The Early Bird Gets The Worm

I get up early. I don't want to say how early but very early. If I told you, you'd think I'm crazy, lying, or bragging (or all three). 

I enjoy sleep but there's just so much that I want to get done.  I've cut my work day back already.  I only work half a day now.  12 hours a day is enough for anybody.

Until last Sunday, we had this crazy robin that banged on our window at 6:30 every morning.  I am not around to hear it very often but I was this past weekend and if it weren't against Tennessee state law, that might have been one dead robin.

This bird would bang into our bedroom window, fly back to the railing a few feet away, then do it again.   For probably 30 minutes.   Every day.  We assumed that it saw its reflection in the window and thought it was another bird in its territory.

Talk about a headache!   I finally put some netting up across the window and it seems to have stopped the head banging.

You might ask,  what's a reasonable sane man of your age doing getting up at an obscene hour?   There are really two reasons.

One of my favorite parts of the work day is getting to the clinic before everyone else.   I have my breakfast.  I fix a cup of coffee.  I look at the patient schedule for the day.   If time permits, I work on paperwork, the bane of the existence of health care folks everywhere.

The other reason is to exercise. Let me go on the record as stating that early mornings are the absolute best time for getting in your exercise.

Yes, it works for me and it's not like I don't like to sleep in.  I can sleep till 7 AM on a weekend with the best of them.   My biologic clock never lets me go later than that though.

But exercising at the first part of your day takes away many of the excuses that crop up during the course of the day.   Work out at lunch time?  Maybe you don't get enough time and then there's the whole thing about going back to work still sweating.

After work?  Life too often gets in the way.   The kids have an event and need to get there or the yard needs mowing or something.   Just too many excuses. 

In the evening?   It might work for some but not many.  My son-in-law will often take off on his bike after the kids are bathed in bed, sometimes hitting the road at 9 PM or so.   Don't worry--he's lit up like a Christmas tree out there.   But I don't think he does it out of preference.  I think it's just that it's about the only time he has time to get his exercise in.

For most people, there are just too many family responsibilities to head to the gym in the evening.  And that often means it just doesn't get done.

My bike rides are almost always in the morning too.   If your summer exercise is outdoors, then the temperatures are much better in the morning.

It wasn't too long ago that I said here that the best exercise for you is the one that you will do...the one that you will stick with.   There is also considerable evidence that exercising at the first part of your day kicks your metabolism up for most of the day, burning more calories not just when you're exercising but for a good part of the day.

In other words, if weight loss is one of the reasons you exercise, mornings are probably your best time.

So set your clock early and let your day start with your daily exercise.  You don't need some crazy robin to get you out of bed.