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Old 01-04-03, 07:05 PM  
vdub
 
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Kansas
The truth? Breakfast! I love breakfast! It's my favorite meal. And it's the meal where I get to eat the most food! I have a long, leisurely breakfast, coffee and computer time, then I'm ready to exercise.
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Old 03-15-03, 12:16 PM  
Starlight
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Long Island, NY
*Keeping my alarm clock across the room has helped. It's way too noisy to sleep through, so I have no choice but to get out of bed.

*Setting up tapes/workout equipment/clothes the night before

It does take a lot of discipline, but it can be done. I've slipped many times, but it feels so good to workout first thing and start the day off on a very positive note!
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Old 06-07-03, 10:29 PM  
curlytops
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Red face coffee! alarm clocks!

I never used to workout in the morning. I've always seen myself as a night person. But now I do, and I love it! Maybe it has something to do with a change of lifestyle that I decided to adopt. (BTW, to the person who posted the flylady link, thank youuu!)

Here's what I do:
  • Set 5 alarm settings in my cellphone: 5:30 AM, 5:45 AM, 6:00 AM, 6:15 AM, and 6:30 AM. That way, it can "gently" nudge me awake (or scare the bajeegees out of you, depending on your alarm tone)
  • Set my main alarm clock to 6:30 AM. I call this my monster alarm. It guarantees to wake up even the person in the next room.
  • Grab a cup of coffee. Stare at the cup, and imagine it as a magic potion to bring me energy. (I made it work with plain water too! Haha!)
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Old 06-08-03, 07:36 AM  
kathiez
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Annandale, Va
Re: I just do it

Quote:
Originally posted by Barbara P
I also visualized myself working out in the morning, getting up, getting ready, doing it. Worked for me.
Good luck!
Barbara P
I am a very consistent am excerciser and a born morning person. I also have 5 furry alarm clocks who simply must be fed by 5:30 am now since that is our normal schedule. These things obviously help a lot.

However even though I am a born morning person I can still have trouble actually getting to my workout especially if I am feeling off for any reason. I have really had to grow into the consistency.

I use the same tricks a lot of other people do: sleep in my workout clothes, plan rotations in advance, go to bed nlt 10:00, only do videos I really like and that I think are worth it, keep adding new workouts - although I am a delayed lemming on a lot of things.

The visualization that Barbara P. mentions is also something that I use and I think it is very effective. I visualize my whole routine, as well as visualize the workout. If it is one that I know I can actually hear the music and feel the moves - not the whole thing of course but just parts of it. This really creates a momentum in me that gets me going.
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Old 06-08-03, 12:32 PM  
Barbara P
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Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: MiddletownCT
Re: Re: I just do it

Quote:
Originally posted by kathiez
I am a very consistent am excerciser and a born morning person. I also have 5 furry alarm clocks who simply must be fed by 5:30 am now since that is our normal schedule. These things obviously help a lot.
haha! I have 3 furry alarm clocks, one of whom will start to lobby for his breakfast any time betwen 3:30 and when I get up. He will do this maybe 75% of the time.
But when I first started my am workouts, I had just 1 furry clock and she slept in the cellar at night, so it took some getting used to.
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Old 06-08-03, 02:59 PM  
gigi
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
I am a teacher and during the school year I have to be at school by 7:15 a.m. I never know how my day is going to turn out with meetings, parents, etc. My motiviation for working out very EARLY in the a.m. is that is my only guarantee that I will get a workout in. I have worked out after school before, but I look at my week and that is only on the weeks that I am farily sure I will be home at an early enough hour to get it done. One never know what the day holds and I just feel like I get more exercise in if I get up and do it first thing. I do think you have to find what works best for you and your schedule. This just works for me! good luck!
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Old 05-22-04, 08:49 AM  
dcwarch
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: California
AM EXercisers

I have been an am exerciser for several years. I get up at 4:50-5:00 am 5 days a week.

At first it was very hard, much easier to sleep in. But on one of the Firm videos (I think a Firm Basic tape) they said that it takes 21 repetitions to make something a habit and 100 repetitions to make it an automatic response. I began logging my workouts because I wanted to know when I reached these numbers.

And it is true, now it is an automatic habit. I don't often even think, ""Ohh do I have to get up?" When the alarm goes off, I just pop out of bed. On the occassion that I do sleep in and miss my exercise, I am disappointed and make it up later that day somehow. Although this is hard to do. I find it much easier and enjoyable to exercise while the rest of my family sleeps.

Keep up the good work. It does become easier.
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Old 05-22-04, 09:03 AM  
Mollie F.
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Upper Peninsula, MI
I just converted to am exercise, although this week has been a total wash because of the evil sinus infection that I've been battling. However, I'm an early riser by nature; I have to get used to the whole being awake thing before I go to work. To get up a bit earlier to work out is an effort, but I found that it wasn't too horrible, once I'd committed to it (and I suspect that the commitment part is a major thing).

Alarm clock:
I keep the alarm clock across the room. The alarm clock is also set twenty minutes fast, on the assumption that I might be fooled by this. I hit the snooze button multiple times, so having the clock set fast insures that I won't sabotage myself.

Getting used to the idea:
Renae B. gave me brilliant advice a few weeks ago. She gets up a bit early so that she can have a cup of coffee and get ready to work out. I don't want to make coffee that early, but I get up about twenty minutes before I plan to work out, and I use that time to feed the cat and sip some water. Then I get my workout clothes on and get to my workout.

Backup feline alarm:
Although my cat (Ava) does not feel that she has to be fed first thing in the morning, she does believe that the bed belongs to her after sunrise, so she's glad to get me out of it if she thinks she can get away with it. She does sleep with me on top of the covers, but, when I'm not in bed, she crawls under the top blanket for serious snoozing. I don't know why; she started this about ten years ago. Anyway, if the alarm has gone off and I've used up my snoozes and still gone back to sleep, Ava will wait a respectable period and then leap up on the bed (and me), meowing loudly. She's half-Siamese and has The Voice, so meowing loudly really means something. If I don't react right away, she'll walk around my head, purring loudly and grooming my hair. She's saved me from oversleeping more times than I can count.
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Old 01-02-05, 12:24 PM  
dreamer felice
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: suburban midwest
Wake-ups

I look somewhat like a Xena who "let herself go", so one of my motivators has been to get a body like Xena. For a while, my only workout option was in the AM, so I bought a bumper sticker that said, "What would Xena do?" and I put it right next to my bed on my bedstand. When I rolled over to turn off the alarm clock I'd see the large purple bumper sticker when I hit snooze, and that put my primary goal into my thoughts first thing in the morning.

Also, I started exercising in my PJs or sleeping in workout clothes, shoes right next to the bed (I'm a single person with no current bedmates, so that worked out OK).

Short workouts help, too.
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Old 01-10-05, 10:02 AM  
rykram
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Early AM is my only option for exercise, so I have to do it then and that motivates me. I try and tell myself (as I hit snooze) that if I do not do it now, I will not be able to do it later, and that helps me get out of bed. I allow myself about 10 mins (most of the time) on the computer before waking up to kinda wake up otherwise, I feel a little groggy and want to sleep
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