February: The Month of Early Mornings, Part II

Full disclosure: I am failing at this.

I have not succeeded in getting up every single morning at 5 a.m. (weekdays) and 6 a.m. (weekends).  I have lots of unsatisfying excuses:  my kid got an ear infection, I got sick, work has been crazy, etc.  I was awful the first week of February.  Better the second week and third week, but still not doing waking up every single day at those times.

That said, I have generally been waking up a lot earlier.  Not as early as I planned but still an hour earlier than my norm—I would say that I’ve been averaging getting up at 5:45 a.m. on mornings that I don’t get  up at 5. 

And you know what?  It’s been strangely amazing.  

On the mornings where I work out, this used to be my routine: 

6:00 a.m.  Wake up, roll out of bed, and put on work out clothes. 

6:05 a.m.  Drive to the YMCA in a befuddled daze.  Try not to run anything or anyone over on the way.

6:10-6:40 a.m.  Work out.  Still half asleep. 

6:45 a.m.  Return home to get ready for work.

Now it’s like this:

5:00 a.m.  Wake up.  Go to the kitchen, make some tea. 

5:05-5:40 a.m.  Drink tea and eat a healthy breakfast of Greek yogurt and granola.  Play some games on my phone.  Read a chapter of a book.  Check Facebook.  Put on work out clothes.

5:45 a.m  Drive to the YMCA.  Sing along to the radio.  Marvel at the beauty of the sunrise.

5:50-6:20 a.m.  Work out.  Get really into the episode of This American Life and finish listening to it in as I jog extra.  Learn all of the words to Hamilton and attempt to rap silently.  

6:25 a.m.  Return home and have ample time to get ready for work and start the day.

It’s so obvious that it’s kind of dumb.  I feel so much better and so much more productive with the combination of caffeine + breakfast before I work out.  I used to wait until I drove to work to eat (in the car) and I had my first cup of tea when I arrived.  

So despite my failure, I think I'm doing pretty good for myself this month.  Next update:  Can I maintain this?  What do I have to give up?  And what do I do at 6 a.m. on the weekends?