I spent close to two blissful year working out during the workday freeing up more time for me in the evenings to pursue my other passions. I was lucky to have a great fitness center with classes and good trainers at my previous workplace. Work perks galore. In my new job I unfortunately do not have access to the same resources. So alas I’ve had to change my routine.
Until I had my 24 Hour Fitness members I worked out in the evenings during the work week – doing squats and shoulder presses at my favorite body pump class and riding those hills in my spin. But in recent weeks going to the gym in the evenings meant all i did was work, eat, sleep. And that gets old really quick for someone like me who wants to paint, write, read, and like every millennial Make A Difference! “I want meaning in my life damn it.”
In pursuit of making a difference I decided I needed to make some changes to my daily routine. I needed to free up more time in my day especially in the evenings. I wanted to have more energy throughout the day.
Here’s my spiced up morning routing:
I set my alarm for 5:00am and roll out of bed several minutes later. Brush my teeth, lace up my sneakers and head to the gym around 5:30am. Thankfully, I have a gym in my apartment building. I spend the next 40-45 minutes working out. I do my best to vary my workouts from running for 2.5-3 miles on the treadmill or 2000 m on the rowing machine or various free weight exercises to tone my upper body. Side note – I really miss being 25 when I could see results more easily but can’t stop this process of aging. Unless you’re Benjamin Button!!! (I crack myself up!)
Ok now that I’m dripping with sweat and have taxed my muscles, I head home to get ready for work. Typical girl routine of hair, makeup to dress the part to kick-butt at work. Though I must say age has slowed me down. At the sprightly age of 23, 24 I had my routine timed down to the minute. These days I move a little more tenderly. (I crack myself up…Again!)
As I’m dashing around getting ready, I have to have my morning cup of tea. The day just does not start out right without it. My other must do in the morning is MAKING MY BED!!! Yes this point needs to be emphasized with all caps and exclamation points. It’s just that important. If there is one thing I have done all my life and done it well I must say is make my bed. It helps calm me down and makes me feel organized and focused to start the day. So if you’re reading this the moral of this blog post is….Make Your Bed EVERY Morning. Yes, that includes the weekends too. If I write any more on this topic I will embarrass myself with how much this topic brings me joy. Did Marie Kondo cover this on her ‘clean and bring joy’ strategy?
Gym – check. Making my bed – check. Cup of tea – check. Up next is packing my lunch and making more tea for my husband (married life changes you in ways that I would not guessed). To free up more time in the morning I pack my lunch the previous night and all I have to do in the morning is put all my various lunch boxes and fruit and yogurt cups in my super cool lunch box. I am now a proud lunch box carrying worker.
Once I’m done running around in the morning I do my best to leave myself 10-15 minutes to slow down. As I’ve mentioned several times before I began meditating in 2017 and have continued this practice since. I spend 10 minutes, which is all the time I have to spare in the morning meditating. I use the Headspace app for different meditation packs. For example, Balance or Relationships or Anxiety etc. Sometime I just do an Early Morning or Waking Up pack to get me going. I written about the benefits of meditation before so I won’t go into the details again but taking even just 10 minutes of my day to focus and breathe helps me have a better start to my day.
Phew! My morning routine feels like a job itself but unfortunately my read day job awaits. So after doing all this if I have a few minutes I spend this time reading while finishing up my tea. And before I know it, it’s time to start earning my paycheck. Because let’s be real this blog ain’t helping me pay my bills. Not yet. But someday it will.
So there you have it. My morning routine. Work life these days is super hectic and stressful and leaves me drained in the evenings so altering my gym schedule and taking a few minutes in the morning to be quiet sets me up to deal with the days stresses and frees up my time in the evenings to pursue my myriad other activities. This hasn’t always worked out but the year is still young.
This blog post was inspired by the Lifehacker podcast “How to Hack Your Mornings, With My Morning Routine.” On this blog people share their morning routines so I thought I would take the time to share mine. Especially because its action filled.
What does your morning routine look like?