+ a set of planks to even out the ab workout… +

= this morning’s awesome, energy-building workout!

As usual, it felt good to be up and moving. While I was wiping the sweat out of my eyes (the gym keeps turning the air conditioning up) I was thinking about what’s different for me now. I used to be the LAST person who looked forward to exercise, and I’ve spent years coming up with really legitimate sounding reasons why getting up before work to workout was just not going to work for me. So why is it working now?

So here’s what works for me right now, what keeps me going to the gym.

1. Sleep in gym clothes – I put my gym clothes on at night as my pajamas. It saves me the time and effort of doing it in the morning and makes it that much easier to get up when the alarm goes off.
2. Make lunch at dinner – We pack our lunches while we’re making dinner so that I don’t have to do it in the morning. Just another time saver. Everything gets made and packed and refrigerated the night before and just needs to be quickly pulled out in the morning.
3. Prep coffee – Along with everything else I do while making dinner, I also prep our coffee maker. I fill up the water reservoir, add the grounds to the filter, and make sure the carafe is clean and ready to go. When I come back from the gym in the morning, I just push the button on my way up to the shower.
4. Lay out work clothes – When I’m putting on my workout clothes, I also lay out my work outfit for the next day including underwear, shoes, and jewelry. Every second I save in the mornings makes it more likely that I keep going to the gym.
5. Be honest – For me, and maybe me alone, I don’t sleep well that last hour or so. If I weren’t going to the gym, I’d wake up when Aaron’s alarm went off at 5am. So at most, getting up to go is losing me a half hour of sleep, but I GAIN so much by going that it’s more than worth it to me. On average I have one morning every two weeks or so where I’m just too tired and I skip. It never makes me feel guilty, because if I really need the sleep I’ll take it.
6. Make friends – This one has been key for me too. There’s a core group of women (and lately, one guy) who are always at the gym when I am, on weekday mornings when it first opens. We’ve come to refer to ourselves as The Openers since we literally open the gym every morning. We know each other’s names now. We know why we’re at the gym, who’s working toward what, and we notice when someone doesn’t show up for more than a day or two. That means I know they’ll notice if I’m missing, and I feel accountable to them, so I get up.

Of course it helps that I’m starting to see real results…. so maybe that helps too. Speaking of results…

So there’s that FANTASTIC AWESOMENESS…