The Morning Rule

A Special Tip from Mike Geary, a certified personal trainer:

Last week, I gave you the "1% rule", which showed that all it really takes is 1% of your available time dedicated to intense exercise to get as lean and strong as you want. It just shows how insane it is to hear someone complain that they "don't have time to workout". This week, I'm going to give you the "morning rule" for getting in top shape permanently... What the "morning rule" involves is making sure that you start every day by doing something very healthy for yourself... and by starting each day with a positive action that makes you feel good about doing this healthy action, it makes it harder to fall off the wagon later in the day. This healthy action in the morning could be doing a good workout first thing in the morning or it could be cooking up an extremely healthy breakfast that gets you feeling great... or better yet, BOTH!

I've found that getting people to engrain a healthy ritual first thing in the morning makes it easier for them to follow healthy habits the rest of the day. After all, you feel so good from your morning workout and your healthy breakfast that you can't possibly even conceive of eating any of those donuts that your co-worker brought in... and you'll certainly find it easier to just drive right past the fast food joint and instead make yourself a healthy lunch because you want to keep the momentum going in the right direction from the great start to the day that you had. This is yet another one of those small pieces to the big puzzle... but when you put all of these together, you eventually have the habits and rituals of a fitness lifestyle that works for you on a permanent level... So start tomorrow with a great workout, a super-healthy breakfast, or both, and make this a healthy daily morning ritual.