All you need is love. Christmas is a time for giving and feeling love and warm, fuzzy feelings. What does love have to do with getting healthy and fit? Everything. Loving others and loving yourself is the #1 change that will transform everything in your life; especially impacting how you eat cleanly and take care of your entire body - inside and out - guaranteed.
Love is _________________. Can you answer that? Love is how you treat yourself and others. If you're not moving or exercising every day and eating nutritious foods you're not loving yourself. It all starts with you. The Bible says you've gotta walk the love walk every day and it starts by getting up early and moving. True confession - I'm not a morning person. This may shock some, but I love my bed and sleep more than anything. I do most of my exercising in the early hours of the morning. Doing so forces me to go to bed earlier and it makes me feel so much better that I wouldn't dream of starting my day any other way. At first exercising in the morning began as a concession to being very busy and scheduling around the constraints of my daily life. I quickly realized however that there are some incredibly helpful benefits to learning to love exercising in the morning.
Taking this first step is life changing. Here is how to start learning to love morning exercise, even if you're not a morning person. I have to warn you though: This may motivate you and negate every excuse in the book.
5 Reasons For Getting Up Early And Exercising:
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Early morning exercise jump starts your metabolism, keeping it elevated for hours; sometimes up to 24 hours. So you'll be burning more calories all day.
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Exercising in the morning gives you instant energy for the day; not to mention how awesome you'll feel. You'll also feel accomplished and disciplined. Those are highly gratifying feelings that produce more good behavior - habits that stick.
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Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental acuity. A benefit that lasts 4-10 hours after your workout ends. Exercising in the morning means you get to harness that brainpower instead of wasting it while you're snoozing.
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If you're an excuse maker, morning exercise needs to be top priority. It's not as hard as you think to get up 30-60 minutes earlier; especially since regular morning exercise generally means better sleep quality, which means you'll probably require less sleep while sleeping better. If getting up 30-60 minutes earlier each day seems too big, ease into it with 10-20 minutes at first.
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Exercising at the same time every morning, especially if you wake up regularly at about the same time, regulates your body's endocrine system and circadian rhythms. You're teaching your body that you do the same thing every day at the same time and your body quickly learns (you'll notice a habit forming the first week) to begin preparing you for waking and exercising a few hours before you even open your eyes. This is especially beneficial when it comes to weight loss and melting belly fat because:
- Your body's not stressed by erratic, ever changing wake-up and sleep schedules which makes waking up early easier and less painful. Eventually you won't need an alarm clock. This will make you feel more energized and ready to exercise when you do wake up.
- Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc., which help wake you up. Your metabolism and the hormones involved/required for exercise (especially metabolic exercise) begin to elevate while you're sleeping.
Just about everyone who has switched from random exercise times to early exercise agree that it helps regulate their appetite for the rest of the day. Not only do they crave less, they say it makes eating less easier to do. Why? Activity causes the release of endorphins which instantly makes us happier and diminishes appetite, unless you over-exercise. Early morning exercisers also claim they are able to choose healthier portions of healthier foods, and that's always a good thing. Early morning successful exercisers all agree exercise becomes something they actually crave and look forward to every day. This is the ultimate act of self-love because they have the satisfaction of taking care of themselves physically and for most of us busy moms, mentally as well. It's also a great time to plan and prepare for your day. For me, it's prayer time, which helps me think more clearly. Things most of us don't get to do if we choose to stay in bed.
Early morning exercise is the best, most successful way to fool-proof or ensure that other things don't derail your day before it even starts. It's the best way to ensure that you don't miss your exercise, especially if you're a busy mom with a hectic schedule.
I dare you to make a commitment to yourself for the next month and be the first to get up in your house. I promise that you'll never be sorry. WARNING: You're 90% more likely to skip your exercise if you don't do it first thing. It's too easy to wimp out in the evening when we're tired or faced with such tasks as rustling up dinner and helping with homework. You may need to step outside your comfort zone. I sure had to push myself and I'm glad I did. Love yourself by doing this.
Lisa Tip: Attention all you late night owls: You can fake it until you make it by tricking yourself in the morning. Drink a huge glass of water and take a LynFit Lean Sleep before you head to bed. You'll fall asleep faster and you'll have to get up to pee! Then, don't allow yourself to go back to bed. You'll feel worse and you'll most likely still be so groggy that you won't even notice what's happening until you've finished exercising. And guess what you've done? You've discovered the best way to work out for weight loss!