1) Get enough sleep - sounds so easy right? Who doesn’t love sleep, but this is a major issue for most of my clients whether they’re up through the night with little ones, awake from drinking caffeine too late in the day, or wine disrupting their REM sleep. 7-9 hours is the suggested length of deep sleep and the best ways to get this are:
a) make the room as dark as possible - I love black out blinds,
b) use a white noise machine (this is my FAVORITE and under 70 decibels), a sound machine, or white noise app on your phone. The differences are: White Noise Machines offer a steady sound, simulating a fan, it’s doesn’t have a repeating pattern so your brain doesn’t get trained to listen for it, which is stimulating for some. A Sound Machine will have an “ocean”, “outdoor sounds”, “wind”, “babbling brook,” “white noise,” etc and they are usually repeating patterns. Honestly the crickets make me feel like there are things in my bed and the babbling brook makes me want to pee, so neither make me drift off to sleep, LOL, but the kids seem to like them and it works.
c) invest in soft sheets, these sheets on Amazon are my favorite, I have 4 sets.
d) keep the room temperature between 60-67 degrees,
e) drink a warm cup of tea when you start winding down, but make sure it’s herbal, not green or black tea, as those have caffeine and produce the opposite effect,
f) you’ve heard this one a million times, but I’ll remind you again, limit screen time. It stimulates your brain and eyes and sends you to bed with lots of thoughts swirling around and lastly,
g) journal things you're thinking about. When I have a lot of things to do the next day, I worry I’ll forget and it keeps me up thinking / stressing about it. If I make a list of everything I need to do / am thinking about, I’m able to put it at rest and fall asleep much faster.
2) Lay out exercise clothes the night before - I especially do this when I travel because it’s very easy to wake up on vacation and talk yourself out of it. But if everything is ready and staring me in the face, I remember I had intentions of getting moving and I’ll be thankful later. I’m 99% more likely to follow through with my workout plans. Some even wear them to bed, I might have done that before, just make sure if you do this, that your workout bra doesn’t have underwire in it.
3) Put alarm out of reach - the snooze button can be the devil and ruin your day. I never would have believed it till I listened to this podcast on the snooze button by Mel Robbins. Check it out and you’l be moving that alarm clock tomorrow :)
4) Schedule coffee maker to go off at a certain time - the smell wafting from your kitchen will give you just another incentive to get up and crush your workout and it’s been proven that small doses of caffeine on an empty stomach can help you push harder, thus get more, out of your workout,
5) Let the light in - expose yourself to natural light as soon as you wake up. Getting blue light from the sun turns off your brain’s melatonin faucet, which in turn can erase any morning fog you feel and give you energy to get going,
6) Sniff Peppermint oil - a small study found that drinking 500 ml of mineral water spiked with peppermint oil improved power and performance and lengthened the time to exhaustion. Young Living oils are the only oils approved by FDAA for consumption.
7) Fuel up / don’t sit down - chose a bite to eat that’s carb-focused and 100-150 calories. ½ banana and peanut butter or Shakeology stirred with water (as a bowl) are my two favorites, both with 16-20 carbs quickly available for your workout.
8) Drink up - dehydration can have a huge effect on physical performance since you lose ~ one liter of water during your sleep through sweat and breathing. I have a lot of ideas for ways to flavor your water without adding extra calories, so try to drink 16 oz. water when you first wake,
9) Stay accountable with a group - telling yourself you can’t work out is easy to do; making that excuse to someone else is a whole other story. studies have shown those that check-in with an accountability group are 20% more likely to succeed and get better results than those that go at it alone. I offer BOD Groups every single month and you’re always invited to join so make that commitment to show up every day and let do this together,
10) Download a new playlist - create a “wake-up” list of energizing songs to get you motivated to move. Research shows that music can reduce the perception of effort and increase endurance up to 15%! Beachbody Super Trainers shared their favorite playlists if you need some new ideas; now go crush that workout,
11) Workout @ home - you’re more likely to workout when your living room, playroom, study is your workout space and you walk by it and hear it call your name. You’ll save money, miss out on germs and save the commute time so there’s really no reason you can’t fit it in. Beachbody on Demand has programs from 10 minutes up to 90 minutes so there are plenty of options to fit the time you have available.