HEY-LO!!!!
Wow two posts a day, two days in a row. It feels like the good old days. I told you that my blogging was much quicker now! Thank you Eric, techie genius. ;)
I feel literally ah-may–ZING since I have started NOT multitasking and the Early Rising Challenge. I have an extra kick to my step. I can’t wait to see what I feel like in a few weeks if this has only been a few days. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so that is what I am shooting for.
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Some of you have been asking me how I am getting up early so I thought I would talk about it a bit tonight and tell you what has worked for me so far.
Here are some of my Early Rising Challenge tips:
- GET WARM: If your place is like mine, it is freezing when you wake up. The walk from the bedroom to the bathroom is the most painful thing I experience all day. COLD. I have found that it is much easier to get out of bed if my fluffy robe and slippers are beside the bed. As soon as I get up the robe and slippers go on and I instantly feel a bit (bit) better about getting up. I also have a small space heater in our bathroom that I immediately turn on when I get up. I look forward to the warmth and I stand beside it for a few minutes while I brush my teeth. These little rewards add up in the early morning!
- WAKE UP NATURALLY WHEN POSSIBLE: I don’t use an alarm clock. I have this strange internal clock that I can ‘set’ before bed and I magically awake for that time. I prefer not using an alarm clock because it means that I am more likely to wake up at the end of a sleep cycle– and not being jolted awake in the middle of one! This method is not for everyone of course (i.e., my hubby). If you can’t go without your alarm clock, I suggest putting it across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off.
- CAFFEINE: I will bulldoze anything in my path to get to the kettle in the morning to make my Japanese Sencha. It has just enough caffeine to wake me up and energize me. While I don’t suggest consuming massive quantities of caffeine, I think a little bit is nice!
- GET YOUR ENDORPHINS: If you are going to the trouble of getting up early you might as well cross off your workout while you are at it! I feel ‘ok’ after 15 mins. of rising, but I feel especially AMAZING after an early morning workout. I will be honest though, the first 10 minutes of my workout are often brutal and I feel like I have no energy, however after 10 minutes I magically wake-up and it goes pretty well. When I workout in the early morning I have half a Glo Bar or a Run bar to tide my hunger over until breakfast, which is usually 1-1.5 hours later (after workout and showering).
- REWARD YOUR SUCCESS- TWICE! I want a morning reward and a weekly reward for my hard work! My morning reward is having more time for a relaxing, delicious breakfast. I also spend a bit more time reading fun blogs or reading my book. For my weekly treat, I was thinking giving myself ‘permission’ to buy a special item at the grocery store that I typically don’t buy. Nothing motivates me more than good food! ha!!! ;)
- BE FLEXIBLE: A reader named Ariel gave me this great tip. She says to be flexible with the goal time that you set for your early morning. So for example, if Ariel’s goal time is 5am, she won’t be hard on herself if she gets up at 5:30 on some mornings. We have to take into account the fact that some days we will just need more sleep than others and that is OK! Be flexible with yourself and you will be less stressed and happier (this applies to all areas of life too!).
I was asked if I have a ‘goal time’ for the Early Rising Challenge.
The answer is YES.
You know me, I need goals to strive for in everything that I do. I find they are so motivating. My goal is 4:45-5am wake-up time, and a more realistic goal is probably 5:30am, given Eric’s sleep schedule and the fact that I do need to spend quality time with him in the evening! :) I can’t see myself going to bed much earlier than 10pm, but maybe that will change with the earlier mornings. Baby steps…
All in all it is only day two of the challenge and I am already feeling so much more productive and overall much happier. That is in part thanks to my NOT multitasking too! My life is feeling more simplified with each passing day and I am really excited to keep at it and see what benefits I get from it.
Would you like a chance to win a 2 pound bag of CHIA SEEDS from Chia Seeds Direct?
Just answer this simple question below:
- What time do you get up in the morning during the weekdays and WHY!
Contest open to Canadian and US residents only please. Runs until Friday Jan 15th at 8am.
BONNE CHANCE MES AMIES!
See you tomorrow AM for Pumpkin Pie Baked Breakfast Cake.
I’m off to do Whittle My Middle 2 with Eric, then make some din dins. Ta-ta!
I wake up around 630/7 every morning. Despite what class time i have my body just always wakes up then…during christmas break i woke up at 7 am every day while i was at home!! i just couldnt sleep later than that! tuesdays and wednesdays i have to wake up at 5 tho becuz i have work at 6 so those days arent as fun. definitely agree about the sleep cycle thing…i sometimes wake up at 5 ready to go but since i still have 2 hrs of sleep i go back to sleep and when my alarm rings i feel so much more tired than i was at 5am!
I get up a little before six because I am a teacher and school starts at 7:30.
hmm, i wake up when my body tells me to :) unless i set my alarm for a meeting or early morning class at the gym!
i have such a hard time falling asleep sometimes, too. the thing i find that works best is writing a list of whatever’s running through my head!
I get up at 5:35 am to milk cows! I know, its a little different answer! And that’s 7 days a week!
i am, sadly, NOT a morning person, so i DRAG myself out of bed between 7:30 and 8, and hurry on out to work by nine (or so…)
i have yet to try chia seeds but my curiosity is piqued!
I wake up around 4:30am. That gives me enough time to make coffee, eat my first breakfast and get ready for the gym. I am mostly a night person and I don’t like getting up this early. But I love going to the gym at 5:30 in the morning, it is so quiet and peaceful, and all the exercise machines are available.
Hey Angela, I have been reading your blog for sometime now during my downtime at work. My mom turned me onto it as her and OSGMOM are good friends and she thought that we are a lot alike!!
In response to your question, I get up every morning like a gym rat robot at 4:15 and am at the gym working out from 5am until 7am. I must do this because I have a desk job and sitting motionless ALL day makes me crazy!
Anyway, I would love some chia seeds…they are hard to come by in Calgary!
Cheers,
-Ashley
i used to get up at 5:45 (i have to be to work at 7) but i found that i needed some “me” time before the little ones got up so i started to get up at 5 a.m. It worked for about a wk and then my angels started getting up at that time too. so needless to say not much “me” time in the mornings but i do carve out bits and pieces throughout the day.
lori
What a cool giveaway! I usually get up about 7:30. I struggle to get up and get going because I am lacking motivation for my day time gig. I would love to try some chia seeds! I have not tried them, yet!! Sounds like everyone loves them and this is a great deal!
I get up at about 5:30 everyday. I like to have some quiet time to myself before getting ready and going to work for 7 a.m. It’s a little rough but it starts my day off the right way.
My times always vary because I’m a student. This month though, I’ve been getting up at 6:49AM every morning to go to class, and I’m not liking it! Because I’m doing a masters I do a lot of work from home and like you, I much prefer setting my internal alarm clock!
6am on weekdays, to have 1 hr to get my son ready without rushing for school. His bus picks him up at 7 am. I do have to use my alarm, too paranoid to oversleep! :-)
I get up during the week at 4:30 for work. Usually I’m up before my alarm clock, but I’m always afraid of oversleeping so I set two.
Varies between 7am and 9 am. Fortunately I do not have set working hours so there is a bit of leeway. I prefer to wake up early though, if I had enough sleep.
The alarm goes off at 7:30…but am not fully awake until some breakfast is in my belly.
I have to get up by 6AM during the week to make my 30-40 minute commute to school and work where I stay until 5pm most days. Which is an improvement, because last semester I was there until 8pm most days :(
I get up around 5 or 6. have always woke up early even as a kid??? all the adults in my life hated it of course, but I am a very quite person in the a.m. at least
I wake up at about 4 am everyday because I have to be at work by 5:30! It was a pain at first but now I can’t even attempt to wake up any later than 7 on my days off!
I wake up at 5:30 so I can get to the gym and get showered before my 8 am class! Working out in the morning gets my day off to a great start!
My goal time is the same 445. I loved it when that was my habit, I got so much done before my job at 930, it was like I had a whole extra day before my day! But it is killer to hang with night people when you gotta kick out at 830-930. Now I get up at 530, I get enough done before my job at 730…but I miss those extra 45 minutes. My “late”time is 630.