Workout Wednesday: Working Out in the Morning

Even though we know that working out is good for us and gets necessary as we are getting older (not us us, the royal us. We aren't aging at all!), it sucks. But unlike those other corporate fashion bloggers and Instagrammers, we are not #blessed when it comes to having a body that rivals the Gigi Hadids of the world (P.S. we know you didn't eat that deli sandwich you're holding in your NYFW Instagram, Ms. Blogger).

To that end, we must workout. But who has the time? After a long day at work followed by adulting, the last thing we want to do at the end of the day is don our favorite Lulu pants and actually workout in them. We know all sorts of people that swear by morning workouts, and there are articles all over the internet on how to become a morning workout person. Spoiler Alert: there are some of us who will never be morning people (Elizabeth). But, there are some things we here at Not a Corporate Fashun Blog have found that make working out in the AM a little easier to stomach, and we're happy to share them with you today.

1. Meet someone. The #1 most recommended tip for working out in the history of workout advice. But, it's touted all the time for a reason. As members of the bougie Equinox gym near the office that offers morning workout classes, we "like" to go to the yoga class on Wednesdays. And we say "like" because the class starts at 6:30, which means we have to pull our asses out of bed at around 5:00 in order to get out the door and downtown in time to get into downward dog by 6:30. Katie 2 can attest that no matter how strong her intentions, if she knows that Elizabeth and/or Katie 1 won't be there, Katie 2 does not get out of bed in time to make it to the gym. But, if she knows the others will be there, she is always the first one to the gym and on her mat 10 minutes before class starts. So don't count on yourself to get out of bed- make sure someone else is counting on you and your chances of success increase exponentially. 
2. Pack your bag. The less you have to do morning-of the better, so lay out exactly what you are going to wear to workout and pack your bag. When you finally stop hitting snooze, you should be able to roll right out of bed into your clothes, brush your teeth, and be out the door in sub 20 minutes. Katie 1 admits that she jumps into the shower for a quick wake-up rinse off pre-gym.  
3. Make packing that bag easy. Katie 2 is in the process of decluttering her life and trying not to buy excess. But one thing she will not get rid of is the small size duplicates of her hair products. These live in a little pouch that during the week lives in her gym bag and on the weekend gets transferred to her overnight bag (long distance relationships suck). The pouch has a hair clip and all the products she needs to style her hair no matter the weather (curly or straight!). Most of the containers were obtained as free samples or from the Birchbox subscription she had a while back, and she refills them from the full size containers of the products she uses every day. But having everything she needs in one small pouch is a huge time saver on Tuesday nights when she's packing her bag and all she really wants to do is drink wine and clear her DVR. Katie 1 does the same and raises Katie 2 a fully stocked hair care/skincare/make-up kit that is only used for working out and travel. Since it's mostly stocked with Sephora samples and travel sizes of her essentials it's not super expensive to maintain and doesn't take up that much room. 
4. Do what you like. Truth: sometimes your workouts will suck. Some people hate cardio, some hate legs, abs (personally? Katie 2 hates it all.) Do not make your morning workout something that you hate to do. Getting out of bed already sucks, so make sure you do it for something you "enjoy". For Katie 2, yoga on Wednesday mornings after a tough treadmill class of hill and speed workouts is just what the doctor ordered to put her back on track to run again on Thursday or even Wednesday evenings. Without that 1 hour focus on flexibility, she wouldn't recover as quickly and might have to take a day off.
5. Create the habit while the sun shines. (In case you missed it the first 9 times we said it) Getting out of bed in the morning sucks. Getting out of bed in the morning when it's below freezing, the wind is blowing, and there's 6 inches of snow on the ground sucks more. But if you can start getting yourself into the habit now of waking up early and getting moving, it will make it a lot easier to do it when you would rather be hibernating. 
6. Treat yourself when it's done. OK, this is probably not advice you would get from hardcore workout enthusiasts, and we are not advocating blowing all of your hard work. Nor are we saying every workout deserves a reward. But let's be honest- getting in a workout before heading off to the office puts you on a path of success for the rest of your day, but chances are you are going to be more tired than usual because of it. So on your way into the office after your early morning sweat session, stop and get your Starbucks coffee. You were going to drink coffee once you got to the office anyway, so you're not likely adding anything extra but a little treat makes waking up suck just a little bit less (just don't get the pastry to go with it). 

Even if you take all the above advice, we are not delusional. The best part of waking up is not working out in the morning. Also, we still hate morning people with a passion.  They're just not right. But for the record, we did all get up this morning for our workout because we felt like it would be a little hypocritical to post advice on how to get up and workout and then not get up and workout.