One of my articles appeared to have struck a chord with one of the readers of the WorldofDiets newsletter (which you can sign up to for free at the bottom of this page). It was my article about my morning ritual and how I use it to have more energy, get more things done, and tone up with.
This reader sent me the following email after reading about my ritual. She was kind enough to agree to share her email and my response to it. Enjoy…
The email that was sent to me:
Hi John
Wow, this is such a coincidence – I was just going to write to you to ask you a question about morning workouts!
I’d been doing really well with exercise and healthy eating for around 3 months. But in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been slipping up with the exercise component and I’ve found that when I don’t work out, I slack off my clean eating as well. So I really need to make sure I find the time and energy to get in my exercise. I generally workout at home in the evening after work, and I suddenly found myself getting lazy and tired and hitting the couch when I get home 
So I decided I’m going to try working out in the mornings, at least on some days. This won’t be easy for me to begin with, since I’m addicted to the snooze button But once I’m up, the mornings are the best time, and I have far more will power and focus than when I’m tired after work. And you’re absolutely right, starting off on a good note will certainly set the tone to have a great day.
My question is on pre workout nutrition. I’m looking at around a 30 min workout at home followed by a good breakfast then off to work. I need to optimize my use of time, so I was wondering whether I need to eat something before my workout. Will it hurt my fat loss goals (e.g. cannibalise muscle) if I work out in an effectively fasting state (last meal would have been around 10 hrs ago)? Or should I eat something light (cos I would prefer not to have to waste time waiting for a big meal to settle before I can exercise). Any tips?
== End of email ==
My reply
Great questions.
I workout before I have breakfast for a number of reasons:
1. I can’t workout right after I eat. The food needs to settle.
2. Breakfast tastes so much better after a workout.
As for the fasting, I wouldn’t worry about that. 10 hours of fasting (including sleep) is not such a big deal. In fact, I know guy called Brad Pilon who wrote a program called EatStopEat in which he does a 24 hours fast once or twice a week. He trains normally and he found that he doesn’t lose any muscle. On the contrary. I’ve read other reviews about this way of life and people speak highly of it.
For this short fast, you don’t need to worry about losing muscle.
== End of Reply ==
I hope that this clarifies my point about the effectiveness of morning workouts and how I use short exercise in the morning to get ready for my day.
If you’re looking for more information about EatStopEat, though it is not really connected to my morning ritual, visit Eat Stop Eat Review.
For ideas of exercises to do in your morning workout check out this article on the best exercises without weights
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