading and another 10 minutes meditating
Setting intentions takes less than 30 seconds
My workouts are anywhere from 22-45 minutes depending on the program I'm following
Resources
A Book
I recently read the book "Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod. Funny enough it talks about spending an hour a day going through each of these activities but incorporating several others as well. I haven't yet added in scribing and silence (I'm not great with silence). Here is a link to purchase it from Amazon but I listened to it on Audible which you can find here
Below you will find more information about other things I mentioned in this post. If you'd like to purchase these items you can do so at this link.
Preworkout Supplement Info
Workout Info