How Morning Exercise has Changed My Life

Let me just open this by saying- I am in no way a morning person. I struggle some days to get into bed before 11 so I'm not hating life the next day. (Other days I'm so tired, its lights out by 9:30!) I've always been a night owl, even when I was little. My grandmother says I come by it honestly, she still stays up half the night reading, and she's approaching 80. 

The short version of the beginning is that somewhere around Thanksgiving last year, I started showing up at work at 6:00am. I had just taken over as team lead, and I felt like I was in a constant state of being underwater with my work. We were in a mandatory overtime situation, and with my new duties I was struggling to make my quota every day with the amount of traffic I now found at my desk. The hubby had begun working at Amazon, so his alarm was already going off at 4:45, so I just started getting up with him. 

Around the end March I realized that I needed to cut back. I was in the office, at my desk from six in the morning until seven or eight at night. I even ate there. I got up to pee or attend meetings. That was it. So one Friday morning I decided to try an experiment. I got up at my usual 4:45, put on my gym clothes and spent the next hour at the gym. "I like this", I said. "I could do this". It was fairly quiet in there. There's almost always a machine of your choosing available. There's even a few early morning classes. The ladies this early seemed pretty nice too. There's a place in the locker room with a wall-long mirror and shelf and outlets for hair dryers, etc. The morning gals have dubbed it the "Diva Bar" because it's where we put our faces on to get ready for the day. 

So I kept it up. I'm not beginning my sixth month of being an early morning exerciser. And surprisingly, it works for me. I actually love it. It both gives me a sense of relief and accomplishment that by 7:00am I have usually gotten half or more of my day's steps in. I've sweated. I've worked my body. I got it DONE. It gives me my sense of pride back in myself. I love starting the day holding my head up high. 

I can only find a couple reasons to not work out in the morning, and they are usually bogus and easily squashed. I rarely even have the "I need to get some extra sleep because...." arguement anymore. If I wait until the end of the day, I could find 503 reasons to not go. And wouldn't. 

I find myself more motivated and alert for the rest of the day. I have more drive and energy. This has snowballed into even getting the guts to go back to school for my second Bachelor's degree. 

I'm a much more pleasant person after I have exercised. When I get it knocked out in the morning, I can carry it with me throughout the day. It's helped restore me to my natural obnixous state of being the eternal optmist, always looking for the silver lining to things. 

Most of all, I have begun to find myself again. I go though my day with such a sense of peace and fulfillment. I know I have done the right thing for me, and ultimately my husband and at some point in the nearish future, Hypothetical Kid. I have my self assurance and confidence back. My GLOW. 

I can't go back now. I have watched the sun rise on my treadmill and I have seen the light. 
Good morning, life!