Day 2: Morning run...nice and easy

Like most people, I've always found exercising in the morning difficult. The fat-burning benefits of doing cardio on an empty stomach in the morning have been well-documented. If you're trying to get lean, this can really give you a boost. Here's what I do in the morning to get myself out of bed and onto the pavement for a morning jog:

1. When my alarm goes off, I take a deep breath and begin slowly stretching while still in bed. I'll do about 5 minutes of stretching on my back before I finally sit up and stretch out the hamstrings. Doing all this before I even get out of bed to turn the lights on seems to make the transition a little easier.


2. Next I get out of bed and immediately get dressed for my workout. I move slowly, but never stop moving. I have everything laid out the night before so I can't get sidetracked and talk myself back into bed for a precious hour of sleep.


3. Last, I step out the door, turn on the mp3, and start jogging.

By far the hardest step is number 2. Once you are out the door, all the hard work is really over. You're committed and even if you cut your workout short, you'll get great benefits from simply getting your heart rate and metabolism up to start your day.

You should be waking up hungry. Last night I started to get hungry about 11pm, but instead of eating a normal meal, I ate something filling with very few calories (frozen veggies do well for a quick fix), drank a big glass of water and hit the sack. You can suppress hunger with fluids to a certain degree too.

Exercise suppresses your appetite (temporarily). I woke up hungry, but didn't eat for almost an hour after my workout. I drank fluids again first. Water and sugar are the two major elements your body craves after a workout. I'm a bit of a diet soda fiend. It's a weakness, but it does a great job of suppressing sugar cravings when I don't want to indulge them with the real thing. I should mention that if you're going to slam sodas directly after your morning workout on an empty stomach, you're asking for pain. Do yourself a favor and drink a big glass of water or watered-down InsertFavoriteBeverage and see if you still want the [fake] sugar.

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Later today I confronted a different challenge that derails a lot of people: eating out. On my diet plan it's not too difficult. I ate at a Mexican place for lunch. There's lots of "bad stuff" on the menu, but the trick is just choosing something small. I ate a single taco, probably about 500 calories. This breaks the "at most 400 calories every 2 hours" rule, but not by much. Two hours later, and I'm back to normal.

An extra 100 or 200 calories won't break you. Even an extra 1000 calories won't break you unless you let it. It's a bit like an alcoholic falling off the wagon, except alcoholics can't just get a little exercise to correct their errors. Eating out doesn't have be a choice between awkwardness and disaster. Just keep your order small.

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Here's today's shot:

Weight: Calories consumed: Aerobic time logged: Bench Press: Max Pull-ups: Mile time:

176lbs. 1320 0:36:40 3 x 165lb x 10 3 x body x 10 reps ~6:30 min

A note on the calories: I'm not really eating enough. The only explanation for this is that I've been eating so much that I still have a lot of food in the gut, and my appetite hasn't really caught up. It will. I expect to consume 1800-2000 calories per day once things even out.

See you tomorrow (bright and early :-)