Pretzels in my shoes, and other reasons why I work out in the morning

This last Monday my alarm went off at 5:45. It had been a rough night of tossing an turning, but I had committed to push myself this week with exercise. I hauled my butt out of bed, tugged on my exercise clothes, and pulled my hair out of my face.

Half asleep I wandered downstairs, grabbed my sneakers from my shoe bin and continue to the basement. Yawning, I turned on the television and popped in a workout DVD. I sat down on the couch to put on my shoes.

The truth is I hate waking up early. OK actually I just hate waking up. I’m not a morning person. I never have been. For the first several years of our marriage my husband would ask me every morning what was wrong – nothing it was just morning. For the first year of this blog I would get up early and work on it until the kids got up at 8.
During that year I discovered that while I’m not a morning person, I do like getting up before my kids. I found that if I had the chance to wake up and get a few things done – that my morning would go a a lot smoother.

This last summer I worked on trying to shift my paradigm of how I treat myself. I started to eat better and exercise. And instead of waking up early and giving that time to the blog – I decided that I would wake up and give that time to myself and my health.
As I slid my foot into my shoe I felt a couple of bumpy things in it, I pulled out my foot and turned my shoe upside down. two pretzels fell out and landed in my hand. As a mom, this is no surprise to me. I am used to finding pretzels where they do not belong. After discovering (and discarding) my little treasure, instead of being annoyed ( my usual morning mood) I had to smile.

Those two little pretzels are the reason why I haul myself out of bed to exercise. I take this time so I can be a fit and healthy mom. So I can chase after my one year old and not skip a beat. I exercise so I can be in a good mood when my kids are having a rough morning. I exercise so I can be the mom playing with my kids on the playground and not just sitting on the sidelines. Those pretzels are why on days where I would love to sleep in I get up and make sure I sweat.  Those pretzels make me set an example of health and a balanced life.  That’s one of the most amazing things about kids, they make you want to be a better person.

Do you get up and exercise in the morning?  Why do you exercise?