Is this how you bounce out of bed in the morning?  This is how I  bounce out of bed in the morning! I teach the majority of my indoor cycling classes and Pilates classes first thing in the morning.  If you haven’t taken one of them, you should know that there is a LOT of bouncing, dancing, and some version of cartwheels involved.  After EVERY SINGLE CLASS, at least one participant comments on my energy level.  I honestly never knew that people didn’t feel energized in the morning.  Or, I didn’t realize that how I feel in the morning was unique.  Why don’t people bounce out of bed in the morning?  It is second nature to me.  What am I doing or not doing that is so different from them?  After asking around, I have a few ideas.

I have found that it’s a cycle.  A pretty bad cycle that just worsens over time.  It starts slow, and eventually people find themselves doing this – The alarm clock goes off, and they hit the snooze three times until they roll out of bed. They take two Advil for the headache and start a pot of coffee.  They skip breakfast because they aren’t hungry, still full from last night’s big dinner.  After two cups of coffee, they are late getting the kids out the door, forgetting their gym bag, so they head to Starbucks for a latte before doing errands (workout skipped).  Lunch is eaten in the car and was barely enough.  Kids are picked up, and they stop at a fast food drive-thru for an after-school snack.  Starving, they eat some fries and the rest of the kid’s milkshake.  The headache is creeping back, so it’s back to Starbucks for a pick-me-up.  After homework and soccer, they are starving and decide just to make mac and cheese for dinner.  The kids are in bed, and they decide to split a bottle of wine (they deserve it after the day they had!).  They can’t go to bed because they still have some work to get through, and once in bed, they can’t fall asleep due to all the coffee they drank during the day.  Finally asleep, they wake up every hour or so because the alcohol disrupted their sleep even more, and they are having a hard time digesting the mac and cheese.  Crap – the alarm is going off already!  And, the cycle starts again.

Does any of that sound familiar?  It’s not about going on a diet or starting a new fitness program. To truly feel good enough each day to bounce out of bed, you have to break the cycle of being unhealthy. Can you do it in one swoop?  You can get so sick of feeling like this, that one day you just decide that you aren’t going to feel like that ever again.  And then you do it.

I don’t want this to be about all the things that I do to feel amazing.  If you take the scenario above and do the opposite of that, you’ll be well on your way.  If I broke it down into a few tips, it would look like this:

GET BETTER SLEEP

• limit the amount of caffeine you take in during the day, and try to stop your caffeine intake by 12 PM
• quit drinking alcohol – it is a major sleep disruptor, and it’s filled with calories and sugar
• get physical during the day – make yourself physically tired

EAT BREAKFAST

• even if it’s something small – you need to feed your body during the day to avoid the evening binge

EAT A SMALLER DINNER

• you can’t sleep if your body is digesting a heavy meal all night

PLAN AHEAD

• it takes a lot of willpower to not eat fries – have snacks & meals prepared in advance – everyone will be healthier

RESPECT YOUR LIFE

• read that scenario above again – would you want your child to live like that as an adult? set a better example

I want you to feel like bouncing out of bed in the morning!  It’s good over here!!!  Please break the cycle.  I’m here to cheer you on!