When Works For You?

I know that it is supposed to be "whatever works for you," but for us, it was more about when does exercising work.  Of course, everyone is different.  When we started walking it was more of a "when we can get it done" type of strategy.  That was typically in the mornings, but not terribly early.
Then we decided to start going to a class (Yes, I am talking about Gold's Fit again).  We needed a time that would always work.  This meant that during the typical daytime hours was out.  Kara and I have varying schedules and it was very unlikely that we could consistently get a day class to work.  It also seemed like the evenings would work.  Specifically, the kids have different schedules of needing to be picked up and dropped off places.  It is also true that during the span of a day, I can come up with millions of excuses why I can't exercise that day and AT LEAST 10,000 of them are amazing reasons that cannot be ignored.

So, when works for us?  You guessed it.  Early morning....ugh.  I never thought that we would be getting up at 5 am for a 5:30 am anything.  The first week was rough! So, how do we do it?  I tell people that I get out of bed at 5am and typically wake up between 5:45am and 6:00am.  By then, I am already at the class and almost done ;)  Well, it isn't quite like that, but maybe closer than you might think.  Basically, the alarm goes off and no matter how we feel we get up.  After all, we usually have to pee anyhow...yeap, that's right, drink water the night before also :) We also have our clothes out so we don't have to look for anything.  Basically, minimize the effort needed to make it there. So, does it ever actually get easy, you may ask...maybe a little, but it is still early.  That said, it does become a lot like muscle memory.  You end up just doing it because it is a habit.

I guess at the end of the day...it is really finding a time that mimizes the excuses and reasons for not going, planning ahead, and following through.  It does eventually become a habit and that is what has worked for us.