These Are The Morning Routines Of 8 Highly Successful Women

Mornings are tough.

No matter how many times I vow to become a "morning workout person," it never really seems to happen.

Because when my alarm goes off at 6:30 am and I spent the night before tossing and turning -- OK, and maybe watching "House of Cards" -- nothing seems less appealing than yanking on my sports bra and leggings for a 7 am spin class.

Instead, my mornings consist of lying in bed scrolling through Instagram, then my Facebook news feed, then Twitter and eventually my friends' Venmo transactions if I really don't feel like getting up.

Needless to say, I do not spend my mornings the way I wish I spent my mornings.

In honor of Women's History Month, I decided to do some digging. I know how I'm spending my mornings, but how are the women I look up to spending their mornings?

Quite differently, it seems. Here's how eight of the world's most successful women start their day.

Oprah Winfrey

It's no surprise Oprah values her mornings, but I was hoping she just spent fifteen minutes reading the newspaper and drinking coffee or something. I should have known she's doing a lot more than that.

She told Parade,

Yesterday I got up at 6. I was going to get up at 5:30, but at 1 am I sent an email to security saying, ‘Give me an extra half hour.’ I got to the office about 6:30 and got on the treadmill downstairs in the gym. [While on the treadmill] I play Scrabble on my iPad, against the computer.

Hey security, don't you know Oprah needs her beauty sleep?

Anna Wintour

In an act of true class, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour starts her morning with a game of tennis at 5:45 am.

Her trainer Byron Spence told the New York Times,

She's like a retriever. She's so fast. She'll chase down everything. She doesn't hit with a lot of spin, but she has an amazing cross-court forehand.

I mean, can you really imagine her bouncing around on an elliptical?

Kim Kardashian

Kim is all about starting her day around 6 am with a whole lot of exercise and quality time with her daughter.

She told Harper's Bazaar,

My first real conversation of the day is with North ... I like to check her room as soon as I wake up. Then I go for my run. I live in a gated community with lots of horse trails, so I run on those, or on the treadmill in our home gym on the other side of the house. My workouts are usually about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes total, but I like to mix them up. Running takes me about 35 minutes on the trails, and then I'll come back and work my abs or legs. I like to listen to music while I work out, but I don't need it to pump me up or get energized. It's weird — I'll put my iPod on shuffle and listen to slow R&B songs or even classical music, which most people think is so bizarre. I don't need anything fast. When I go to Barry's Bootcamp, they put on dance music or house music sometimes, and that slows me down.

If R&B is what does the trick, I'm so in.

Jennifer Lopez

Like Kim, J. Lo is all about her kids and her fitness routine in the morning.

She told People Magazine her kids usually wake her up around 6:15 or 6:45 am asking her to make them breakfast (hey, what are moms for?) and then she drinks a shake and gets moving.

My workout will be at least an hour to an hour and 15 minutes of different stuff.

Whatever that "different stuff" is, it's working.

Arianna Huffington

Huffington has a lot on her plate between running The Huffington Post and making sure she gets her seven to eight hour of sleep every night. So she makes sure to start her morning off right.

She told Soul Cycle,

When I wake up, I don’t start the day by looking at my smartphone. Instead, once I’m awake, I take a minute to breathe deeply, be grateful and set my intention for the day. I also practice yoga most mornings. And I breathe! The connection that conscious breathing gives me is something I can return to hundreds of times during the day in an instant.

Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Jennifer Aniston

In addition to 90 minutes of spin, elliptical or barre, Aniston eats toast and tops it with coconut oil and eggs that come straight from the chickens in her backyard.

What a life.

Gwyneth Paltrow

If you know anything about Gwyneth Paltrow's life (any Goop.com readers here?), it probably comes as no surprise her morning routine is an impressive one.

She told Women's Wear Daily,

I wake up at 7 am, I get [the kids] fed, and I get them dressed in their uniforms, any bits of homework are finished. I take them to school. She [Apple] gets dropped off at 8:25 am, and he [Moses] gets dropped off at 8:45 am, so we have a croissant together in his school dining room and we do reading together. Then I go home and I work for one hour on all the emails that come in overnight from LA. Then I exercise from about 10 am to 12 pm.

Two hours of exercise? For real?

Michelle Obama

Ah, the fabulous first lady. With arms like those, of course she prioritizes exercise.

While chatting with Oprah, she admitted she finds it hard to wake up as early as she does (4:30 am!) but she does it for her mental health.

She explained,

If I don’t exercise, I won’t feel good. I’ll get depressed.

I'm definitely setting my alarm an hour earlier tomorrow. Or maybe I'll wait until next week.