I am NOT a morning person. I have a hard time getting up to SHOWER before work, let alone working out. Now that I have Jillian in my dvd player, I was thinking of waking up, having a hard boiled egg and a drink, and doing 30 day shred first thing before my shower.

How do you motivate yourself to get up earlier for work and work out ???

I wake up at 3:30 am 3xa week to to my strength training. I drink a huge glass of water and hit the weights. What motivated me is knowing how good I feel after and how much more energy I have throughout the day. Plus I know I will be too tired from a hard days work and I wouldn't have time to run! Try waking up early just once this week and gradually build up. Good luck!

Whoah 3:30 ! My bedtime is between 10 and 11 so I'd be trying to get up at 5:45 instead of 6:30. That would give me time to get dressed, have an egg for quick energy or something (I am a weakling in the AM until I eat) and let me have my 30 min workout. I will try what you suggest, even just getting it started is difficult though !!! I have tried many times only to hit snooze.

I don't get up in the morning and work out, it's just not in my nature. I am a night person, so 99% of the time, I work out at night. There's nothing that says you have to work out in the morning or get up early, so if your schedule permits and it's easier for you, work out after work or in the early evening. Just try not to do it to close to bedtime, it can mess with your sleep. Hope you find something that works for you!

I suspect I am the same way, dudesmom. I do love the feeling of accomplishment it gives me throughout the day though.. if I try, I could become "addicted" to that and have the motivation. If I try for a few days...

I allow myself to hit the snooze ONCE. It allows me to "ease" into my morning. I purposely set my alarm for 10 minutes earlier than I want to get up, exactly so that I'm still getting up "on time" even with hitting the snooze.

I also have my workout stuff laid out the night before, have the DVD I want to do in the player, and any weights/mats/equipment that particular workout requires out and ready to go. All I have to do when I get up is thrown on my workout clothes, turn on the DVD player, grab a quick drink of water, and go.

I just do it...somedays I just cant manage it but during the week I get up at 5:30 to hit the gym and get ready before class...its not always easy...and I'm up pretty late tonight so tomorrow is going to suck...but I treat it as a class or a job....its something that has to be done and honestly its sooooo much more efficient to go in the am compared to the evening

I also just do it. I get up a little before 5 am 3-4xs a week to run. Some days it's harder then others but when it's over I always feel great and then it's done, I don't have to worry about fitting it in later. There are never any excuses.

Do what works for you. I used to work graveyards. 11pm to 7am. I did everything bassackwards to the rest of the world, but it worked for me!

I am absolutely not a morning person either. I seriously can't say a nice thing to anyone until like 11am. I just grunt.

Yet working out in the morning works MUCH better for me. Granted, I don't have to get up until 8am to do it, but even that sometimes seems like a challenge. Basically, I don't even give myself 5 minutes to back out of it. I turn off my alarm as soon as it goes off, get out of bed, get ready for the gym, and walk on over there. If I do it as soon as I get up then I can't talk myself out of not going. I've found that if I lay in bed for even just 2 extra minutes, I may not go, so I just DO IT. Afterward, I feel great and like I've gotten out of the way...I don't have to think about it all day during class and whatnot. It's over, I did it, and it gives my day a positive start.

I started exercising in the mornings when I stopped letting my current opinions, preferences and beliefs about myself define who I was.

I used to think I was definitely "not a morning person", but then I realised there isn't really such a thing as a "morning person". I haven't got a dislike of mornings and getting up early hard-wired into my DNA, and so these preferences and characteristics are choices, or at the very least, things I can change. If I wanted to choose to enjoy that part of the day, then I could.

And so I did! I stopped believing that people who got up to exercise early were somehow fundamentally different to me, or just a different "type" of person. There was something about that way of behaving that appealed to me, so I thought I would try it for myself. I now exercise (go for a run outside) in the mornings before coming into work, and I absolutely love it. By mid-afternoon, I forget I've even exercised that day, which is a wonderful feeling, suddenly remembering that I've done my body and my health some good! Exercising first thing generally makes me feel happier, more confident during the day, more energetic and refreshed, and it makes me want to make healthier choices for the rest of the day.

Having said all of that waffle, this is just me, and these are just my views. I really do believe that there's very little about a person that they don't have the power to change, or at least be open to change, but I've nothing to base that on other than my own intuition and experience. You may entirely disagree, and there may well be something that makes it impossible for you to derive any pleasure from rising early to exercise, or you may simply not enjoy the exercise very much when you're giving it a real good shot. All of this is totally fine, and then it's just a case of finding other habits that you do find more pleasurable.

So responding to your question in a nutshell, I motivated myself to exercise early in the day by:
1. Abandoning the idea that my current preferences and feelings about this were set in stone (which in itself, I found very liberating), then, once I felt more open minded,
2. Just having a go at it, to see how it made me feel!
If I enjoy it, then these positive sensations motivate me to do it again and again. If I have a good try and I really don't enjoy it, then I stop. As I said before, I do believe that there's not much that I don't have the power to change about myself, but at the same time, why do you need to change everything anyway? Sometimes it's perfectly fine to just stay as you are. In this example, there are other forms of exercise, other times to exercise, and so on, so if one execise-related thing seems to be particularly difficult to enjoy, then I just move on and try something else. It's not the end of the world if you try and try, and really don't like getting up to exercise.

Sorry, that was a bit long!

i used to be a night owl sporatic gym rat, but i've recently become a morning workout convert. like in the last month as i've started up this recent attempt at weight loss. love it. and totally helps with not skipping if stuff comes up later in the day and gets me energized for the day. i agree with most others said, it's largely about the preparation for me. i have my lunch and bag packed before bed, so i can wake up as late as possible (usually 5:30-:45), get my stuff done without feeling "rushed"/enabling me to cop out, and hypothetically to work/class on time....the other HUGE thing for me is actually sleeping in my workout clothes. that's right. my workout clothes are now my pjs. this may be weird/gross to some but the clothes are going to get sweaty as soon as i'm up anyways. plus having to literally just roll out of bed and put on the shoes makes all the difference in the world to me. good luck getting going bright and early!!!

tinycities, I agree that "not a morning person" can be changed! I've done it before. For me, it's all about discipline, and I haven't had that much discipline lately.

Last time I did regular morning workouts, I was meeting a friend at the gym very early, doing an hour of treadmill, and then spending 15-45 min in the sauna every weekday. It got to be too much fanfare for me in the mornings. My next morning ritual is going to be like TBBH's - keep it simple and sleep in workout clothes. Good idea.

OMG, I have to try too... I already get up at 5:30, what's 4:30... ack! Maybe I'll try in the morning. Sigh.

I can't go to bed any earlier... maybe I'll set the coffee maker to be ready when I wake!

I believe you guys just inspired me to run at least one morning this week! I'm kind of pumped after reading all of that lol.

Now heres a question. Who eats before their morning workout? If so, what do you eat? I'm going to need something small to fuel me through the run, and then I will eat my breakfast once I get to work. I'm thinking a granola bar or a banana would do. Someone mentioned a boiled egg, but that won't work, I have had a bad experience with eating eggs as a pre work out snack .. Any other suggestions?