I know exercise is so important. I know that you just have to do it.

But, I have such a hard time. I work long hours (desk job) 7am - 530 and I can't seem to get up at 500am to exercise and by the time I get home, I'm so pooped I can't exercise.

How do y'all motivate yourselves to exercise? Does anyone have any tips?

Every night before bed, I set my alarm to get up. I have good intentions to exercise. I say tomorrow is the day, but when the alarm goes off, I can't do it. I snooze it till 5:45am.

Marilyn

If you're not a morning person, don't force it. I work 645am to 4:15 and then errands, I just started out really slow. Try five or ten minutes your first time out, you'll be amazed at how much better you feel, helps get rid of the stress from the day and gives me an energy boost to get more done at home. Not to mention the more time i'm up exercising, the less time I have to eat off plan food ;-) I think someone on the board had the idea about walking outside, walk for 5 minutes away from your house and then turn around and walk back. As time goes on, increase the length of time you walk away and back to your home. The hardest part is getting started, but you're going to love the way you feel ;-)

Good luck,
Jen

I am NOT a morning person but I have been getting up at 4:45 so that I can make it to the gym by 5:00 for the past three weeks or so. It only took making myself get up that early once to realize how much better it was. Exercising before I start my day means that there are NO excuses to be made and, as an added bonus, my workouts are much more efficient because I'm not pooped from all that I do during the day so I have the energy to work harder.

A couple of things motivated me in the beginning. The first was hitting a plateau and knowing that mixing up my routine and exercising harder were going to help get the scale moving again. Second, I was tired of having to juggle my workouts with everyone elses schedule. I wasn't even getting to eat dinner with my family because I had to rush off to the gym. And, worse, I didn't get home until almost 9:00 which meant I missed my kids' bedtimes and didn't have much time left to spend with DH. And worse, I was eating dinner so late because if I ate before I went to the gym I would get cramps etc. Plus, exercising and eating so late kept me from sleeping well. Part of what I enjoy about exercising is that it can relieve stress but, in my case, it was creating it. Getting up early was the only solution for me.

There are days when I don't want to get out of the bed. Our alarm clock is across the room so I have to get up to turn it off. Once I am up I have to go to the bathroom if I want to fall back to sleep. So, while I am up and really wanting to crawl back under the covers I just say to myself over and over, "do you want to lose this weight or not?" The answer is always yes and I know what I have to do. I also remind myself how much easier my days are when I get my workout done in the morning. Not only do I feel energized but that is one less thing I have to worry about making time for.

At this point, I can't imagine not getting up so early. I have everything ready to go before bed (I even put the toothpaste on my toothbrush LOL) and, honestly, I'm really only tired for those first few minutes I'm up. Once I get moving it isn't any different than getting up at 6:00 or 6:30.

Marilyn - Some good advice there.
Another thing to keep in mind, it only takes 21 days to form a habit. Can you walk for 10 minutes a day for 21 days?
I'm betting you'll feel so good you'll increase your time before the 21 days is up...
Good luck!

I'm probably the worlds worst when it comes to exercising. I too work long hours (8-6) and have a two hour drive each day. I get up at 4, drink coffee and get woke up until 4:45 then I do 10 minutes on the bike and hop in the shower at 5:00. I need to get doing this again. I haven't been doing this for the last few days. Then once I get used to it, I will work on doing it alittle longer each time. The hardest part for me is dragging my butt out of bed but I don't hit the snooze anymore. That's the first step...

Ok, I'm going to try to do it tomorrow!

I refuse to hit snooze!

Wish me luck. I'll post Monday and let you know how it went.

Marilyn