Time. We are always saying that we need more of it. We can’t add more hours to the day, but we can change our own habits to gain more hours of productivity. I teamed up with goodnessknows and they challenged me to do something new this month. They want to encourage and celebrate every attempt on the path to greatness because every try is a step to being your best. I decided to wake up an hour earlier. I know, it might not sound hard, but let me tell you a little more about me. I love sleeping. I usually sleep for 9 hours a night. Plus – I am a night owl, which means that I go to bed after midnight and wake up after 9.
In the winter months, I am sleeping through hours of the precious daylight! Not only does seeing the sun make me feel more like a human and less like a vampire, natural sunlight is the most crucial element of my food photos. My goal was to get out of bed earlier to give myself more time to work on recipes.
I don’t want to lie, getting up an hour earlier was really hard. Embarrassingly difficult. I learned that in order to really accomplish the challenge, I need a firm reason to get out of bed on time. Signing up for early morning Flywheel classes has been incredibly motivating, and goodnessknows makes it quick and easy to get some food in me before I go to class.
There are a few more things that have been making mornings easier. The first is laying out an outfit before I go to bed. The fewer decisions I need to make in the morning, the better. It’s pretty cold here in Chicago, so I lay out a sweatshirt, tank, sports bra, and leggings – plus sweatpants to layer over the leggings. In the morning I can be ready in just minutes.
I don’t allow too much extra time between getting up and needing to get out the door for class. The key to not being late for class is knowing where my keys are! I lay out my keys, mittens, and some more goodnessknows bars by the door so that I can grab everything I need before I leave.
I love how goodnessknows bars are split up into 4 two-bite pieces. I can eat a couple on my way to spin and save the rest for after class. I don’t like to eat too much before working out – but I like to have a little something in my belly. Two squares are enough to get me going, and enough to calm down my appetite after class.
Each goodnessknows square has about 40 calories, while the whole bar has 150 calories, so it doesn’t cancel out the time I spend spinning. The bars are made with wholesome ingredients like fruit, nuts, and dark chocolate. Plus they are gluten free! And they just added three new flavors to the line: blueberry, almond, dark chocolate; strawberry, peanut, dark chocolate; and mixed berries, almond, dark chocolate. Lately, the strawberry snack squares have been my go-to flavor.
After an 8:30 am spin class and my goodnessknows – I am up and ready to tackle work. It is a new routine that I have learned to love. Are you trying anything new this year?
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of goodnessknows. The opinions and text are all mine. Learn here to buy goodnessknows here.