Evening exercisers

[MRSchultz]

Boy, do I give you evening exercisers credit (and early a.m. people, too). If I don't get my work out in before supper it's like pulling teeth to get myself down into our basement to workout. Even though I ABSOLUTELY love Cathe's tapes, it's still a struggle.

Any tips that might give me a boost to workout later (if I have no other choice)? Sometimes my schedule doesn't give me a break until around 7pm and then all I hear is my couch calling my name.

Thanks, and happy exercising!!

Marcia

 

[FitnessGoddess]

Promise yourself 15 minutes. Even if it's just the warm-up portion of a tape. Say "Ok, I don't feel like it now, I'm too tired. But I will do 15 minutes & if I still don't want to do it after that, I give myself permission to quit."

I do that when I'm too tired & find that about 50% of those times, I keep at it for a little longer & sometimes finish the tape. The other 50% of the time, I say "to H E double hockey sticks with this" and quit!

Good luck.

Deborah--formerly known as GettingFit, now the Fitness Goddess thanks to Cathe! LOL [link:www.mindundermuscle.com/web%20pages/hawver|http://www.mindundermuscle.com/HB.gif]

 

[AndreaL]

Hi Marcia!

I had to switch to evenings when my second son was born. I was a morning exerciser through and through!

Some things that help me...I work out around 8-8:30pm.

1. Make sure you aren't hungry. If you had a light dinner two hours before this is a possibility.

2. Get enough sleep!

3. Since I go, go, go all day long I try to lay on the couch and relax for about 30 min. before I'm gonna workout. Yes, it is sometimes hard to get up off of it, but as soon as Cathe says, "Welcome" I'm motivated.

4. Get all your equipment out earlier so it's all ready.

Now that I'm an evening exerciser (for the most part) I love it! I can drop into bed after a killer workout. The kids are so tired first thing at night, that I almost never have interruptions!

Hope this helps.

Andrea

 

[starbuck]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-16-03 AT 11:25AM (Est)[/font][p]I have a sort of set schedule mine is lunch is broken up I eat at 12.30 or go and get lunch (I have found limiting myself financial helps me make wiser choices knowing I have only a certain amount to spend helps me stop getting fatty foods).

Later lunch around 3.00 ish, a bar or water on the way home and then dinner I am trying at the moment to lean this out and lots more veg this is around 7.00 pm. Fruit at around 8.30 pm and then a cup of tea between 9.00 and 9.30 pm. Then water before/after and during exercising if I really am hungry fruit and/or tea.

I would suggest what I call desk snacks you don't have to go far just have them in you drawer or if like me you don't have drawers under your desk I am currently looking into protein drinks but breakfast bars work just as well.

Also I put all my exercise equipment out and get ready to workout, that way its pointless laying all out because I still have to put it away.

Basically its just getting yourself into a habit so that it becomes automatic.

I once put out all my equipment dumbells, step, barbell everything then I realised I was going to do Cardio Kicks that night, but it had just become such a habit.

Babs

 

[AMYP26]

I have started looking at my 10:00p.m. workouts as a strict commitment and a time for myself. Doing my workouts that late gives me the time to eat dinner and relax after work, and after relaxing from 7:00p.m until 10:00p.m, I am just itching to get up and move. Of course some nights I do my workouts earlier, around 9:00p.m., basically whenever I can fit it in. But I look at my workout as a personal appointment, something that I have to do. It seems to be working because I have not missed a workout yet.

Have fun!

 

[DEEDEE]

Hi Marcia,

I'm an evening exerciser too!

For me it is simply motivating to have the opportunity to do something for myself finally. I'm a communications engineer so I spend all day trying to provide phone service in exhausted areas, listening to complaint after complaint and trying to fix others messes so when I get home, my workout time is my 'Happy Hour'! I'm like that burger commercial..."Shh...don't bother me...I'm exercising."

It is tough to start sometimes...but once I get going those endorphines kick in and I feel so good. If its a day that I should take off my body will let me know, because I will still be dragging about 15 minutes into my workout so I just cool down, stretch to relax and call it day. No harm done, and even a lite workout helps me to relax and wash away the stress from work. There is nothing worse than bringing work stress home with you...trust me, I know.;-)

Take care and keep fit!

DeeDee

 

[audreyw]

I'm sort of the opposite of some of the other posters -- I usually work out about 8:00 - 8:30 pm and absolutely can't let myself sit down to relax beforehand. I usually get home around 7, eat, walk my dog for about an hour, then immediately start my workout. I have to stay up and active before my workout, or else I'll just pack it in. Once I've started, I'm ok. No advice, really, just that everyone is different and you have to figure out which thing works for you. Good luck!

Audrey

 

[l23]

I always workout after dinner (sometimes before). I just feel "off" if I try to workout in the morning. It can be hard if you're tired and laying on the couch.

What I do is set an hour to exercise, usually 6-7pm when nothing great is on tv so I know I'm not missing much. I make deals with myself, like I can watch tv from 5-6 only if I workout at 7:00. Then I feel guilty if I don't. Psych yourself up too: think about which video you'll do and set everything up.

There are days when you're just too darn tired and absolutely don't feel like working out. When this happens (and no, it's not every night!), I skip the workout or maybe do a light weight workout. There are 7 days in a week so there's time to fit in what you need.

Good luck!