Hey, there! On this week’s Fitness Friday, I’m sharing all my tips and tricks to waking up early.
When it comes to that early alarm clock ringing, I am certainly no stranger to it. My senior year of college, I started waking up really early to work out before my internship. I had to be at the site before 8AM, so my workouts were typically at 5:30am! Then, when I worked at a high school for a year, my alarm went off at 4:00-4:30am EVERY. DAY. I learned a few tips and tricks along the way to crush your goals, even when its early.
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Benefits of Waking up EARLY
Productivity
I’ve found that when I wake up early, I am much more productive throughout the day. There is a saying that my parents used to always say when I was younger and it couldn’t be more true. They would say, “you don’t want to sleep the day away“.
If I wake up after 8AM, my whole day feels off! You don’t have time to work out if you have to go to work, your meal timing can get off, etc. Now, of course there are exceptions (hello, weekends!), but in general, I am much more productive when you use all the hours in the day to get stuff done.
Even on the weekends, I try to wake up semi-early so that I can get stuff done before friends want to hang out, I need to run errands, or whatever your day entails.
Metabolism
Even if you don’t like to eat breakfast first thing in the morning, when you wake up early and have coffee and/or water, adding liquids into your routine in the morning will help your digestive system and metabolism. If you don’t put any liquid into your system until afternoon, you’re not doing anything for your metabolism!
Routine
Getting on a routine EVERY day will drastically help your productivity, sleep schedule, mood, the list could go on. If you don’t have any sort of daily routine, motivation to do anything will start to decrease. Even if you don’t have ANY plans for the day, waking up early, getting a good workout in, drinking your water, and maybe doing a Bible Study will start your day on the right track. You’ll be surprised at how much more energized you feel and productive your day is when you start with a good routine.
How to Wake up EARLY
It sounds too good to be true, right? For some of us…it truly is sometimes! When it comes to waking up early, it definitely takes practice, positivity, and planning.
Go to bed early
This one might sound like a no-brainer, but so many of us don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis. Research says that we should be getting anywhere from 6-10 hours of sleep a night (everyone is different). My perfect amount is 7-8 hours a night. If you are not accustomed to waking up early, don’t try to do it the morning after you stayed up until 2AM watching Netflix!
I’m not going to lie, sometimes I only get 5 hours of sleep. I teach dance classes at night, so sometimes I won’t get home until 10:45pm, then I have to get ready for bed. By the time I am ready for sleep, it can be 11:30 or midnight. When I taught at a high school, that 4:30AM wake up call only allowed me to get 5 hours of sleep!! Not every day has to be perfect, but especially when starting out, try to stick to a sleep schedule to help get used to the new alarm time!
Plan ahead
I am a HUGE advocate of writing down your goals. Just having them float around in your head is not good enough. When you write down a plan, our brain can remember those details better. Before you go to bed, roughly plan out what you need to accomplish the next day. Get together a simple itinerary of the next day so you can see WHEN you need to wake up. Knowing that if you keep pressing the Snooze Button 10 times you will be late/not accomplish your goals can be a real motivator!
Set out your workout outfit the night before
THIS IS HUGE when starting out. When your alarm goes off for the first time at 5AM, you are not… I repeat…you are NOT going to want to get out of your warm, comfy bed and put on tight leggings, a sports bra, and tennis shoes. You simply won’t do it! BUT, if you go ahead and fill up your water bottle and put it in the fridge, set out your workout clothes, and get anything else you need for the gym ready to go for the morning, you won’t want to waste that effort by sleeping! All of your excuses won’t match the fact that you already put in the effort to lay it all out! Now, you just HAVE to go!
Drink Water
I know I say this as a remedy for every problem, but it is true! We are over 70% water, anyways. Having a glass of water first thing in the morning not only starts your metabolism, but it always helps wake your body up, fuel your muscles, and wake up your brain. This is especially a good step if you don’t want any caffeine before a workout.
Surround yourself with like-minded people
Lastly, the key to waking up early is to be around others who do the same thing. If you have a friend who is constantly telling you how silly it is to wake up early (or any other negative statement about your new lifestyle), you need to start surrounding yourself with others who will cheer you on and be awake too! I used to have a group text with my friends before our morning workouts. It almost became a game to see who would text in the group text first about if they were up. That kind of competition gets you up and out of bed quickly.
What do you think? My morning people: do you have any other tricks that weren’t mentioned?
