In a column a few weeks ago, I talked about wanting to change my workout routine from being an evening exerciser to a morning exerciser.

Over the past two weeks, I have been working on getting up earlier three times a week and getting my workouts in rather than waiting until I have had a full day.

When I decided to embark on this routine change, I was nervous and honestly wasn’t too excited about it, but I knew that I had to do something differently to make sure that I did all of my workouts.

I’ll tell you that it was not easy to make this change. There were days I rolled over and groaned at my alarm going off and pulled the covers over my head and buried myself hoping to never see the light of the morning. Other days I jumped up and pulled out my yoga mat super excited to get going.

I came up with this list of tips to help make morning workouts more enjoyable.

1. Sleep in your workout clothes: If you sleep in something you can workout in, you don’t have to worry about digging through drawers trying to find something to throw on. This is especially helpful if you live with a roommate, you don’t want your newfound early-morning tendencies to wake them up. Keep your shoes right by your bed so they are easy to find as well.

2. Have a plan: There was one morning I woke up and thought, well, what now? It was raining so I didn’t want to run, but I wanted to do some sort of workout. Make an indoor and an outdoor plan. Even if it is just a basic plan of “I’m going to do three different workout sequences from pinterest.” You don’t have to be elaborate, just make sure you have some sort of direction.

3. Incorporate yoga: Yoga is a beautiful thing. I make a point to do three sun salutations on each side every morning at the beginning of my workout. It is a great way for me to get in the mindset of my workout and just wake up. The flow can be slow or fast depending on how well I slept, and it eases me into working harder.

4. Set multiple alarms: If you want to do a 30 minute workout, don’t leave yourself only thirty minutes after your alarm to have time to do it. Make sure you factor in the time it will take you to be less groggy, put on your shoes and gather the equipment you may need for your workout. Will you need to shower afterwards? If you only leave yourself a strict amount of time, you are likely to feel rushed and not as likely to get as much out of your workout as you would if you left yourself some time to wake up first.

5. Forgive yourself: Sleeping through an alarm or missing a workout is not the worst thing in the world. Completely revamping your schedule takes some work, and it’s OK to mess up. Keep working at it, and soon waking up and working out will be easy!