Workout 120718: Too Early for Pleasantries

This morning my oldest girl, Bean, woke me up at 4:15am.  She'd had an accident and needed help getting cleaned up and back to bed.  In the 15 minutes it took me to get her squared away, I woke up.  My bed looked so inviting and any time you wake a see something less than a 7 as the first number on the alarm clock...  Let's just say I am extremely, immensely, gigantically proud of myself for not crawling back in bed and ignoring my alarm clock.

Instead, I turned off my alarm clock before it had a chance to disturb the peace in my house, put on my workout clothes and did this:

15 min Elliptical - Cross Trainer Setting

30 sec Side Plank - each side
10 sec Bosu Plank x2
30 sec Plank (on elbows)
15 Abductors - each side
10 Glute Press - each side
10 Adductors - each side

3 min Jump Rope (68 successful jumps)

10 Squats with 6 lb
20 Crunch Bird Dogs - each side
10 Swiss Ball Bridges with pull in (While in the bridge, pull the Swiss Ball in using feet, then push it back out and lower)

3 min Jumping Jacks (60 total - done if 6 sets of 10)

10 Walking Lunges
30 sec Swiss Ball Wall Sit
10 Bridges with 5 count hold

5 min Treadmill Cooldown
Stretch

I'm glad I got up and got to the gym.  I was tired.  I still am tired, but I'm thinking that is just an artifact of my life at this point.  Working full-time.  Two little kids.  Getting to the gym doesn't get easier, I just get used to it.  Everyday I do what I can do make sure the next day hasn't been sabotaged.  Pack my gym bag.  Do laundry.  Pick out clothes for my kids.  Pack lunches.  Get to bed.  I have a mission to lose 100 pounds.  There isn't a lot of room for other things in my life.  This takes up so much of my time.

And I'm increasingly grateful for the quiet time with myself the gym offers.  Most people working out at 5am are quiet.  They are there for the same reason I am.  It isn't social hour.  Get in.  Get it done.  Get on with your day.  I spent an hour this morning working out and I didn't speak to another person beyond saying hi as we passed each other.  I'm not generally anti-social, but it's an absolutely luxury to be alone with myself these days.

I never used to be comfortable alone.  Even when I hated living in a loud house with intrusive siblings, being alone was so unsettling.  I avoided it.  To a fault.  I would seek out bad company versus spending time in my own head.  With life so busy, now I truly cherish the times that I have when no one else is awake.  That time is more rejuvenating than the hour of sleep I could have gotten instead.  Maybe this is the key to keeping the funk at bay.  The workouts are good for me, mind, body and soul, but maybe half of that good is simply being unplugged from everyone else's lives.  Time for me to just be me.  It's one luxury I'm not sure I can live without.

I found this video last week on how to be alone.  The video is beautiful in and of itself, but the message is beautiful as well.  Spend time by yourself.  Learn to enjoy it.  It's definitely something I wish I had done before I had kids.  While it's too late for that, I certainly can cherish the moments of solitude I am able to attain now.