I'm My Favorite: How I Became a Morning Workout Convert

“I don’t know how you get up at 5 a.m. everyday! I could never do that. I’m not a morning person.”

A few months ago I would have been the person saying those same words. I have never been a morning person. I just thought that was how I was built. And I was fine with it. Until recently.

My goals are what changed.

I think it’s pretty clear that I love helping others with their health and fitness goals. I love the accountability groups and individual support I give to others going the through the same journey I am.

But the more people that I help the more time it takes. I’m pretty good at organization and time management so I was confident I would be able to do it all.

One day I was doing an exercise where I plan out all my time for the week on my google calendar. First I scheduled out the hours I’m at work and the time it takes for my commute. I blocked out my lunch hour to work on coaching. Then I added in Scouts and three nights for dance. Next, I added in the time for making dinner and helping with homework. Then I scheduled in my evening workouts, shower and getting ready for bed. Finally, I put in any extra appointments for the week. I was up at 6 a.m. and usually in bed around 11 p.m.

When I looked at the calendar my heart sank. There wasn’t any time left! I was looking to find at least another hour (besides my lunch hour) to devote to checking in with my challengers and doing follow up emails. But it wasn’t there.

I had to take a hard look at my calendar and my goals of helping other people and figure out if it was even feasible for me to continue coaching.

I knew I didn’t want to give it up. But the only place I saw to cut was taking Gracie to dance and that was just something I wasn’t willing to give up.

Was I going to have to quit coaching?

I took another look at the calendar and those evening workouts stood out.

Then I looked at the calendar block that said “Wakeup – 6 a.m.”

“No, there’s no way,” I said to myself. “I can barely get up at 6 a.m. now and I’m always running late. There is no way I can get up at 5 a.m. No way!”

I thought about it for several weeks.

Could I really do it?

I started to entertain the idea.

The sole reason I even decided to try it was because of another coach that I follow on social media. I had been following her for a year. She is a very successful coach, has two boys ages 3 and 5 and she gets up at 5 a.m. to workout, every single day, without fail.

Every morning when I would wake up at 6 a.m. and grab my phone to scroll through social media I would see her workout selfies. She was already done with her workout before I had even hit the snooze button for the tenth time.

She often talked about how it was still a challenge for her to get up early every day.

But she was willing to do the work that other people aren’t willing to do. She wanted to change more than she wanted to stay the same. She repeated to herself “I’m awake. I’m awake. I’m awake.”

I remember the night I decided I was going to give it a try. Deep down I was sure I would just hit the snooze the next morning and it would be something else to add to my list of failures.

But there was a something in me that really wanted to try.

That entire night I had dreams about my alarm going off. I woke up several times looking at the clock to see how close it was to 5 a.m.

When my alarm did go off that morning, I managed to turn it off right away, sit up and get dressed. I went to the bathroom and as I was getting ready to head to the family room I stopped myself and was so close to going back to bed.

“There is no way I’m going to stick with this,” I tried to convince myself. “Even if I do it today, in a few weeks I will be back to skipping workouts and hitting the snooze button. Why should I even bother?”

But I heard her words in my head.

“You’re awake. You’re awake. You’re awake.”

And I found the courage to walk to the family room and push play.

Here’s my selfie from that first day, Dec. 3.

I remember the whole day I kept thinking about that 5 a.m. workout. I was so excited that it was done. It was a Thursday and Gracie had dance at 7:30 p.m. and we don’t get home until almost 9 p.m.

I just kept thinking that I would be able to go that whole evening and not worry about when I was going to get my workout in.

I wouldn’t have to talk myself in and out of getting it done. I wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt of skipping a workout and feeling like a failure.

Because it was done. It was done!!! I can’t even put into words how excited it made me.

That feeling was what got me up the next morning at 5 a.m.

And I haven’t looked back since. I love it. I am a morning person. Heck, I posted a live video of myself this morning at 5:15 a.m. It’s actually pretty hilarious to watch the first few minutes of the video because I’m still half asleep.

So I have no plans of stopping anytime soon. It has freed up so much of my time, is a great way to start off my day and it just makes me so good! I love it!

If you aren’t a morning person but would like to be let me know. I can help! Send me an email at smpindy@att.net and we can talk about steps you can take to start your own morning routine.