This is what it looks like in our back yard at 6 am. The sun isn’t quite up yet, but it’s on its way. How do I know this? Because I’ve finally decided that there is hardly ever going to be a time when I feel like exercising after I get home from work at night. I tried fooling myself into thinking that after work was the best time for me to do it (since I am so not a morning person), but it just meant that I’d come home, not exercise, and feel slightly guilty the rest of the evening.
So, I heard about the Fitbit and thought maybe that would help. If someone says I’m supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day and do 10 flights of stairs, then those are the numbers I try to hit. And since I started getting up early in the morning to walk for an hour, it has been working. I do like getting it out of the way before work. And I get to see pretty scenes like this (finally – the sun is up above the horizon.):
And this (I love seeing mountains first thing every morning.):
These things have helped me stick to this routine for a couple of months now:
1. Personally, I need to do it every single day of the week. I do take Saturdays and Sundays off, but I’m just about ready to throw at least Saturday into the mix, too. Mondays are a bugger when 6 am rolls around again.
2. I listen to audiobooks. It makes the hour of walking pass by really quickly.
3. I fool my brain. I tell myself that I’m going to walk for 30 minutes (in one direction, away from my house) and then I’ll just walk home. That equals an hour, but the last part of it is just “walking home”. 🙂
The downside? I am tired too early in the evening. It’s affecting my knitting, FPS. Somehow I need to learn to be a morning person AND a night person. Is that possible?? I need to finish my Camp Loopy Project Three this weekend. (I’m making a Derecho out of the Loopy Solid Series. So many fun colors to choose from.)
Today’s blog contest question: Are you a night person or a morning person? (And while we’re at it, do you have any tips about sticking to an exercise routine?) Leave a comment below and I’ll draw names for two more skeins of Wollmeise Lace next week.
We do have winners from last week’s blog contest! I’m sending a skein of Wollmeise Lace to Linda in IL and Amber in IN. Congratulations to you two!
Sheri 9162stepssofarfortoday.
Mustwalkbackandforthintheshopafewmoretimes….
I’d have to say night, or is it morning as I seldom go to be before 2 a.m. I am back up by 7 or 8, but still can’t get to sleep any earlier. I love knitting until the last moment; often designing my best patterns in the wee hours. Keep paper & pencil nearby to record those sleepy ideas too.
I used to be more of a morning person than I am now. Having kids changes all that, now I tend to stay up later than normal so I can enjoy the peace and quiet after the boys have gone to bed!
Definitely a night person. And I have no idea how to stick to an exercise routine. I’m hoping to get some ideas from everyone else leaving comments!
I am so a morning person. I have had parrots sine middle school, and they are always up with the sun. Its a great natural alarm clock!
As for exercise, I always get off of my bus to work a stop or two early and walk the rest of the way. It hardly feels like exercise after a while!
A morning person. And you are right, deeply breathing in that early morning Colorado air through brisk walks helps one sleep at night! Haven’t you found the coolness and the freshness of the air the past couple of weeks to be some kind of w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l? The best way to maintain a walking program is to walk with someone else.
1. Measure yourself (using loopy ewe tape measure)…because the scale lies.
2. Write down what you do daily.
3. Tell everyone that you plan to do XYZ (because the more peoples that know, the more embarrassing it is to face them if you don’t. )
And I am s night person forced into a daytime world. I like sunrises much better from the moon side!
Morning person but I exercise after work with my husband. We count on each other for motivation.
I am a night person, but really try hard to be a morning person. I am still trying to figure out the best bedtime and wake up time after all of these years. I am trying to find a difference form of exercising after running for 2 years – find it so boring. My son finally picked up bike riding and I love going on family rides. What a difference it makes if you actually have a fun time exercising.
I’m totally programmed to be a morning person, i love getting up at 5a to go out and run. Unfortunately right now I am stuck working nights, 2p-midnight/1am followed by a v long drive home, so my body clock is out of whack. I have managed to run some on weekdays before coming to work, tho not the full workout I used to enjoy, but I have a bosu ball and a ministepper at home and can use those anytime, 10-15 min at a time.
I also probably do 20 flights of stairs a day between home and work.
The best way to stick to an exercise program is exactly what you do, trick yourself by saying you’re going to walk 10 mins and then keep going. A month from now, it’ll be habit and your legs will just keep going. I wish someone would invent a way that all of us, morning and night people, could knit in our sleep.
A morning person for sure. And no tips at all, but I’ll be reading what others have to say…
Ooooh, you’re doing well on your 10,000 steps for today! I never seemed to get beyond about 4000!
I (and my husband, too) am a night person. We tend to stay up quite late on weekends, sometimes until the sun is coming up, before we succumb to sleep. Although I’ve noticed that both of us can fall asleep easily while watching TV.
Unfortunately, going to bed late each night but trying to get up around 4:30 makes me sleepy all the time, and headachy a lot, too! And THAT cuts into my very small available knitting time! Knitting has always relaxed me, enough to put me to sleep anyway, but combined with sleep shortage, not much gets done.
My plan is that I’ll exercise more when I’m retired, because I’ll have the time! We try now, but it’s hard with the current schedules. Also, there’ll be more time to knit — Yay!!!!
Thanks for another great contest!
If I had to choose, I’d say morning person. If I sleep in and stay up late, I feel like I’ve wasted the day. I try to get to work by about 6:15 AM so I can pick my kids up from school at 3:30
As for exercise, I do best when I have a plan and it’s scheduled. I’m currently on a 60 day program that’s called “Insanity” and it’s super hard but super addicting. I do it during my lunch hour every day. No excuses. When I’m done with Insanity, I’ve already got my next exercise programs planned out as well as running a few races this fall/winter. I’ve lost a little but of weight so far and have about 23 pounds to go.
Nursing has made me a morning person – I go in at some pretty ungodly hours! However, the audiobook sounds like a good idea to get me going. There’s just not enough hours in the day!!
I’m a morning person.if I don’t get some knitting, beading or quilting done in the morning I’m a bear the rest of the day.
Sherri, I like your walking/audio book idea. I need to give it a try.
Wow, tough question! I guess I’d have to say morning person simply because I’m positively worthless after 9:30. It’s hard to get up in the morning; bed is too comfy! But once I’m up, I’m up and good to go. I’ve used audio books when driving, but not while walking. I’m getting ready to start a new book so maybe I’ll use it as my walking soundtrack! I really need to start exercising again and now that it’s cool enough in the mornings and evening I can walk without feeling like I’m going to melt!
Morning, definitely! I agree that walking is a perfect way to start the day.
I am very much a night person, to the point that I never sleep until three or four in the morning. I have too much knitting to do! 🙂
I am definitely a night person…I don’t properly wake up until about 10 a.m. or so at least, even though I have to get up much earlier than that to go to work. I trick myself into exercising (walking) more by parking at the far end of the parking lot from wherever I’m going, purposely putting stuff far from where its needed in the house, leaving things out in my car when I get home even though I know I’ll need them later (then I have to walk back out to the car again) and other little things like that. None of them alone make much difference but my hope is that all of them together do add up!
I’m a late morning person. lol My exercising is knitting-walking-reading. Not always in that order,
NOT a morning person, though I wish I were…sunrise is so pretty! However, I work until past midnight, so I don’t see many of them 😉
I do love to run though, and I try to get out at a reasonable hour in the morning, especially during the heat of summer. Here are my tips:
-set out your clothes + water + gear the night before, so you can just step into them and go.
-tell yourself over and over “I’m going out first thing in the morning” as if there in no other option. this is something that MUST get done like grocery shopping or going to work.
-concetrate on how good you feel for the rest of the day!!! You will soon realize that you love that feeling & it’s worth the hassle of getting up and getting out there!
I am a night person who is “FORCED” to be a morning person by my school schedule.
Definitely a night person! And I have also determined that walking in the morning is about the only way I’m going to get it done. In Arizona, early morning is the only bearable time to walk in summer. I’ve been looking at the FitBit… I just need to go ahead and do it. 🙂
I’m neither really. If I had to choose, I would say a night person. I think that I’m more of an afternooner. As far as exercise, I get a lot of it at work (IKEA). I am a cheap, so no gym membership. I choose to spend the time and energy on the important things, yarn and fiber.
I’m usually a night person (I’m also a college student), but lately I have been getting up, and staying up, around 5:30 a.m.. A tip for the exercise: find a routine that you’d actually do. If you don’t like going to the gym, chances are that a routine that has you going to the gym four times a week just isn’t going to work.
I’m a night person…..would actually like to be a morning peron, tho. I don’t have any exercise tips….I NEED some!! 🙂 Better read through all the comments!
Morning …. more then evening. I have been trying to figure out the exercise routine myself….I really like the tip about walking to a coffee shop….drink a cup of coffee knit and then walk home. Just need to live closer to a coffee shop..or find a substitute….
Very definitely an evening person. Best ever walking tip– get a dog (or two!!!) they love to go for walks and you can’t avoid going. 🙂
I am so definitely a morning person….I am usually in bed between 9 and 10 pm…I am up around 7 even on days off….I enjoy the quiet in the morning before the family gets up to knit or clean or what ever…. 🙂
I am definitely a morning person. I wake up at 4 but try to stay in bed until 4:45 or 5.
I live in SE Alaska where it rains a lot and is dark in the winter until 7 or 8am. So, walking outside is not usually an option. Also after a bear encounter at 5am while walking the dogs one summer, I lost my taste for early morning walks. Now I have a 1/2 hour exercise CD I work out with every am. I listen to podcasts while I exercise.
Definitely a night person. The sun is an evil thing.
For exercising, keep track of what you do everyday.
I started tracking just by writing it on a calendar. Then I started a simple spreadsheet. Now, it is not so simple a spreadsheet. But, it is wonderful to look back and see that I have only missed walking 5 times this year (due to sickness). Even if it is just around the block, it is better than nothing.
It always seems like such a commitment when you think that you need to exercise for the rest of your life. So, don’t. All you need to do, is exercise a little bit today. Tomorrow, you will need to exercise a little bit today. After a while, you have excercised consistently for a month straight, and that really wasn’t so hard because you only have to worry about today.
Definitely a night person!! I have never liked mornings and it is getting worse!! I stay up much too late and have a horrible time getting up and to work on time.
Exercising is great if you schedule time. But, it has to be an appointment you make that can’t be broken easily. I fell off the exercise wagon in April due to a friend’s illness and have been procrastinating getting back in ever since.
I am a morning person. The latest I woke up this week (sans alarm) was 5:41, and the earliest was 4 a.m. I do this nearly every day of the week and unless I am sick I can expect to wake up super early.
As for exercise, I haven’t been regular since I got sick in April, but before then I did walk each day. I picked a modest amount, like 30 minutes, and had to do at least that every day. I wish I could say it worked, but as soon as I got sick the whole exercise thing flew out the window and hasn’t yet come back.
definitely a nighttime person 🙂 i did pretty well with the 10000 steps – i think it helped to have a number goal for the day. and if i walked faster then i got it all over with faster, too …which means more time to knit!
morning routine…set an alarm to herald each activity change…and DON’T hit the snooze button!! Otherwise I would read too long, knit too long, exercise too long, sleep too long…etc. (must get back on the routine!!!)
late night person.
thanks for this chance to win!
Morning person! Have a friend or make friends at a group fitness class to work out with to help you be accountable for your daily routine!
Morning, definitely, and that us when I work out too!
Definitely a morning person and I am woefully terrible about sticking to an exercise routine…
I have always been a night owl. I totally believe I was made to party (ok, knit) all night and sleep half the day.
I wish I had words of wisdom on the exercise issue but I don’t. I’d love to get back into running and be a size 2 again. Sweaters would be so much quicker to knit!
Ever since having my daughter, who is now almost 8, night time is my time. The quiet time that I get to myself. As for exercise, I need rabbits to chase so I always try to run up that hill just a little bit faster each time and challenge myself that way. Also – do fun things! Latest obsession, stand up paddleboarding.
Unfortunately, I stay up too late, but like to get up early. Haven’t figured out yet how to balance both…
I am a total morning person and always have been since I was a kid. I am also addicted to spin class. I get up every morning at 4:00 a.m. and meet my friends at the gym and workout until 7:00 a.m. I love it and it clears my head for the day…plus it is the only time I get to myself. My husband thinks that I am absolutely nuts..but I tell him all my friends are like me so I think I am normal 🙂 I can’t stay up at all at night though. I started to nod off around 8:00 p.m.
I am a night person. I sit with my knitting and my audiobook until about 1:00 am . I am retired so I don’t have to be up early but am usually awake at about 7:30
Used to be a night person, but since we moved 18 years ago, I ‘ve become a morning person. I have to ride a ferry to work in downtown Seattle, so I get up at 4:00 am. I don’t get up that early on weekends, but if I sleep past 7:00 am, it feels like the whole day is gone! Doing an exercise that I enjoy makes it easy to keep a routine, and the fact that my husband likes to keep active ( biking, gym, walking) I’m guilted into making it part of my day.
A nibht person definately! I work 12 hour mn shifts and can’t go back and forth!
Me? Most decidedly a night person. Which makes working really interesting. As for an exercise routine, I work really hard to maintain this figure. **pats chunky fat tummy contentedly** 🙂
I’m a morning person, although when I retire in a few months that might change a little. My wonderful hubby leaves early in the morning and I like to make a lunch for him and see him off, and the dogs, cats, and birds get fed and cleaned up while I’m helping my hubby get ready for work. I have a stepper and an eliptical at home, and I like taking at least one of the dogs with me when I walk (they enjoy it too). Both my hubby and I like to ride motorcycles, and being in shape makes it even more enjoyable.
Definitely a night person. I’ll even take nap inthe early evening and then stay up if I have to be up before 6 am. And higher brain functions never get going til after 10 on a normal day.
I still haven’t found the exercise key. Though I like your walking home from trick!
Night person! Mornings are good for photography or making up and then going back to bed for a nap. Wish I didn’t have to work. Wollmeise lace might be a good comfort to make up for the lack of morning naps.
I didn’t used to be a morning person, and maybe someday I can revert, but for now I am up at 5:30 a.m., whether it’s a work day or not. Problem is, I have a very elderly cat that needs attention and feeding, (like a baby) every two hours around the clock.
I’m so…….so tired. But I adore her, she’s my soul mate.