I’m not a morning person.

Do not disturb!

Many, many moons ago, when a good meal was a bag of Doritos and a bottle of Sprite (gross), and a new eyeshadow color was all it took to rock my world (Ok, let’s be real,  I still get excited over new makeup), I rose at 6:45 every morning to head to “zero period” at school for band. I’d stumble into the classroom, yesterday’s eye makeup smudged in what I like to think was punk chic (but really, was just teenaged lazy), sit in my chair (never first chair, second or even third – fourth it was), shove the pieces of my flute together and warm up for a glorious hour of riveting symphonic music. I have NO CLUE how I managed to do this for two years of my adolescence, the time when teenagers are most grumpy and most in need of sleep. Now, when I have to rise earlier than 8 am, I feel like a kitten being ripped from its mothers teat, in which I’m the kitten and my giant, cal-king bed is the teat. Ok, so maybe it’s not THAT dramatic, but you get the point.

I remember sometimes, on particularly disagreeable mornings, my dad would spray us with a water bottle to get us out of bed – sounds mean but really, was quite genius, and a trick I’m sure I will use on my kids one day. When we got old enough to drive ourselves, the water bottle trick wasn’t an option, so I’d sacrifice my good student standing for a tardy-slip, or worse, a notice for detention, and choose to stay curled up in my warm bed. I’m definitely not a morning person, but I’m not really an evening person, either. I keep a pretty regular schedule of bedtime around 11:30 or midnight, and waking at 8 AM. On weekends, I usually sleep in until 9, and on rare occasions when I have nothing to do, which lately is never, I can sleep like a cat and eventually rise out of bed at 11 AM, feeling like a blushing teenager. And naps? Don’t even get me started. The only good thing about being sick this weekend was that I got to nap in a glorious spree. I’m not really a tired person and I don’t “need” naps, but wow, when you get the opportunity to have one, they’re awesome.

The point of all this, is by the time you’ve read this post, I’ll have already gotten a full hour of cardio in. I have only exercised ONCE in the morning by choice – and that was a rare Monday morning when I awoke at 5:45 AM wide eyed and bushy-tailed, and walked to my neighborhood doughnut shop to buy my husband a crueller. (I had egg whites. The things you remember.) This early morning rise signifies a change in me – not just in the fact that I’ll be awake when the sun rises, but that I’m actually tackling something I don’t like (early mornings) for something I want (fitness). There will always, always, always be excuses – but there will also be opportunities to squash ’em. So tomorrow as I flip tires and do burpees in a frosty park, I might still be asleep and wishing I was in my gnome pajamas in bed, but the point is that I won’t be – I’ll be there, in the flesh, making a difference for me and my future.

Are you a morning person? An evening person? A kind of neither person, like me? Could you rock a 7-8AM bootcamp?