No exercise time? Here’s 10 minutes

The morning minutes seem to go by faster than any other time of the day. Ever notice that?

For hundreds, if not thousands, of my clients and subscribers the number one obstacle for morning exercise is time. Yet, they almost all admit it’s the best time for them to exercise if they’re going to fit it in.

After going to work for myself (surprisingly the new boss is not as flexible as my old boss), I started to understand this problem better than I ever had before…

That’s because I am also one of those people who needs to exercise in the morning or it’s just not going to happen. Yet, I have several early morning appointments.

So I need to make every minute count and often only have 10 or 20 minutes of interval training or weights. But finding even that was a problem…

That is, until I stumbled on these two hacks that gave me back five minutes each. That’s 10 minutes more for morning exercise. We can work with that, right?

Hack #1: Simplify my pre-workout

The first morning exercise strategy was getting my workout clothes organized. I realized I was getting shorts out of my night stand, jog bras out of a dresser, socks out of a bureau tucked in the closet… and shoes out of yet another closet!

By the time I pulled together a color-coordinated outfit, I’d waste five to 10 minutes of valuable workout time walking back and forth every day!

So I rearranged. Putting my bra tops, shorts, long sleeve shirts, and socks in drawers from top to bottom all in the same dresser so I could stand there and pull out a complete outfit in seconds. All I needed was shoes and it’s ready, sweat, go.

Hack #2: ‘No excuse’ breakfast strategy

I know from decades of coaching experience that the number one mistake most women make when trying to get to their ideal weight or energy is…

Skipping or skimping on breakfast.

I also know a high protein breakfast is the key to success whether you exercise or not. A study in 2015 is among several studies concluding that a high protein breakfast may be the simplest way to weight management.

So I developed a smart kitchen strategy…

I love a smoothie and I promote them because in just minutes you can make a high protein breakfast. That is, after you get all the ingredients together…

Given I load up my smoothies with fruit, vegetables, fat, ice, milk, fiber sources and maybe some sweetener, I was making multiple trips between my counters, cabinets and refrigerator/freezer. Then doing it all again to put them back.

So instead of pulling out the spinach, the avocado, the frozen fruit, ice, the cocoa powder, the Stevia and chia, or whatever delicious smoothie I was creating on any given day, I started making one stop at the ‘fridge…

Now I dump a frozen baggy of all the solid ingredients along with the milk into my blender — and in two minutes, I’m done. Put the milk back and discard the baggy.

This is simple to do. If you’ve already got a favorite smoothie recipe, create an assembly line of all the ingredients. Add them to a baggy in single smoothie serving amounts. You can add anything — greens, avocado, your fruit, and it will freeze fine. Then seal and freeze. You may want to date and label it.

Look for strategies that shave time of your own morning routine. Share them with me!