For most Mondays to Fridays, I wake up at 5:30 am to attend a 7:30am F45 Class and on Saturdays I'm awake by 7am to get to a 9am Class. This is what I've been doing since September this year and what I plan to continue doing for the next year (and maybe even further). It's enjoyable, it keeps my mood up, it makes me feel healthy, like I am all set for the day and I don't see why I would want to stop it. But for many, this is absolutely crazy. Working out is great for your health, and getting it done in the morning, before work or uni or anything else that's going to take up time is a fantastic idea (and in fact something many recommend). You get it out of the way and the rest of your day is ahead of you, this is especially great if you don't look forward to working out and feel like you still "have" to do it. I know what it's like to work out during any part of the day and this is definitely the easiest and most beneficial (at least to be) by a long way. But just talking about isn't the same as doing it - trust me i know. But I've been doing it now for nearly 3 months and I love it. So if you need some help getting your bum out of bed when the alarm right, maybe this will help. 1. Prepare Everything The Night Before I don't care if your workout session is scheduled for 5am or 10am. If you have anything in the morning and it is making you want to stay in bed longer, then make sure you can. Pack your gym bag the night before, lay out what to wear out the house, have your shoes and socks at the door, prep breakfast or make sure you have something easy to eat in the morning. I do this every night before and it gives me easily an extra 45 minutes in bed. Easy and quick - i'm awake, change, brush my teeth and out of the door with my toast all in 20 minutes. 2. Schedule a Class This may be an obvious one, but planning to go to the gym at 5am is a lot tougher than going for a scheduled class or PT session at 5am. Why? Because you're committed. I can't count the number of times I've said i'd go for a run at 6am and just didn't. But i only skip my classes when i haven't slept enough or I feel sick. No one likes to let people down, and you know your trainer or workout buddies will have a few versions of "what happened?" "Did you oversleep?" "Everyone was waiting for you to start!" Don't try to be a superstar right away. Make a commitment with other people first and you will be more likely to get that bum out of bed and out the door. 3. Only Do Classes You Love This might not always work out the way you want it to but picking to class you enjoy the most (or the one you hate the least) will go a long way. You are more likely to follow through with classes you like - no matter how hard they may be - and keep that routine going. What you don't want is to be lying in bed at 5am wondering why you're getting up for a class you don't like doing. You should hear that alarm (maybe press snooze once or twice) and then feel ready to conquer that workout and start your day on the right foot! 4. Know Why I've noticed many people who get into fitness then drop right out of it again had no real idea of why they started it or why they wanted to do it. You "wanna get fit" "wanna lose weight" "change myself" but why. But this time you need to know why you truly want to do this workout AND why you want to do it at this time of the day. Why not after work? Why not during lunch? Know why this works for you and you will not be unhappy with the decision. 5. Prioritise This means so many things. Once you know why you're doing these morning workouts it's easier to prioritise it. But also know that when you need to, prioritise sleep or a rest day or just not working out today for the shit of it. Because forcing yourself to do things when you body is not ready or not healthy enough to do it will ruin your mood, your health and you will not want to keep doing these workouts in the morning.
Now that you have my little tips - which have definitely gotten me on the right track to working out - how are you going plan your workout schedule? Still gonna sleep in or are you gotta get your bum out of bed at 5am (or 6 or 7 - whatever works!) and get yourself to that workout class and absolutely smash it!?
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Health tends to be a touchy subject for many people. No one really wants to hear that they're unhealthy, that they're doing the wrong things or that they should make changes by giving up things they "love" or "cannot live without" I can admit even I would be a little annoyed if someone told me I wasn't doing well enough when I think I'm keeping myself healthy. I can make improvements, definitely, but I'm pretty happy with what I can control at this point of time. From being the overweight child who would stuff her face and an awkward chubby teenager who was jealous of other girls to the woman I am today who mostly prioritises her health, I know what it's like to be in different positions when it comes to being "healthy". For those of you who may not already know, there's a little story about how I started my fitness journey HERE. As you can tell, I'm far from the "always been fit and healthy and active" type. So that's why my health is even more important to me now. Speaking completely from my experiences and watching the lives of those around me (unfortunately, my family mostly) not exercising, eating like shit and making excuses for yourself when you could actually make a change, is sad to see. I have sick, extremely overweight - maybe even obese, dying people, all around me (again, within my family) and for lack of a better way to put it, it's breaking me. From my grandfather to my aunts and uncles, and sometimes the odd family friend, they're suffering, some with completely preventable illnesses. Complaints of aches and pains, diabetes and medication are normal and this really is a terrible situation for people to be in. I never had an adult present in my life who showed me how to nourish my body in the right way and how to exercise and have fun with my health. I'll admit, my parents were definitely better than my grandparents, my aunt, and probably many other parents when it came to how we ate and lived, but now I know there could have been improvements which could have given all of us better health and habits today as well as taken away some of the struggles i had with my body growing up. As a child you don't think about it. You do what everyone else does because that's normal. But it doesn't mean it's the best for you. I was overweight and unhappy and far from healthy because of this. And if I never met the people who motivated me to live better, where would I be now? Or 10 years from now? Or 50 years from now? My grandad is 80 and he pretty much has everything except his head in his grave already. 27 pills a day, constantly weak, regularly swollen, massively overweight, diabetic, kidney's failing, constant hospital trips, and being completely and brutally honest, a burden.
I love him. But I don't love what he's done to himself or the fact that he never tried to change his situation - cause the answers are always in a pill even when it's preventable and reversible - and now my grandmother, aunt and mum are left to take care of him. This isn't a nice thing to hear but seeing him is a constant reminder of what I do not want for myself and what I would never want to do to my family. I want to grow old with a family and know that we can live our lives to the fullest. I want to be able to hike and run and go on holidays and adventures and laugh and make endless happy memories together. I never want to find relief from a condition that is completely avoidable in a prescription bottle or a hospital ward. I never want to find myself being a burden to my kids because I thought an unhealthy lifestyle was more important than my health. I never want to look into my own eyes in the mirror and know that I've let myself down. As far as it is possible, I want to be as healthy and live the best life that I can. That is why my health is a priority. I would only hope that the rest of you want that for yourself too. Exercising is an amazing way for anyone to release some stress, feel great, relax a little (yeah i know how silly that sounds but it relaxes me), and keep your body and mind healthy. But let's get real for a second, as much as i love working out and i know how great it makes me feel, there are countless of other things that should be a part of my life that keep me feeling just as good. There are times when no matter how great i know exercising is, I just want to do something else to feel good. And there are other times when skipping that workout is the healthy thing to do. So when we look at healthy activities, exercise and eating well are not the only 2 things on the list.
Know what your body and mind needs. What it craves. What it thrives on. And then feed it with all the right things (and i don't mean just food).
1st November 2016 is World Vegan Day - and ironically, Melbourne Cup Day too. I've been a vegan for just over half a year now - I don't have an official date but I'm thinking somewhere in April 2016 was my start. If I wasn't so paranoid and scared about getting sick and not doing it right, I may have just been vegan for almost 2 years now. But I don't regret doing all the research I did to come into this lifestyle. It made me strong, stable, knowledgeable and very confident with how I'm living.
Let's try it out together. I'm not asking you to drop everything you normally eat and do, and go full vegan overnight. I'm asking that for the next month (from today till 1st December 2016) maybe set up a little challenge for yourself. I didn't drop my non-vegan foods/items slowly, i changed almost overnight, and I didn't regret it or crave anything or feel deprived - if you follow me on Instagram you already know I love my vegan burgers and cakes! But I know not everyone will experience it the way I did. Let's pick some things to slowly substitute to have you feel what it's like to transition to being vegan. I'm not going to decide what foods items you should pick - you look at your own diet and decide what animal products you're comfortable with substituting this week. Then add another next week, and the next week, and the last week. And see how that goes. Of course, you won't be completely vegan by the end of it. You probably won't even be eating a completely plant based diet, but if you made it through, at least you tried, you know what it's like, and maybe you can keep going! So here's the full challenge in summary:
So at the minimum, if you make it through all 4 weeks, you should have cut out 4 different animal products and accessed how you felt and what it did or didn't do for you and whether this is something you want to continue.
And please, feel free to even cut out oily or sugary treats instead of animal products if that's a real issue you face regularly. As much as I do want everyone of you to see how great being vegan can be, doing anything you can to improve your health is a benefit too!
So now that you have this, try it out! Let me know if you are! And let me know how it works out for you! Happy Vegan Day ! |
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