Easing In to Working Out

This year has started like no other, I started the year dressed as a unicorn 🦄, I could leave it at that, but I seem to be super motivated in some areas of my life, which is why I am keeping up with my goal to have a blog post every weekday ( for a month) and a YouTube video every Sunday so far. I’m not so motivated in other areas, like working on getting fit, going to bed earlier and waking up earlier. I’m glad I get regular exercise commuting on my bike every week day, but I often use this as an excuse not to do a full body workout, my upper body feels so weak and my posture is getting bad so I want to improve and get stronger.

Iv figured out that the only time I can get a consistent workout in is 5-5.30am as I usually get up for work at 5.30am and sometimes don’t get home until 7.30 which is when I want to be winding down , not getting worked up. Since the new year I have been trying to get up the 30mins at 5am but it just isn’t happening. I put my phone outside the bedroom so I have to get up out of bed to turn the alarm off, but I often just get back into bed or go and nap at my desk or the sofa (as desk and sofa naps don’t count and therefore I did get up at 5am 🤦🏻‍♀️) I sleep in my workout gear, so I haven’t slept in pyjamas at all this year! My workout area is always prepped; dvd ready to go, trainers, socks and a bottle of water but I just don’t have the drive.

Quite often I don’t fall asleep until around 1-2hrs of lying in bed, so I’m always exhausted in the mornings. Cycling to work and having to carry my bike around puts me off, as I don’t want the crippling sore muscles the next day making my commute agony. I also have long days at work that make me feel exhausted, it’s winter and cold in the mornings, I didn’t want to be a cliche and start working out in the New Years only to fail a month later. I could make so many more excuses but I know I’d feel so much better after the first week or two of my workout plan. I’m slowly trying to ease myself in and go easy on myself with this goal, I usually go in all guns blazing and then the motivation goes after a few weeks. I’m creating the time in the morning first by getting my body used to the slightly earlier start. I also want look at my diet as I remember eating so much more fruit and veg a few years ago when I was at uni, I would literally jump out of bed in the morning, so I want that again (and this was actually my only new year resolution; to eat more fruit and veg). I also want to look into how I can get to sleep faster and have a more rested night.

This week is packed so I will start working out next Monday, I’m going to do 5 weeks of Shaun T's T25 Alpha plan and do it at my own pace to begin with. I will work myself up to it though by doing a workout this Friday and Saturday morning just so that my body can get over the initial muscle soreness, and as these are the only days I can do this week. I’m not going to be too hard on myself, it’s one of the things I hate about a five week (or 3 or 4 week, a longish plan). If I miss a workout then I get completely thrown and tell myself it’s ok to miss a few more until I completely fall off the wagon. I’m a perfectionist so I love to see that Iv completed every workout on the right day at the right time, I’m going to try really hard and just do the best I can. This tactic is actually working with my goal to write this blog, most days I feel completely uninspired to write and then something will come to me on the train home and I’ll just go with it, because I have passion and motivation to get it done (Sorry if my posts are a bit random)  So I'm hoping I will find my passion and motivation for working out again, I usually do once I start seeing results. One plus point is writing it on here so that I'm kind of held accountable if anyone is actually reading this!