Becoming an early morning riser

What time do you like to go the gym? First thing the morning, sometime during the day, or late at night? I'm sure it all depends on your schedule and how active your work & home life keep you.

For the longest time, I loved being a night owl. I think it started in college when I had the freedom to go to bed and wake up whenever I wanted. However now I work your stereotypical 8-to-5 job, which means waking up before the sun sometimes. Let's not forget that my life has been in a transitional period for the past year.

So this past week I've discovered that my old nighttime ways just are not working. Especially with days being shorter and the sun now hiding itself by the time I'd be set to go to the gym at 7:00pm. Just last week I would get home from work, have dinner, get ready for my work out, and then have no motivation at all to leave the house. In fact, my body was begging for rest rather than movement.

I started my new schedule on Monday night by drifting off into a slumber by 9:00pm (before I wouldn't be ready for bed until at least 10:30pm!). The next day, my body promptly woke up with the sound of my alarm at 4:45am. It used to be hard to drag myself out of bed before 6:30am but Tuesday morning I found it so easy to roll out of bed!

Alas, I am now an early-moring work-out person. I feel like I have much more energy in the morning as opposed to late at night! Plus I will still continue to go five days a week and work out on the elliptical or stationary bike for 50 minutes then finish off with 10 minutes of arm strength training.

Now working out doesn't feel like a chore to do after dinner! And I have my evenings all to myself to blog, watch television, or read! So even though I've only been doing my new schedule for a few days, I really do love working out in the morning.