This week, I’ve been hitting the gym before work, in an attempt to shoe-horn as much exercise as possible into my days. I get up in time to be there for when the doors open, and then get in a 45-60 minute workout before heading home, showering and putting on new gym clothes to walk the 40 minute journey to my office.

I’ve found that although I don’t look forward to working out in the morning, I do feel better afterwards. But not in an invigorated, ready for the day kind of way, more of a ‘thank god that’s over, but at least if I do nothing else for the rest of the day, I’ve got at least 1 workout in’ kind of way.

I’ve been mixing up what I do – legs, back, running, core – to keep myself interested, but I’ve got a long way to go before I’m springing out of bed in the morning, raring to hit the gym.

But it comes with pros and cons. And they’re basically the same point. I’m putting too much emphasis on the fact that I’ve already worked out in the morning. For example, on Monday, I did legs and then walked the journey to work. Spurred on by my first workout, I then walked home, and later went for a 35 minute swim. But on Tuesday, I did back, walked to work and then decided to run some errands in Brixton in the evening. This meant getting the tube home, and then spending the evening baking for colleagues. I justified this to myself, by the fact that I’d already worked out that day, in the morning.

I long to be one of those people who craves exercise, and can’t wait to get in the gym in the morning, afternoon, evening, you name it, but thats just not me. Working out is still a bit of a chore, and so getting it in whilst I’m still half asleep is the best way for me to trick myself into ticking it off my to-do list.

It also means I can smugly talk about it in the kitchen at work as I make my breakfast. Yaaaaaas.