Taking tiny steps

I started exercising by accident 2 years ago.  I was coming out of a year of the infant survival mode and I realized I was tired of being woken up by someone screaming for Mommy.  I wanted to have a morning routine that was more peaceful and allowed me to wake up before I needed to be “on” as a parent. 

  I started cruising Pinterest for morning routine ideas and I stumbled across Crystal Paine’s “Make Over Your Mornings” online course.  I love online courses now, but at that time I had never tried one.  This one was short and cheap so I thought it was worth the money to give it a try.  My only goal going into the course was to start waking up intentionally and stop starting the day by being a social media zombie. 

I included a small block of time for exercise in my morning routine. I noticed a lot of sample morning routines began with exercise. Maybe I was influenced by Crystal Paine’s video intro of her on the treadmill. For whatever reason, exercise was how I was going to start my mornings. I hadn’t had a regular exercise routine in many years.

You wouldn’t think 5-10 minutes of exercise in the morning would do anything for me at all, but it did.  That tiny habit had so many immediate benefits.  It got the blood flowing.  It got me exposure to fresh morning air.  I felt post-workout endorphins.  I also got a tiny bit of cardio and strength improvement.  Suddenly, it became easier to wake up each morning at 5:30.  My biorhythms were being reset to expect to wake at that time.   A final bonus is that sometimes my children saw me exercising and they wanted to join in.  I was setting a good example for healthy living in a way I hadn’t been before.

It was just a teeny tiny little workout, but my muscles were feeling soreness right away.  I started with literally just 5 minutes, but my workouts expanded and some days I was working out as long as 20 minutes.  I began reading more about exercise while I was looking for something to put in my exercise block.  I learned about new types of workouts.  I learned about cardio, strength training and flexibility work.  I also learned about healthy eating and nutrition along the way.

I think the greatest benefit was the slight boost of my mood and energy first thing in the morning. It lit up my brain with blood flow and happy neurochemicals in a way that surfing Facebook would never do. This was has been a keystone habit in my journey to a full-color life.