I have a pretty fluid schedule. I work for myself out of my home. I don’t have to meet with clients a lot, and I don’t need to be on the phone very often. I am usually in the office at my house working at my own pace, taking breaks when I want.
My point is that I have a great schedule for trying to stay in shape. I would say, “Lucky me,” but this is how I planned out my life, so not a lot of luck involved. A little, but not a lot.
Usually I wake up without an alarm, whenever I happen to wake up, and get to work. I should note here that I never sleep past 7:00 a.m. Something always has me woken up by then, and once I wake up, my mind starts thinking of everything I need to do that day … and I’m up. So I get up, hit the tasks I need to do to get me paid, then take a break sometime between 10:00 and 2:00 to work out. It’ s a schedule that works well for me, and, yes, if you work 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6, more likely) for the man, you should be jealous. (Meanwhile, I’ll be jealous of your regular, and probably larger, paycheck.)
However, every so often I do need to be somewhere outside the home office for the day. Today was one such day, because I had some training to attend.
So I had a choice. (1) Get up early and work out before I went to the class. (2) Work out after I got back from the class. Or (3) not work out at all.
I pretty much took the weekend off from working out. Not completely — I did get an ab routine in, and about 1o miles of walking — but I pretty much took the weekend off, so skipping my Monday workout was not an option.
Working out when I got home in the afternoon, 6:00 or so? Not gonna happen. I have little motivation at that time of day.
So … get up early it was!
I set the alarm for 5:30, but I woke up at 5:00. I had some coffee, read a bit of the novel I’m reading — The Pillars of the Earth
It went great! So great, in fact, that I considered setting my alarm every day. I used to get up early with an alarm, but I got out of the habit. Something about waking up with a sense of purpose really motivates me.
But, having thought about it, I am pretty sure alarm clocks will surely send me down the path of too little sleep, and I do not want to be there again. Sleep is one of the most important activities when one is trying to reshape one’s body, so I don’t want to skimp on it.
I may, however, try it on Mondays. Chest and back first thing in the morning? Wow!
Once again, I do know how fortunate I am not to have to fit in too many workouts. Many of you have to contend with tough schedules every day. In fact, I know when I had a regular job, I used to get up at 4:00 every weekday so I could work out at that the gym when it opened at 4:30. That was the only way I could get a workout in, because my schedule was so hectic once I got to work.
It’s a choice, though, and if your goal is to be in shape, sometimes — if not often — you need to put forth some effort to fit a workout into your schedule.