- I challenged myself to exercise before work every day for a week.
- While my productivity and morning energy levels increased, I made a few mistakes.
After challenging myself to exercise before work every day for a week, I learned a lot: that the best way to sleep through the night is to tire myself out every morning; that my productivity in the morning increases after I've broken a sweat; and that, while it's hard, it's worth dragging myself out of bed to get my workout over before the day begins.
However, there were four mistakes I made throughout the week that I plan on addressing as I continue my fitness journey, including both things I forgot to do and things that I would do differently in the future.
Forgetting to pick out my clothes the night before was a bad decision
I learned this tip back in middle school, but somehow I stopped picking out my outfit the night before at the start of the pandemic in 2020 when, like everyone else, I hunkered down in my house and barely went outside. As my job continued to be office-optional, I got into the habit of wearing loungewear all day, which meant I wasn't putting together cute outfits.
But during this exercise challenge, I was waking up around 90 minutes earlier than usual, so it was much easier to pick out an outfit the night before. That way, I could just roll out of bed the next day, put on my clothes, and walk out the door.
However, there was at least one evening where I was so tired from my longer-than-usual day that I didn't take the time to lay out clothes for the next day. I figured I could just pick them out the following morning.
It turned out that selecting my outfit ate into valuable time, and I left at least 15 minutes later than I wanted to. That meant I was rushing back to my apartment after my workout, leaving me stressed before starting work.
I didn't eat anything before exercising
In general, I'm not a huge breakfast person, but after exercising, I found myself, at best, absolutely famished — at worst, sometimes a little woozy.
According to the Mayo Clinic, eating a healthy breakfast that's full of carbohydrates before working out may improve workout performance by allowing you to exercise longer, and/or harder.
If I had eaten at least a breakfast bar or a protein shake, I perhaps could've had more energy before my workout, and maybe would not have been as exhausted as I was after working out.
Instead, I was left running to the nearest coffee shop to grab an egg sandwich.
I didn't take a change of clothes with me to classes, so I was unable to take advantage of their showers
I usually avoid locker rooms at the gym, but I was pleasantly surprised by the shower at Rumble Boxing, which was one of the exercise classes I took during the week. Even though I had been to this location before, I never needed to use the locker room, so I hadn't seen what the showers were like.
So, when I decided to explore the facilities before my 8 a.m. class and discovered that the showers were clean, the products were high-end, and it was basically empty, I immediately regretted not bringing flip-flops and a change of clothes so I could've just showered there. I was very sweaty after the boxing/mixed cardio class, and it would've been nice to just hop directly in the shower to set me up for the day.
Instead, I got back to my apartment and had to wait until I had a lull in my morning to finally shower, which meant I was pretty uncomfortable for a chunk of the morning.
I also learned I shouldn't be too hard on myself for missing a day now and then
On the last day of the challenge, I was positively dragging myself out of bed. Why? Because it was the first morning where I'd had plans the night before that kept me out until almost midnight.
I was disappointed with myself for not running like I wanted to — instead, I just took a walk. But after some reflection, I realized that it's not fair to myself to expect a perfect workout every morning. Being healthy is about balance, and making time to see friends and have fun is also a huge part of living a fulfilling life.
Overall, these are things I could've done to save myself time, money, and effort
Buying cheaper breakfast bars instead of expensive sandwiches at cafes, picking out my outfits beforehand, and bringing a change of clothes and flip-flops to shower at the gym were all things I should've done to streamline my morning routine — and I also learned that sometimes I need to go easy on myself instead of pushing too hard.
Even with these mistakes, though, I found that exercising in the morning was worth it for all the health benefits and the productivity boost I experienced throughout the week.
In the future, I'll be spending more time at night trying to make life easier in the morning.