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I know what you’re thinking. Doing anything in the morning is out of the question. Stay with me and I’ll bet I can get you to change your mind with the below tips and strategies to have more energy, motivation and proactiveness first thing in the morning.
No More Excuses
Using the reason (excuse) that you’re not a morning person is a cop out. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I say it like it is. For many of you (and for myself) the morning is one of the only times you can actually get something done (exercise or cardio) and not have it hanging over your head all day long.
It’s so easy to talk yourself out of exercise throughout the day. Haven’t you done this? I mean…you wake up with the intention you’ll do an exercise or cardio session “after work”. You then proceed to find reasons (excuses) not to do it by the end of the day.
I’m not going to say it’s easy for me either, and I’m a fitness professional. But I find if I do it first thing in the morning, it’s out of my life, and I’m on with the day with no guilt or stress, to have to get it in later in the day.
Become An Early Riser
Do you wake up groggy? Do you feel like you drift off back to sleep before you get up? If so, you need to take a look at the reasons for this happening to overcome it and become a morning dynamo 
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Here’s How To Get Up When Your Alarm Sounds
How much “self-talk” do you go through when your alarm goes off? Going through what you should do, but then finding reasons not to. For some, this is a daily occurrence. How about a new scenario? The alarm goes off, you hit it, get up, stretch your arms overhead and get out of bed.
You have no voice inside your head talking you out of it. Your conscious thought is out of the picture completely. How do you accomplish this? Practice. Yes…you are going to lay in your bed, set your alarm, and pretend you’re sleeping. When the alarm goes off…turn it off and get up immediately. No thought. Get up!
Do this several more times until you’ve got it down. It will soon become a habit . This is training your body to get up without hesitation.
Wake Up Ready To Go
If you wake up groggy nothing all you need to do is change your physiological approach. Not drastic, just change. It won’t happen overnight, but with practice you’ll find the tweak that works.
You have to make the decision to WANT to wake up early and feeling full of energy. If you don’t, you’ll never be able to. If you’re struggling with it, deal with your emotions til you truly feel you can do it. Don’t put it off. Deal and take action!
Make sure to get up at the same time 7 days a week. This will get your system use to the same routine for even better success. Sleeping in on the weekends confuses your system and makes that Monday morning wake up call even harder.
Wake up and put on your exercise clothes without delay. Have them close by so you can get out of bed and have them ready. Then put them on asap. No thought. Just do it! Getting your exercise clothes is the biggest hurdle to exercising.
Improve Your Nightly Nutrition!
Too many people eat horribly at night! They overconsume and put toxic heavy foods in their stomachs before bed. This will definitely cause a restless sleep and poor energy the following morning.
Instead…eat your dinner several hours before bed, and make it consist of protein and vegetables (BIG salads)…NO CARBS! You don’t need carbs to sleep. They convert to fat since you are not burning them off.
If you snack…make it be a fruit that’s not high in sugar. Sugar may get you even more hyped up and antsy. Cantaloupe is a fantastic fruit that’s not too high in sugar. You can also have sugar-free, fat-free popsicles, although I’m not a big fan of all the ingredients in these products.
Waking up with plenty of time to exercise and prepare for your day is critical. Make it a routine and do not deviate from it. You’ll soon be waking up with more energy and motivation 
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If you’ve got a routine that’s worked for you, by all means let us know. The more ideas we have in here the better !!
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What do you think? 12 Comments »
October 29th, 2007 at 6:03 am
[...] Original post by Mike [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 8:58 am
This is something I’ve been trying to get better at and so far, I’ve crashed and burned.
I recognized a while back that exercising in the evening after work gave me too many chances to make excuses. My desire is to get up early and exercise in the morning, but the “I’m not a morning person” cop out is pretty well ingrained now.
For a while, I was trying to get up a little earlier each day, but the weekends invariably blew that out of the water because I would sleep in and be back to square one on Monday. I think my next move is just to set my alarm for 5:00 am and shock myself into it (like ripping off a band-aid).
October 29th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Mike…I would wake up the same time every day for a while til you can get it engrained in you. Then you should be able to have one sleep in day on the weekend
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October 29th, 2007 at 10:42 am
There are several studies that describe so-called owls (night people) and larks (morning people). There seems to be variability in the daily biorhythms of people’s bodies. Age also plays a role–numerous studies have shown that the biorhythms of teens are much different than adults. There actually IS a reason for your teen who is extremely difficult to get out of be in the morning. There apparently are some school systems in the country that have begun starting classes later in the morning to accommodate these natural biorhythms.
Additionally, as we get older (speaking from experience here), we tend to move from the owl type of rhythms to those of the lark. My problem is that I’ve adapted both the lark and the owl rhythms–I find myself staying up later and getting up earlier .
October 29th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Boy…you and me both
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October 29th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Guess our human body are programmed in such a manner that whatever new, we have to overcome it using our mind, body and soul. Motivation have a lot to do with it. Once it started, our engine will keep running and we will just maintain it to go smoothly.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Mike, seems aas though you heit the nail on the head with both staying up late at night and getting up very early in the morning. That’s me!
As far as being stretched out from doing golf related exercises; I’ve never felt better than I ever have when I started using your golf exerecises; you see I bought your manual for golf specific exerecises and strecthes and I am feeling great most mornings as soon as I became adjusted to all the exerecises and strectches. At first, I was a little tired, but then something clicked inside, and everything you said began to fit together and I began to feel great once again. ( I am an older golfer, and a relativeley new member with your group of golfers. ) I am now feeling fairly good again Mike as my body is becoming adjusted to the various streches and exerecises related to golf. I have learned through you Mike that one should never try and play this game without first warming up and streching properly. Thank you Mike!
That’s all folks!!! 
November 4th, 2007 at 1:22 am
[...] Motivation-Exercise-Success – This is the second time I’ve linked to one of Mike’s posts. I just find that his golf articles translate so well to those of us who run part-time home businesses. Give it a read and see if you agree. [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Great stuff here. I need to make sure I stock up on cantaloupe…wonder if I can find any good cantaloupe at this time of year. Blueberries are supposed to be pretty low in sugar as well, I think?
November 7th, 2007 at 5:11 am
[...] Sean @ Deep Rough: Great stuff here. I need to make sure I stock up on cantaloupe…wonder if I can find any good… [...]
November 12th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
[...] Motivation-Exercise-Success – This is the second time I’ve linked to one of Mike’s posts. I just find that his golf articles translate so well to those of us who run part-time home businesses. Give it a read and see if you agree. [...]
August 5th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
[...] Motivation-Exercise-Success – This is the second time I’ve linked to one of Mike’s posts. I just find that his golf articles translate so well to those of us who run part-time home businesses. Give it a read and see if you agree. [...]