Wake Up With Determination

I set my alarm this morning for 6:20am and was out of bed and on my yoga mat by 6:30. I did a 25 minute yoga practice and it was a wonderful way to start my day. I am going to start getting up early again. I did this briefly and it was very rewarding. I had more energy in the morning and was less dependent on caffeine to get my day going. I'll opening admit, caffeine is my drug of choice. But by waking up and working out for even 15-20 minutes, I start my day with a purpose.

I hate feeling rushed. I feel rushed even when I'm not being rushed. In the morning Mike will be quietly and patiently sitting around while I am getting ready to go. Even though he is uninterested in me and my pace of getting out the door I feel an overwhelming pressure.  So for me to get up extra early at 6:20am and workout, shower and get ready for the day gives me the feeling that I am in control and allows me to start my day at my own pace. The alternative is  waking up with just enough time to move from one task to the next before rushing out of the door.

I have always admired morning people. I attribute being a morning person and especially exercising in the morning with having your sh*t together. I have never been a "morning person", its just not who I am. Its a personality trait that i've owned and worn well. Ive often felt like I was being resurrected from the dead when pulling myself out of bed and unfairly been angry with people who disrupt my sleep and wake me up in the morning. However the tasks of life I have also require that I wake up early.  In college despite the ability to schedule classes to start at 12pm or later I usually elected early 8am classes so I would be able to still work in the afternoons. Over the years I have gotten better and more accustomed to waking up early.  I am also proud of the fact that I have also immensely improved with tardiness and I now consider myself to be a reliable person who can be counted on to arrive on time to work and appointments. I think these two things go hand in hand and are a basic part of being a well balance adult.

For  some time now I have wanted to become a person who gets up early and who works out in the morning. Particularly, I want to continue this trend when I get back to the states to add structure and control to my days. Being home with family with no job will mean that I am pulled in many different directions. Between spending time at my sisters house, my aunt and uncles, friends and helping my aunt at her shop its easy for me to feel like I am being pulled all over the place. This type of lack of structure has always caused me stress and made it difficult for me to be productive. If I am going to want to continue my workout routine and apply to jobs while not neglecting my friend and family I will need to create structure during this transition period. I think waking up early at the same time will help provide that!

Variety & Consistency are Key

Wow! What a luxury it is to workout in a gym. On Friday after traveling to Bangkok and arriving at the hotel, I went straight to the gym. Treadmills, free weights, ellipticals and machines galore. I was in heaven. I ran on the treadmill for 25 minute doing endurance training and them lifted free weights focusing on my arms. It was great! I had a purpose and was motivated. I felt fatigued and fantastic at the end.

Although gyms are great, I also know the importance of developing a workout routine at home that requires little to no equiptment. There are going to be days when you don't feel like working out and it is a lot easier to convince yourself to power up a workout video or do yoga on your living room floor than make yourself look presentable and drive to the gym.  What I've learned since I began this journey is that both variety and consistency are the keys to success. More important than having a killer workout every time is forcing yourself to do something physical, even for just ten minutes when you really really don't feel like working out.

Seeing is Believing

Okay so we have about 6-7 weeks left in Thailand and as of today I have 33 more days to reach my goal of 100 days of fitness. I'll need to get committed and workout at least 5 days a week until we leave to reach 100.  I have to make it happen.

The last few weeks were a pitiful workout here and there. This really set me back. I found that having a change in my schedule where I was staying after school for an hour maybe even an hour and a half to tutor a few students really set me back. By the time I got home I was really tired and didn't feel like working out. Instead of waking up early to ensure I got a workout in I allowed this to derail me. As one of my favorite saying goes "you either make progress or you make excuses".

All in all though, I have been noticing a difference in my body. I look thinner and my legs look much smaller. I still really want to get rid of my otter thigh bulge though. Although it not completely gone yet, my legs are looking much stronger and my arms are less flabby too. Hooray!

38 days to go. Don't give up now!