The Morning Workout Transformation

Let's kickstart this post with a disclaimer: I've "worked out" in some form since the 8th grade. I started running in an attempt to make the track team (didn't happen, I'm a terribly slow runner with no real gusto to try and be faster), and then continued doing so in high school in my attempts to turn my body into a duplicate of Sydney Bristow (see: ALIAS).

Then, in the 9th grade when the cool thing for the drumline to do was hold their drums above their head during the last play of the football game (I just get cooler and cooler), I incorporated "weight lifting" when I just about dropped my snare drum on my head.

That being said, I've never been a fan of working out in the morning. Ever. Growing up in Houston, there were a few times in the summer when I tried to get a run in first thing in the morning. They were always terrible. I was sluggish, nauseous and hated it. I accepted then that I would never be a morning workout person and instead accepted sneaking out for runs at 11 o'clock at night (sorry mom!).

Fast forward to last year. My job requires a lot of random overtime, which means my evenings don't allow for consistent workouts. I'm a fan of hitting the city streets for a run during my lunch hour, but I wanted to do something more, so I finally decided to give morning workouts another shot. It's supposed to be amazing for your metabolism, so I figured I'd push through and really try to give it a fair shot. My goal was three weeks straight of waking up early to work out. 15 sessions in my gym, aka my second bedroom.

Now here I am, a year later and still waking up early to work out. I will tell you, winter is the worst. Waking up when it's dark and cold is almost as bad as stepping barefoot on a lego, but you can power through it. I've even gotten so used to it, I'll wake up twenty minutes before my alarm and give myself time to slowly ease out of sleep. I've been able to incorporate lunch runs into my HIT training, and frankly, I'm not sure how I'm still able to walk. I think it's my dedication to not missing out on happy hours with friends after work.

Think you can't convince yourself to roll out of bed at that first alarm? Think of it this way, even if you fall back to sleep, you'll only get another hour of probably crummy sleep, right? Might as well get up and burn those calories. It will wake you up more than coffee will, trust me.

Feeling like you'll be sluggish because you just woke up? Do that HIT program or weight lifting series in front of the mirror. There's nothing more motivational than seeing a glimpse of your abs in the mirror, or something jiggle that you'd prefer didn't.

So get on up just a tad bit earlier and get going. You'd be shocked at how much better you'll feel during the day.