Am I just being lazy?

Phot courtesy emagnus

Because My Friend has connections everywhere (ev-er-ry-where!), an awesome opportunity presented itself last night. My Friend has a friend (The Trainer) who is an ex-bodybuilder and is retired and who, now, spends time training others. My Friend took it upon himself to stop and talk to The Trainer about me telling him that I have been weighing my options in regard to some kind of physical fitness activities. The Trainer then kindly offered his services three days a week for $20 per week.

$20 per week people! Do you know how stinking cheap that is? For your own personal trainer!!! And he essentially offered to come to me. To bring his person to my person and kick my butt for $20 per week!

I am hesitant. Why? Two reasons.

Reason #1) $20 per week doesn't seem like much until you say $80 per month. Did I mention that overtime is, well, over? I am already back on a stringent budget. However, My Friend offered to pay for this. Why? Because he feels he owes me.

Reason #2) In part, I feel like I am just being lazy. Paying someone to help me do something that I know full well I can do myself. I have gotten out there before and ran all summer long. That is where it usually stops though. I go for a summer and become a couch potato through the winter and spring.

I don't know what to do. Do I go for it? Am I just being lazy by not getting out there and doing it myself? Didn't Dr. Phil say, "Sometimes action has to come before motivation?" What do you think?

The Night Owl Backslide

Photo courtesy belgianchocolate

I am in every way a night owl. I love to stay up late. I feel most energetic when I should be going to bed. If I could stay up all night and sleep all day, I would be so much more productive.

Living in a day-timers world makes it really difficult to truly be my night owl self. We night owls must adapt to the early bird schedule being forced to work those 8-5 jobs. And what I have discovered is that, no matter how hard I try to change my habits, I am still whole-heartedly, 100% a night owl.

For the last three months, I have been forced to be an early bird. Getting out of bed between 5:00 am - 5:30 am five (sometimes six) days a week. I thought I was doing fairly well, too. I felt good. I forced myself into bed most nights by 10:00. On the rare occasion that I stayed up later, I suffered the next morning. I survived though. After a while, getting up didn't seem so bad. I thought that maybe, just maybe I was actually breaking old habits and adapting a new schedule. I was ever-so-hopeful that my inner clock was resetting itself. I honestly thought I had a huge breakthrough.

But no. Nope. Not at all. Since the overtime ceased, so has my early mornings and my timeliness. (Have I mentioned that I am never on time either?) I still maintain my 10 o'clock bedtime and can now sleep until 7:00 am and I am having a harder time getting out of bed now than I was having when I was getting up BEFORE the butt crack of dawn. So what is the deal? Am I getting too much sleep?

I thought maybe I was just in a bit of a hormonal slump that would pass in a week or so. But my motivation has yet to return. I take my time crawling out of bed. I dawdle in the mornings. I find anything else there is to do besides getting in the shower. I procrastinate doing my hair. I will throw in a load of laundry, start the dishwasher, make the bed. Anything besides get myself ready for the day. I. Just. Don't. Feel. Like. It. I don't feel like doing much of anything. Until, that is, it's really time to go to bed. Then, I lay there for an hour, eyes wide open, wishing I could fall asleep.

When will this cycle end? Or am I doomed forever and ever to be a night owl living in a day-timers world?